A Colorful Life

Gere Kavanaugh, Designer

Louise Sandhaus, Kat Catmur

• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781616897628
• eBook ISBN: 9781616898199
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Artist Biographies

The designer Gere Kavanaugh is an irrepressible force of nature who epitomized the craft and folk vibe of the '60s and '70s California design scene and remains a larger-than-life personality today. Raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Kavanaugh became in 1952 only the third woman to earn a degree in Cranbrook Academy of Art's design program. After successful stints as one of GM's so-called Damsels of Design and as director of interiors for Victor Gruen's architecture and planning firm, she opened Gere Kavanaugh/Designs. There, Kavanaugh put her unique stamp on textiles, furniture, toys, graphics, store and restaurant interiors, holiday decor, housewares, and public art—even designing and curating exhibitions. But perhaps her most enduring project has been the joyful, open-ended, ongoing experiment of her own lifestyle and homes, a dream of color and handcraft. Kavanaugh was awarded the AIGA Medal in 2016, recognizing her "prodigious and polymathic approach to design."

gere kavanaugh/designs

POPPIES, CA. 1960s. Inspired by the Californian poppies that bloom every spring, Kavanaugh designed this pattern for C. W. Stockwell as both a fabric and a wallpaper. The yellow and orange colorway was used in the bedroom set in the 1968 film Rosemary’s Baby.

Excerpt from Architecture/West, mid-1960s.

Collaged photocopy of article by Shirley Plotkin, “California,” Women’s Wear Daily, Wednesday, January 6, 1965.

joseph magnin

The Joseph Magnin Company was a predominately California-based chain of high-end specialty stores founded in San Francisco and widely credited with cultivating the “California Cool” look of the 1960s. Kavanaugh put it best when she described the store’s customer for Women’s Wear Daily as “one who enjoys the bizaz type of living, who would rather indulge herself in the chic fun fashion than the chic chic (which often borders on the dowdy chic).” ¶ Kavanaugh began working with Joseph Magnin when she joined the Los Angeles office of Victor Gruen Associates in 1960. After less than a year with the firm, she was assigned by Rudi Baumfeld to design elements of this prized client’s revamp of their store located at Stockton and O’Farrell Streets in the heart of San Francisco. Kavanaugh traveled to the corporate offices and so impressed company executives Ellen Magnin Newman (Joseph Magnin’s granddaughter) and her husband, Walter Newman, that they requested Kavanaugh’s assistance with a nearby property at the corner of Montgomery and Bush Streets. ¶ Kavanaugh’s relationship with Joseph Magnin and the Newmans continued after she left Gruen in 1964 to establish her own firm, Gere Kavanaugh/Designs, in a studio she shared with her friend and former colleague Frank Gehry and his partner, Greg Walsh. When Gehry won the commission to design a new Joseph Magnin store for South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, California, he asked Kavanaugh to work with him on the store’s interiors, while their studio mate, graphic designer Deborah Sussman, created signage and other graphic elements. ¶ Kavanaugh designed interiors for eight Joseph Magnin stores across California, including three locations in San Francisco and one each in Mountain View, Santa Rosa, Sherman Oaks, Costa Mesa, and Topanga Canyon. Her program for each location was unique and comprehensive, encompassing everything from the overall color scheme to the materials, lighting, display fixtures, furnishings, carpets, and wall treatments.

Stockton & O’Farrell, San Francisco, 1960

Rudi Baumfeld’s black-and-white sketches for the remodeling of the second floor of Joseph Magnin’s main San Francisco location were brought to life by Kavanaugh’s brilliant eye for color.

Montgomery and Bush, San Francisco, 1960

Kavanaugh’s idea to adorn the facade of the Financial District store with blue Mexican glass tiles was considered outrageous. According to Ellen Magnin Newman, it took her father, Cyril Magnin, months of negotiation to convince city officials. However, once built, it was immediately clear that Kavanaugh’s idea had been brilliant—everyone knew exactly where to find the store.

Kavanaugh commissioned Ruth Asawa to create wire sculptures to hang inside the store...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Contents
• Introduction: A Life in Color! Louise Sandhaus
• Anecdote Suzanne Isken
• Anecdote Ken Smith
• Early Years
• Gere Kavanaugh/Designs
• Gere’s World
• Index
• Acknowledgments
• Credits
• Copyright