Explore Jim Olson's Art in Architecture
A new book celebrates a Northwest architect's ideas about space, perception, and the experience of living with nature
Architect Jim Olson has long explored and enriched the varied relationships between home and nature through art and an artful approach to architecture. His approach has made him one of the Pacific Northwest's most important architects, well worth a career retrospective and companion book. The exhibition Jim Olson: Art in Architecture runs through June 9, 2013, at the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, Washington. It is billed as "the first comprehensive exhibition devoted to the career of Jim Olson, founder of Olson Kundig Architects and designer of [Whatcom's] Lightcatcher building." (Astute Houzzers may recognize the other half of Olson's firm; a book on Tom Kundig's residential architecture is the focus of another ideabook.)
Accompanying the exhibition is a book that is less a monograph of his significant projects and more an encapsulation of the ideas and influences spanning the first 50 years of his career. This ideabook delves into the book, and therefore into the words and images of Jim Olson.
Accompanying the exhibition is a book that is less a monograph of his significant projects and more an encapsulation of the ideas and influences spanning the first 50 years of his career. This ideabook delves into the book, and therefore into the words and images of Jim Olson.
The book's subtitle, "Art in Architecture," is carefully worded to get at a commonality in Olson's projects: They are containers for art, be they institutional or residential. In fact, most of the projects in the book are houses, and in some of those cases Olson worked with artists to craft special places and means of display for artworks.
The book is split into three sections — "Environment," "Art & Collecting" and "Creating Experience" — followed by an essay by journalist Ted Loos and a chronology of Olson's life and projects. The three main sections move from personal background and influences (pictured is Lake Sawyer, Washington, one such influence) to images of projects in which art and architecture fuse.
Running throughout are the words of Olson that describe the images yet also give a peek into how he thinks about space, experience, perception, the environment and other things.
Running throughout are the words of Olson that describe the images yet also give a peek into how he thinks about space, experience, perception, the environment and other things.
Even something as apparently simple as a painting on a wall (one by Walt Kuhn is on the right page shown here) is described in terms of how it works with the architecture: "Color, material, scale and composition weave this painting into the room."
The photo of Olson sketching on the frontispiece hints at the sketches that are found throughout the book. Most of them are project specific, such as perspectives and floor plans, but looser drawings are also found, such as these sketches of Mount Rainier.
Olson's sketches are clearly part of a larger process of figuring things out, articulating ideas through pencil marks on paper. He is not afraid of being a little messy, as this sketch atop a hardline drawing with plenty of correction fluid attests.
The project that makes up most of the "Art & Collecting" section is what the firm calls "An American Place." The house is designed around, in the company's words, "one of the nation’s premier collections of 20th century American art."
One of Gaston Lachaise's sculptures (seen on the left page shown here) is but one piece of art in the house, which also includes the Kuhn painting seen earlier. The sculpture is perfectly situated in front of an opening with full-height glazing, which accentuates its outline and lets it be seen from the outside. Olson refers to it in the book as such: "Each artwork is given its own space so it can be enjoyed without distraction. The architecture acts as a frame."
One of Gaston Lachaise's sculptures (seen on the left page shown here) is but one piece of art in the house, which also includes the Kuhn painting seen earlier. The sculpture is perfectly situated in front of an opening with full-height glazing, which accentuates its outline and lets it be seen from the outside. Olson refers to it in the book as such: "Each artwork is given its own space so it can be enjoyed without distraction. The architecture acts as a frame."
Ultimately Olson's views on art and architecture encompass the environment, such that the three are constantly interacting. That is most pronounced with outdoor art, as seen in the two faces facing each other at the end of the walkway. Olson says in the book, "The order of the architecture helps to direct our eyes toward the works of art and focus our attention on them."
In the "Creating Experience" section, the projects are less directly about the interaction about art and architecture, and more about seeing architecture as something artful. Pictured is the Northwoods House in Michigan, which Olson says "expresses my desire to create architecture that arouses delight in the same way that a sculpture does."
In an accompanying sketch, we hear Olson questioning if a house in snow country has to have a pitched roof, considering precedents in places as far away as Finland had flat roofs.
In an accompanying sketch, we hear Olson questioning if a house in snow country has to have a pitched roof, considering precedents in places as far away as Finland had flat roofs.
This last glimpse of the book is of the Cabo Residence in Baja, Mexico, where Olson is able to break down the distinction between inside and outside through a large sliding glass wall. Olson sees the opening of the interiors to the exteriors (weather permitting) as paradise, a sentiment that is probably shared by many, for openings like this give us an immediate connection to nature from the security of home.
As Olson describes it in the book, "This layered wall of translucent glass is a lantern at night — a beacon to the community. As a public gathering space, it cradles members of the community in a soft, glowing light."