Bruce Alonzo Goff (June 8, 1904 – August 4, 1982) was an American
architect, distinguished by his organic, eclectic, and often flamboyant
designs for houses and other buildings in Oklahoma and elsewhere.Queer Places:
1732 S Yorktown Ave, Tulsa, OK 74104
Adah Robinson Studio, 1119 S Owasso Ave, Tulsa, OK 74120
Al A. Struckus House, 4510 Saltillo St, Woodland Hills, CA 91364
Ben Fitzgerald Realty Company Office Building, 121 W 9th St, Tyler, TX 75701
Boston Avenue United Methodist Church, 1301 S Boston Ave, Tulsa, OK 74119
Brady Hall, 105 W M.B. Brady St, Tulsa, OK 74103
Bruce Goff House and Studio, 1302 Roseland Blvd, Tyler, TX 75701
Bruce and Sue Plunkett House, 17148 Fountain Cir, Flint, TX 75762
C. A. Comer House, 1316 N Creek St, Dewey, OK 74029
Carson Avenue House, 1639 S Carson Ave, Tulsa, OK 74119
Celestine Barby House #1, 114 Avenue N, Beaver, OK 73932
Celestine Barby House #2, 711 N Camino de Fosforo, Tucson, AZ 85718
Charles Turzak House, 7059 N Olcott Ave, Chicago, IL 60631
Chester E. Rant House, 210 Wagner Rd, Northfield, IL 60093
Christ the King Church, 1520 S Rockford Ave, Tulsa, OK 74120
Consolidated Cut Stone Office Building, 1323 E 5th St, Tulsa, OK 74120
Crested Butte Ski Lodge, 33 Whetstone Rd, Crested Butte, CO 81225
Day Building, 512 S Boston Ave, Tulsa, OK 74103
Donald and Gercene Pollock House, 2400 NW 59th St, Oklahoma City, OK 73112
East Nineteenth Street House, 320 E 19th St, Tulsa, OK 74120
Frank Cole House, 910 Hastings St, Park Ridge, IL 60068
Fred Hansen House, S Utica St, Broken Arrow, OK 74011
Gene and Betty Taylor House, 173 Ward St, Seattle, WA 98109
George Elin House, 206 Wagner Rd, Northfield, IL 60093
George Way House, 3047 S. Peoria Avenue, Tulsa, OK 74105
Glen Mitchell House, 1905 Burr Pkwy, Dodge City, KS 67801
Guaranty Laundry, 2036 E 11th St, Tulsa, OK 74104
H.E. Ledbetter House, 701 W Brooks St, Norman, OK 73069
Hansen House, 2262 S Troost Ave, Tulsa, OK 74114
Helen Unseth House, 808 Park Plaine Ave, Park Ridge, IL 60068
Hopewell Baptist Church, 5801 NW 178 Edmond Ok 73012, Edmond, OK 73012
Howard and Lucille Jones House, 3411 Wildwood Ct, Bartlesville, OK 74006
Hugh Dalziel and Minna Duncan House, 2375 Wing Hill Rd, Cobden, IL 62920
Irma Bartman House, 8310 Johnson School Rd, Louisville, KY 40291
J.R. Akright House, 2412 Circle Dr, Bartlesville, OK 74006
Jacob and Anna Harder House, 207 8th St N, Mountain Lake, MN 56159
James and Betty Nicol House, 5305 Cherry St, Kansas City, MO 64110
John Garvey House, 2016 Burlison Dr, Urbana, IL 61801
John and Grace Lee Frank House, 1300 Luker Ln, Sapulpa, OK 74066
John Keys House, 911 W Timberdell Rd, Norman, OK 73072
John Quincy Adams House, 108 Fairmont Rd, Vinita, OK 74301
John Quincy and Jean Adams House #3, 310 S Brewer St, Vinita, OK 74301
Julius Cox House, 1300 N Cimarron Ave, Boise City, OK 73933
Karl and Glenna Youngstrom House, 236 Arapahoe Cir E, Lake Quivira, KS 66217
L. H. McCullough House, 2301 Farington Rd, Wichita Falls, TX 76308
Lake Village, Big Eddy Rd, Flint, TX 75762
Lake Village: House A-1, 17582 Indian Summer Ln, Flint, TX 75762
Lake Village: House A-2, 17588 Indian Summer Ln, Flint, TX 75762
Lake Village: House A-3 (Ted and Evelyn Sheldon House), 17573 Indian Summer Ln, Flint, TX 75762
Lake Village: House B (1973 Parade of Homes House), 17268 Half Moon Cir, Flint, TX 75762
Latham House, 221 E 21st St, Tulsa, OK 74114
Lawrence L. Hyde House, 5020 W 67th St, Prairie Village, KS 66208
Leonard A. Freeman House, 6565 Park Cir, Joplin, MO 64801
Lewis Wetzler Subdivision, 725 W Timberdell Rd, Norman, OK 73072
Liberty Federal Savings Bank, 232 S Main St, Stillwater, OK 74074
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036
Magyness House, 909 W Timberdell Rd, Norman, OK 73072
Marian and James Fitchette House, 1900 Saturn Ct, Bartlesville, OK 74006
McGregor House, 1401 S Quaker Ave, Tulsa, OK 74120
Midwest Equitable Meter Company Warehouse, 3200 Charles Page Blvd, Tulsa, OK 74127
Miller Brothers Service Station, Lynn Road, Pawhuska, OK 74056
Milton and Helen Gelbman House, 6970 Almours Dr, Jacksonville, FL 32217
Myron Bachman House, 1244 W Carmen Ave, Chicago, IL 60640
Oil Operator House, 1728 S Madison Ave, Tulsa, OK 74120
Paul Colmorgan House, 700 Echo Ln, Glenview, IL 60025
Paul and Jody Searing House, 7821 Fontana St, Prairie Village, KS 66208
Percy and Evaline Elliott House, 312 E 19th St, Tulsa, OK 74120
Pittsburgh Equitable Meter Company, 3130 Charles Page Blvd, Tulsa, OK 74127
Play Tower, Sooner Park, Bartlesville, OK 74006
Price Tower, 510 S Dewey Ave, Bartlesville, OK 74003
Redeemer Lutheran Church, 3700 Woodland Rd, Bartlesville, OK 74006
Richard Bennett House, 2841 Silver Lake Rd, Bartlesville, OK 74006
Riverside Studio, 1381 Riverside Dr, Tulsa, OK 74119
Robert G. Durst House, 323 Tynebrook Ln, Houston, TX 77024
Robert P. and JudyWhite House, 1525 Whiteway Ct, Bartlesville, OK 74006
Roger D. Corsaw House, 1210 Woodland Dr, Norman, OK 73072
Rolland Jacquart Studio, 700 S Inman St, Sublette, KS 67877
Rudd’s Brother Sewing and Knitting Center, 1444 Polk St, San Francisco, CA 94109
Russell L. Collins House, 3400 Wildwood Ct, Bartlesville, OK 74006
Ruth VanSickle and Sam Ford House, 404 S Edgelawn Dr, Aurora, IL 60506
Skelly Building, 23 W 4th St, Tulsa, OK 74103
South Madison Avenue House, 1712 S Madison Ave, Tulsa, OK 74120
Tulsa Club, 115 E 5th St, Tulsa, OK 74103
U.S Army Camp Parks, 1001-1133 12th St, Dublin, CA 94568
University of Oklahoma, 660 Parrington Oval, Norman, OK 73019
Vernon and Helen Marie Rudd House, 205 Cervantes Rd, Portola Valley, CA 94028
W.C., III, and E.A. Gryder House, 1212 Iola Rd, Ocean Springs, MS 39564
Watts Lyon House, 3418 Altura Ave, El Paso, TX 79930
William Dace House, 1228 Branch 3rd, Beaver, OK 73932
Woodland Hills Entrance, Woodland Hills Boulevard, Roland, OK 74954
Bruce Alonzo Goff (June 8, 1904 – August 4, 1982) was an American
architect, distinguished by his organic, eclectic, and often flamboyant
designs for houses and other buildings in Oklahoma and elsewhere.
A 1951 Life Magazine article stated that Goff was "one of the few US architects whom Frank Lloyd Wright considers creative...scorns houses that are ‘boxes with little holes."[1]
Born in Alton, Kansas, Goff was a child prodigy whose family moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1915. He was largely self-educated and displayed a great talent for drawing. His father apprenticed him at age twelve to the Tulsa architectural firm of Rush, Endacott and Rush. Goff's employers were impressed with his talent; they soon gave him responsibility for designing houses and small commercial projects. One of his earliest designs that was actually built was a house at 1732 South Yorktown Avenue in Tulsa's Yorktown Historical District; another was the 1920 McGregor House, at 1401 South Quaker Street in what is now known as the Cherry Street District. This house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. During this period, his work was heavily influenced through his correspondence with Wright and with Louis Sullivan, both of whom had encouraged him to practice architecture with Rush, Endacott and Rush instead of enrolling in Massachusetts Institute of Technology; they felt the formal education would stifle his creativity. Goff was made a firm partner in 1930.[2] He and his high-school art teacher Adah Robinson are co-credited with the design of Tulsa's Boston Avenue Methodist Church, one of the finest examples of Art Deco architecture in the United States.
In 1934 Goff moved to Chicago and began teaching part-time at the Academy of Fine Arts. He designed several Chicago-area residences and went to work for the manufacturer of "Vitrolite", an architectural sheet glass introduced during the 1930s. At the outbreak of World War II, Goff enlisted in the U.S. Navy, was assigned to the Naval Construction Branch ("Seabees"), and designed a number of military structures and residences during his service.[2] He also obtained a teaching position with the School of Architecture at the University of Oklahoma in 1942. Despite being largely self-taught, Goff was named chairman of the school in 1943.[3] This was his most productive period. In his private practice, Goff built a large number of residences in the American Midwest, developing his singular style of organic architecture that was client- and site-specific.
In 1955, Goff, who was homosexual, was accused of "endangering the morals of a minor", as homosexuality was not socially acceptable in Oklahoma in 1955.[4] As a result of the unproven claims, he was forced to resign from his position at the University of Oklahoma.[3] Historians and writers have expressed their belief that Goff was politically forced from his position specifically for being homosexual.[5][6]
In 1955, Goff relocated his studio to the Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, which had been designed by his mentor Frank Lloyd Wright. There he continued to produce novel designs, and also spent considerable time traveling and lecturing. Articles about his ideas and designs appeared frequently in professional magazines, such as Progressive Architecture, Art in America and Architectural Forum.[2] In 1960–1961 he had Arthur Dyson as an apprentice in his office.[7]
Goff's accumulated design portfolio of 500 projects (about one quarter of them built) demonstrates a restless, sped-up evolution through conventional styles and forms at a young age, through the Prairie Style of his heroes and correspondents Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan, then into original design. Finding inspiration in sources as varied as Antoni Gaudi, Balinese music, Claude Debussy, Japanese ukiyo-e prints, and seashells, Goff's mature work had no precedent and he has few heirs other than his former assistant, New Mexico architect Bart Prince, and former student, Herb Greene.[8] His contemporaries primarily followed tight functionalistic floorplans with flat roofs and no ornament. Goff's idiosyncratic floorplans, attention to spatial effect, and use of recycled and/or unconventional materials such as gilded zebrawood, cellophane strips, cake pans, glass cullet, Quonset Hut ribs, ashtrays, and white turkey feathers, challenge conventional distinctions between order and disorder.
A number of Goff's original designs are on display at the Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago.
In 2002 director Heinz Emigholz produced the documentary film Goff in the Desert which depicts 62 of Bruce Goff's buildings.[9] He also used imagery from this movie for the music video Celtic Ghosts of German band Kreidler.
My published books:
