Raphael Soriano was an amazing character. He lectured at Sci-Arc's first guest lecture series BEYOND SCHINDLER AND NEUTRA which Shelly Kappe programmed. That series. if I remember featured many of the case study icons. At one point Gregory Ain stood up and declared his aligance "there is nobody beyond Schindler and Neutra.
Soriano's lecture was so outrageous, and so funny in hindsight. Always with his beret he was definitely an aesthetic functionalist. His slides were presented like vacation photos with his personal remembrances of famous encounters "Here I am with Corbusier. He agreed with me that he missed in his Unite de Habitat.
Here I am in Brasilia, standing alongside Oscar Niemeyer. We are in front of the presidential palace "Oscar knew I was right, that the structural expression of the columns was wrong." Yes Raphael, I admit that to you and you are right".
Besides Julius Shulman, Soriano also designed a house for Parmount art director Albert Norzaki who was famous for his art direction work on one of my favorite Science Fiction films, the 1953 WAR OF THE WORLDS.
so this was '36. i wonder if soriano was registered by '49, or if AIA award recognition was less tied to registration and membership at that point?
this is a great answer for all those threads in which interns ask 'what do i call myself?' soriano did just fine by putting it out there in a straightforward way.
It is all the great librarians Sci Arc had, big thank you goes to them. Sci Arc always had few hand me down books but it also has video and slide archives with personality. Developed/shot by Mort and later by Anna and now Kevin and others.
Long time ago when driving looking around at architecture I remember spotting a funky Soriano designed office building in Burbank or Glendale. This is hazy recall but I do think that the details are coming back as I write.
At the time I was at SCI-ARC and into studying exterior shading devices and this one popped out. It was a 2-story steel construction with several exterior sun screens attached to the glass and steel frame. Right away you could tell that this one was a bit different.
Inside was even better; The ground floor offices were laid out in a wandering grid of glass and panel walls which opened up to lushly landscaped interior courts. These were were both cool in design and temperature. Light filtered throughout the spaces and an airy garden-of-eden feel. The main concrete path were flat stepping slabs laid out like a syncopated jazz score. Soriano obviously liked his music.
I was really saddened when I heard that it burnt down. It was the first time I felt I "lost" a building and I wanted to go there again and look at the remains but didnt. It was just one of those things; where you told yourself you wanted to revisit or tell friends about it. Then when it's gone all that is left is memory, and a story.
marlin, i did that (for possible complaints from the owner, a lived and learned factor!) but information on the location of the house is available as it is linked to the name of the project in google. and, soriano's drawings and archives are available to public in the central library. i also took some shots of the rehabilitated interior but i need the owners' permission to publish those. soon.
I saw a totally cool Cliff May house in Arizona a few weeks ago - one that the owners really, really do not want anyone to know about. I totally get redacting the address, Orhan - good move.
The funky Soriano designed office bldg with perforated sunscreens was Adolph's, famous for their meat tenderizer, located on Magnolia in Burbank. It was built in 1957, was the company headquarters and inside had a laboratory, private garden patios and also a pool which I missed when I was there. There is a good discussion of Adolph's in the Soriano book by Wolfgang Wagener. Adolph's was innovative and functionally green before its time... and later a victim of arson in 1992.
eric chavkin
Nov 15, 10 10:59 pm ·
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12 Comments
Raphael Soriano was an amazing character. He lectured at Sci-Arc's first guest lecture series BEYOND SCHINDLER AND NEUTRA which Shelly Kappe programmed. That series. if I remember featured many of the case study icons. At one point Gregory Ain stood up and declared his aligance "there is nobody beyond Schindler and Neutra.
Soriano's lecture was so outrageous, and so funny in hindsight. Always with his beret he was definitely an aesthetic functionalist. His slides were presented like vacation photos with his personal remembrances of famous encounters "Here I am with Corbusier. He agreed with me that he missed in his Unite de Habitat.
Here I am in Brasilia, standing alongside Oscar Niemeyer. We are in front of the presidential palace "Oscar knew I was right, that the structural expression of the columns was wrong." Yes Raphael, I admit that to you and you are right".
Besides Julius Shulman, Soriano also designed a house for Parmount art director Albert Norzaki who was famous for his art direction work on one of my favorite Science Fiction films, the 1953 WAR OF THE WORLDS.
so this was '36. i wonder if soriano was registered by '49, or if AIA award recognition was less tied to registration and membership at that point?
this is a great answer for all those threads in which interns ask 'what do i call myself?' soriano did just fine by putting it out there in a straightforward way.
The 1977 Sci-Arc lecture by Raphael Soriano mentioned above.
O, thanks for posting this. I applaud SCI-ARC for archiving the video collection.
It is all the great librarians Sci Arc had, big thank you goes to them. Sci Arc always had few hand me down books but it also has video and slide archives with personality. Developed/shot by Mort and later by Anna and now Kevin and others.
I'll have to listen to the lecture when I have time - sounds like a character. I love "not licensed architect". We need *that* on a T-shirt, Paul!
O,
Long time ago when driving looking around at architecture I remember spotting a funky Soriano designed office building in Burbank or Glendale. This is hazy recall but I do think that the details are coming back as I write.
At the time I was at SCI-ARC and into studying exterior shading devices and this one popped out. It was a 2-story steel construction with several exterior sun screens attached to the glass and steel frame. Right away you could tell that this one was a bit different.
Inside was even better; The ground floor offices were laid out in a wandering grid of glass and panel walls which opened up to lushly landscaped interior courts. These were were both cool in design and temperature. Light filtered throughout the spaces and an airy garden-of-eden feel. The main concrete path were flat stepping slabs laid out like a syncopated jazz score. Soriano obviously liked his music.
I was really saddened when I heard that it burnt down. It was the first time I felt I "lost" a building and I wanted to go there again and look at the remains but didnt. It was just one of those things; where you told yourself you wanted to revisit or tell friends about it. Then when it's gone all that is left is memory, and a story.
(orhan, i'm curious about the address redaction on the title block.)
marlin, i did that (for possible complaints from the owner, a lived and learned factor!) but information on the location of the house is available as it is linked to the name of the project in google. and, soriano's drawings and archives are available to public in the central library. i also took some shots of the rehabilitated interior but i need the owners' permission to publish those. soon.
I saw a totally cool Cliff May house in Arizona a few weeks ago - one that the owners really, really do not want anyone to know about. I totally get redacting the address, Orhan - good move.
Thank you for posting the link to the video. I thought the tapes had long been forgotten.
Mort Neikrug
The funky Soriano designed office bldg with perforated sunscreens was Adolph's, famous for their meat tenderizer, located on Magnolia in Burbank. It was built in 1957, was the company headquarters and inside had a laboratory, private garden patios and also a pool which I missed when I was there. There is a good discussion of Adolph's in the Soriano book by Wolfgang Wagener. Adolph's was innovative and functionally green before its time... and later a victim of arson in 1992.
eric chavkin
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