Description
Book SynopsisRobert Ernest was an architect of rare promise and remarkable early success, whose award-winning career was cut short by cancer at age 28 in 1962. Despite the brevity of Ernest’s life, his education and practice were intertwined with some of the most important figures in architecture, including his interactions with Louis I. Kahn and Paul Rudolph. Ernest’s exceptional architectural designs, though honoured during his lifetime with three Progressive Architecture Awards and one Record Houses Award, have never been documented in a comprehensive manner, and are now almost completely lost to disciplinary history. Yet the materials in the architect’s personal and professional archives — upon which this book is almost entirely based — clearly indicate that Ernest was a remarkably talented and unusually gifted architectural designer, whose future promise and potential were inestimable. Ernest’s two built works, both realised before he had turned 28, his one work built after his death, as well as the remarkably innovative unrealised projects documented in his archives, indicate that had Ernest lived to a normal lifespan, he would have without question been one of the most important architects of his generation, with the potential to design precedent-setting buildings equal to those realised by the most recognised architects in the 60 years after his death.
Table of ContentsForeword 7 Undergraduate School, European Travel, and Internship 9 University of Virginia 9 Internship at Burk, LeBreton, and Lamantia, Architects, New Orleans, Louisiana 21 Graduate School and Apprenticeship 31 Yale University, Master Class with Paul Rudolph 31 Apprenticeship at Mann and Harrover, Architects, Memphis, Tennessee 57 Architectural Practice 65 Robert Ernest, Architect, Jacksonville, Florida 65 Robert and Lynwood Ernest House and Studio, Atlantic Beach, Florida, 1960-61 68 Eli Becker House, Jacksonville, Florida, 1960-61 90 Bartram School Library Addition, Jacksonville, Florida (project) 113 Robert and Martha Read House, Jacksonville, Florida (project) 116 Albert Jr. and Donna Ernest House, Jacksonville, Florida (project) 120 Circusland Shopping Center, Tampa, Florida (project) 124 Harry and Helene Baker House, Jacksonville, Florida (project) 129 Second Baptist Church Renovation / Addition, Jacksonville Beach, Florida (project) 133 Apartment Tower, Jacksonville, Florida (project) 139 Municipal Youth Center, Jacksonville, Floridia, 1961-62 141 Legacy and Influence 155 Afterwords 163 Robert Broward 163 Carl Abbott 164 Donald Singer 165 Bibliography 166 Illustration Credits 167 Acknowledgments 169 Endnotes 171
