Comments on: Architect Feature: John Yeon http://modernhomesportland.com/2009/08/06/architect-feature-john-yeon/ Just another Real Estate IDX Sites weblog Tue, 07 Sep 2010 10:22:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Marisa http://modernhomesportland.com/2009/08/06/architect-feature-john-yeon/comment-page-1/#comment-46 Marisa Tue, 30 Mar 2010 18:40:13 +0000 http://modernhomesportland.com/?p=112#comment-46 Hi Richard, I feel honored that you have left a comment on my blog and appreciate the clarifications, thanks. If you ever have time, I would love to meet with and interview you. Hi Richard, I feel honored that you have left a comment on my blog and appreciate the clarifications, thanks. If you ever have time, I would love to meet with and interview you.

]]> By: Richard Louis Brown http://modernhomesportland.com/2009/08/06/architect-feature-john-yeon/comment-page-1/#comment-45 Richard Louis Brown Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:53:53 +0000 http://modernhomesportland.com/?p=112#comment-45 This contains several bits of misinformation. Yeon was office boy in the firm of Herman Brookman at age 14 and 15. Later, at age 26, he had a very brief (and uncomfortable) stint of about three months in the A. E. Doyle office during the production of working drawings for the Watzek House, which he had designed on his own. (A more extensive history is included in Yeon's interview for the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, 1982-83, and in Meredith Clausen's book on Pietro Belluschi, MIT Press, 1994.) Timberline Lodge was not designed by the A. E. Doyle office, nor did Yeon have anything to do with the lodge as it was built. On his own, he proposed a lodge for Timberline and built a model (which still exists) but it was in a Modernist style and sited differently from the lodge as built. He did have a minor role in the design of the lobby of Doyle's Public Service building in downtown Portland, but did not work on other "prestigious projects" of the Doyle office, and the implication that his career developed under Belluschi is erroneous. He was, for virtually his entire design career, completely independent. From an early age, Yeon was a tireless advocate for parks and city planning, historic preservation, and landscape preservation--but he was never a professional lobbyist. He was 21 when he purchased Chapman Point. It is a stretch to say that the point was going to be the site of a dance hall, although the property was for sale, and a dance hall had been mentioned as a possibility. At the time, he hoped that the state parks would eventually be able to buy the point and add it to Ecola State Park, but he ended up protecting it for the rest of his life. After his death, in 1994, his coastal property was sold, with the stipulation that the point would be added to the park. This contains several bits of misinformation. Yeon was office boy in the firm of Herman Brookman at age 14 and 15. Later, at age 26, he had a very brief (and uncomfortable) stint of about three months in the A. E. Doyle office during the production of working drawings for the Watzek House, which he had designed on his own. (A more extensive history is included in Yeon’s interview for the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, 1982-83, and in Meredith Clausen’s book on Pietro Belluschi, MIT Press, 1994.) Timberline Lodge was not designed by the A. E. Doyle office, nor did Yeon have anything to do with the lodge as it was built. On his own, he proposed a lodge for Timberline and built a model (which still exists) but it was in a Modernist style and sited differently from the lodge as built. He did have a minor role in the design of the lobby of Doyle’s Public Service building in downtown Portland, but did not work on other “prestigious projects” of the Doyle office, and the implication that his career developed under Belluschi is erroneous. He was, for virtually his entire design career, completely independent.

From an early age, Yeon was a tireless advocate for parks and city planning, historic preservation, and landscape preservation–but he was never a professional lobbyist. He was 21 when he purchased Chapman Point. It is a stretch to say that the point was going to be the site of a dance hall, although the property was for sale, and a dance hall had been mentioned as a possibility. At the time, he hoped that the state parks would eventually be able to buy the point and add it to Ecola State Park, but he ended up protecting it for the rest of his life. After his death, in 1994, his coastal property was sold, with the stipulation that the point would be added to the park.

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