Louis Sauer

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In the 1960's to 1970's Louis (Lou) Sauer FAIA (b. 1928 in Forest Park, Illinois) was one of the most prolific of American architects whose work in low-rise high-density housing was defined by a combination of design excellence and pragmatic involvement in society.

“ Although there are not many American architects like Louis Sauer.....His working values seem to come directly from his American heritage: a commitment to pragmatic action, to building rather than talking about building; commitment to giving the people who use his buildings maximum freedom of choice in their daily lives; commitment to the unpredictable adventures of a pluralistic, free-wheeling capitalist society and commitment to serving the underprivileged members of that society as well.[1] ”

Beginning with custom housing, such as the Hamilton House (New Hope, PA, 1961), the thoroughly articulated Cripps residence (1962 Lambertville, New Jersey - Progressive Architecture Design Awards Issue, Jan 1963), Buten House (1962 Philadelphia), James McClennen House(127 Pine Street, Philadelphia, 1965), Frankel Residence (1967 Margate, New Jersey), Louis Sauer designs have been published in more than 100 international books and magazines.

Helping to define his career was a period with Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority (the Morton Urban Renewal Project) doing advocacy working with the poor. Undaunted by the compromises often required when working with developers, Lou produced a unique body of highly acclaimed and innovative work in low-rise high-density housing, breathing new life into the previously maligned 'row housing' form. As principal of Louis Sauer Associates, Architects, Philadelphia, Lou designed about forty residential complexes in the period 1961-1979, with eight constructed residential and commercial developments in Society Hill Historic District. Lou designed a full range of residential building types in differing contexts from central city urban infill, to suburban and rural areas and new town developments at [Reston, Virginia] and Columbia (Maryland). In Baltimore MD Lou was the architect for four city blocks of housing as well as Baltimore’s Fells Point Historic District waterfront redevelopment plan, the design of its Main Square, and the urban design for the Baltimore's new Harbour Walk neighbourhood .

Among his most notable works is Penn's Landing Square, at Society Hill, Philadelphia, which took up a whole block with 118 homes-units.[2] This was an important part of the major urban rehabilitation project being coordinated by Edmund Bacon. Other award winning projects include 180 home units in the new town of Reston, Virginia, and 400 homes at Harbor Walk - part of a redevelopment project for Baltimore's Inner Harbor Baltimore Bay.

Lou began as a student in Art and Photography, but soon drifted into architecture, where a passion for modern design was fostered while studying at the famous Moholy-Nagy's "New Bauhaus"Institute of Design IIT Illinois Institute of Technology, 1949 to 1953,in Chicago. Temporarily interrupted by conscription, and a military tour of duty in Germany, Lou then joined the 1956 summer session of CIAM Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne at the Instituto Universitario di Achittectura. Here he spent a formative period studying under notable architects such as Giuseppe Samonà, Ernesto Rogers and Giancarlo De Carlo, Gino Valle. Sauer stayed another six months in Venice and later set up a partnership with Giancarlo Guarda in Philadelphia. Lou returned to America in 1959, for post-graduate studies in Architecture at the Louis I Kahn Studio at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

It took many of Lou's fellow practitioners by surprise when he suddenly closed his office in Philadelphia in 1979, giving up a successful private practice and moving on to an academic career. Lou felt strongly about the role of education for shaping future the architect practitioners. He believed strongly that unless architects learned to deal with society on realistic terms, society would simply deal architects out of the game. He was appointed Professor and Head of the Department of Architecture at Carnegie-Mellon University (1979-1985).[3][1]. His research focus was on the relationships between public and private development processes and their market places, as well as how people use their residences and the cultural meanings of street landscapes.[4] Lou was also a professor at the Universities of Pennsylvania and Colorado (Boulder, 1985-89) and a visiting professor at MIT, Yale and at numerous other US and Canadian universities.

In later years (1989 to 1996) Lou made his way back into professional practice in Montreal, Canada, as Director of Urban Design at Daniel Arbour and Associates. His legacy in Montreal includes the plan for 8,000 dwellings on 202 Hectares at Bois Frank, in the City of St. Laurent. Lou moved to the Melbourne area in Australia in 2000, where he has worked with local governments to establish two Design Review Panels. Lou is semi-retired and teaching architecture at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne (RMIT).

[edit] References

  1. ^ Morgan J. The Work of Louis Sauer. Retrieved on February 11, 2007.
  2. ^ Garvin, Alexander (2002). The American City : What Works, What Doesn't. McGraw-Hill Professional, p. 265. ISBN 0071373675. 
  3. ^ School of Architecture History. Retrieved on February 11, 2007.
  4. ^ Sauer LE (1989). "Joining old and new: neighborhood planning and architecture for city revitalization". Architecture and Behavior 5 (4): 357–72. 

[edit] External links

  • The Work of Louis Sauer”, 1980 Toshi Jukatu Japanese Press monograph
  • Un Architetto Americano: Louis Sauer (1988) by Antonino Saggio. The Officina Edizioni
  • [2] Absorbing Venice. Low-rise High-density Housing by Louis Sauer by Antonino Saggio, published in G. De Carlo, C. Occhialini a cura di Ilaud, Territory & Identity, Comune di Venezia-Maggioli editore, Santarcangelo Romagna, 1998 pp. 74-79.
  • [3]

    "The Row House Revival Is Going To Town-Not to Mention Country", a Washington Post Article, 1966, by Wolf Von Eckardt, Architecture critic, commenting on the Row Housing form, with reference to Louis Sauer's Row Houses in the Golf Course Island section of Lake Ann Village, Reston. "It has been a long time since the architecture of our day has accomplished as much for human livability. You'll find here not just exciting and dramatic shapes to serve the noble art of architecture, but shapes that serve the joys of being at home.... The arrangement of these spaces is so commodious and clever that family members will hardly get into each other's way. Most of all, however, Sauer's splendid design, at relatively moderate prices, should remove the last reasonable objections to the rowhouse idea. The houses appear wide on the inside, rather than narrow and vertical. And each has an unmistakably individual entrance, not just a kind of apartment door out on the street. I am almost tempted to call the Sauer townhouses a new breakthrough in town house design...". *

[Virginia.http://mars.gmu.edu/dspace/bitstream/1920/1272/1/457_01_04.pdf]

  • [4] Go to page Philadelphia’s Society Hill Towers (I. M. Pei) and rowhouses (Louis Sauer).
  • [5] Concerning the increased importance and awareness of the preservation of modern architecture in the United States, a list of Philadelphia's MODERN MONUMENTS, including the Louis Sauer "James McClellan House".
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