Kesling Modern Structures: Popularizing Modern Design in Southern California, 1934-1962

Practically unknown today, William Kesling and his design/build firm, Kesling Modern Structures, played a unique and important role in the development and acceptance of modern architecture in Southern California. For one year, beginning in November 1935, William Kesling was by far and away Los Angeles' most prolific and successful practitioner of Streamline Moderne design, breaking ground on more than twenty projects. His better-known peers, Schindler, Neutra, and other modernists could not so easily desert the principles of economy and austerity. The unschooled Kesling was not bound by such dogma but nevertheless was driven by the noble goal of bringing high quality modern design within reach of the everyday home-buying public. Today his houses and small apartment buildings are considered collector's items for L.A. cognoscenti and while many have been ruthlessly remodeled many others are being carefully restored to their original elegance. Kesling was one of Julius Shulman's first clients. These never-before-published images were taken with Shulman's first vest-pocket camera.

American photographer Julius Shulman s images of Californian architecture have burned themselves into the retina of the 20th century. A book on modern architecture without Shulman is inconceivable. Some of his architectural photographs, like the iconic shots of Frank Lloyd Wright s or Pierre Koenig s remarkable structures, have been published countless times. The brilliance of buildings like those by Charles Eames, as well as those of his close friend, Richard Neutra, was first brought to light by Shulman s photography. The clarity of his work demanded that architectural photography had to be considered as an independent art form. Each Shulman image unites perception and understanding for the buildings and their place in the landscape. The precise compositions reveal not just the architectural ideas behind a building s surface, but also the visions and hopes of an entire age. A sense of humanity is always present in his work, even when the human figure is absent from the actual photographs. Today, a great many of the buildings documented by Shulman have disappeared or been crudely converted, but the thirst for his pioneering images is stronger than ever before.

Noted architectural historian David Gebhard taught at the University of California at Santa Barbara and has been published extensively on American and European architecture. Among his publications are The Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles (Gibbs Smith, Publisher, revised edition, 2003) and The National Trust Guide to Art Deco in America (John Wiley, 1996).