Horace Gifford, The Seductive Modernist

blog.preservationnation.org/2013/07/11/fire-island-modernist-horace-gifford-and-the-architecture-of-seduction/#.UeMrK2RVR91

Hello Everyone:

Horace Gifford
aia.org

After yesterday's burst of inspiration, I decided today to talk about the role of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender persons in architecture and historic preservation.  The article I'm starting with, "Fire Island Modernist: Horace Gifford's Architecture of Seduction," posted on July 11, 2013 by Katherine Flynn, reveals the work of little known architect Horace Gifford.  Horace Gifford was active during the 1960s, contemporary with the nascent Gay Rights Movement.  A prolific designer, Mr. Gifford designed and built sixty-three homes on Fire Island, which flanks Long Island's south shore.  Fire Island has a reputation as a place of amazing natural beauty.  Counterpoint to this, is it's reputation for being a vibrant gay vacation spot.  This freakishly beautiful place served as Mr. Gifford inspiration for creating very sixties modern houses entirely from cedar and glass that embrace the landscape.  Why are we talking about it now?  Christopher Rawlins, an architect and the author of the book Fire Island: Horace Gifford and the Architecture of Seduction, argues that Horace Gifford's houses present an intuitive feel for coastal landscapes.  They have a sense of place, dare I say like a certain iconic America architect with the initials FLW? (http://www.treehugger.com//treehugger/#!/entry/horace-gifford-fire-island-beach-houses,51d1ebc287443dd68e58764a)

Map showing Fire Island
en.m.wikipedia.org

Fire Island Pines
en.wikipedia.or

Burge Pavilion, 1965
aia.org

Horace Gifford was born and raised in coastal Florida, later attended the University of Florida in Gainesville.  After graduation, Mr. Gifford moved to New York for work, then attended the University of Pennsylvania to pursue his master's degree under the tutelage of renown architect Louis Kahn, but left for no real reason one semester short of graduation.  Mr. Gifford returned to work at his previous firm.  One summer weekend, he found himself in the Fire Island community of the Pines where he was entranced by the social life and the natural splendor.  This began a love affair with the place and would provide an inspiration for future work.  His clients were members of New York's elite creative class (writers, art directors, painters, et cetera) who fell in love with the inherent simplicity of the design and the way the buildings became part of the landscape.  Instead of making the site subservient to the building, the building became complimentary to the landscape.  Mind you, this was an era where prefabricated structures were the norm on the island until that point.

Kauth Residence, 1964
aia.org

According to Christopher Rawlins, "The 1950s were an era when pre-fabricated homes were very popular as a means of making affordable building available to a larger audience."  In a certain respect, this building type was completely appropriate, however, the island is only approachable by water.  Thus having to send building material via barge and then drag it across the land was extremely time consuming and cost inefficient.  By contrast, Mr. Gifford made use of the available materials and built the houses around the landforms.  This not entirely unlike the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, especially his concrete textile block houses of the 1920s which incorporated aggregate from the site into the concrete and were built into the hillside.  The result was vast expanses of open space and a blurring of interior and exterior.

Luck House, 1967
Sits above ground because of flooding
aia.org

The Fire Island homes of Horace Gifford mirrored the growth of the Gay Rights movement in the mid- to late-sixties.  As the movement began to shape and form, coming out of the metaphoric closet, the openness of the Gifford-designed homes implied a sense of flirtatiousness.  So much so that the spaces are literally named for sexual escapades: make-out lofts and conversation pits-all referencing the loosening of sexual mores and experimentation during this period.  Quick side note, "Mad Men" references the sexual experimentation of the sixties in some of their episodes.  The open quality of the houses do imply a certain laid back sexiness that comes with summer beach vacations.  The houses seem to encourage the occupants to let go and be carefree.

Lipkins House, 1970
aia.org

It's no surprise that there is an element of seduction in Horace Gifford's work.  The majority of his clients were homosexual men.  The sixties and seventies, the period which Mr. Gifford was active, was crisscrossed by Stonewall Riot in 1969.  This was a real moment in the cultural history of America because the Gay Pride Movement came into the light while social constraints fell away.  This was the pre-AIDS era where sexual bacchanalia was in full swing.  San Francisco-based writer Amistad Maupin chronicles this mood very nicely in the first two volumes of his Tales of The City series. (http://www.metropolismag.com/Point-of-View/June-2013/Fire-Island-Modernist-Horace-Gifford-and-the-Architecture-of-Seduction)

Conversation Pit
treehugger.com

 The cushions in the built-in sofas around the conversation pits were tailored such that they created love nests.  The Make-Out loft entered the architectural vocabulary through Mr. Gifford's work.  In the early seventies, Mr. Gifford added a sheepskin-lined pit to his own house, perfect for a wolf on the prowl.  Culturally, these details and others, worked within the counterculture zeitgeist of the period.  This element of sexiness ran through Mr. Gifford's work.

Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli
shafe.co.uk

Fête Champêtre, Andrea Watteau
davrillsrareprints.com

Seductive living isn't a new thing.  If we look through the entire history of architecture and design, we can find examples of space used in the art of seduction.  For example, the Roman villas have an element conducive to creating an element of hedonistic pleasure that freed the ordinary person from their inhibitions and encouraged unrestrained behavior.  The paintings of Andrea Watteau also celebrate the idea of going out into nature, way from the constraints of society and revealing in all the freedoms.  My point is that Horace Gifford is continuing in the tradition of using seduction in design.  What makes his work right for the time is that they mirror a period in cultural history that continues to have an affect, thus make them contemporary.

http://www.pinterest.com/glamtroy