(continued)

The building was published three times, but none of these journals appears in bibliographical indexes. Because the house was not listed in any architectural guide and has since collapsed, there was virtually no record of it in the architectural press before it was chosen to be on the book cover of Modernism Rediscovered.

A few of the many other architects represented are: A. Quincy Jones, Whitney Smith, and Edgardo Contini who developed 35 house types for the Mutual Housing project in the Santa Monica Mountains in 1950.

In the same year, Jones completed the Bel Air Garden Apartments with a U-shaped plan. The Department of Water and Power in Los Angeles, 1965, by Albert C. Martin and Associates, is a glowing cube with horizontal layers of sunshades which architectural critic Rayner Banham referred to as the "only gesture of public architecture that matches the style and the scale of the city."

As the modern window attempts to dematerialize the frame and stimulate the panoramic gaze, photographer Julius Shulman moves fluidly between the verandas, pools, and living rooms and their surrounding landscape.

And as if one could still hear the jazz, bebop, and ska of the 50s and 60s, the horizontals and verticals of the structure, the frames, roofs, and windows lay a sublime rhythm into the images.

With the wide angle lens of architectural photography, Shulman captured not only the space of these buildings. He rendered their interrelation with nature and their spirit of a new way of life, and kept the balance of simplicity with a taste of Hollywood glamour.

Beginning with a 1936 snapshot of a Neutra house, and with no formal training, Shulman had become the icon of architectural photography in American Modernism. Author Pierluigi Serraino, who is currently working on his Ph.D. at UC Berkeley, chose for this edition a large selection of lesser known photographs from Shulman's archives.

If Modernism Rediscovered is a splendidly illustrated cocktail of architecture, glamour, and nature, then the feast of imagination and form in the new millennium will stick to the fresh taste.

Sabine von Fischer is a freelance writer and architect living in New York.

Modernism Rediscovered by Pierluigi Serraino and Julius Shulman, Taschen Books, 2000. 576 pages, 840 illustrations, $39.99. Available at Amazon.com.

In 1962, architect Bernard Judge built a house for himself in Hollywood from a 45-feet-diameter geodesic dome after hearing a lecture by Buckminster Fuller. The dome was later dismantled and shipped to the Smithsonian Institution. Photo: Julius Shulman Recreation pavilion of the Mriman Residence, Arcadia, California by the firm Buff, Straub And Hensman. Photo: Julius Shulman The Haddad Residence. Photo: Julius Shulman   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.