BRUBECK THORNE MODERN

Spend the weekend with Spy Vibe at Dave Brubeck's tree house. Fans of modern architecture will enjoy lounging in this cantilevered home in the Oakland Hills designed by Beverley David Thorne (1924-). Thorne is one of the last-surviving architects from the Case Study Project (1945-1966). He completed the Brubeck home in 1954, a geometric house in the sky that made elegant use of the natural hillside and surrounding rocks and trees. Thorne: "The bedrooms I designed were like monastic cells. They had to meet my established 8-feet by 8-feet modules. The reason for these strict dimensions had nothing to do with some spiritual leaning on my part or an architectural play on Dave’s terrific music. The dimensions simply matched the inexpensive, standard-sized building materials of that era. It was a cost decision" [Jazz Wax]. Thorne then designed a new house, famous for its large interior rocks, when the Brubecks moved to my hometown of Wilton, Connecticut in the 1960s. I recommend touring the photos below with the following period-albums by Dave Brubeck: Jazz at Oberlin (1953), Jazz Red Hot & Cool (1955), Dave Digs Disney (1957), Gone With the Wind (1959), Time Out (1959). 

Interviews with Beverley David Thorne and Dave Brubeck at Jazz Wax here and here. Oakland home photos here. Thorne overview here. Magazine images from Click America. Multiple exposure photo of the Dave Brubeck Quartet above by Eliot Elisofon, published in Life Magazine in 1954- the year Dave moved into his new 'tree house". More at NorCal Mod by Chronicle Books here. 

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