Jan Ruhtenberg

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Jan Ruhtenberg was an architect who, "made significant contributions in introducing modern architecture to the United States as a teacher and a modern architect".[1] Ruhtenberg was involved in the Bauhaus movement in Germany, studying under Mies van der Rohe and worked with Phillp Johnson. He was active in many areas of country such as New York City with both his architectural skills (the renovation of 57 East 93rd Street that was reviewed by Architectural Forum in 1937[2]) and his opinions on the progressive housing movement which were recorded for the Library of Congress. [3] He was a teacher at Columbia University in New York City, where he was hired by Joseph Hudnut.[4] He married Polly King Ruhtenberg on August 4, 1935 in New York City.[5]

Jan’s work can still be seen in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he was active during the 1940’s (designing the now destroyed El Pomar Carriage House at the Broadmoor Hotel in 1941) and 1950’s. While he was active elsewhere in the country,[6] he maintained a house in Colorado Springs and continued to receive national press for his works in Colorado.[7]

One of Jan’s designs exists in its original form at 55 Marland Road in Colorado Springs. Designed for Hugo C. Fischer in 1951, the house was featured in the February 1954 edition of Progressive Architecture.[8] It is steel framed, with insulated pumice block walls and a lightweight concrete roof.[8] Inside, the pressed sugar-cane roof insulation is exposed, with the rough texture of the pressed sugar-cane complementing the rough pumice stone. A large fresco of Orpheus and Euridyce (4 ft wide by 11 ft high) occupies the Southern wall, which Jan apparently added in a flash of inspiration while the building was under construction.

Recently, Elaine Freed of Colorado College has been photographing Jan’s buildings in order to preserve their legacy, working with the Jackson Fellowships which are associated with the Hulbert Center for Southwest Studies at Colorado College.[9]

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ I-25 Environmental Assessment, Project No. 151077.13.BN, Historic Resources Survey Report, History and Survey Results Vol I. Quote is sourced from material regarding 5EP3854 St. Mary’s School - 1949
  2. ^ "In 1937 the magazine Architectural Forum praised the removal of plaster from the interior brick walls, which gained three inches of valuable space in the entry and provided a richly textured surface in the studio which shows off the severe furniture to great advantage." Source: http://www.nyc-architecture.com/UES/UES047.htm
  3. ^ Library of Congress recording RXA 5645 A13-14, RXA 5663 A7-8 (playback copy) [Progressive housing movement speeches]* / LC Control Number: 92789162 Summary: Portions from five 1934 talks given on housing conditions in America and Europe. Langdon Post describes the terrible conditions of American city tenements and offers solutions to the problem, Raymond Unwin, England’s authority on housing, talks about housing in England, architects Jan Ruhtenberg and Horatio Hackett discuss their proposals for solutions to the housing problem, and Ernst Kahn, an expert on financing housing in Germany, offers his views of American housing and compares it to Europe’s housing situation. Subjects: Housing--United States. Housing--Great Britain. Housing--Europe. LC Classification: LWO 6312 reel 15, A13-14; reel 33, A7-8 (preservation master - not for playback) RXA 5645 A13-14, RXA 5663 A7-8 (playback copy)
  4. ^ Jill E Pearlman, "Joseph Hudnut's Other Modernism at the Harvard-Bauhaus," Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (December 1997): 56 (4).452-477.
  5. ^ Guide to the Polly King Ruhtenberg Papers 1946-1983
  6. ^ the Residence of Dr. Edmond Donoghue, 1952-1954, 650 Weatherhill Road SW Rochester Minnesota 55902
  7. ^ January 15, 1957, Time Magazine discussed "a $2,000,000 opera house has been projected for Colorado Springs by Architect Jan Ruhtenberg which features sculptural shell concrete forms with adjustable walls that can be thrown wide open to empty a full house (3,000) in 1½ minutes
  8. ^ a b February 1954 edition of Progressive Architecture, Pages 92-93.
  9. ^ Elaine writes, "I have received numerous Jackson Fellowships toward the project "Sun Country Modern" – which is photo-documentation of modernist residences in the Southwest. (Modern at Mid-Century: the Early Fifties Houses of Ingraham and Ingraham, published in 2003 by the Hulbert Press.) Pollard and I are now working on documenting the residential work of Jan Ruhtenberg, an architect trained in Europe (he worked with Mies in Berlin in the 1920s), who designed houses in Colorado Springs beginning in the 1940s. We have photographed two houses thus far and will do several more this summer. I expect to use these images in a book on Ruhtenberg's work."