Our survey of Charles Haertlng's futurist architecture resumes with a trip up the Flagstaff Road that hugs the foothills and skirts the cliffs above Boulder. The low, pyramidal roof forms of the Kenneth Kahn house, as seen from the road, provide few clues about the view on the other side. Details are limited to the essentials, with not even gutters or downspouts to hint at practical concerns.
Viewed from the mountainside, the house reveals itself to be a rigorously composed, fearlessly structured leap of the imagination. The form in the foreground below is the downhill exposure of the garage seen on the left in the photo above...
The most exuberantly modern of Haertling's buildings seem inhibited only by the laws of physics, and then only barely. The Kahn house on Flagstaff Road is one of those. The cantilevered, reinforced concrete living wing with its panoramic windows is a breathtaking melding of space, form and structure on a steep slope, and one that seems to defy gravity. The depth of the cantilever is emphasized by by the indented corner where the walls below meet. Another architect or engineer might have done just the reverse, with a convex, projecting pier at the corner...
The glazing wraps around post-free corners, increasing involvement with the spectacular view of the landscape and cityscape below...
The house was completed in 1970, the year after Star Trek aired its final season of programs. Unlike Charles Haertling's Brenton House*, which appeared in Woody Allen's "Sleeper" along with I.M. Pei's National Center for Atmospheric Research* (also in Boulder), the Kahn house never has appeared on film, or even in a Star Trek episode…
Somehow, that seems a missed opportunity. This house could have convincingly played the part of a dwelling on some future Earth, or of an artifact of a more advanced civilization on some Earthlike planet...
Just beyond the Kahn house as you travel up Flagstaff Road, you find the Jourgensen house., named for Linda Jourgensen, once Boulder's mayor, and her husband John. Another work completed in Haertling's angular, geometric style, one that contrasted with the compound curves of the Brenton* house, it was completed the year after the Kahn house, in 1971.
Like its neighbor, the Jourgensen house does not reveal its mysteries to the casual observer on the road. Trees and shrubs add a visual buffer, and the view from the road is traversed by distracting power lines. The carport, linked to the entry by a sheltering flat roof, also obscures the elemental form and structure...
These aspects become more apparent when you approach the house from the side. Space is organized around three tall, reinforced concrete cylinders, with copper-clad, glazed wings enclosing interior space cantilevered from these load-bearing forms.
Looking up the mountainside at the house provides a clear view of how the cantilevered wings spring from the concrete supports. The sloping base of these wings echoes their shed roofs; the photo below was taken before the copper had weathered to a darker tone.
The interior spaces are organized around these cylindrical forms. Ceilings, balcony guard walls and concrete cylinders were originally painted white...
The interiors might have benefitted from a contrasting material on the ceilings. The upper level galleries open onto a two-story space, while balcony guard walls provide display space for art.
Today the trees and shrubs have absorbed the Jourgensen house and the Kahn house, dimly visible beyond, into the landscape. It takes a bit of work to get a clear view of most of the houses that Charles Haertling perched on cliffs and hung from mountainsides, but the effort can be rewarded with glimpses of an era of optimism, confidence, and a spirit of adventure.
*Footnote: For earlier photo essays devoted to Charles Haertling's architecture, see "The Jetsons at Home in Boulder, Colorado (Part One)". featuring the Menkick and Brenton houses and posted on June 13, 2016, "The Jetsons in Boulder Part 2: Charles Haertling Masterworks", from July 2, 2016, and "The Jetsons in Boulder Part 3: Charles Haertling at Mid-Century and Beyond", from June 30, 2020. The National Center for Atmospheric Research is the subject of "Roadside Attraction: National Center for Atmospheric Research", posted on May 26, 2019.
Photo Credits:
Top, 8th & 9th from top, & bottom: the author
3rd from top: pinterest.com
All Other Photos: Carnegie Library for Local History, Boulder, Colorado
That Kahn house is INSANE. Do you know who's living there, or its current market value? Tried Googling but didn't find an immediate answer.
ReplyDeleteIt's occupied, and I hope by Trekkies, but have no idea really who lives there. No idea on the value either, but I'm guessing it would be stunningly expensive to build anything like this today...
ReplyDeleteWell, it's not just another home in an upscale neighborhood in an already exorbitant real estate market, it's a living, breathing art piece too. Noguchi coffee tables start around 2K — that's likely indicative of nothing relative, but either way, I hope those Trekkies appreciate their Earth-1 museum.
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