Midcentury Modern: Bauhaus Meets Ranch Meets Tiki
January 17, 2015
We continue our series on the Panama-California Exposition Centennial with Part 4: Spanning the Oceans: A War Brings the World to our Shores.
Keith York, a native San Diegan, has become synonymous with San Diego’s post-war modern architecture. As sometimes happens, a single experience can change the direction to one’s life.
Fourteen years ago, Keith was spending nearly every day at San Diego State University – splitting his time between programming the station- and producing television for KPBS and teaching in the School of Communications. Investing in the idea of walking to work daily, he bicycled through The College Area in search of a home – when he spotted a house that seemed out of place. It was behind a long blank facade with no visible door and windows. He was delighted to discover that behind a redwood wall was a glass pavilion blurring the lines between indoors and out.
He fell in love with his discovery, the only house designed by Craig Ellwood in San Diego. Ellwood, a Los Angeles-based designer, was hired by Charles and Gerry Bobertz to design a house for them after they saw a magazine spread on his first Case Study House in the program sponsored by John Entenza’s journal, Arts & Architecture. The Bobertz’s budget precluded the steel framing used for Ellwood’s “Case Study House 1953,” so a post-and-beam structural system in Douglas Fir was used.
In 2000, Keith purchased The Bobertz House (designed in 1953, built through 1954-55) and a labor of love began—not only with the research and restoration on the home, but also with the study of the region’s modern architecture. This enthusiasm added a new focus to his career and his life – he established the definitive website on local mid-century architecture, Modern San Diego, and began to share his passion with audiences online, in person, on the radio and television. The house, throughout its restoration, has been open to the public for tours. He is known now for his lectures and for moderating forums on San Diego’s regional architectural heritage. He also works with architects, real estate brokers, designers and landscape architects alike on restoration and remodeling projects.
Keith’s site www.modernsandiego.com hosts a wealth of information about those architects that added to the region’s built environment since the end of World War II, an extensive archive of historic residences and buildings, and a great collection of articles delving into the rich history of modernism in our area.