Frank Lloyd Wright

JSA330
thanks for that info on Calatrava. That bridge is going to be awesome when its done.

I'm loving all these pictures guys keep the coming!

 

I've lost touch with recent news on that project...my own fault for not taking the newspaper any more. Actually, there were supposed to be two or three bridges, and I know there was some heavy debate a few years ago about very large cost estimate increases. I guess it's on the table for now...no related bond issues or other public referendums have come up.

When I find out more, I'll post.

 

The house you're probably remembering is the Aline Barnsdall House, better known as Hollyhock House, out in LA. Here's a shot of the fireplace.

Another home you might consider are Wright's Dana Thomas House in Springfield, IL, which has an interior water feature analagous to a fireplace, but instead it's a pool in a sitting area. I believe he also designed a fairly luxurious house in Mexico with an iterior waterfall / pool feature in the place of a fireplace, with the thought that it would help cool the air of the house, but this house was never built.
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It's my pleasure, Jon.

On every One Lap, we like to add a little culture to the experience, so it becomes our own FLLW road trip.

In 2005, we stopped to see the Buffalo houses.

In 2006, we stopped to see the DeRhodes house in South Bend, as well as the Robie house.

For 2007, I'm looking forward to seeing the Price Tower, among other buildings.

 

I first learned of Mr. Wright when I visited Fallingwater on my honeymoon back in 1984. I was so overwhelmed that I took to reading as much and visiting as many Wright structures as I could, and my kids have grown up fully expecting vacations to include side trips of a hundred miles or more to visit a building (or, often, a private driveway retreating into the bushes, with no structure in sight). Consequently, my family and I have seen between 200 to 300 of his structures. This obsession with design led eventually to my having purchased a house by one of his apprentices, Benjamin Dombar, with many similarities to Mr. Wright's solar hemicycle, designed for Herbert and Katherine Jacobs. It is fair to say that owning this house, while bringing me lots of happiness, has also limited the pinnacle of my car ownership (thus far!) to my 1989 328 GTS, but no complaints there!

In terms of reference material that has guided me to many of the Wright structures, Allen Storrer has written several books that detail all extant structures, organized by zip code and street address. Further, he has a companion volume showing maps of how to get to the many houses. Now, the maps aren't to scale, and a good road atlas is nearly essential for this, but it eventually gets you there.

Happy house hunting. No surprise that people who appreciate modern design in one form might also enjoy it in another.

 

Thanks Ken.

Just one more place I have to visit.

http://www.hollyhockhouse.net/

 

Awesome Ken! Well done. I no longer feel guilty for driving hundreds of miles just to see a building

 

On my way through Iowa about a year ago, I accidentally took a wrong turn and came across the Lowell Walter House. I knew it was in Iowa, but didn't know when I'd get to see it. I was in a hurry to get home and didn't plan to seek it out, but, seeing the exit, I figured it was fate, and went to see it. The Hanna House pictures reminded me of this house because of the piano. In the case of the Walter House, it is a Steinway B (as I recall), in walnut to match the wood of the house, and here's the part that gave me a kick: Supposedly Mr. Wright had its legs shortened because it was blocking the view!
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Here's a pic and the link.

http://www.dana-thomas.org/
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A well known Los Angeles house by Wright....
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Awesome...simply awesome.

Nice period cars in the carport, too.

Jon, do you or any other FLW enthusiasts here know about a Wright house built in Wichita, Kansas, probably 1920-ish?

 

Jon - the name of that LA Wright house? I really need to find more pictures.

Scott - do you mean the Allen-Lambe House (1918)?

http://home.onemain.com/~allenlam/

 

Scott - are you looking for the Allen-Lambe House?

Jon
From the net:
"The residential structure located at 255 N. Roosevelt, Wichita, Ks. was designed for the prominent journalist and Statesman Henry J. Allen and his wife Elsie J. Nuzman Allen, who was active in local art organizations. The design concepts date from 1915 and the House was occupied in 1918. The Allens continued to live in the house until late 1947. The House, that Frank Lloyd Wright considered "among my best," is considered the last of the Prairie Houses. Stylistic exterior features include a horizontal carthage marble "water table" as a transition design element between the prairie floor and the house, raked horizonal brick joints and flush head joints, expansive clay tile roof with emphasis on horizonal lines and a unique ridge, hip ridge and lower starting course with a Japanese flavor.

Interior features include the continuity of the exterior brick which is a blend of ocher and tan colors with all horizontal joints gilded. This detail was only used elsewhere at the Martin House in Buffalo, New York and the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. The living and dining room wrap around a sunken garden with a large water garden. The other two sides of the garden are defined by a garden house and wall capped by large concrete vases.

The quarry tile terrace extends into the living room and dining with access from both rooms through glass doors to the terrace. This continuity of floor material along with the brick, plaster colors, etc., establishes a strong indoor/outdoor design relationship."

http://home.onemain.com/~allenlam/hist.html

PS: a list claiming to have all of Wright's buildings can be found at: http://architecture.about.com/library/bl-wright-list.htm
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Joev, This is the George D. Sturges House. Google reveals few photos but you can get some info here: http://www.planetclaire.org/fllw/bhs.html

Jon

PS: love the design but wow..... can you imagine living there through an earthquake? ;(

 

Hey, it's made it so far ... let's keep the fingers crossed.

Perhaps Mr. Wright's most famous earthquake episode is in regards to the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo (now demolished), which survived a tremendous earthquake (8.3 magnitude, in 1923, if I recall correctly). Mr. Wright allegedly sent himself a congratulatory telegram supposedly from people on-site at the time. If true, it would be consistent with his reputation for self-promotion.

Also, his Hanna House in Palo Alto (also known as the Honeycomb House, with photos earlier in this thread) was reported to have sustained substantial damage during the 1989 earthquake, but I've heard it's subsequently been restored.

 

Ken - fair point about the Imperial hotel, but I don't think that it had big cantilevers or a slope to contend with......

Yess, the Hanna house was seriously damaged. Of course it also needed a lot of maintenance too. It has been restored and is looking great now.

Jon

 

Joe and Jon..you both hit it...that's the one.

My wife was born and grew up in Wichita; we were married here in Dallas in fall 1979 and in spring 1980 made the big trip up there to visit all of her family. She told me that there was a house in Wichita that was designed by Wright and we drove by and took a good look...it was unmistakable FLW and an outstanding example of his work, but I never researched it further to find the name of the client, etc.

She also told me that her maternal grandfather, who was a young banker at the time, was involved in the financing work on this house; and that her paternal grandfather, who was in the architectural sheetmetal business, did much of the copper and other metal work on it.

Really appreciate the info. That would be a good 330GT trip to plan for this fall...up to Wichita, tour the house, maybe drop in on a couple of Gayle's cousins.

PS: I just read the history of the Allen-Lambe house Museum Foundation, and now it all makes sense...they took over this house in 1990 and have repaired and maintained it; when we drove by in 1980 it was in a state of some disrepair.

 

Cool!

 

Interesting story concerning a small 900 square foot cottage by Frank Lloyd Wright circa 1958 at http://www.sethpeterson.org/ also page 86 Architectural Digest Feb. 1993 Vol 50, No2.
Great to see that it is open to the public.

 

T. West fascinating. If the extended tour is available take it. Lots of other FLW work in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area if you know where to look. The Currier Museum in NH maintains a FLW house and provides tours, What they don't tell you (out of respect for the current owners) is that there is a second FLW on the same street.
The best catalog of his work that I know is The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion by William Allin Storer published by the University of Chicago Press. It lists all his (built and unbuilt) designs.
If you've ever wanted to stay in an FLW building there is one in Wisc. available for weekends and vacations.

 

There is also a companion volume to the Storer book, with (not-to-scale) maps showing the addresses and street locations of each structure. I found this to be of much help in my vacation planning and sight-seeing endeavors. If you get the one, be sure to get the other, too.

 

The book has that info already, by Zip code.

 

So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright (Time 3:45)
Paul Simon, 1969

So long, Frank Lloyd Wright
I can't believe your song is gone so soon
I barely learned the tune
So soon
So soon

I'll remember Frank Lloyd Wright
All of the nights we'd harmonize till dawn
I never laughed so long
So long
So long

Architects may come and
Architects may go and
Never change your point of view
When I run dry
I stop a while and think of you

Architects may come and
Architects may go and
Never change your point of view

So long, Frank Lloyd Wright
All of the nights we'd harmonize till dawn
I never laughed so long
So long
So long

 

Can't believe I didn't find this great thread until now.
Living in the mid-atlantic, I get up to Fallingwater every couple of years. If you go, make sure you ask for the limited # tour which is the first tour of the day and limited to about 10 people; you get a better sense of the place w/out the hordes.

We are also blessed with the Pope-Leighy House, one of the Usonian houses which is open to the public a little south of Mount Vernon. It was saved and moved many years ago; it was originally in Falls Church, VA and stood directly in the path of the I-66 construction. Instead of being destroyed, concerned activists got together enough money to have it dismantled and moved to its present location on the grounds of the Woodlawn Plantation.

There is also a late-FLW house in Bethesda, MD, but privately owned and extremely difficult to see.

Loved Taliesen West - stayed a while after the official tour and played piano in the auditorium for the docents - wow that piano was in rough shape.

Scott, my master's thesis project was a School for Music and Dance sited next to FLW's Kalita B. Humphreys Theater on Turtle Creek in Dallas. Looking back on it now, I was clearly going thru my Meier/Botta phase (1986), but I still kind of like it. I clearly remember one of my thesis juror comments; "You're either the bravest architect alive or the dumbest architect alive for choosing to design right next to a Wright building!" I recall the folks at the Humphreys Theater being great help; they let me make copies of the FLW construction documents. I believe FLW died while the theater was under construction.

 

There's an entire Usoian neighborhood in Westchester county N.Y.
Our tour of Taliesan West was given by a gentleman who was part of the thirties community (group physician I believe) which added a lot to the experience.
BTW I asked how they kept the glass on glass corner joints from leaking and was told simply "they didn't",(until silicon caulk was introduced).