Jan Ruhtenberg
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jan Ruhtenberg (a.k.a. Alexander Gustaf Jan Ruhtenberg or Alexander Gustav Jan Ruhtenberg, born Alexander Gustaf Rutencrantz von Ruhtenberg, 28 February 1896 – died, December 1975) was an architect who "made significant contributions in introducing modern architecture to the United States as a teacher and a modern architect".[1]
Ruhtenberg was born in Riga, Latvia to Swedish parents.[2] He later attended a school in Saint Petersburg, Russia.[2]
Career
At age 32 Ruhtenberg moved to Berlin with his family after he received a scholarship to study at the Berliner Technische Hochschule.[2]
Ruhtenberg was involved in the Bauhaus movement in Germany, studying under Mies van der Rohe and working with Philip Johnson. In The International Style: Architecture Since 1922 Johnson acknowledges Ruhtenberg as one of two “kind friends” who have read and criticized draft texts.[3] In his biography of Philip Johnson, architectural historian Franz Schulze refers to Ruhtenberg as Johnson's new friend during the latter's travels in Germany in 1929. The two visited the Bauhaus in Dessau together. At the time Ruhtenberg was a public relations aide to designer Bruno Paul.[4] Johnson, working with Henry-Russell Hitchcock, was gathering material for The International Style: Architecture Since 1922. Ruhtenberg was traveling with them.[5]
Johnson and Hitchcock included Ruhtenberg’s 1930 Berlin apartment house interior among their illustrations of modern design.[3] In a September 1930 letter from Johnson to J. J. P. Oud, a Dutch modernist architect, Johnson calls Ruhtenberg his best friend, describing him as a beginning architecture student.[6] In 1931 Ruhtenberg and his two sons moved to Sweden, where he completed several architectural projects for the Swedish royal family.[2] At this time he also designed a modern summer house for the Palme family, which included the future Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme.[7]
Three years later, in another letter to Oud, Johnson mentions that he is building a house in Manhattan with his friend Jan Ruhtenberg.[8]
He was active in many areas of country such as New York City with both his architectural skills (the renovation of 57 East 93rd Street that was reviewed by Architectural Forum in 1937[9]); He is "credited" with the interior design of Nelson Rockefeller's Penthouse at 810 Fifth Avenue (62nd Street) by the New York Times;[10] and his opinions on the progressive housing movement which were recorded for the Library of Congress.[11]
He was a professor at Columbia University in New York City, where he was hired to teach the "new architecture" in 1934 by Joseph Hudnut.[12] That same year, he moved to the city with his sons, and he and Johnson broke off their partnership for unknown reasons.[2] In 1936 he left the position at Columbia.[2]
In 1938 and 1939, Ruhtenberg released furniture lines for Wanamaker and Herman Miller. Also in the late 1930s, Ruhtenberg and his sons relocated again, this time to Colorado Springs.[2]
Personal life
Ruhtenberg had three children with his first wife, Hanne Helmsing: his sons, Jan Thiel and Vessel, and his daughter, Cornelis.[13] Cornelis Ruhtenberg would later become an artist and painter in her own right. Helmsing and Ruhtenberg divorced in 1931.[13]
He married Polly King Ruhtenberg on August 4, 1935 in New York City.[14] The two later divorced in 1939 after King discovered that Ruhtenberg was having affairs with men.[2]
