A
n artist harvests his imagination again and again on a journey to delight his patrons, continuously cultivating creative thoughts and manifesting them into real objects that are ultimately perfect for a space. For John Vugrin, this process of transforming his inner thoughts into design has been his life’s work, and today he continues to create the new, with objects never before seen and a partner he never saw coming.
Vugrin’s furniture pieces are more art than design, inspired by forms in nature and echoing the likes of spines, wings, shells and other animal-like structures. Vugrin is admired in the world of organic architecture for his ability to execute highly complex sculptural stone structures that few artisans can build. He’s an original, and his legacy will be as a modern master.
The artist’s work is synonymous with the construction of the Kellogg Doolittle House, an architecturally enviable organic desert design in Joshua Tree. In a place where wind, stone and silence shape the land, it has become known as one of the most extraordinary homes in America.
The Kellogg Doolittle House is a feat of architectural imagination. Rising from a boulder-strewn hillside, its 26 petal-shaped concrete columns curve upward like a fossilized bloom. Glass walls weave between the structure and the granite outcroppings, dissolving the boundary between building and landscape. Brutalist in material yet organic in spirit, the house feels less constructed than grown from the desert itself.
Designed by Kendrick Bangs Kellogg for his clients, Bev and Jay Doolittle, both artists, the home would be storied for its 20-year construction. Vugrin would ultimately move to the property to work full-time designing and hand-building doors, lighting, and furniture, and working with all the stone, bronze and metalwork.
Construction began in 1988, and Vugrin joined the project in 1994, when the structure was still a rebar skeleton. His collaboration with Kellogg, however, stretched back decades. The two first met at a crafts exhibition in the late 1970s, where Kellogg discovered Vugrin’s furniture work and immediately recognized a kindred creative spirit.
By the time he arrived in Joshua Tree, Vugrin had already overseen construction of another Kellogg project in Japan. At the Kellogg Doolittle site, he ran a crew of up to 18 craftspeople, operating from a makeshift workshop assembled on the house steps.
“I would leave San Diego at one in the morning Monday,” Vugrin remembers. “Work until eight Thursday night, drive home, gather supplies Friday, and start again.”
It was a rhythm he maintained for years.
“The Doolittles gave Ken and me carte blanche,” Vugrin recalls. “They were artists themselves. They understood that real work takes time.”
We see his design vision outside in bone-like fencing and an expansive driveway that winds up the hill, where every uncut stone is painstakingly placed. Stone flows into architecture, architecture flows into landscape, and the boundary between inside and outside quietly disappears. Collaborating with Kellogg, he crafted custom railings, doors, hardware, lighting, everything.
Inside, his fanciful imagination shaped interiors inspired by fossils and insects, infusing the home with a sense of life and movement. Every chair, table, staircase and decorative lighting fixture was designed, fabricated and installed by Vugrin, blending metal, wood, glass, stone, and marble into forms that infused the home with soul.
The beloved project extended beyond the initial scope, with the Doolittles commissioning Vugrin to stay on for what ultimately totaled a three-decade commitment, start to finish.
Even after living in Italy and France, he continued designing new pieces for the Doolittles, returning each year to install the work and take new measurements. During his time in Carrara, Italy, marble began to appear more prominently in furnishings, adding additional inspiration and nuance to the evolving interior.
The hallmark of Vugrin’s work is patience. Every surface carries the mark of human
hands.
Together, Kellogg and Vugrin created what art historians call a gesamtkunstwerk—a total work of art in which architecture, interiors, furnishings and environment become inseparable.
“The Kellogg Doolittle House is like looking at a painting or listening to jazz” -Vugrin
When the Doolittles sold the home in 2014, Vugrin remained connected, completing projects for subsequent owners while continuing to develop his furniture practice from his base in Yucca Valley.
“The Kellogg Doolittle House is like looking at a painting or listening to jazz,” Vugrin mused when reflecting on the project. “I hope that feeling comes through. I think this house will be here forever.”
Today, the home garners the attention and admiration of designers, architects and aficionados alike. Getting a glimpse of the house, inside and out, has become a sought-after experience, one to which very few have access.
As fate would have it, access to this estate would launch Vugrin 3.0 and a new friendship.
During Modernism Week in Palm Springs, Moya O’Neill, a designer, artist and founder of Moya Living, was touring the Lautner Compound in Desert Hot Springs when one of the homeowners, Ryan Trowbridge, mentioned that the Kellogg Doolittle House would be open for a limited tour that season, with tickets priced at $1,200. O’Neill laughed.
“Who would pay that?” she asked incredulously.
Trowbridge smiled, pointed directly at her, and replied, “You would.”
Though the tour sold out before she could secure tickets, the remark sparked a fascination that would soon turn into a true obsession. She would get into this house.
Collaborating with Estate Partners Orange County, she would gain access to that house through an event the group produced later that year. It was there she first met Vugrin, a moment she describes as a transformative destiny.
O’Neill was moved and thoroughly impressed by the scale and finesse of Vugrin’s work, often describing him as a present-day Michelangelo.
The two quickly established a strong friendship. O’Neill felt compelled to
document the scale and importance of Vugrin’s work as an artist in his own right.
Working with photographer Greg Sims, O’Neill captured exquisite images of Vugrin’s work and contributions, providing a glimpse of the commitment, excellence, creativity and skill evident in every facet of his work. A book is in the making, Vugrin is still designing, and a partnership is launching.
Today, Moya Living represents Vugrin, showcasing his newest furniture pieces and making his work available to collectors and the public for the first time at North End Design in Laguna Beach.
“In my 40 years of appreciating the best work in design, the opportunity to champion this visionary creative has become purposeful for me. It’s exciting. The world should see this,” O’Neill says. “We are honored to bring his work forward so that others can experience what the Doolittles had the good fortune to experience in their daily lives. A modern master indeed.”
(North End Design is located in Laguna Beach, California, at 345 North Coast Hwy.)
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