John Yeon (1910–94) might be the most important architect you’ve never heard of. He was self-taught and produced a small body of work, completing only 18 of the 65 buildings he designed. He wasn’t even licensed. Yet he developed a distinctive style of regional modernism, featuring a planar simplicity and use of local materials, techniques, and vernacular forms, that responded to the Pacific Northwest climate.
The work can now be appreciated through an excellent monograph published to coincide with a retrospective, Quest for Beauty: The Architecture, Landscapes and Collections of John Yeon, held at the Portland Art Museum from May 13 to September 3. Randy Gragg, editor of the monograph and executive director of the John Yeon Center for Architecture and Landscape at the University of Oregon, was a cocurator.
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