Gerrit Rietveld, the Dutch modernist architect renowned for his iconic 1918 "Red Blue Chair," is also the designer behind approximately 100 houses, most of which are located in the Netherlands. Among these, a single residence in Oberlin, Ohio, stands out as a surprising and unique extension of his work outside Europe.
Rietveld’s architectural legacy is closely tied to the De Stijl movement, a Dutch artistic movement founded in 1917 that emphasized abstraction through geometric forms and primary colors, promoting a vision of universal harmony and a blurring of boundaries between fine art and applied design. Rietveld’s designs typically feature small, geometric houses with flat roofs, painted white with accents of red, blue, and yellow. His interiors often include built-in furniture and fixtures that integrate bold color and three-dimensional geometric patterns.
An exhibition titled “Gerrit Rietveld: Wealth of Sobriety” is currently on view at the Center for Architecture in Manhattan, showcasing 15 of his houses alongside 400 photographs taken by Dutch architectural photographer Arjan Bronkhorst, who documented Rietveld’s residences over two years. The photographs mix exterior and interior views, illustrating the architect’s use of lines, planes, and color, while highlighting the preservation of Rietveld’s original designs by current owners, many of whom are descendants of the original commissioners.
The Ohio house, the only Rietveld building in the United States, was commissioned in 1956 by Charles Percy Parkhurst, an Oberlin College art history professor and former Monuments Man involved in recovering art looted during World War II. Parkhurst encountered Rietveld while studying in Utrecht on a Fulbright grant and later built the house on his woodland property overlooking the Vermilion River. Due to cost concerns, Parkhurst made several modifications to the original plans, such as replacing steel window frames with wood, adding a sloped roof to aid drainage, and installing a spiral staircase. Rietveld never visited the house, as he was denied entry into the U.S. during the Cold War era amid suspicions of communist sympathies.
The house changed hands over the years, eventually becoming the weekend home of Jeffrey P. Squire, whose family made further alterations to improve its practicality, including expanding the kitchen and reconfiguring bedrooms. Squire has expressed no desire to restore the home fully to Rietveld’s original plans, citing its impracticalities and his wish to maintain the house as a personal living space.
Scholars note that while Rietveld’s furniture gained early recognition in the United States and champions like Donald Judd helped popularize his work, the existence of a Rietveld house in the U.S. remains little known among architects and historians. This discovery adds a new dimension to understanding Rietveld’s architectural reach and the ongoing influence of the De Stijl movement beyond Europe.