Biography
Craig Ellwood

Craig Ellwood was born in Clarendon, Texas in 1922. Ellwood worked for a construction company in Los Angeles as a building cost estimator while he took night classes at the University of California at Los Angeles Extension Division. One year before completing his studies he established Craig Ellwood Associates in Los Angeles.

Craig Ellwood learned about building in steel and plastic sheet before he studied architectural theory. This gave him an understanding of steel construction that his contemporaries from architectural schools rarely acquired. Ellwood's designs incorporated the use of steel with thoughtful detailing and craftsmanship. He developed the trademark structural device of an exposed warren truss that used small members to span big distances.

In the 1960s, Ellwood was highly influenced by the simple architecture of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. However, Ellwood was closer aesthetically to the light-steel cages of Charles Eames than to the structural formalism of Mies van der Rohe.

Hale House

Location Beverly Hills, California
Date 1949

Hale House Commentary
"In 1949, the Hale House in Beverly Hills, California, immediately showed Ellwood's approach to architecture. Slender 4-inch 'H' columns were rigidly connected to 4- by 10-inch wood beams (although a complete steel frame was considered, economy necessitated the partial use of wood). Non-structural, infilling panels of glass, and stud walls that stopped clear of the roof deck at the under side of ceiling beams, created a feeling of lightness and openness in a relatively small volume. The structure was exposed throughout the house, and like the entry-stair, was painted rust-primer red."

-from Paul Heyer. Architects on Architecture: New Directions in America. p148.

The Creator's Words

"Structure is the only clear principle. Form is valid only when it is shaped by structure and possibly characterized by function, region, culture and climate. Structure does not necessarily mean region, culture and climate. Structure does not necessarily mean the steel or concrete cage. The three basic elements of construction are solid bodies, slender members and stressed surfaces. The architect has a choice which can lead to vastly different forms, each with structural integrity and clarity....

"Discipline is the key word. There must be something beyond arbitrary decision, some underlying force that motivates the forms of architecture. The moment that form becomes arbitrary, novel or stylish, it becomes something other than true architecture. Form must express logic, meaning and rationality, yet it cannot exist by itself; structure through technology is the only means to valid form.... only through structure can we create new architecture....

"What do we seek? What are our goals? If we are truthful about it, self-aggrandizement is too often the prime aim, and unfortunately, a natural ambition. Creativity cannot evolve without ego, but also it cannot evolve without order. Order is basic, there can be no freedom without it. Whether we like it or not, in our economy this order is bound to the machine and governed by it. Mechanization is here and we have helped to promulgate it. The craftsman is disappearing and we have helped to stifle him. Our economy dictates that machine products and machine techniques be the essence of our buildings. We cannot retrogress to handicraft methods or to forms that repudiate, or are incompatible with, methods of machine building...."