Influences: Charles W. Moore

Urban Innovations Group staff, Los Angeles, 1987. Charles Moore is seated in front. That's me standing on the end at the left.

An earlier blog entry of mine, “Genealogy of Influence,” promised a series of posts about the architects and theorists who influenced my architectural world view. This is the latest post in the series.

I find it surprising, shocking even, that many students and younger architects today are unaware of the late Charles W. Moore (1925-1993). During his time, he was an enormously influential architect and teacher most often associated with the Postmodern movement in architecture. Moore truly enjoyed a worldwide reputation. His exuberant designs—including his own houses, Kresge College, the Sea Ranch Condominiums, Santa Barbara Faculty Club, Piazza d’Italia, Beverly Hills Civic Center, and Tegel Harbor in Berlin—are characterized by overt references to historical styles, vibrant color combinations, irony, and pop art. Perhaps more so than anyone excepting a handful of others (Robert Venturi, Michael Graves, AldoRossi, and Charles Jencks immediately come to mind), he was the face of Postmodern architecture. 

It’s no secret many architects have prioritized faddish imagery above the basic tenets of architecture. Postmodernism—a movement now derisively associated with misappropriation of historic motifs, deconstruction, and pastiche—was particularly vulnerable to commoditization as a series of vogueish styles. Predictably, the worst sins of its lesser practitioners quickly doomed “Po-Mo” to the aesthetic dustbin. The shame is the corresponding amnesia about Postmodernism’s importance, lasting influence, and rightful place in architectural history. Whether younger architects today are aware of the fact or not, the real legacy of Postmodernism is how it freed the profession from the cult-like orthodoxy of Modernism. 

Regardless of how most correlate the “style” with its more superficial expressions, Postmodernism fundamentally rebuilt the underpinnings of building and urban design. The movement restored time-honored principles to city planning and user-involvement to the design process. It welcomed variety and inclusiveness. It valued context, history, and the culture of cities. Postmodern architects directly responded to the impoverished polemics and asceticism of Modernism with a rich alternative. If we disavow Postmodernism, we risk forgetting its important lessons. 

In my mind, Charles Moore’s significance to architecture goes far beyond his standing as a leading Postmodernist. His contributions speak fundamentally to frames of reference outside of style alone, including architectural phenomenology, and how important the care, energies, and dreams of people are in contributing to a larger sense of place. His work, while too often overshadowed by its cheeky irreverence, is at once also thoughtful and multifaceted. He welcomed the input and enthusiasm of others, happily sharing the credit with his design partners for many of his most celebrated projects. 

In addition to his prominence as an architect, Charles Moore was a renowned and sought-after educator. He assumed teaching and leadership roles at a series of prestigious universities: Princeton, Cal, Yale, UCLA, and finally at the University of Texas, Austin. His successive academic appointments prompted the formation of numerous professional offices and associations to support his design work, including Moore, Lyndon, Turnbull, Whitaker (MLTW), Centerbrook Architects, Moore Ruble Yudell, Charles W. Moore Incorporated, Moore/Andersson, and the Urban Innovations Group (UIG). 



Piazza d'Italia, New Orleans (photo by Colros (Flickr photo) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)

It was through his association with the Urban Innovations Group and during my two-year tenure there during the mid-1980s that I worked with Charles (I’ll refer to him as Charles from here forward). UIG was the practice arm of UCLA’s Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Planning, analogous to a medical school’s teaching hospital. Founded in 1971, UIG operated for 23 years as a clinical training ground for faculty and student interns to work together with clients on real-world, commissioned designs. No doubt its heyday was during the 1970s and 1980s when Charles brought many significant projects to the office, including the Piazza d’Italia, Bunker Hill Redevelopment competition entry, New Orleans World’s Fair Wonderwall, Beverly Hills Civic Center, and Oceanside Civic Center. 

Although I was only in my mid-twenties and pursuing my post-professional graduate degree at the time, I was also recently licensed and, unexpectedly, among the more experienced and technically savvy members of UIG. Accordingly, I was thrust into the role of project manager on several commissions, and served as a project team member on others. In the former role, I had the good fortune to work almost exclusively with Charles on the design of the UC Irvine Extension Services Classrooms Addition.(1)  In the latter, I assisted the talented team who followed Charles’ lead to develop UIG’s competition-winning design for the Oceanside Civic Center.(2) I enjoyed the pleasure of seeing firsthand his methodology. As others have noted before me, he had an uncanny ability to leverage the efforts of his many collaborators in the service of creating recognizably Moore-ish design responses. That this was the case was not always because he insisted things needed to be a certain way, but rather because those around him were all too deferential and reticent to question his ideas. I know he most enjoyed working with those who weren’t afraid to push back and challenge him. 

I recall being surprised the first time I saw Charles. He wasn’t the robust looming presence I imagined he’d be. Instead, he appeared frail, shuffling as he walked, and more soft-spoken than I expected (albeit seldom averse to using colorful language). As I would learn, he didn’t always take the best care of himself. He suffered from diabetes, yet he traveled constantly, ate heartily, worked hard, slept erratically, and exercised little. Before completing his nearby condominium, he maintained an apartment directly above UIG’s office, primarily as a place to drop his bags and crash. He was a lifelong bachelor; I suspect the notion of a settled existence held little appeal for him. Ultimately, he would succumb to a heart attack at the relatively young age of 68. 

Those who worked with Charles learned to adapt to his unpredictable schedule. He was constantly on the go. Time with him was precious, so much so that his two Los Angeles-area offices—UIG and Moore Ruble Yudell—would actively compete for his attention. This competition extended to being the first to snatch him up at the airport after each of his many trips across the country and abroad. On one occasion, this meant bringing him back to UIG literally in the middle of the night for design sessions with our staff; I suspect this wasn’t the first and last time this occurred. The people closest to Charles (in particular UIG’s stalwart office manager, Marilyn Zuber) did what they could to shield him from distractions and simplify his life. 

UC Irvine Extension Services Classrooms Addition (background). Photo by Jane Lidz.

He did place a lot of faith in those assigned to carry his design concepts forward. For the UC Irvine Extension Services Classrooms Addition, Charles left me with little more than conceptual sketches to work from and a 20-minute pep talk. He and UIG previously completed the neighboring Extension Facility & Alumni House in a vaguely Italianate style, so I did have that to refer to; nonetheless, I struggled to carry the design forward. The project was already well into construction documentation before he would sit down with me to look at it again. Not surprisingly, he had a raft of proposed design refinements. The trim framing the main arch needed to be more generously proportioned, the pitch of the pyramidal roof over the tower needed to be steeper, and so on. Of course, every one of his suggestions was perfectly sensible, so I dutifully proceeded to make the necessary 11th hour changes. Despite my efforts, I doubt Charles looked back upon the project as a career high point. 

Oceanside Civic Center: model for competition entry (my photo).

The design process for the Oceanside Civic Center competition entry was an entirely different matter. From the beginning, he devoted considerable effort to the project. He enlisted his most-trusted UIG team members to work with him on the design. My involvement was peripheral, mostly limited to assistance on the final presentation models and renderings. Nevertheless, it was exhilarating to be part of the team and witness the design take shape. As his MLTW partner Don Lyndon once noted, at his best Charles never demurred. He would adopt, one-up, or fight with “whimsical bitterness each design move ventured, in a swirling cloud of proposals and counterproposals that surround the drafting table.” Charles believed the process of design was its most potent when it most resembled play, and you either played with him or you missed out on a lot of fun and discovery together. 

Charles surprised me again during the presentation of the Civic Center design to the competition jury. He seemed an awkward public speaker, which was ironic because he was entirely comfortable holding court among his friends and colleagues, and because he was such an accomplished and prolific writer. He co-authored several books I proudly own and consider especially formative and important. These include The Place of Houses (with Donlyn Lyndon and Gerald Allen), Dimensions (with Gerald Allen), Body, Memory and Architecture (with Kent Bloomer), and Chambers for a Memory Palace (with Donlyn Lyndon). The fact he leaned on longtime collaborators like Lyndon, Allen, and Bloomer is entirely consistent with how he practiced architecture. 

Oceanside Civic Center (Photo by Visitor7 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)

I cannot overstate the magnitude of Charles Moore’s impact upon architecture during his lifetime. His surviving “family” extends well beyond the bounds of geography, generations, and style, regardless of his association with Postmodernism. His career had many threads, connecting disparate generations of architects, including his ties while at Princeton with RobertVenturi, Louis Kahn (for whom he taught while a graduate assistant) and Jean Labatut. He would also meet future University of Oregon faculty members Bob Harris, Bill Gilland, and Bill Kleinsasser there. His later teaching assignments expanded his influence and acceptance of his approach to architecture. Many of his students—including Billie Tsien, Brian MacKay-Lyons, Peter Rose, and Turner Brooks—would achieve distinction in their own right. 

Charles left his mark in Oregon too: He worked with Lawrence Halprin on Lovejoy Fountain Park in Portland, and later the University of Oregon Science Complex (with Ratcliff Architects) here in Eugene. 

It’s hard for me to believe so much time has gone by already since Charles died. It’s equally amazing to realize how much he contributed to the shaping of architectural thinking since the 1960s. Today’s aesthetic and philosophical plurality is attributable in no small part to his efforts. He remains today the only American architect to be awarded the AIA Gold Medal, the Topaz Medallion (which recognizes achievement in teaching and scholarship), an AIA 25-Year Award (for the Sea Ranch Condominiums), as well as two AIA Firm of the Year Awards (one with Centerbrook Architects & Planners and a second with Moore Ruble Yudell). It was my distinct privilege to directly work with one of the great architects of the 20th century.  

(1)  The Extension Classroom building was an addition to a group of buildings designed by UIG. Four small classrooms for the instruction of English as a second language occupy a single-story wing of the building, while ESL faculty offices occupy a two-story portion; the two share a covered porch. The offices straddle a heavily used pedestrian path, forming an arch that announces entry to the Extension Facility/Alumni House “village.”

(2)  The Oceanside Civic Center is comprised of city offices, a council chamber, public library, community rooms, and a fire station on a three-block, five acre site in Oceanside’s downtown redevelopment district. The site incorporated two existing buildings designed by Irving Gill, part of his master plan for a much smaller civic center on the site. The design is organized around a series of outdoor courtyards and plazas, each a fiesta of stairs, ramps, flowers, trees, colorful tiles, and water features that contrast with the plain white walls of most of the structure.