John Lautner

John Lautner probably designed some of the most spectacular modern homes of the 20th century yet he remains relatively unknown to the general public. Although he spent time as an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright, he did not have Wright’s flair for self-promotion. Another contributing factor to Lautner’s anonymity is that most of his designs were for private homes and not open to the public. This greatly limited his exposure. Lautner was probably Wright’s most successful apprentice. It is interesting to note that Lautner’s design style was completely different from Wright’s as so many of the apprentices simply emulated Wright’s style.

However, if you enjoy architecture, chances are you have seen pictures of some of Lautner’s designs without realizing it. Lautner’s Elrod house in Palm Springs appears in the James Bond film Diamonds are Forever. It is in the scene where Bambi and Thumper bounced on Bond.

Here is a link to a YouTube trailer for a film about Lautner’s works called Infinite Space, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvjtHWSLgls.

You can find out more about Lautner as well as purchase the DVD for the film at http://www.johnlautner.org/ You can also see many images of Luatner’s designs by searching Google Images.