Continuing Progress at Graycliff

Buffalo, Eastern US, News, NY, Restoration/Renovation No Responses »
Jul 242011

Graycliff, the Martin family summer home on Lake Erie, can now be added to the list of Frank Lloyd Wright sites that are getting dramatic improvements in 2011. A recent press release listed the current state of the restoration, and future plans.

Exterior restorations of all three Wright-designed buildings — the Isabelle Martin House, the Foster House and the Heat Hut — at Graycliff have been completed. Restoration of the first interior space, the Family Sun Room, is beginning. This restoration will consist of restoration of the stucco floor and ceiling and the lighting fixtures and the installation of a rubber floor that matches the 1928 original. A restoration of eight acres of the estate’s historic landscape is also beginning.

Buffalo is the site for the October, 2011 annual conference of the Nation Trust for Historic Preservation, giving national exposure to recently completed projects at both the Darwin Martin House and Graycliff.

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Gifts in the Mail

Buffalo, NY, Restoration/Renovation Comments Off
Mar 182011

Check out the Weekly Wright-Up to discover what was in the package they recently received in the mail.

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Darwin Martin House Blog

Buffalo, Restoration/Renovation, Web Sites Comments Off
Oct 192010

I might be the last one to this dinner party, but I just discovered The Weekly Wright-Up, a blog from the staff of the Darwin D. Martin House in Buffalo. It’s written by the curatorial staff (thankfully, not the PR department), so it is an interesting, wide-ranging site; The Weekly Wright-Up is not just a “house organ” for the Darwin Martin House, but a serious effort to expand their educational mission beyond the tour.

Spend some time digging through the blog’s archives — there’s great stuff going back to 2008 (like this seasonally-appropriate post).

Since much of the content is drawn directly from the archives, the site offers a unique opportunity to learn more about the context of not just of the Martin family, but world that Wright’s clients for Prairie Style homes came from.

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Japanese Prints for Darwin Martin House

Buffalo, Eastern US, News, Organizations, Restoration/Renovation Comments Off
Aug 292010

Descendants of Darwin Martin have donated six Japanese prints to the Martin House Restoration Corp. for display in Buffalo’s Darwin Martin House. More than just one-time furnishings of the Darwin Martin House, the prints were personally chosen by Frank Lloyd Wright for the home, adding an invaluable authentic touch to the restored home.

“It’s heartwarming,” said Mary F. Roberts, executive director of the Martin House Restoration Corp. “It’s fitting and appropriate that the Martin descendants believe the prints they have inherited from their parents and grandparents should be brought back to their grandparents’ home.”

It’s a sacrifice, but a willing sacrifice, by the family members, who come back frequently to visit the family home being restored on Jewett Parkway.

The six Japanese prints were donated by Darwin Martin “Jerry” Foster, a grandson of the Martins; Mark Armesto, a granddaughter’s husband; and Betsy Mudra, a great-granddaughter.

“The Martin family has set a wonderful example with these gifts,” said Martin House curator Eric Jackson-Forsberg. “It shows a real respect and love for the house, and an understanding of how important these prints were to the interior that Wright envisioned.”

The prints won’t be installed in the house until late Fall 2011, after the completion of restoration in July of that year. The donation dovetails With efforts to attract more Japanese tourists to the complex.

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Hydraulics Neighborhood on Buffalo Rising

History, NY, Web Sites Comments Off
Aug 112010

(via TnGuy at Wright Chat)

The website Buffalo rising has a multi-part post on the Hydraulics Neighborhood, an industrial quarter of Buffalo that dates back to the origin of the city, and at the a century ago was home to the Larkin Company, and it Wright-designed Administration Building. Part One is an introduction and outlines the research done to facilitate Applications for Historic Preservation Rehabilitation Tax Credits; Part Two outlines the history of the neighborhood, from the late-1700s through the canal era.

The third installment in the series details the history of the Larkin Company through the 1920s, including Darwin Martin’s time with the company and the construction of the Administration Building. The next installment will cover the decline of the company and the subsequent demolition of Wright’s building.

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Coming Home

Buffalo, Restoration/Renovation No Responses »
Jun 192010

A nice little piece of good news: one of the original “Tree of Life” art glass windows has been reacquired by the Martin House Restoration Corp. and is destined for reinstallation in the Darwin Martin House in Buffalo, New York. The window had been owned by New York University’s Grey Art Gallery and, though the purchase price was undisclosed, it as apparently bought for less (“far less”, actually) than the market value (Nicely played, NYU!).

The Darwin Martin complex of five buildings originally had 394 pieces of art glass (not just windows, but skylights, glass doors, sconces and lighting fixtures) and now 196 of them are owned by the Martin House Restoration Corp. Of the “Tree of Life” windows, the Martin House owns 33, 13 are known to be held by museums or other collections and 29 are unaccounted for. Any “Tree of Life” windows that cannot be acquired will be reproduced, though that is considered the last option.

Restoration of the Darwin Martin House is expected to be complete in October, 2011.

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