Craig Ellwood: Remembering the Thin Man

Through previously unpublished drawings and photographs, coupled with correspondence between Craig Ellwood and Ernie Jacks, Craig Ellwood: Remembering The Thin Man seeks to illuminate a decades-long relationship between the two architects.

Following his tenure with Ellwood as a young man just out of the US Navy, Ernie Jacks went on to work for Edward Durell Stone. His surroundings in Fayetteville, Arkansas proved fertile ground to teach architecture alongside E. Fay Jones at the University of Arkansas, and manage his own architecture practice.

In the years following the conclusion of World War II, Craig Ellwood alongside other progressive architects in Southern California pushed for unique architectural solutions meeting the increased demands of home ownership in the postwar years. His early career was accelerated by producing three projects for Arts & Architecture -- designing Case Study House(s) 16, 17 and 18. His firm, and the size of projects they produced, grew from small private homes to large commercial, civic and educational buildings before closing in 1977.

The title of this book, based on Jacks’ unpublished manuscript, The Thin Man: Remembering Craig Ellwood written between 1999-2008 recalls as a lecturer at Yale University, when Ellwood was referred to as “The Thin Man” by the students in recognition of his persistent search for lightness in every design solution.