HENRY KLUMB

Born in Cologne, Germany in 1905, 'Heinrich Klumb' emigrated to discover the United States in 1927, at the age of 22, on the aptly-named steamship Columbus. An honors graduate of the Staatliche Bauschule School of Architecture in Cologne in 1926, his design education in Germany was heavily influenced by the Deutsche Werkbund school , a plastic arts program developed by German architect Herman Muthesius. He served as Frank Lloyd Wright's apprentice for 5 years at Taliesin North (Spring Green, Wisconsin) before setting off on his own, a risky proposition in the midsts of the Great Depression. While under Wright's wing, Klumb, who Americanized his first name to Henry, was intimately involved in the design of the construction camp at Ocatillo, Arizona, in which foreswore Wright's geometrics and chose to adapt the design to nature's irregular placement of boulders and cacti, helping develop what in the 1930s and -40's would come to be known as "Geo-Architecture". In August, 1931, while coordinating a Frank Lloyd Wright travelling exhibit throughout Europe, Klumb married Else Schmidt, his first and only wife, whom he brings to the states in November of that year, and with whom he has two children, Peter (born 1936), and Richard (born 1940). He became a US citizen in 1937.
After leaving in 1933 to satisfy what Wright described as his "wanderlust" , Henry Klumb helped design the New Deal town of Greenbelt, New Jersey, and he designed a major exhibition of Native American Art for the Golden Gate Exhibition in 1939 in San Francisco, where lived before relocating to Los Angeles in 1941. While there, he helped develop the city's master plan and collaborated with Richard Neutra in designing minimalist housing prototypes. He's responsible for the design of the Battaglia, Coty and Meador houses in Burbank, as well as the Plumb house in Los Angeles during that period.
Having met New Deal brain trust planner Rexford Tugwell in the late 1930s, he was invited to move to Puerto Rico in 1944 and collaborate in the design of the post-war modern Puerto Rico. A nomad for the first four decades of his life, he left Los Angeles on February 24, 1944, his 39th birthday and finally found a "home" in San Juan, Puerto Rico and devoted most of the rest of his life to building up Puerto Rico.
His most important work on the island, as sole architect of the University of Puerto Rico from 1946 to 1966, was to develop its main campus' master plan, as well as design many of its buildings. He also did design work for other emerging UPR campuses around the island. As a member of the Public Works Design Committee, he was responsible for the design of multiple government structures throughout Puerto Rico. His public sector work attracted many private commissions, including private residences, churches and commercial buildings.
As his level of work increased at The Office of Henry Klumb, as he names his firm, he started mentoring budding Puerto Rican architects. When that was not enough, he also recruited talented young professionals from the mainland (in fact, the current Senate President's surname arrived in Puerto Rico when Klumb recruited a recently graduated architect from the University of Texas, George McClintock, to join his firm). He also collaborated with budding Puerto Rican architects, such as the Toro & Ferrer partnership, on many projects.
Shortly after his arrival in Puerto Rico, Klumb also founded the ARKLU furniture factory, which produced distinctive tropical architecture, some of which were bought by the new Caribe Hilton Hotel and the Museum of Modern Art for exhibition.
In 1968, he established the Klumb Foundation.
In 1979, the American Institute of Architects selected him as its first "Fellow" from Puerto Rico.
In 1981, the Puerto Rico Architects Association establishes the annual Klumb Award, the first of which is awarded to him.
On November 20, 1984, he and his wife Else died in an automobile accident in San Juan, Puerto Rico
Among his more prominent designs for UPR are the Río Piedras Faculty Residences in 1946, the Río Piedras Agricultural Experimental Station, the UPR Museum of Anthropology, History and Art, the UPR General Library, the UPR Student Center in Río Piedras, the Agricultural Sciences Building in Mayagüez, the UPR Law School and the General Studies building, among others. He also designed the San Juan Municipal Public Works building and garages.
His private design commissions, include the New York Department Store in Santurce, Bayamón and Caguas, also the design of most of the campus of Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola its adjacent Church, the San Ignacio of Loyola Parish, the Puerto Rico International Airport in Isla Verde and the Caparra Country Club in Guaynabo, as well as work for several emerging pharmaceutical firms, including Eli Lilly, Parke-Davis, Baxter, Roche, Searle and Travenol. Many of Puerto Rico's most impressive private residences are Klumb designs.

Contents

Sources

Sources

★ KLUMB: An Architecture of Social Concern, edited by Enrique Vivoni Farage ISBN 0-8477-2754-8

★ 2006, UPR La Editorial, www.laeditorialupr.com

★ http://www.bib.upr.edu