Built 68 years ago, the house pictured above was designed by “the young architect,” Vincent Kling.
The Main Line Times wrote, in 1953 –This home is known to architects as a “solar” house. Which means that is uses natural heat and light, i.e. the sun, to best possible advantage.
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According to Philadelphiabuildings.org – Vincent Kling, who would head the largest architectural practice in the Philadelphia region in the 1960s and 1970s and shaped much of downtown Philadelphia in the post-World War II era, was born and raised in East Orange, NJ. The son of a builder, Kling worked for his father’s construction firm in the summer during high school. He began his architectural training at Columbia University and earned his tuition through a variety of jobs during the lean years of the Depression when his father had little work. Kling was an outstanding student at Columbia, winning numerous prizes and completing a B.Arch. in 1940. This degree was followed by an M.Arch. from M.I.T. in 1941. Kling enlisted in the U.S. Navy after the attack at Pearl Harbor, and served as a pilot in the Atlantic fleet naval air force until the close of the war. Flying has remained one of Kling’s life-long interests: he was a licensed commercial pilot into the 1980s.
After the war, Kling returned to New York, where he entered the office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill as a designer. The corporate organization of the growing firm undoubtedly served as the model for the practice Kling would later build in Philadelphia. He left Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in 1946 to establish his own office.
Line House in Penn Valley, designed by Vincent Kling in 1954
Smith House in Gladwyne, designed by Vincent Kling in 1958
Curbed wrote in 2017, about the Smith House-One of the few residential works by the late Philly architect Vincent Kling was just awarded a Modernism in America Award by Docomomo, the American chapter of the international nonprofit committed to protecting and conserving modern architecture worldwide. Located in Gladwyne and designed by Vincent Kling in 1959, received a Citation of Merit award in recognition of its recent restoration that involved a large team of local designers, preservationists, and architects.
Harriton High School in Rosemont, designed by Vincent Kling, opened in 1958. The building as it appears here was demolished in 2009 and replaced by “The New” Harriton High School.
Photo Source Lower Merion Historical Society
Christ Chapel, Episcopal Academy in Merion, designed by Vincent Kling, opened in 1962. It is now part of St.Joseph’s University.
DeCurts Atlantic Station “Pyramid” on City Line Avenue, designed by Vincent Kling. It was built in 1964 and demolished in 1993.
Lower Merion Township Historic Preservation Planner, Greg Prichard writes at length about “The Pyramid of Petrol,” in HiddenCity.org.
The Philadelphia Daily News described it in December of 1964 –
The gleaming white structure forms a perfect equilateral triangle at the base, 93′ 9″ on each side. Below the roof level, most of the walls are glass. At night, indirectly concealed fluorescent lights illuminate the whole of the diamond grid roof, which is topped by a three-sided Atlantic sign, also indirectly lighted.
Photo Source Lower Merion Historical Society
Kevin Block, wrote in the website of the Philadelphia Chapter The Society of Architectural Historians –
The editors of Architectural Record and Progressive Architecture [in 1953], meanwhile, awarded Kling’s design national honors for transcending the merely functional requirements of a healthcare facility. To them, Lankenau was “real architecture.” Edmund Bacon, Philadelphia’s famous master planner, was so impressed by Kling’s model for Lankenau that after seeing it he invited Kling to work with him on Center City’s urban renewal. Lankenau was thus the beginning of Kling’s transformation from a young hospital architect into the owner of what would become Philadelphia’s most prominent corporate architecture firm.
Vincent Kling designed buildings in Center City Include:
Great buildings. Way ahead of his time.