Mid-Century Modern Iron Men

If you're traveling the roads of Southern California and see a guy driving a rust-colored '51 Chevy pickup with a copper-plated grill and bumpers sporting a green patina, chances are you've spotted iron man Jonny Emerick, heading out to meet a client.

Emerick, who's in the custom wrought-iron design and fabrication business as Emericks Ironworks, has been known to drive that Chevy to the Eichlers of Orange County, and to Long Beach to work on a project in a Cliff May home.

That green patina accompanies Jonny everywhere, as does his snazzy tattoo of architect Pierre Koenig's famous Stahl house.

“I patina'd all the copper [to be] green because…well, my truck's name is Penny,” says Jonny. “What actually inspired the color was a visit to the Samuel Navarro house by Lloyd Wright, Jr…I'm going to own that house some day!”

Jonny's father John launched Emericks Ironworks in 1999. Over the two decades that followed, John and Jonny, a big fan of architecture and design, have developed a flair for creating modern-style iron pieces for gates, fences, and sculptural art. Their motto? ‘The future belongs to those still willing to get their hands dirty.'

“I wanted to do more than just the standard stuff that you see everywhere,” says Jonny. “I wanted to build stuff that I liked, that people would walk by and remember, instead of something that looks like every other house.

“I kept turning down all kinds of jobs that didn't interest me, and one day my dad said to me, ‘They can't all be mid-century,' and I said, ‘Why not?'”

One project that Jonny is particularly proud of is a Mondrian-style gate that was designed for a mid-century home in Montclair. Instead of offering a flat, standard ‘cut-out' look that would typically be made using a CNC (Computerized Numerical Control) machine, “I asked the client if they wanted atomic starbursts, and if they were okay with having us create them from scratch. Those starbursts have so much depth, and the clients were stoked.”

Jonny's work often takes him to landmark homes, and to meetings with celebrity clients. He's done work for the owners of Gore Vidal's former Hollywood home, and regularly designs and builds for Property Brothers, the reality TV show. “I work with them a lot, and there's some fun stuff in the works.”