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86 64 just one semester, was made chairman of the School of Architecture at University of Oklahoma from 1947-1955. The architecture school became famous during his tenure attracting students from all continents. After 1955, Goff practiced in Bartlesville and later in Tyler, Texas. My essay "Organic Modern Vision" in PaperCity, December 2018, gives a personal view of Goff's design aesthetic and a few of his seminal works. Lesser known but also important were Herb Greene and our subject, Arthur Moss, both working on the coastal plains of Houston in the 1950s. Greene was a student and apprentice of Bruce Goff. While studying architecture at the University of Oklahoma, he also worked for John Lautner briefly in L.A. from 1950 to 1951. Greene told me during our recent interview that he thought Lautner was a true genius but work was slow, so Greene relocated to Houston, where he took a job with the architect Joseph Krakower. Greene designed several projects in Houston, including the Southwestern Bell Offices located in Midtown on Fannin Street in 1954 and the Lyne House built in 1957, now demolished. Although Greene and Moss did not know each other, their work represents an indigenous American style of individual creative freedom and organic abstract expressionism. ARTHUR MOSS, ARCHITECT Arthur Moss was the golden eldest son of Greek parents, early immigrants to Houston: Pete A. Mousouliotes (Moss) and Julia Lardis Moss. His mother's family arrived from the island of Ikaria in 1895; his father hailed from the island of Koroni, landing in Houston in 1912. The patriarch, Pete Moss, co-founded Houston's Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral (as one of its elders, he received a key to the church). A pillar of the city's burgeoning Greek business community, the senior Moss was an influential leader. He and Julia would have three sons: Arthur; Manuel, the middle child; and Philemon, the youngest. Arthur was born May 24, 1926, and graduated from Lamar High School in 1944 during World War II. As an ROTC cadet at the Agricultural & Mechanical College of Texas (Texas A&M University today), he studied architectural engineering. He graduated after the war ended and returned to his hometown in the late 1940s to begin his practice, whose calling card would be designing some of the most unusual buildings of the early mid-century period in the Houston area. Moss' first office was in his family's house at 2246 Glen Haven, a pleasant brick Tudor-style residence, still standing, in the Old Braeswood area of Houston, not far from Rice University and today's Texas Medical Center. Later, he moved to a storefront office in the Briargrove Shopping Center owned and developed by his youngest brother, Phil. Arthur was a big man at 6 foot, 3½ inches tall, and an in-demand escort known for high jinks and sporty ways. When he was an A&M cadet, he made quite an impression in a brand-new Cadillac. A recently discovered contact sheet and family albums from the home he designed for his brother and sister-in-law, Phil and Stacey Moss, show a dashing yet brooding gentleman of erect bearing. Even on a job site, climbing on a roof to inspect its workmanship, he wore an immaculately pressed suit. There was also, ominously, an ever-present cigarette in many of the images taken during construction of one of his most extraordinary creations, the DeLafosse House, slowly decaying today in San Leon, Texas. PEGGING THE PENGUIN Arthur Moss' imagination in design was a flow of individuality and free association using functional plans and unique structural devices. One of his first projects was the Penguin Arms Apartments, 1949-1950, which still stands at the corner of Kipling and Revere streets in Houston. The unique building was commissioned by a doctor as an exuberant investment property, and a photo of the completed apartment project appeared in the aforementioned February 1952 House & Home magazine. Once you see it, you will not forget it. The most prominent element of the Penguin Arms is its inverted triangular truss form, which constitute most of the north and south walls. Moss' use of the inverted truss may have been influenced by the widely publicized Weston Havens House in Berkeley, California, 1940, by architect Harwell Hamilton Harris. Harris, who lived and worked in California most of his life, was inspired as a young man by Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House. He worked for Richard Neutra and Rudolph Schindler, who both had in turn been in the office of Wright. Harris' Havens House is now owned by the College of Environmental Design, University of California Berkeley, and is available for tours. Moss' original plan for Penguin Arms was to have two one-bedroom units mirrored on either side of a central stair/ corridor on each of two levels. During construction, due to budget constraints, the plan was revised into an L-Shape, keeping the original four units on the Kipling Street side and stacking two two- bedroom units fronting Revere Street. The Penguin's roof and ceilings are flat with only the roof eaves angled to match THE MOST PROMINENT ELEMENT OF THE PENGUIN ARMS IS ITS INVERTED TRIANGULAR TRUSS FORM ... ONCE YOU SEE IT, YOU WILL NOT FORGET IT." –— Robert Morris Arthur Moss' Penguin Arms, 2902 Revere, Houston, designed when the architect was 23 years old. (continued on page 66)