Wired.com has a feature on architecture that never was. It begins with an image of Frank Lloyd Wright’s mile-high skycraper, The Illinois, as it would look against Chicago’s 2005 skyline. Pointless, but cool
The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation has completed the final step for placing part of the Arizona campus on the historic register of the city of Scottsdale.
The Taliesin West Historic Preservation Plan was recently approved by the Scottsdale Historic Preservation Commission.It governs the 10.6 acres of structures the renowned architect began in 1937 on the 490-acre grounds.
In 2006, Scottsdale conferred the historic designation, pending completion of the preservation plan.
Typically, such plans are created by the city’s historic preservation staff, but the foundation prepared its own plan because it already had one under way and was preparing a related request to rezone the entire Taliesin tract, northeast of Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard and Cactus Road, as a Special Campus.
Most of Wright’s property has been zoned as 1-acre Residential. Though I suspect that the danger of the Foundation bulldozing it and throwing up a new subdivision of McEyesores was non-existant.
The new status does give the city of Scottsdale a role in any future changes to the exteriors of the structures in the 10.9 acre “core” where Wright constructed his buildings.
The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation will follow the preservation plan when making restorations or designing new construction on the property.
The city, according to the document, will use these guidelines when reviewing the “appropriateness” for any exterior work done at Taliesin West that requires a building permit and in “evaluating the appropriateness of any city public works project or capital expenditures within and adjacent to this historic district.”
Of the two boys that I know that have lived in my house as small children, exactly 50% know the difference between Nepal and Tibet.
Sadly, the one who knows is the one still in Kindergarten and learning to read; the one who does not has a nice office in the West Wing of the White House and advises the President — daily — on international threats to the nation. One day, someone will be able to explain why I’m the one without a job.
Knows the difference between Tibet and Nepal:
Does not know the difference between Tibet and Nepal:
(Gabe got a globe for his third Christmas, and became fascinated with the “bumpy part” on the Indian borders — and he likes Yetis, thus explaining his freakish knowledge of Central/Southern Asian geography. Why Hadley’s pig-ignorant, I cannot say. )
(I pretty sure has memorized more lines from the movie The Princess Bride than Hadley has, but that’s not as crucial to running the country)
April 14, 2008 – 10:28 am
The Essential Frank Lloyd Wright:Critical Writings on Architecture
This book came out in February, but I just noticed it on a book store run over the weekend (unemployment is great way to force yourself to spend less on books). Though much of the content is available elsewhere, and you may even own some of it, the book is handsome, nicely produced and well and intelligently illustrated.
Introduction by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer
Part I
1901 The Art and Craft of the Machine
1908 In the Cause of Architecture1910 A usgefuhrte Bauten und Entwurfe von Frank Lloyd Wright
1912 The Japanese Print: An Interpretation
1924 Louis Henry Sullivan: His Work
1925 I n the Cause of Architecture: The Third Dimension
1927 I n the Cause of Architecture I: The Architect and the Machine
In the Cause of Architecture II: Standardization, the Soul of the Machine
In the Cause of Architecture II: Steel
In the Cause of Architecture IV: Fabrication and Imagination
In the Cause of Architecture V: The New World
1928 In the Cause of Architecture I: The Logic of the Plan
In the Cause of Architecture II: What “Styles” Mean to the Architect
In the Cause of Architecture II: The Meaning of Materials–
Stone
In the Cause of Architecture IV: The Meaning of Materials–Wood
In the Cause of Architecture V: The Meaning of Materials–The Kiln
In the Cause of Architecture VI: The Meaning of Materials–Glass
In the Cause of Architecture VI: The Meaning of Materials–Concrete
In the Cause of Architecture VI: Sheet Metal and a Modern Instance
In the Cause of Architecture IX: The Terms
Part II
1931 Modern Architecture, Being the Kahn Lectures (Princeton)
Two Lectures on Architecture (Art Institute of Chicago)
1932 The Disappearing City
1937 A rchitecture and Modern Life: Some Aspects of the Past
and Present of Architecture
1938 “The Architectural Forum”
Part III
1954 The Natural House
1957 A Testament 3
The publisher, Princeton University Press, has Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer’s introduction available on-line.
Blair Kamin’s Sunday column reviews the book Great Houses of Chicago, 1871-1921 by Susan Benjamin and Stuart Cohen. Both H. H. Richardson and Frank Lloyd Wright homes made the book, along with 31 other, slightly more traditional homes.
Billed as the first authoritative study of Chicago’s mansions, the book sheds new light on a spectacular cache of often-ignored traditional houses that fall outside the modernist canon headed by Henry Hobson Richardson’s Glessner House and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House. Yet those radically innovative houses, which also appear in the book, pop out with fresh relevance when seen against the backdrop of their traditional counterparts.
The authors — Benjamin, owner of a Chicago-area consulting firm that specializes in historic preservation; and Cohen, a practicing architect and member of the “Chicago Seven” architects who in the 1970s challenged Miesian orthodoxy — have written anything but a dry architectural history. They tell the story of ambitious men — Marshall Field, George Pullman, Potter Palmer and others — who made stupendous fortunes and expressed them by hiring top-drawer architects, from Wright to New York’s McKim, Mead & White.
Leavening the tale are snippets of social history, such as the recounting of the Field family’s 1886 Mikado Ball, attended by more than 500 guests who arrived in horse-drawn carriages at the Beaux-Arts mansion on Prairie Avenue and were fed by a New York caterer who brought in food, linen and silver on private railroad cars.
From the publisher’s site:
Along Prairie Avenue, majestic Lake Shore Drive, and Astor Street, the Armours, McCormicks, Pullmans, and Ryersons immortalized their place among Chicago’s elite with lavish palaces designed by David Adler, Daniel Burnham, Howard Van Doren Shaw, and Frank Lloyd Wright, in styles that ranged from detailed Beaux-Arts eclectic to International Modern.
Great Houses of Chicago, 1871-1921 is the first authoritative study of Chicago’s grand city houses. Thirty four in-depth profiles, illustrated with restored archival photographs and floor plans, portray a private world of Midwestern splendor. This masterful volume includes biographical sketches of leading Chicago architects, a comprehensive bibliography, and a portfolio of 40 additional, rarely-seen residences.
The May 2008 issue of Dwell has a two-page interview with Pedro Guerrero, Frank Lloyd Wright’s photographer (and Alexander Caler’s and Louise Nevelson’s). If you are a Dwell hater, or are easily annoyed by high-income, urban-residing, black-wearing, twenty-something hipsters, the short interview probably isn’t worth the $5.99 cover price.
But Guerrero is extremely talented and he had a unique opportunity to document Wright’s final two decades of work. His own story, told with astounding modesty, is fascinating.
Cortez could not have been more startled at finding the world of the Aztecs than I was when I was shown around Taliesin West for the first time. It was a stunning sculpture of redwood, stone and canvas.
Guerrrero’s own autobiography/photography book Pedro E. Guerrero: A Photographer’s Journey with Frank Lloyd Wright, Alexander Calder, and Louise Nevelson is worth a look, mostly because he’s led one hell of an interesting life — a great photos in the book are just a nice bonus.
If you aren’t familiar with Guerrero’s work, many of his now-iconic images can be seen on his website — including the famous “Hands” sequence.
This site has an image Zaha Hadid’s proposed design for the (ppossibly) Guggenheim Museum in Vilnius, Lithuania.
You could click on the link to see the building, or you can just imagine the product of a drunken menage a trois between a cruise ship, a Japanese sports car and Chicago’s Bean.
Yeah, maybe you should just follow the link.
I took the day on Monday, and PrairieMod had a nice catch — this page from the June 1930 edition of Modern Mechanics showing a proposed Frank Lloyd Wright skyscraper for New York City. The building was to be built of concrete and glass with no structural steel.
One of the unusual features of this building is that no structural steel will be used anywhere in the glass house. In detailing his idea, Mr. Wright pointed out that he plans to build this all-glass tower to a height of 18 stories and set a two-story penthouse on top of it for his own personal use. The walls of the building will be made of clear, heavy plate glass and the floors will be of concrete inlaid with a rubber composition to deaden noises. For decorative purposes, balconies and parapets, Mr. Wright proposes to use copper.
From the same issue: a giant bus with a landing strip and swimming pool. Admittedly unrelated, but cool.
Graycliff has also announced an expanded slate of tours for the 2008 season. A reduced schedule began Monday, April 7 (my birthday. Coincidence?), and a full, seven day schedule begins Saturday, May 24 and runs through September 1, and a reduced schedule again from September 2 through November 30. Yuletide tours begin the day after Christmas.
In addition to the Standard Tour, Graycliff offers In Depth and Master Architectural (3 hours, led by experts) tours, as well as twilight tours and photography tours (timed to catch morning light). The standard tour is offered seven days a week during the summer, but the other tours are only offered certain days. Check the tours section of the Graycliff website for days and times.
Note that, while the Darwin Martin complex in Buffalo has gotten a lot of press coverage for its dramatic restoration, Graycliff has also undergone a sweeping restoration and 2008 marks the tenth year and the planned completion of Phase III of work. Photo galleries of selected aspects of the restoration (including “before” pictures) are available on the website.
This Spring and Fall, the Graycliff Conservancy is hosting a special lecture series, “The Woman is the Client: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Women Patrons”.
The series is designed to illuminate Wright’s residential designs for female clients over the course of his long career. In the 20th century, a time in architectural/social history when far more men than women commissioned their own dwellings, several of Wright’s most important designs (including Graycliff itself) were designed for female clients. They range from Wright’s earliest designs (for Wright’s aunts, Nell and Jane Lloyd Jones, in Wisconsin,) magnificent homes from Wright’s Prairie period (roughly 1896- 1909) and an intentionally modest home from Wright’s Usonian period (roughly 1936-1947)
What were the differences, if any, between Wright’s designs for male or female clients? What impact did commissions by women clients have at various cross roads in Wright’s career? What kinds and types of buildings did Wright design for women patrons, at a time (not so different from today) when few women commissioned architects?
The first lecture,May 8 is “Affordable Dreams: The Goetsch Winkler Home” given by Dr. Diane Tepfer.
Next, on October 2, Donald Hallmark, curator, the Dana-Thomas House will speak on, unsurprisingly, the Dana-Thomas House.
October 16, author Mary Jane Hamilton will speak on Wright’s Hillside Home School and the Romeo and Juliet windmill, commissioned by his aunts.
Admission for each lecture is $10 (free for members of the Greycliff Conservancy) and will be held at Babeville (formerly The Church) in downtown Buffalo. Reservations are not required.
For more information, call (716) 947-9217 or e-mail graycliff@verizon.net