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Tags: Biographies & Memoirs, Arts & Literature, Artists, Architects & Photographers,

Book Description:
A. Quincy Jones was a talented architect with a unique style but for whom the interests of community planning were more important than asserting his own individual aesthetic. Jones called the typical tract houses of the day "bumps along the road waiting for trees to grow", and his work on the pioneering Los Angeles development known as the Mutual Housing Association (1946-1950), the later Eichler Homes, and other residential developments helped to set the postwar standard for affordable, livable, aesthetically pleasing homes that looked and felt modern. Jones was one of the first American architects to experiment with unconventional structual systems: slip-form concrete, caste-in-place concrete beams and modular-based plywood. Beginning in the late 1940s, Jones established an architectual vocabulary that was to last him into the next decade: post-and-beam wood or steel structure, exposed concrete block, plate glass and redwood siding. Most of his buildings are still extant and, more impressively, still look fresh and appropriate more than 30 years later. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Jones moved to Los Angeles as a young boy in 1917. He studied architecture at the University of Washington in Seattle and returned to Los Angeles, working for two different architectural firms. After serving in the military during World War II, Jones returned again to Los Angeles in 1945 and opened his own practice that year, joining in partnership with Frederick E. Emmons from 1951 to 1969. As an influential educator, Jones served as dean of the architectual school at the University of Southern California in the late 1970s. He was also co-author with his partner Emmons of the 1957 book "Builder's Homes for Better Living", a highly influential professional guide. One of Jones's best-known projects is the Mutual Housing Association, a cooperative organization of returned servicemen who hired Jones to develop 800 homes in the Santa Monica Mountains in 1946. The designs, published in "Arts and Architecture" magazine, had a formative effect on Southern California housing and the development won the American Institute of Architects (AIAS) Award of merit in 1952. A. Quincy Jones and Frederick Emmons also participated in the Case Study Porgram as the only architects to submit a tract house proposal, Case Study House #24. While primarily known for his residential work, Jones also designed and built churches, commercial buildings, apartment buildings and university projects. His Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California is a wonder of concrete construction and features an energy-saving "air flow" system of heating and cooling first developed by Jones. This text analyzes the 65 major projects designed by A. Quincy Jones alone and in partnership with Frederick Emmons. The book is visually driven, showcasing a valuable collection of pristine vintage photographs of Jones's work taken by renowned architecture photographers including Julius Shulman, Hedrick Blessing, Ernest Braun and Marvin Rand. The book also includes approximately 30 rarely seen renderings, plans and intricate working drawings from the A. Quincy Jones archive at UCLA. Works are organized into sections by building type: each work is represented by a brief project description and several pages of photos and drawings.