The Jetsons in Boulder Part 7: Charles Haertling's Boulder Valley Eye Clinic----Futurism Hiding in Plain Sight

In 1969, the third and final year that new Star Trek episodes aired on TV, and the year after Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" mesmerized audiences in movie theaters, Charles Haertling* produced his exuberantly futuristic design for the Boulder Valley Eye Clinic, just north of Boulder's downtown on Broadway.  It was also the year that NASA first landed men on the moon.  So there was plenty of science in the air, to go along with the science fiction...

But, as anyone who's been following the "Jetsons in Boulder" series knows, Charles Haertling already had plenty of futurism in his thinking. The year he designed the eye clinic, he had seen construction completed of the Brenton House*, with its mushroom-like roof forms becoming walls and curving under floors.  The Brenton would be featured in Woody Allen's "Sleeper" in 1973.  Here in the eye clinic, Haertling found another reason to employ  curves, with the "open eye" of the waiting area inviting the visitor back to the examining rooms, with their cantilevered pods containing the eye charts.  These are visible as the four projecting forms with sloping bases in the first photo, and on the right (east) side of the plan below. These pods shade our view across Broadway in the above photo.  Two pods repeat the same function on the west.  Note the way the architect has provided landscaped spaces with trees and shrubs, partly enclosed by curving landscape walls, to shield offices and lounge from views of the parking. 

Sadly, when the building changed function to office space, someone decided the cantilevered eye chart pods needed to be removed and replaced with windows outlined in a darker color. It's too bad the building couldn't remain an eye clinic; the plan and forms were so specifically tailored to that purpose...

Here we see the Broadway side of the building as it appears today...

Below, at the south-facing, public entry of the clinic, the portion that looks like an opening eye in plan, we note what might have seemed a reassuring, regular pattern to the clinic's first customers: a series of regularly-spaced, circular concrete columns supporting the roof, and framing glass walls and the entry doors, which are marked "2401 Broadway". This may have been the only conventional message anywhere in the scheme, other than a parking lot sized to fit the vast "standard size" cars common in 1969... 

Moving around what would be the southwest corner, if the building had anything like corners, we note the sculptural way roof and walls are joined by cascading curves, and the way these curves are repeated in plan and elevation. 

As a look at the plan at the top shows, there were originally two cantilevered modules on the west side of the building that mirrored the shape and function of those on the east. Moving around to the west side, we see that like those on the front elevation, these modules have now been sheared off, and replaced by an arrangement of windows that looks like an afterthought.  The building has served a number of different functions after its years of service as an eye clinic; these have included an architect's office and a fitness center.  In its original form it could still function effectively as an eye clinic; when I visited the eye doc recently I noticed despite all the digital connectivity he still uses the same old system of charts to assess vision, but without any elegant cantilevered pods...

Moving around to the north driveway that connects back to Broadway, we can see how the roof forms roll down into the walls, and how the walls curve inward at the ground plane.  This view is enough to make anyone wish that all utility lines could be submerged below that ground plane...

Despite being detoured from the original function that helped to generate its purposeful forms, and despite being saddled with some ill-considered signage and a two-tone color scheme, Haertling's building still works its sculptural magic on anyone who will spend a few moments walking around it.  Like those works of science fiction produced in the same era, its form and content still have something to offer to a changing, troubled world.

*Footnote: For earlier photo essays devoted to Charles Haertling's architecture, see "The Jetsons at Home in Boulder, Colorado", posted on June 13, 2016, and "The Jetsons in Boulder Part 2: Charles Haertling Masterworks", from July 2, 2016.  "The Jetsons in Boulder Part 3:  Charles Haertling at Mid-Century and Beyond" appeared on June 30, 2020, and we had a look at Haertling's futuristic mountain work in "The Jetsons in Boulder Part 5: Hidden Gems in the Foothills", posted December 8, 2020.  Part 4 of the Jetsons series was devoted to a building which is now a dental clinic, but was originally an architect's studio; please see "The Jetsons in Boulder Part 4:  Roger Easton's Modest Masterpiece---Lightness and Facts on the Ground", posted October 12, 2020.

Photo Credits

All color photos are by the author.  All monochrome photos are from the Boulder Carnegie Library for Local History Collection.  The building plan by Charles Haertling was reproduced at pinterest.com.

The Jetsons in Boulder Part 6: Designs by Tician Papachristou

Born in Athens and educated at Princeton, architect Tician Papachristou arrived in Boulder in 1954, working at James Hunter's practice before going independent in 1956.  Two years later, Papachristou produced the design for this Sampson house in Boulder's Chautauqua neighborhood.  The house, and Papachristou's career, was the product of surging interest in modern architecture in postwar Boulder, which converged with a demand for innovative construction on a budget...

What caused these trends?  Well, for one thing, Boulder's population nearly doubled from 1950 to 1960, from 19,999 to 37,718.  It came close to doubling again by 1970, to nearly 67,000.  Many of the clients who approached architects were starting families and building their first homes. This was possible in an expanding middle class, but it required some innovative thinking by the young architects of their generation. In the Sampson house,  Papachristou exposed the wood structure and roof decking, and allowed space to flow from room to room and level to level, as in this view from the upper level into the two-level living and kitchen space...

Another factor in the explosion of modern innovation in Boulder was the University of Colorado, whose teaching staff was forward-thinking, open to new ideas, and at the same time constrained by limited academic salaries. They were receptive to open plans (fewer walls and doors meant lower costs) with lots of light and space for books, as in the clerestory-lit, book-lined Sampson library above, and the bedroom below. From 1958 to 1962, Tician Papachristou taught design at CU Boulder, so he had a chance to meet people with these shared interests...

The garden walls of concrete masonry units are part of the original scheme.  Use of concrete block is an example of deploying inexpensive materials in a new context; the stacked-bond pattern provided a modern pattern for the humble material. The Sampson house is currently being renovated, and appears to have plenty of life left in it for its present owners... 

In 1958, the same year as the Sampson house, Papachristou collaborated with Charles Haertling* on a house for Mr. & Mrs. Herbert Noble in Boulder's Flagstaff neighborhood.  Their assignment was to provide something out of the ordinary on a very limited budget...

When the Nobles saw a model of the proposed design, which involved linked geometric tepees with the triangular planes of their roofs touching the ground, the couple's reaction was that this was a bit too far out of the ordinary... 

…but it was within the limits of their strict budget, and dealt effectively with other constraints of their site (a stream, variable ground elevations, and woods) so they proceeded.

Today the house remains in its original form, and the growth of the trees and shrubs all but conceals its presence from traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue.  The slant of the roof planes presented a challenge for planning interior space, as well as an opportunity for placement of plants and art in the low-headroom zones...

In 1958 and 1959 Papachristou designed two houses on adjacent sites in the University Hill neighborhood.  The Jesser house was the second of this thematically linked duet, but it's the first house you see as you approach the corner of 6th & Euclid.  Here's how it looks today, a composition of linked cylindrical volumes under sloping roofs...

The photo below shows how the Jesser house looked right after completion.  Note how visible the adjacent Sirotkin house is to the west, before the trees grew to such impressive height. Closer to the street, there's the addition of a privacy fence. And somebody has traded the '54 Loewy Studebaker* in the old photo for a modern Audi A4... 

The interior shows how the curve of the upper level, set inside the two-story glazed wall, creates spatial involvement.  As in other work by this architect, floor to ceiling glazing in the public zones of the house allows the sense of space to flow from the outside in...

The photo below shows how well the simple materials have endured.  These include painted concrete block, concrete, stained wood, and glass block.

Shallow windows tucked under the eaves provide more seclusion to bedroom areas.

The neighboring Sirotkin house designed the previous year, adjacent to the corner lot of the Jesser, features a more rectilinear plan, as evidenced below in a photo taken during construction in 1959. The cantilevered roof shows its scalloped upper and lower surface.  Designed to promote light transmission through the interior, the shallow roof depth must have presented a challenge to the structural engineer.

The completed Sirotkin house, shown below in a photo taken this week, shows how the architect employed curving concrete block landscape walls to anchor the house to the site,  connect interior to exterior space, and link it visually to the exuberantly curved Jesser house, its neighbor. 

In 1960 George Woodman, a professor in CU's Philosophy Department, moved into the Sirotkin house with his family. The photo below, taken in the early Sixties during the family's time there, shows how the scalloped ceilings transmit light across the top of the concrete block wall. 

The Woodmans took the photo below as well; note the careful detailing for the light steel structure supporting the open wood stair treads.  Professor Woodman liked riding his bike to the nearby university, and the Woodmans became lifelong friends with architect Papachristou and his family...

The suspended steel fireplace was becoming a standard feature of modernist houses at midcentury, but this one is suspended over a fire pit recessed into the concrete floor instead of the more common raised hearth.  Note the flat skylights filling the space between the structural beam and the curving concrete block wall.

The house at on Abbey Place in the Chautauqua neighborhood is a couple of blocks from the Sampson house that begins this essay, but it was designed earlier, in 1956, the year Papachristou started his practice.  Deep eaves shade the concealed entry and the windows organized into a horizontal band, while wood siding connects these upper windows with a lower one, making an "L" shape that echoes the simple plan...  

Deeper eaves shade windows that extend to the vaulted ceiling, and supporting beams express the structure within.  The interior was remodeled in 2005, but the exterior facing Abbey Place is as original...

The Bowman house on Sentinel Rock Lane, below, was built to Papachristou's design in 1965; it presides with pagoda-like serenity over the high foothill vistas. The linear plan and expansive, cantilevered deck makes the house seem larger than its area, which is well under 2,000 square feet...

The roof scheme stacks two parallel gables, and a linear skylight set into the lower gable casts natural light on an interior of wood, concrete and steel.  Floor-to-ceiling glazing erases the boundary between the interior space and the wood deck beyond, and the cantilevered hearth echoes that deck.  During this period, Papachristou was advising NCAR director Walter Orr Roberts and architect I.M. Pei* on the site location for the National Center for Atmospheric Research*, and Pei suggested that the Boulder architect could broaden his professional horizons in New York City.  Papachristou left for Manhattan the year the Bowman house was finished, taking a job with Marcel Breuer's firm, where he eventually became a partner. The Bowman house turned out to be his final Boulder project, a fitting cap to his involvement in Front Range architecture, and the creation of over a dozen innovative and memorable houses.

*Footnote:  For earlier photo essays on Boulder's Midcentury Modern architecture, see "The Jetsons at Home in Boulder, Colorado (Part One)". featuring Charles Haertling's 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 Jetsons in Boulder Part 4: Roger Easton's Modest Masterpiece", from October 12, 2020, and "The Jetsons in Boulder Part 5: Hidden Gems in the Foothills", posted December 8, 2020.  I.M. Pei's National Center for Atmospheric Research is the subject of "Roadside Attraction: National Center for Atmospheric Research", posted on May 26, 2019. And on those Loewy Studebakers, you might visit "Forgotten Classic: 1953-'54 Studebaker Starliner---Sleeping Beauty from South Bend", posted February 20, 2021.

Monochrome Photo Credits:  The Carnegie Library for Local History, Boulder, CO

Color Photo Credits:  

Top + 4th thru 6th from top:  Sean McIllwain of Mod Boulder

2nd & 3rd + 7th, 8th, 11th, 13th, 15th, 17th & 20th:  the author

21st & 22nd (Sirotkin living room & stair):  woodmanfoundation.org

16th (Jessor interior) + 23rd (Sirotkin interior):  Lisa Doane Photography

Bottom:  ColoProperty.com

The Jetsons in Boulder Part 5: Hidden Gems in the Foothills

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