A Jewel-Like Exhibit of Cunningham

SAN DIEGO —  There’s a group of architects that believes its profession is a craft--akin to carpentry or masonry--and simply a matter of meeting a client’s needs. But, although this practical approach assures the satisfaction of basic needs, the best buildings have something more, an uplifting spirit that makes them more than the sum of their parts. Some go so far as to call this spirit art, and the debate between the “art” and “craft” proponents rages on.

For proof that the art of architecture is alive and well, take a look at “Wallace Cunningham: Environmental Design & Theory,” eight projects on display at the Mesa College Gallery through May 8.

Although the show is disappointingly small and has shortcomings in its presentation, the power of Cunningham’s architecture is undeniable.

The show opened last Thursday and features seven houses plus Cunningham’s first non-residential commission, the San Dimas Calvary Church. Only one of the projects--a house on Prospect Street near downtown La Jolla--has been built, and a few will never be built.

Although Cunningham has designed many other houses, nine of them actually constructed and several more unbuilt, gallery director Kathleen Stoughton decided to focus on his most recent work.

Taken as a group, the newest buildings are evidence of Cunningham’s incredible imagination, sensitive eye for design and continuing maturation. At 36, he is still an adolescent in architecture, where even the greats usually don’t hit their stride until their mid-40s.

The San Dimas church and an East County house Cunningham calls “Pavilions” are the newest projects, designed earlier this year.

In different ways, these show an architect growing increasingly sure-handed and confident in his designs and more broad-based in his formal approaches.

The chapel is simplicity raised to the height of elegance. It uses long, narrow strips of concrete that fan out to form a dramatically upswept roof, a perfect geometric form known as a “hyperbolic paraboloid.”

Instead of reaching for geometric purity, the “Pavilions” house dips back into history for inspiration, to the hexagonal kiva dwellings built by Pueblo Indians.

Other projects are similarly diverse: two houses offer different variations on ocean wave forms, another has a bronze roof that spreads like the wings of a gigantic bird, and the “Palace” house, for a wealthy Egyptian client in La Jolla, looks to Egyptian temples and pyramids for its inclined sand stone walls.

Although small in comparison with other shows of architecture, the exhibit is jewel-like in its presentation.

Architectural models of each project, crafted by Jim Johnson, Kevin Jorgensen and Peggy Walther of Cunningham’s office, are works of art. Made of copper, rich woods and other fine materials, instead of the usual foam core, they are displayed on simple pedestals under carefully placed spotlights.

Accompanying the models are Cunningham’s architectural drawings, along with brief texts by architectural historian Robert L. Sweeney, president of Friends of the Schindler House in Los Angeles.

A 30-minute video of still photos, directed by San Diego photographer Jon Foster, summarizes Cunningham’s earlier work.

Stoughton has also decorated the gallery walls with selected quotations from Cunningham.

Architects, who are capable of looking at models and drawings and imagining buildings in three dimensions, will fully appreciate the broad reach of Cunningham’s visions, inspired by nature, history, geometric experimentation, the special qualities of each site and obscure influences, such as Japanese architect Kimio Yokoyama and Italian architect Giovanni Michelucci.

But those not trained in architecture may leave the exhibit hungry for more in the way of explanations. Sweeney’s wall-mounted texts are so brief that they don’t much touch on the practical aspects of each project. And because some of the models are equally abstract, lacking exterior and interior detailing, they don’t tell the whole story, either.

That leaves it to drawings to explain the details, and these are in short supply. Some projects are entirely lacking elevation or perspective drawings that would tell more about their exteriors.

The church is represented by a model and just one drawing. The viewer gets absolutely no sense of how its interior spaces are organized or how people would move through them.

Cunningham possesses excellent color renderings of many of these buildings, prepared for him by Ling Po, who also did renderings for Frank Lloyd Wright. These should have been included.

An essay on Cunningham’s career, included in the show catalogue (which will be available April 25), sheds welcome additional light on Cunningham’s architecture. Sweeney has obviously spent a great deal of time considering the buildings, and does an excellent job explaining both the thought processes behind them and their living, breathing qualities.

Wright, another of Cunningham’s influences (he spent eight months at Wright’s Taliesin Fellowship in Arizona), once received a call from a client who complained that his roof was leaking on a favorite dining table. Wright supposedly ordered the client to move the table.

In Cunningham’s work, you sense the same uncompromising quest for beauty. Sometimes, you wonder about the practical comforts of living in these visually amazing houses. It is possible to single out instances where Cunningham manipulates functions to suit the incredible forms he dreams up--a violation of the old “form follows function” adage--but the power of his vision lets us forgive a few such foibles along the quest for pure beauty.

Hours for “Wallace Cunningham: Environmental Design and Theory” at the Mesa College Gallery are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thursdays. Viewing is also available by appointment. (Call the gallery during regular hours at 560-2829.) In October, the show will open at the Schindler House in Los Angeles, 835 N. Kings Road, architect Rudolf Schindler’s 1921-22 tilt-up concrete masterpiece (213-651-1510). DESIGN NOTES: Cunningham will give a lecture about his work from 7 to 8 p.m. May 7 in Room H118 on the Mesa College campus. Call the gallery to reserve a space (560-2829). You can also meet Cunningham at an open house/benefit Friday, April 26, from 4 to 8 p.m. at the historic Sweet house on Bankers Hill. Tickets are $15, and proceeds will help defray the $10,000 plus cost of producing the show catalogue. . . .

This Saturday morning, from 9:30 to 11:30 at the New School of Architecture (1240 F St., downtown), San Diego architect Borzou Rahimi of SGPA Planning & Architecture will lecture on the connections between the villas of 16th-Century Italian architect Andrea Palladio and American Colonial houses. The talk is part of a monthly series presented by Friends of San Diego Architecture.