Jewish Chronicle Layout - Architecture

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THE JEWISH CHRONICLE NOVEMBER 1, 2007

Style Serenity East

Chronicle photos by John West

Clockwise from top: Louis Kahn, architect of Serenity East; interior of Serenity East featuring Jay Good’s antique electric fan collection; exterior of Serenity East

Jewish homeowner restores house designed by Louis Kahn BY LEE CHOTTINER Executive Editor

After years in the corporate world, Jay Good was looking for a change — a challenge, actually. He found it in the woods of suburban Pittsburgh, not far from Fox Chapel. Good, 42, an artist and former professor at Carnegie Mellon University, is just about finished with a gray cinderblock and plaster cube house designed by famous architect Louis Kahn. It was built for a WQED public television executive. So a piece of architectural history in the Pittsburgh area that was designed by a Jewish architect has been brought back to life by a Jewish artist — sort of like an artistic double play combination. “I had just gone through seven years in the corporate world,” Good said. A neighbor of his told him about the house, which definitely showed signs of age — and bad taste — when Good first saw it. “Wallpaper everywhere,” he recalled. “And [bad] guts. All the electrical wiring needed to be done — all the plumbing. It looked [like] it had too many cooks in the kitchen.” But he knew he wanted it. “I always thought the house had good bones and good vibes,” he said. Plus, it was a great place for Good to show off his collection of antique electric fans. No, that’s not a typo. He has a collection of some of the most exotic elec-

tric fans, including one that also works as a space heater, all over his house — nearly 300 in all. “I only had a few fans when I moved in,” Good said, “but this house seemed to beg for them.” Based on the design of Kahn’s Esherick House in suburban Philadelphia, the cinder block residence, which sits on six acres of land, far removed from any suburban development, has no clearly defined front or rear entrance, and it has a massive I-beam “that can support a skyscraper” in the basement — far more support than a dwelling needs. Good has a theory to explain these quirks: Kahn was known more as a commercial architect, so that’s the way he built houses when such a commission came his way. Built in 1967 with large, geometrically positioned windows, the high-ceilinged living room, which can be seen from a second floor balcony, served as a projection room where the executive displayed his many Emmy Awards for his work at WQED and showed films against a bare white wall. Now, the room houses most of Good’s fan collection. Good tried to be true to the original floor plan of the house, to the point of contacting Kahn’s son, Nathanial, for his input. In the end, while the first floor was left intact, he took the second floor from four rooms down to three, creating a seamless master bedroom and bath and

a game room in the basement with a multicoat urethane floor. He used the dining room to show off a wide-ranging art collection, from a Roualt print, Asian art, (he shows very little of his own work even though he once had an exhibition at the Smithsonian) to paintings he “picked up at Goodwill.” He painted the exterior gray to make it blend in better with its natural surroundings. He also tried to make the house as environmentally friendly as possible, using reclaimed pine wood for some of his upstairs floors — he did most of the work himself — purchasing carbon-offsetting units and minimally using lighting and air conditioning. He prefers instead to rely on the windows and high white walls to light the house. He predicts the house will be carbon free within three years. Born Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky in Estonia, possibly in 1906, Kahn and his family immigrated to the United States because his father feared recall into the Russian army during the Russo-Japanese War. He was raised in Philadelphia, and his father changed their name in 1915. Kahn trained in the Beaux-Arts tradition, with its emphasis on drawing, at the University of Pennsylvania. From 1925 to 1926, he served as chief designer for the Sesquicentennial Exposition. The back-to-the-basics approach he adopted after visiting the ruins of ancient build-

ings in Italy, Greece and Egypt helped him to develop his own style of architecture influenced by earlier modern movements but not limited by their sometimes dogmatic ideologies. His influences led to projects such as the Salk Institute in La Jolla, Calif.; the Richards Research Laboratories at the University of Pennsylvania; Kimbel Art Museum in Ft. Worth, Texas; and the National Parliament Building of Bangladesh — which is considered to be Kahn’s masterpiece. Good comes by his love of architecture naturally. The son of Larry and the late Barbara Good of Wheeling, W.Va., (his father ran a chain of department stores while his mother was a singer and music soloist at Temple Shalom), his parents lived in a praire-style home designed by a protégé of Frank Lloyd Wright. His parents named their house Serenity Central; his sister’s home in Colorado is called Serenity West, so Good named his Serenity East. Good took a six-year sabbatical to work on Serenity East, though he now works as a consultant. But he considers the time he devoted to the house well spent. “I just thought it was the best house to show my eccentricities,” he said. (Lee Chottiner can be reached at [email protected].)