Overlooked But Not Forgotten, By Karen Wright

by pmaxwell, 24 June 2008

Bruce Goff, "William Dace House", 1964-5

American architect Bruce Goff was born in Kansas in 1904 and died in 1982. Nearly thirty years after his death he still has a loyal and dedicated following but has largely been forgotten by the architectural historians. Architect Piers Gough from CZWG has over the years extolled his virtues to me and it was on his recommendation that I spent the weekend at Tate Modern at a series of lectures and films dedicated to his work. I came away a staunch Goff convert and will now, like the others present, try and raise artistic awareness starting here with this column.

Over the last few years I have observed a growing dichotomy between antithetical artistic styles- the messy hand touched and the mechanistic machine made. In sculptural terms this could best be exemplified by the difference between a Richard Tuttle and a Richard Serra, both in mind set, scale and style. In Tuttle, the hand rules, small materials and gestures often incorporating found objects set against Serra where steel predominates, often dangerous in its sheer scale.

Richard Serra, "A Matter of Time", inaugurated at Guggenheim Bilbao 2005

Architecture with its imposed scale of usage, also demonstrates the difference in mind set between a slick steel and glass modernism and a gentler, hairier more hand touched and often more ecological mindset. Quirkiness in architecture is frowned upon and in a time when getting anything individualist past building regulations and increasingly more narrow minded planning officers, the result is a proliferation of anonymous samey buildings reflected in the new build in many cities.

Goff was a man born out of his natural time and place. A polymorph who was interested not only in architecture and art (he was an accomplished draughtsman and painter) he was also a serious and accomplished musician and composer. He was a child prodigy and started work in an architectural practice when he was 12, Frank Lloyd Wright told the young Goff not to go to architecture college as "he might have what made Goff knocked out of him.” Goff remained not formally trained but this did not stop him from completing some 150 projects mainly in Oklahoma, Chicago, and Texas out of 500 proposals during his career, which ended with his death in 1982. The Art Institute of Chicago has the entire Goff Archive, which included some 8000 sketches and 400 paintings.

Bruce Goff, "Viva Casino and Hotel", 1961

As a young man Goff had a stint in the army where he was based in California. There he learnt about informal and temporary building practices as experienced in the eponymous Quonset hut and also explored cheaper and less permanent building materials. He seemed to find this satisfying and in his later projects uses local unusual materials, serpentine stone, coal, and glass cullet (the waste product from making glass) in his final designs. Architectural historians with kitsch have often linked his work; the example often cited being his utilisation of Woolworth ashtrays as design features.

Bruce Goff, "Joe D. Price House and Studio", 1956

There is a hand-touched element to many of Goff’s projects. Goff seemed to enjoy a close relationship with both client and contractor, which enabled him to use materials, which most architects would struggle to enlist. His use of turkey feathers to line a roof which would move as the client moved through the space, his cellophane chandeliers resembling rain and the glass chunks heaped around, embedded in roofs and walls both inside and out illuminate a contractor and client -architect trust and give a quirky organicism and intimacy to the final projects. It is not unsophisticated or kitschy though, it is much more about creating a total compositional element, a total picture. It also reflects the “needs must” of the time, keeping costs down using ash trays instead of more designed for purpose elements.

Goff simply did not care about the reaction of the public to these often-anarchic looking structures. A pre-emptive sign posted in front of a Goff house in construction said provocatively- “you don’t like our building? Well we don’t like your building either."

Goff, himself was influenced early in his career by local mid western architect Louis Sullivan, whose bank buildings he greatly admired and mid western star architect Frank Lloyd Wright and in particular Wright’s use of wood and geometric designs. He was increasingly to be influenced by the decoration of European architects including Antoni Gaudí, and the extraordinary shaped buildings of Erich Mendelsohn. Goff may be largely forgotten in the architectural cannon, but his legacy lives on today reflected not only in architecture but artists.

Alsop and Stormer, "Peckham Library", 1995-9

London based Will Alsop with the Peckham Library and it’s pod like structure owes an allegiance to the pod life futurism of Goff projects. Piers Gough’s blue public toilets in Notting Hill, with their cantilevered roof awning recall both in colour and form elements of Goff’s work.

Nicholas Grimshaw, "Eden Project", 2005

Nicolas Grimshaw in the Eden Project and the Waterloo Eurostar Terminal used roof structures, which relate to many of the dome like coverings of both Goff’s public and private projects. In short presentations at the Tate, various architects presented their own work admitting their allegiance to Goff. Rotterdam based architects, Boris Zeisser and Maartje Lammers practicing as 24H, showed a design for their extraordinary vacation house in Sweden, which extends and contracts. Covered in cedar shakes it resembles a ground-hugging insect as it lies in wait for an unsuspecting victim.

Peter Cook and Colin Fournier, "Kunsthaus", 2003

On a larger scale, the award winning Kunsthaus in Graz, Austria by architects Peter Cook and Colin Fournier with its periscope like structures on the roof and its organic biomorphic Mr Blobby shape owes much to the mind set of Goff.

Goff predates and probably inspires the artist-designer figure of a practitioner like Jorge Pardo, who wanted to control both the outside and inside of his artistic project.

David Thorpe, “Covenant of the Elect”, 2002

The Tate became interested in the Goff project through the British artist David Thorpe, whose collage “Covenant of the Elect” (2002) could be drawn almost directly from elements of the Price House of Goff and bear a striking unmistakable resemblance to Goff’s own fine elevation drawings. In a striking film by artist Stephen Prina, “The way he always wanted it”, Prina tracks the interior of the stunning Ford House accompanied by music and lyrics drawn from Goff correspondence. Both these artists give a quirky and idiosyncratic reading of the multi-disciplinarian talents of Goff, a man who was unmistakably talented and who definitely deserves greater recognition.