FLLW General

Frank Lloyd Wright Collection

Gift of Professor and Mrs. Paul R. Hanna

Stanford University Libraries

HT Frank Lloyd Wright Collection

Gift of Professor and Mrs. Paul R. Hanna

Stanford University Libraries nttftrai

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i< ARCHIVES

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT'S HANNA HOUSE

1. THIS SERIES OF RINGBINDERS CONTAINS ORIGINAL COPIES OF

CORRESPONDENCE WITH FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT AND OTHERS;

TELEGRAMS, TELEPHONE NOTES, CONTRACTS, BUILDING

SPECIFICATIONS, FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS, AND OTHER

ITEMS, COVERING MORE THAN A HALF-CENTURY FROM 1930.

MR. WRIGHT'S DESIGNING OF THE PROJECT; THE

CONSTRUCTION OF THE SEVERAL BUILDINGS; THE ROLE OF

STANFORD UNIVERSITY; THE PUBLIC AND ARCHITECTS'

INTEREST IN THE PROJECT; EVALUATION BY THE CLIENTS;

AND OTHER RELATED ASPECTS.

2. ARCHIVAL MATERIAL CONTAINED IN VOLUMES 1 THROUGH 57 IS

AVAILABLE FOR RESEARCH PURPOSES ON MICROFILM IN THE

ARCHIVES OF THE STANFORD UNIVERSITY LIBRARY. THE

MICROFILM SERIES IS ALSO AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE FROM

THE ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY FOUNDATION OR THE MIT PRESS.

SUBSEQUENT VOLUMES ARE NOT RECORDED ON MICROFILM.

(continued) .

3. THE COLLECTION CONTAINS SEVEN ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY MR.

WRIGHT. THESE WERE GIVEN BY THE HANNAS TO STANFORD

UNIVERSITY IN 1985 AND ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THE

MICROFILMED MATERIAL.

4. IN ADDITION TO MORE THAN 60 RINGBINDERS, THE ARCHIVAL

COLLECTION CONTAINS 184 SKETCHES AND DRAWINGS (MOSTLY

BLUEPRINTS) BY FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, CONSULTANTS, AND

THE HANNAS.

5. THE COLLECTION INCLUDES FIVE ALBUMS OF PHOTOGRAPHS OF

THE ORIGINAL HILL SITE, STAGES OF CONSTRUCTION,

EXTERIOR AND INTERIOR SCENES OF FURNISHING AND

FURNITURE. OVER 500 PHOTOS WERE TAKEN BY PROFESSIONAL

ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHERS AND THE HANNAS.

6. SEVERAL VOLUMES (NOT NUMBERED) DEAL WITH SPECIAL

SUBJECTS

7. THERE ARE MORE THAN A DOZEN RINGBINDER VOLUMES OF

GENERAL MATERIALS ON FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT; MOST ARE

CLIPPINGS FROM MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPERS. '

Architecture BY PAUL GSOLDBERGER

IRANK LLOYD WRIGHT CAN BE CELE- brated as a great maker of flowing space, or as a bold experimenter in new building technologies, or as a crusader who sought to bring the values of architecture within reach of the common man. Wright, the protean genius of 20th-century architecture, was all of those people. Even more, though, he was an architect who sought out the underlying nature of a place and who struggled to express that nature in a way that would be altogether his own. There is no better example of this than the series of houses Wright designed in the early 1920's in Los An- geles, a city he lived in sporadically during the unset- tled years between a tragic fire in 1914 at Taliesin, his home in Wisconsin, and the late 1920's. Wright

was both attracted and repelled by Los Angeles ; he considered the city wildly eccentric, but he loved its landscape and reveled in the sense of freedom it offered from the rigidity of the East Coast and the Mid- dle West. The house Wright designed for John Storer in 1923, set into the lower reaches of the Hollywood hills, has always been among the great treasures in Los An- geles's remarkable heritage of residential architec-

ture. But it is now more important still : its current owner, Joel Silver, a film producer, has just completed an elaborate and painstaking restoration, making this not only the most carefully reworked Wright house in Los Angeles, but among the most perfectly restored Wright houses in the United States. The house is one of four that Wright designed in a system of hollow, precast concrete blocks that he invented for Los Angeles, but hoped could serve as a model for similar systems elsewhere. Wright envi- sioned the system as workable both for grand man- sions and for modest houses, and indeed it was: the blocks could be easily and cheaply reproduced and Above: The Storer House is Top: When Frank Uoyd Right: The recent could be combined into either large or small struc- rich in spatial manipulations. Wright's Storer House was restoration by owner tures. The trademark of each of these houses was not

It is entered through a completed in 1923, it Joel Stiver makes the the plain blocks that made up most of the structure, spe- series of terraces, one of stood almost alone against concrete-block facade of however, but the perforated blocks that gave a cial decorative geometric pattern to each house. which contains a small the landscape of the the house look virtually The system yielded one sprawling house, the Ennis reflecting pool. Hollywood hills. as it dd in 1923.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JUUUS SHULMAN " — .

risk," to use a more carefully fore it started to deteriorate hedged bit of public-health jar- and what sort of deficiencies become chronic. Especially in A great hotel makes a grand gift, gon. Inevitably, most food-stamp small children, where there is families live on a nutritional the greatest danger of perma- But how do you wrap it? cycle that starts off reasonably nent damage, the quality of the well, then deteriorates as the environment and nurturing has on, becoming great deal to do with the rate month wears a You don' l. marginal if not desperate in the of recovery from a period of Jus! slip ii into an envelope, elevators final week or 10 days, depend- nutritional deprivation. ing on how frugal they were Those who man the barri- and hand ii to someone special earlier. "The first part of the cades when Federal food and ( Wnh a Helmsle) Hotel* lifi 'cnifi month I always cook us a good nutrition programs come under reward with iii)'lu meal," said Patricia Roberts, attack in the annual budget can somebody a or who is raising three children in squeeze are reduced to having in ;i weekend to explore N 'i Houston on a Social Security to advance arguments that ire "I ,i surprise, \ou ioul widow's pension and food might seem self-evident: that stamps. "Something we don't well-nourished women produce pin the envelope in a new Rolls Kou get and something we like. Fish healthier babies; that infants usually." There are ample por- deprived of proper nutrition tions and fresh vegetables and may fail to realize their full all the milk the children can growth, physically or mental- drink, and Mrs. Roberts tries ly; that children who come to for one night not to worry about school hungry tend not to learn her unpaid bills. "I just say at as well — in short, that eating that point, 'I don't care what properly is good for humans. certificate: 800/221-4982 oi inNev. York happens,' " she said. " 'I'm What they can't easily prove is 212/888-1624 going to take care of myself.' an incontrovertible relation- The splurge is over almost as ship between a specific legisla- soon as it begins. By the end of tive action and the health of llt'lllislcv I'uhu IVliddletowiii' the month, the Roberts family children. "But then we never is sometimes reduced to eating have to prove a clear and potatoes as a staple and Mrs. present danger to throw money Windsor llarlov Roberts has to borrow from at defense," remarked Dr. S6 Central l';nk Souili relatives. She is the head of a Irwin H. Rosenberg, a profes- single-parent household and sor of medicine and an expert Hark-y of New York black, so she conforms to an- on nutrition at the University of 2\2 East 42nd Slreel other kind of stereotype. But Chicago. she was laid off two and a half There is some evidence that years ago from a job as a ma- deteriorating diets may be tak- Helmsley Hotels chinist at the Hughes Tool ing a greater toll on the health Company, where she had of poor Americans than they earned $13.62 an hour. Since were five or six years ago, but then she has taken any work the data are spotty and open to she could get, for as little as conflicting interpretations. $3.35 an hour. The idea that she Various local studies have is now classed with women who pointed to a rise in the number have never found their way into of low-birth-weight babies, of John Stuart the job market incenses her. "failure to thrive" infants and "There seems to be a mix-up as young children whose growth to who's who," she said. seems to be stunted, or who are John UUiddbomb The food problems of the so- suffering from infections that called "new poor" — industrial could be related to undernutri- workers like Mrs. Roberts who tion. The level of infant mortal- have fallen into dependence on ity, although shocking by com- Brass, chrome and plexiglass public assistance — shed light parison to that of other devel- create a table of uncommon on the nutritional problems of oped nations, is now actually elegance. A hint of our the old poor, undercutting the lower than it has ever been in seemingly infinite variety of easy, middle-class assumption the country's history, but the exceptional contemporary that the impoverished diets of rate of decline has been taper- designs. the poor are traceable to igno- ing off and poor nutrition is rance and a dependence on often blamed. junk food, rather than lack of Yet in all these instances money. there are complicating factors that cannot easily be laid at the THE CYCLICAL NA- door of the Reagan Adminis- ture of undernutrition tration or Congress. The large in America — the number of babies born to young monthly slide to a meager diet teen-agers is one; the use of of starches that will stave off drugs, alcohol and cigarettes is the sensation of hunger — can- another. Still another factor is not be good for the health of the the resistance of the over- poor, but experts on nutrition whelming majority of mothers find it hard to be precise about in poverty to breast-feeding. how bad it is. Not all essential This is costly in terms of the nutrients have to be consumed health of their children as well every day. Some, like iron or as in terms of Federal funds vitamin A, are stored in the that go to supplemental feeding body and used up gradually; programs, but it is not subject others, such as soluble vita- to legislative correction. Tech- NEW YORK: mins like B and C, have a nological strides in neonatal 979 THIRD AVE. shorter cycle. The conse- care — that is, the care of in- (212)421-1200 quences depend on various fac- fants in the first month of life BOSTON • PHILADELPHIA tors: how good the diet was be- (Continued on Page 59) CHICAGO • WASHINGTON, D.C. -

- .

m -** House high over Hollywood; the gentle and gracious Millard House, the first concrete-block house, in Pas- adena; the small Freeman House, also in Hollywood, and still in the hands of the widow of its original owner, and the Storer House. The Ennis House is the grandest, and the Millard House, as the first of the series, is historically the most important, but in many ways it is the Storer House that is the most appealing. It was in the Storer House that so many of Wright's ideas, not only about technology, but about space and form and about the nature of Los Angeles, all came together. The Storer House is set neatly into the hillside above Hollywood Boulevard, on a site that was rustic and undeveloped in the 1920's but that soon became as dense as an overgrown suburb. Wright piled the blocks into a series of small terraces that mount up the hillside and serve as a base for the main structure, in which the blocks are stacked into high piers, lifting for two stories. The whole structure seems, from the street, like a great colonnade, a portico overlooking Los Angeles. There is a hint of the Mayan influence that preoccu- pied Wright during the 1920's, but it does not over- first Angeles Above: The kitchen is the remade for the restoration power the design, as in Wright's Los residence, the Bamsdall House. Indeed, the Storer most altered aspect of the The garage doors were House has more in common with Wright's great prai- house, a sleek rrseriion that newly made, based on rie houses of the years before 1914, with their gener- Wright's designs. leaves Wnghfs concrete she! ous, sweeping cornices. Here, the strong horizontal irdstirted The cabinets are Right: The Svirtg room is the line atop the piers serves as a perfect counterpoint to bal- ot wood, with hardware iia grandest room of the the verticality, bringing the facade into a subtle ance. The piers rush upward, and the cornice caps Wricjitian style. house, with the concrete- their energy without squelching it. Bdow: The driveway and block wals and a cdng of This remarkable compositional balance alone wood creating a rich side entrance to the house marks Wright's genius. But the house is rich in the and are lined with Wright's texture. The table spatial manipulations that were, if anything, even pattemeckoncrete blocks, chairs are by Uoyd Wright, more characteristic of Wright. There is a tightly con- trolled sequence of (Continued on Page 72) many of which were Frank Uoyd Wright's son move- - .

J ^- 4 • m *r ! ^ •'- -, <* *& s

6 ; t;- JU JOHN B. PIPKIN TRAFFIC MANAGER LOGISTICS OPERATIONS GROUP 330 BONAIR SIDING STANFORD UNIVERSITY STANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305 (415)497-3003

SHOPPING MART

closely to Wright's original design. In the case of the kitchen, new VORK BflGEl it proved impossible to recon- cile the need for up-to-date GIPT PACHAGE technology with Wright's design, and an entirely new room For your bagel-deprived friends, we'll was constructed. But the de- ment toward the entry — all that Wright had ever be- ship 6 huge assorted N.Y.C Bagels, sign here is highly sympathetic can, through a gate, up seven steps, lieved about houses embracing sealed in a beautiful decorator to Wright — there are cabinets then to the first terrace as the section of the New York the land were extended here in tucked in a of larch wood, similar to red- view back over the city begins a way appropriate to the land- Times. wood, with metal hardware f Shipping to unfold, then a right turn and scape, the drama and the dar- that could almost have been de- S2.50 E. of Miss. up seven more steps to another ing of Southern California. M5.99 $3.50 W. of Miss. signed by Wright. The con- terrace with a small pool and The majesty and grace of crete-block walls and the woe- VISA, AMER, EX., MASTERCARD fountain. The house is entered this small but powerful house fully impractical grooved con- from this level, but there is no could not be totally obscured, crete floor have been retained, 212-628-2888 conventional door — there is but some of the things done to it call and green marble counters and simply a glass door set within over the years in the name of shiny metallic appliances have new VORK CITY.BAGEU the space between each of the renovation and modernization been added. They are, in a P.O. Box 2528 N.Y.C, N.Y. 10185 piers. came close to doing so. For one sense, a rich, sleek overlay The space thus flows in and period, some of Wright's con- within Wright's shell, out between the piers, and the crete blocks had been painted and though they are not in any way room within joins with the out- yellow; much of the wood had Wrightian, they are not inap- door terrace. But it is not the also been painted, and 60 years propriate. complete merging of indoors of exposure had caused window WHY STRUGGLE In cases, Wrightian ele- and out sought by the all-glass frames, doors, roofs and many some ments were actually created WITH STAIRS? walls of the houses of Interna- of the concrete-block pieces to tional Style modernism, the deteriorate badly. that had not previously been Ride in Comfort. . .OnaWecobtor.® there. cost-cut- European style that was in so Joel Silver who says he Perhaps as a • STAIR ELEVATORS • RESIDENTIAL ELEVATORS — ting measure — the house, esti- • PORCH LIFTS • WHEELCHAIR LIFTS many ways Wright's antithe- had admired Wright since mated to cost $15,000 in 1923, Heart condition? Arthritis? Some other disability sis. In this house, the piers al- childhood as a powerful, char- that makes climbing stairs agony? Why ride not ways stand as a reminder of ismatic figure — had sought to actually cost John Storer about safely on a Cheney Wecolator in your home or $27,000 the doors de- place of business? This attractive stair elevator the presence of structure, and buy a Wright house in Los An- — garage takes little space, folds away when not in use signed by Wright were never and tits all stairways, even spiral. UL approved, there is a constant sense of en- geles for several years. It is not all-steel construction, meets building codes. Al- closure within. easy there are only handful built. Now, they have been fordably priced, low maintenance, may be tax- — a deductible. 5-year warranty, and we service. The rooms inside have in private hands — and he did made, based on old sketches. Budget rental plan available tor straight stairways. Wright's characteristic low not succeed until last year. He Numerous perforated concrete Contact: Wecolator Co. of N.Y., Inc.: Access ceilings, and the precisely con- snapped it up quickly, expect- blocks were recreated in Elevator Ltd., 325 Post Ave., Westbury, N.Y. Wright's original pattern for 1 1 590. Established over 25 years. trolled processional movement ing, he says, "to straighten the 516/997-7788 212/619-8383 through the house continues. house up and move in. I didn't the house, and an entire section of the facade over the garage The entry is anchored by a fire- intend to do very much to it at kitchen entrance to place, and there is a dining first. But the more I got into it, and had be area to its right. To its left, a the more I wanted to do — the rebuilt. As everywhere in the house, the quality of crafts- LADY'S LEATHER CHAIR staircase slips a half-level more it seemed like it had to be manship is remarkable — as Quality, style and comfort are down to a small library and done the right way." if in combined in this elegant, small bedroom, and another stair Doing it correctly meant as- good, not some ways bet- leather chair. Available in over goes a half-level up to two more sembling a team of architects ter, than what was made in 50 colors of Top Grain Premium Leather. Solid bedrooms. That stair then con- and craftsmen, including Eric 1923. Mahogany legs. Solid Brass tinues up around the fireplace, Lloyd Wright, Frank Lloyd The interiors, like the over- nail head trim. A beautiful climbing toward the main liv- Wright's grandson and a prac- all design, are Wrightian in accent chair. H38 W 29 D 28 $476.00 ing space, a high room that sits ticing architect in Los Angeles; spirit without being precise in (price subject to change) atop the entry room. Martin Eli Weil, a Los Angeles every detail. Joel Silver, Shipping charges extra. No C.O.D. under Linda Marder's guid- Send $3.00 for catalog The rooms are, in effect, spi- restoration architect, and raled around the core of Marder, interior ance, has put together a mix CAROLINA LEATHER HOUSE, Inc. the Linda an de- Oept. NY-74 P.O. Box 28603 chimney, and Wright handled signer. Thomas Heinz, a of Frank Lloyd Wright furni- Hickory, N.C. 28801 this spiral with considerable ture and other pieces, mostly 704-322-4478 Wright expert based in drama. We get a tantalizing Wright's early hometown of from the period of the house. glimpse of the main living Oak Park, III., served as a con- The real prize is a richly or- space through a balustrade as sultant. namented table and chairs in we climb upward, which then The biggest job, Joel Silver the living room designed by CABBAGE PATCH OWNERS disappears as the stair turns recalls, was not making design Lloyd Wright, Frank Lloyd IS YOUR DOLL LONELY? and continues behind the fire- decisions, but simply restoring Wright's son, in 1926 for one of BOOKS MARRIAGES ARRANGED his houses in Los Angeles; MAIL ORDER BRIDE OR GROOM place, after which the whole of the physical structure of the SEND FOR QUESTIONNAIRE AND the room is revealed: an ut- house. "We had to redo every there is also a table from the INFORMATION terly Wrightian space, door, Isabel Roberts House, a TO at once every window, every win- B&B ASSOC. open and enclosed, a room of dow frame to bring it back to Frank Lloyd Wright house in m P.O. BOX 3065 truly intimate grandeur, with a the way Wright had it," he River Forest, 111., and some FREDERICK PORTION RD. redwood ceiling and oak floor says. The mechanical systems Wright-designed china from LK. RONKONKOMA, N. Y. 11779 that serve as a perfect counter- of the house had to be improved the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. PLEASE ENCLOSE 1.00 FOR POS- FORSvTH TAGE AND HANDLING point to the roughness of the or rebuilt. The design team The overall effect, however, concrete-block walls. even decided to take off var- is not that of a museum, or The view of the city from be- nish and lacquer to restore the even of a period piece. The tween the front piers of con- wood to its original natural house gives every sense of MEM'S WIPE SHOES crete block is best of all here, state, which means that the being lived in, of being a struc- while in the rear, where the wood on the outside of the ture of this time. It is now in FOURTH Extra width lot men who need it, in excellent variety, styling and quality. steep hill rises higher, the room house has to be re-oiled each more perfect physical condi- PROTOCOL Available only through our FREE opens directly into a patio. It is year. tion than it has been at any CATALOG both a room and a pavilion — a The main intention of the time since its construction, and 1 Send tor it . Best Sellers on Cassette space that seems to fly out over renovation was not to turn the it stands not only as a homage the city, yet is anchored to the house into something resem- to Frank Lloyd Wright, but as > More Than 1500 Titles land at the same time. It envel- bling 1923, however, but to a reminder that his work could > Call for Free Brochure ops you, and yet it opens and modernize its functioning while at once express its time and Hitchcock Shoes, Inc. thrusts you out, too. It is as if bringing its appearance more transcend it. (800) 626-3333 Dept.35Fl, Hingham, MA 02043 \

BOOKS ON

ART

**» S81* MUSIC ARCHITECTURE CITY PLANNING PHOTOCRAPHY

with special section on

Frank Lloyd Wright

• *T mT M m-\ CATALOGUE NO. 135 —^ ABBREVIATIONS: TERMS: a. e.g. It. e.g. - (all) (top) edges gilt b/w - black & white Books are hardcover, 8vo to 4 to & in very good to fine condition bds. - boards unless otherwise noted. Prices are net, 10% to bona-fide dealers, sales biblio. - bibliography postage extra. If sending CWO, we pay postage. Appropriate biog. - biography tax is charged to California customers. ca - approximately chron. - chronology Overseas customers are asked to please remit in U.S. funds, col. - colored drawn on a U.S. bank, or by International Money Order. coll. - collection comp. - compiled, compiler This catalogue supercedes all others & items are subject to prior dec. - decorated sale. d.w. - dust wrapper (jacket) drws. - drawings We buy scholarly books within our fields. We read all "want lists" e. p. - end paper & quote. A search service is offered for books within our exten. - extensive specialities. exx - examples - ex-library copy to it. ex-lib. If your name is not on our mailing list, we will be happy add facs. - facsimile At present we are printing one catalogue per year (of all our stock) F. A. - Fine Arts with specialized lists at varying intervals (as we acquire new stock) figs. - figures frontisp. - frontispiece Please refer to Catalogue 135 & item number when ordering. Gall. - Gallery

, illus. - illustrations VISITS ARE BY APPOINTMENT ONLY. (415) 525-2420 ill. imp. - impression, important incl. - including lea. - leather lg. - large ms(s) - manuscript(s) CONTENTS: MIT - Mass. Inst, of Tech. mod. - modern Music (& some dance) 1 - 433 MOMA - Museum of Modern Art Art Reference 434 - 933 mus. exx. - musical examples Architecture (FLW) 934 - 1335 NYGS - New York Graphic Soc. Photography 1336 - 1551 n. d. - no date Addenda (to all sects) 1552 - to end n. p. - no place Abbreviations (last page) obi. - oblong 12mo, 8vo, 4to - sizes source used on Frank Lloyd Wright: Bibliographic organ. - organized » Sweeney, Rbt. BIBLIOGRAPHY. 1978. ^ O.U. P. - Oxford Univ. Pr. ptg. - painting, printing pp. - pages Up-coming book fair we will exhibit: plnng - planning pis. - plates 18th California International Antiquarian Book Fair Pvt. Ptd. - Privated Printed Crystal Court Trade Show Concourse, 8th & Brannan prof. - profusely San Francisco - February 15-17, 1985. repr. - reprint ser. - series si. - slight sm. - small t. p. - title page trans. - translated U. P. - University Press Cover design: "Metamorphosis", bylW.C. Escher vol(s) - volume(s) wraps - soft cover --"*

J B MUNS, FINE ARTS BOOKS

I 162 SHATTUCK AVENUE BERKELEY, CALIF. 94707 415-525-2420

CATALOGUE NO. 135

Paul & Jean Hanna Mitchell PI. No. 20 Stanford, CA 94305

ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED FORWARDING & RETURN POSTAGE GUARANTEED , ,

[280,/ Wright, F. L. MODERN ARCHITECTURE, being the Kahn

lectures for 1930. Princeton, U. P. , 1931. Col, drawing

on cover designed by FLW . (Sweeney #250) 300.00

1281. . ON ARCHITECTURE; selected writings, 1894-1940. N.Y., 1941. Orig. ed. 1st ed. (Sweeney #532) 75.00

1282. . THE ROBIE HOUSE. Chicago, 1963. Hist. Amer. Bldg. Survey. 14 sheets of the plans. Obi. 4to.

Wraps. (Sweeney #1723) Harder to find these days . 85.00 ---. SELECTED DRAWINGS PORTFOLIO #2. N. Y. ® 1979. Ltd. to 700 numbered copies . 100 plates in col. Boxed. 850.00 1284. ---. THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE INDIVIDUAL; in the cause of architecture. Preface to Ausgefuhrte Bauten und Entwurte, publ. by Wasmuth, Berlin, 1910. Repr. as intro. to the exhibition Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 1951. Wraps. Lg. 4to. 19pp. (Sweeney #833) 50.00 1285. ---. THE STORY OF THE TOWER; the tree that escaped

the crowded forest. N. Y. , 1956. 130illus., 6 col. pis. (Sweeney #1095) 75.00

1286. ---. A TESTAMENT. N. Y. , 1957. d.w. Orig. ed: 210 illus. (Sweeney #1149) 50.00 1287. ---. TO HOLLAND. Taliesin, June 1, 1952. Intro, by J. J. P. Oud, done by Wright for Holland, in his apprec-

iation of that country. Wraps. 12pp. , 12 pis. Cover

lightly soiled. Catalog for the traveling exhib. , 60 yrs. of living architecture. (Sweeney #863) 100.00

1288. ---. THE WORK. .. N. Y. , 1965. Repr. of Wendingen Ed. 200 illus. Lg. 4to. Slipcase. This edition has the double-fold pp. as in the origina~ l. Intro, bv Mrs . FLW. (Sweeney #1604) 175.00 TALIESIN PUBLICATIONS 1289. ---. AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY: BOOK 6 - Broadacre City. Stiff wraps. Summer 1943. (Sweeney #2048) 200.00

1290. . ANOTHER. Rev. Printers proof. Spring 1944. Sq. 8vo. (Sweeney #2049) 200.00 1291. ---. TALIESIN I, #1, 1934. Folded sheets numbered 27pp. Printed in black & red with FLW's 4 command- ments on rear. Obi. 8vo. 20 illus. Rare! (S. 2037) 250. 00 1292. ---. TALIESIN FELLOWSHIP PUBLICATION: THE NEW FRONTIER - BROADACRE CITY, V. 1, No. 1, Oct. 1940. Wraps. Scarce! (Sweeney #2040) 250.00 1293. ---. TALIESIN I, #2, Feb. 1941. 3rd & final issue that

was publ. , devoted to the Taliesin Fellowship. Cover designed by FLW in red & black. (Sweeney #2041) /-^» 250.00 (12947)---. TALIESIN SQUARE PAPERS, Nos. 2.3,4.5,6,7,8,9, 10,11,12,14. There were 17 issues, publ. 1941-49. ************ each 100.00 1295. (FLW) Art Commission of Los Angeles. SIXTY YEARS OF

LIVING ARCHITECTURE; the work. . . 1954. Wraps. Catalog for the traveling exhibit. (Sweeney #991) 50.00 1296. (---) Bardeschi, M. D. FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT. Lond. 1970. d.w. Lg. 4to. (20th Cent. Masters) (S. 1804) 60.00 FLW) Barford, G. & S. G. Wold, eds. ARCHITECTURE IN ILLINOIS. Springfield, 1964. 2nd ed. Wraps. 2 articles on FLW by M. Lilien & Barford. 35. 00 ---) Barry, Jos. THE HOUSE BEAUTIFUL TREASURY OF CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN HOMES. N.Y., 1958. d.w. Folio. 12pp of FLW with beautiful col. photos of Ennis House, Coonley House, house in Carmel, Ta lie sin West, Taliesin East, Price House. 50.00 — ) Brownell, B. & FLW. ARCHITECTURE & MODERN LIFE. N.Y. /Lond. , 1937. 1st ed. Illus. (S. 405) 125.00 ---)---. ANOTHER. 2nd ed. 1938. 125.00

---)Drexler, A. THE DRAWINGS. .. N. Y. . 1962. d.w. Orig. ed. 303 iUus. (Sweeney #1489) 100.00

) Ecole Nat'l Superieure des Beaux-Arts. EXPOSITION DE L'OEUVRE DE FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT. Paris, April 1952. Wraps. Sq. 8vo. (Patch on front cover)

Traveling exhibition of 60 yrs. of living arch. . . (Sweeney #862) 75.00 ---) Fries, H. de. FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT aus dem Lebenswerke eines Architekten. Berlin, Pollak,

1926. Over 200 pis. & 9 col. pis. Rare ! (S,#172) 450.00 ---)N.Y. Solomon R. Guggenheim Mus. ARCHITECT: FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT. 1960. Wraps. (S. #1405) 25.00 ---) ---. SIXTY YEARS OF LIVING ARCHITECTURE. Sept. 1953. Wraps. Sq. 8vo. N.Y. exhibition. (Sweeney #912) 50.00 ---) ---. THE USONIAN HOUSE; souvenir of the exhibition, 60 years of living arch. Nov. 12, 1953. Pamphlet. Obi. 8vo. Wraps. (Sweeney #926) 25.00 ---) Hoving, Thomas. THE CHASE, THE CAPTURE: collecting at the Met. Met. Mus. of Art, 1975. Wraps. Incl. the Francis Little House, the living room of which is now on exhibit there, permanently.20. 00 -—) Jacobs, H. & K. BUILDING WITH FLW, an illus. memoir. San Francisco, 1978. Wraps. Obi. 8vo. 7.50

— ) James, C. THE IMPERIAL HOTEL; Frank Lloyd Wright & the architecture of unity. Rutland, 1968.

1st ptg. d.w. Difficult to find lately. . . 75.00 ---) Kalec, D. G. & T. A. Heinz. FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT HOME & STUDIO. Oak Park, 111. FLW Found., 1975. 25pp. Wraps. Sq. 8vo. 8 plans, 17 photos. 25.00 — ) Kaufmann, E. Jr. 25 YEARS OF THE HOUSE ON THE WATERFALL; FLW architect. (Architemira VIII) Etas, 1962. Wraps. Engl/Ital. Beautiful photos. (Sweeney #1510) 75.00 ---) Los Angeles Municipal Art Gall. FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT: JAPANESE PRINTS EXHIBITION. Barnsdall, 1962. Wraps, illus. From cover stained. 15.00 ---) Manson, G.C. FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT TO 1910: The First Golden Age. N.Y., 1958. d.w. si. torn. (Sweeney #1206) Orig. ed. 125.00 ---) Moser, W. M. 60 JAHRE LEBENDIGE ARCHITEKTUR/ 60 YEARS OF LIVING ARCHITECTURE. Z/Jrich. 1952. Wraps. (Sweeney #858) 125.00 ,

1244. (Wagner, Otto) Geretsegger, H. & M. Peintner. OTTO WAGNER 1841-1918; the expanding city - the beginning

of modern architecture. N.Y. , Praeger, 1970. d. w. 294 illus. Foreword by Neutra. 100.00 1245. Ware, Wm R. ed. THE GEORGIAN PERIOD; a coll. of papers dealing with Colonial or XVIII Cent. arch, in the U.S. Boston, Am. Arch. & Bldg. News, 1899, 1901, 1902. 3v. Folios, t.e.g. Well illus. Full "lea. Edges of covers worn. Clean tight set. 650.00 1246. Waugh, E. & E. THE SOUTH BUILDS; new arch, in the

Old South. Chapel Hill, U. of NC Pr. , 1960. d.w. si. chipped. Illus. 35. 00 1247. Webb, M. ARCHITECTURE IN BRITAIN TODAY. Middlesex, 1969. Mostly' illus. 20.00 1248. Whiffen, M. STUART & GEORGIAN CHURCHES outside London 1603 to 1837. London, 1947-8. 1st Engl. ed. d.w. The arch. £»f the church of England. 153 illus. 20. 00 1249. Whittick, A. EUROPEAN ARCHITECTURE IN THE 20th CENTURY. London, 1950. V. 1 - Historical back-

ground & the early years of the century. . . 1919-24.

Has own index & is complete in itself . 77 illus. 25. 00 1250. Whittlesey, A. THE MINOR ECCLESIASTICAL, DOMESTIC & GARDEN ARCHITECTURE OF SO. SPAIN. N.Y. 1917. 2nd ed. d.w. Photos & drws by author. Lg. 4to. 65.00 1251. ---. THE RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE OF CENTRAL & NORTHERN SPAIN; a coll. of photos & meas. drws. N.Y., 1920. 121 pis. Ex-lib. of Rbt Woods Bliss, Dumbarton Oaks, with book plate of same. 65. 00 1252. Wijdeveld, H. Th. NAAR INTERNATIONALE WERK- GEMEENSCHAP, een plan met 16 illus. Santpoort, Mees, 1931. Sq. 8vo. Plans, drawings &photos.

Text in Dutch. Editor of the famed "Wendingen" . 125.00 1253. Wilcox, Uthai Vincent. THE OCTAGON HOUSE; the fine old Washington mansion still breathes an air of

mystery. .. n. p. , n. d. Illus. Scrapbook album. 40.00

1254. (Withers, F. C. ) Kowsky, F. R. THE ARCHITECTURE OF FREDERICK CLARKE WITHERS & the progress of the Gothic Revival in America after 1850. Middle-

town, Wesleyan U. P. , 1980. d.w. 91 illus. Biblio. , notes, appendix, index. 20.00 1255. Wittkower, Rudolf. ESSAYS IN THE HISTORY OF ARCH. presented to Rudolf Wittkower, ed. by D. Fraser, et. al. Phaidon, 1969. Chipped d.w. 26 contributions. 45.00

1256. (Woolworth Bldg. ) THE CATHEDRAL OF COMMERCE.

Broadway Park PI. , 1921. Wraps. Foreword by S. Parkes. Nicely illus. in photogravures. Highest bldg. in the world at one time. Umcommonl 40.00 1257. (Wren, Christopher) Furst, V. THE ARCHITECTURE OF CHRISTOPHER WREN. London, 1956. 1st ed. Catalogue

raisonne. Biblio. , notes, index. 45. 00 1258. (Wright, John Lloyd & Barry Byrne) ARCHITECTURE &

DESIGN, by S. K. Chappell. Chicago Hist. Soc. , 1982. Wraps. Illus. Obi. i.8vo. 10.00 —— ,

1259. (Wurster, Catherine Bauer) Frieden, B.J. &W.W. Nash, Jr. eds. SHAPING AN URBAN FUTURE; essays in memory. .. Cambridge, MIT, 1969. d.w. 25.00 1260. Yerbury, F. R. GEORGIAN DETAILS OF DOMESTIC

ARCHITECTURE, selected & photographed. . . Boston. 1926. Spine worn, edges rubbed, covers soiled. 40.00 1261. Zevi, Bruno. ARCHITECTURE AS SPACE; how to look

at architecture, ed. by J. A. Barry. N.Y. , 1957. 35.00 ia62. Zimmerschild, G. BRICK AS AN ELEMENT IN DESIGN. Berlin, 1961. Nicely illus. 45.00 1263. Zodiac, #1, 1957. Wraps as issued, si. creased & torn on spine & rear cover. Photo of Gropiuspn cover.

Is tissue of this important periodical . 75.00

F LI Wright 1264. Wright, Frank Lloyd. AN AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE, ed. by E. Kaufmann. N. Y., 1955. d.w. Orig. ed. yS~\ (Sweeney #1050) 250 illus. 50.00 /L265J---. AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. London, Longmans, Green, ^ S 1932. 1st ed. Black cover with design by FLW.

(Sweeney #303) Scarce ! 350.00

1266. ---. ANOTHER. London, 1933. (Repr. of 1932 ed. ) 125.00 1267. ---. ANOTHER. N.Y., Duell, Sloan, 1943. 1st ed. of this format. (Sweeney #595) 100.00 1268. ---. ANOTHER. As above with d.w. (designed by FLW) 125.00

1269. ---. BUILDINGS, PLANS & DESIGNS. N. Y. , 1963. Ltd. ed. Incl. booklet (catalog) of the 100 plates. Elephant folio portfolio. Reprint of the Wasmuth portfolios of 1910. (Sweeney #87)>Import. repr. 650,00

1270. ---. THE DISAPPEARING CITY. N. Y. , 1932. d.w. si. torn. (Sweeney #328) 150.00 - (127U ---. DRAWINGS FOR A LIVING ARCHITECTURE. ^" J N.Y., 1959. d.w. Obi. 4to. d.w. chipped si. Important as first book publ. in col, of FLW'S. drawings, from 1885 to 1958 & chosen for this book by FLW before his death. (Sweeney #1265) 950.00 1272. ---. THE EARLY WORK. N.Y., 1968. Orig. ed. Boxed. 207 photos & plans. Folio. (Sweeney #1732) 100.00

1273. ---. THE FUTURE OF ARCHITECTURE. N. Y. , 1953. d.w. Orig. ed. (Sweeney #913) 50.00

1274. ---. GENIUS & THE MOBOCRACY. N.Y. , 1949. 1st ed. d.w. (Sweeney #750) 50.00 1275. ---. ANOTHER. Torn d.w. 45.00 1276. ---. ANOTHER. N.Y., 1971. Enl. new ed. d.w. 20.00 1277. ---. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION RUNS AWAY.

N.Y. , 1969. Ltd. ed . Slipcase. (Sweeney #1775) 125.00 1278. ---. EM THE CAUSE OF ARCHITECTURE; Wright's

historic essays for Arch. Record , 1908-52... N. Y. 1975. d.w. (Sweeney #1971) 45.00

1279. — . THE LIVING CITY. N.Y. , 1958. Orig. ed. d.w.

With folding map of Broadacre City . (Sweeney#1218) 75.00 THK ARIZONA KKPUIll.IC Friday, Moy 17, 1085 Itn\ L e ga l maneuvers An involved procedure i& tGCQSsary v/fren a person whr> is fort iai* rotas D2 leaving propc/iy to tan individual wants fa ensuru th.it rc-'ativi Condo lio 03 }Mm u..7 rjt be o'uij to break Ita w.:i Real oo'.ato, 04. 04 p

,,^i-;^Vrc55»^ B -'? , ;*V =wjf»£"*s?

Frank Llo/d WftgM'B Imperial Hotel in Tokyo wo; dcsignod to bo cuitaolo (or Woatein vi3:lcro as woll 03 oolo to wimaland Japan's Ireqjenl earthquakes.

Frank Lloyd Wright built reputation with Imperial Hotel

Dy ANN PATTERSON pursuing an Interest in Japan. He quake struck the day the hotel opened. specific dates. That's, what my r^-earch U op»Wk I'.sM UM wantrd to design Tokyo*! new Imperial Uecmno Wright*! hotel survived the entails." Frank Lloyd Wright become an avid !c gen J Hotel. general dovefltatUB, he became a In Lha cjrly part of the crntury collector of Japan*-* prints after visit- Japan long had been closid to trade fclmrr,t ovrrni;;ht. Wright was perhaps best-known Japan for his ins w 1MB. , with the Imperial with the Wfit when forward-looking "Hii adventure crccntnr.iics, Lko wearing o Powing "At one time he owned ten* of CmpeCOf Meijo decided thr.t Tokyo's Hotel tvM like (he Arabian rVjjgftli lived black cape. thorn-and* of Japanese pr.nta,*' said aping Imperial Hotel, built of wood, out," Smith said. KaLhrya Smith, an architectural Wright first heerd of the impending histo- brick and plaster in 1830 in the style of Smith told the r'ory of the Iirperiol rian at the Cljs Art Invtitute, hotel project from Frederick Got kin, Parana the French Second Umpire, r-houJd b« Hotel during the fir->t in a lecture serif* 6chool of Design. l.oa Anrelea. curator of Japancaa art et the Art supplemented with cnothcr h'jstelry. sponsored by the Hofto flranch Library

"At one point it was • Inautute of Chic^-jo. Cookin end thought that The new ho'xl was to be a place of the Arimna State Unmntily CoUrgS moot JapsnaH prints in Wright were friends, linked by LKcir America had where Westerner* could stay Comfort- of Architecture. I-*rt>rtJ hit common bUcrott in Jjipaneao (innta, through hand*." ably. Hit paper ehrorsiclin* the hotels The architect rrputrdly ipinl about SnufJ\aoid. Wright was awarded the Imperial ago will be published nut month in I125.0CO buying print* between l'ill Hotel ramimaajon in 191J and 10 years H\t Art IiutUtin. Cockln commended Wright (.) Aii- and 1918, hopm* Ui profit by reviling latci fiui bed the 4UG room. H-shaped She t.i. d Wn.'ht wrote ettensivaly aku Hoyaahi, g(.noral manager of the Kathryn Smith tht-m m the I mud Ma t

time. They noted that the Annapo- The Imperial Hotel's decode-long lis class members would arrive in birthing process was fraught with Tokyo in 1,000 days; they would bs difficulties: greeted with 1,000 bottles of cake;. Continued from Dl Between 309 and 3,030 Japa-. and thai the hotel board cf direc- MM workers labored on the job site eld Imperial Hotel. Hayashi had tors had hired 1,000 workers to rush at different times. No matter how been looking for to design the hotel to completion. someone large tha eftws, however, progress' a hotel suitable for Westerners end . The hotel, completed at a cost of prccecded at a snail's pace. that could withstand Japan's fre- around $4 million, finally wan ready •The supervising board cf direc- quent earthquakes. on Sept. !, 1923. tors resigned in mars, ritually cost But at 11:53 a.m. — two minutca The wsa to be about taking blame for delay} and cost 03 '/> million, Jot of before official opening ceremonies a money far the overruns. (The board biter wa3 time, said. were scheduled to begin — one of Smith reconstituted with the director.' Japan's worst earthquakes hit. The job virtually in hand, Wright son3.) railed for . "It probably registered about Japan in 1913 to hire oThe original Imperial Hotel workers end investigate the site. and an annex Wright designed jCn the ilichtcr scale," Smith raid, The new hole! would be located burned down, putting additional although this measure of the sever- the near old imperial Hotel adjoin- pressure on Wright to hurry. ity of earthquakes hud not yet been ing Hibsya Park. ©Critics complained that Wright invented. borc3 coil Test revealed that the Asked for too much ornamentation. The ground shook, fires burned, was alluvial 8 feet down and below They said the swimming pool he tand hot gusty winds blew. that water. was wanted as a water source to control I "The Imperial Hotel ete-ad with "Originally, the whole orea was the fire3 that usually followed very little damage," Smith said. under water. It was part of Tokyo! earthquakes was unnecessary. "Flank Lloyd Wright was hailed ca Bay," Smith said. Canals laced the; a The climate's damp chill and a hero." area like those in much Venice, Wright's seven sailings to Japan In Lha crisis, the Imperial Hotel Italy. wore him down. "Each trip f-r,£cd war. uswl as n haven (for refugees .Wright eorved the earthquake 15 days from Yokohama to Vancou- rite? other buildings collapsed. problem and the question of en, ver or San Francisco by steamship," Citizens hauled water from (he uncertain foundation in a manner Smith said. : swimming pool to quench fires, juat since hailed as little short of genius. © In 1914 the architect suffered a ca Wright had planned. His answer, inscribed en con- great personal tragedy. His female Closing her talk, Smith recited struction plans: "Floor clabs were companion cf several years, Mamah Wright's thoughts about (he hotel. balanced over the central cupports Borthwick Cheney, heir two chil- "My experience in the building cl" as n tray rests en a waiter's fingers.''. dren, and four others were hacked •the great building in Japan baa Wright specified that the hotel, end burned to death when a servant ,taught me hew difficult of realiza- should bn built in a combination of went berserk at Taliesin, Wrights tion the ideal in Architecture u . . traditional and mate-j contemporary school in Spring Green, Wi3. S "I rculiza how inadequate my rials — brick, lava end reinforced As the hotel's opening ap- superintendence lias always been — concrete. proached in 2923, newspapers how rash 1 was to aim co high, and He personally drew intricate laarncd that a high-ranking Japa- how much my clients iV:d Lo give in decorations for the exterior walls, nese military officer bad invited his patience and forbearance to get tha creating {he designs on paper in the] 3 £81 U.S. Naval Acaritmy graduat- thing which in the beginning they morning while craftsmen executed; ing clas3 to convene at the new did nut really want ~ perhaps." them that name afternoon. "He said Imperial Hotel. • The Imperial Hotel was demo!-.

he felt like little . a boy in a . Journalists had a field day con- ashed in 1968 to make room for new bakeshop," Smith said. i! verting the event into u race against construction. - «

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IN 12 VOLUMES

The buildings and designs of America's most renowned architect are now lavishly presented in their entirety for the first time. Produced through the cooperation of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and A.D. A. Edita Tokyo Publishers, THE COMPLETE WORKS are edited and photographed to the exacting standards of Yukio Futagawa, Editor of "Global Architecture."

Each volume: 12"xl2", 300 + pp, 100's of photogravure and color illustrations with the writing and commentaries of Mr. Wright. Prices: Vol 12: $119.50; Vols. 1-11: $75.00 each; the set: $995.00 (lowest in North America).

Vol. 12: IN HIS RENDERlNGS-FLW's 200 finest renderings-will be available early

December 1984. Volumes 1-1 1 then follow at 2-month intervals. (We expect demand to far exceed availability).

VOLUMES:

Articles

OBSERVATIONS ON THE MONA LISA LANDSCAPE WEBSTER SMITH 183

This article reviews the interpretation of the Mona Lisa nardo's notebooks concerning the "similitude" of the ter- landscape as a representation of the body of the earth, or restrial body to the human body are reconsidered, and the macrocosm, corresponding to the portrait figure as micro- suggestion is offered that Leonardo reiterated this compar- cosm. The main questions taken up are whether Leonardo ison here in pictorial form much as a writer might use a himself meant that the picture should be given such a read- rhetorical device, a simile or metaphor, for decoration.

ing, and, if so, why. Well-known statements from Leo-

16th-Century Architecture and Mathematics THE NEW SACRISTY OF SAN LORENZO BEFORE MICHELANGELO HOWARD SAALMAN 199

This paper reproposes the question of whether Michelan- story and the exterior of the sacristy, and of published and gelo began the New Sacristy of San Lorenzo ex novo or unpublished documents leads to the conclusion that a mau- whether he inserted his design into a preexistent structure soleum-sacristy project, initiated around 1490 for Lorenzo

on the site. Examination of the urban topography around il Magnifico and attributable to Giuliano da Sangallo, was the western end of San Lorenzo after 1400, of the basement absorbed into a slightly wider Michelangelo sacristy design after 1519.

JUAN DE HERRERA S DESIGN FOR THE FAqADE OF THE BASILICA OF THE ESCORIAL CATHERINE WILKINSON 229

Juan de Herrera (ca. 1530-1597), architect to Philip II, is the first reconstructing the intended mathematical relationships most famous Spanish classicist of the sixteenth century, and from Herrera's notations for dimensions, relating these to

his architecture, the Escorial (1563-1584) in particular, is building technique, and finally comparing what was in-

renowned for its geometric simplicity. The article seeks to tended to the actual building. The practical importance of demonstrate the practical relevance of harmonic propor- proportion which emerges supports the significance of the tions through analysis of the main facade of the basilica, theoretical tradition described by Wittkower.

POLITICS AND PROPAGANDA IN THE SAGRADA FORMA BY CLAUDIO COELLO EDWARD J. SULLIVAN 243

Claudio Coello's Sagrada Forma altarpiece in the sacristy of a number of courtiers whose intrigues threatened to de-

of the Escorial represents the last Spanish Hapsburg king, stroy the stability of the monarchy. Its imagery underlines

Charles II, adoring a miraculous host. Its symbolic content, the strength of Hapsburg piety and its long history of gen- however, goes beyond the mere description of an act of erous art patronage. The Sagrada Forma (1685-1690) was eucharistic worship. The original reason for the picture's the last major commission given to Coello, who died in creation was to serve as an expiatory measure for the sins 1693.

Buildings Around the World by Ramee, Sullivan, and Wright JOSEPH-JACQUES RAMEE'S FIRST CAREER PAUL VENABLE TURNER 259

The architect Joseph-Jacques Ramee (1764-1842) had an un- langer and Cellerier, and of his first designs. Recently dis- usually international career for his period. Trained in covered drawings by Ramee and other documents allow the France, he worked also in Germany, Denmark, the United identification of his earliest constructed buildings, including States, and Belgium, and introduced into these countries a house in Paris occupied by Mme. Recamier in the 1790's,

some of the most advanced ideas of the age in architecture, which is Ramee's only known surviving work in France. interior decoration, and landscape design. Little has pre- Also examined are Ramee's work for William Beckford and

viously been known about Ramee's early work, before the his contribution to the first great ceremony of the French

Revolution forced him to flee France in 1793. This article Revolution, the Fete de la Federation. reconstructs the story of his training with the architects Be- adler & Sullivan's pueblo opera house: city status for a new town in the rockies LLOYD C. ENGELBRECHT 277

The Opera House in Pueblo, Colorado, designed by Adler buildings. Its dates of design, more information about the & Sullivan, completed in 1890 and destroyed by fire in 1922, visits of both partners to Pueblo, and other particulars are has been one of the firm's least understood works. This provided, and little-known illustrations of the building are

article establishes that it was the centerpiece of a local cam- reproduced, all of which facilitates understanding of the paign to encourage the construction of substantial masonry place of the Opera House in the oeuvre of Adler & Sullivan. THE ART BULLETIN

A Quarterly Published by The College Art Association of America

June 1985 Volume LXVII Number 2

16th-Century Architecture and Mathematics, Buildings Around the World by Ramee, Sullivan, and Wright, and other themes

The Art Bulletin (ISSN-0004 3079) is published quarterly by the College Art Association of America, Inc., 149 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016. Printed by Intelligencer Printing Co., Lancaster, Pa. Second class postage paid at New York, N.Y. and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to the College Art Association, 149 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016.

The Art Bulletin is available only through membership, open to individuals and institutions, in the College Art Association of America. For information about membership and back issues, write CAA, 149 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016. The contents of The Art Bulletin is recorded in The Art Index, Arts and Humanities, and R1LA.

THE PUEBLO OPERA HOUSE 295 supervising architect for the United States Government. Bibliography Aiken had once worked in the office of Henry H. Rich- (1838-1886), 105 but in an apparent attempt to design ardson Adler, Dankmar, "The Paramount Requirements of a Large Opera House," a building that would harmonize with its distinguished Inland Architect and News Record, x, 1887, 45. neighbor, he chose to respond to its palazzo-like rather than , "Theatre-Building for American Cities," Engineering Magazine, its Richardsonian aspects. The two structures were very vn, 1894, 717-730, 815-829. similar in scale and massing, and the arches of the ground Favorini, Attilio, "The Last Tragedian: Robert B. Mantell and the Amer- story, as well as the masonry course at the fourth-floor sill ican Theatre," Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1969. level, were evidently planned by Aiken to harmonize with Gornick, John A., ed., A Century in Pueblo, 1871-1971; The First Na- similar features on Sullivan's building. tional Bank of Pueblo, Pueblo, 1971 (published by the First National Bank The other building is the Thatcher Building, which in- of Pueblo). cludes the present quarters of the First National Bank (now

Hall, Frank, History of the State of Colorado. . . , Rocky Mountain His- the Colorado National Bank-Pueblo). This was designed torical Company, Chicago, in, 1891. by the Chicago firm of Richard E. Schmidt, Garden & Mar- Historical and Descriptive Review of Colorado's Enterprising Cities, Their tin, and was completed in 1914. One of the partners, Hugh Leading Business Houses and Progressive Men, J. Lethem, Denver, 1893. M. G. Garden (1873-1961), had been briefly associated with Hitchcock, Henry-Russell, In the Nature of Materials: the Buildings of Sullivan, 106 and the building, lying just to the north of the Frank Lloyd Wright, 1887-1941 (1st ed. 1942), revd., New York, 1975. Post Office, separated by Fifth Street, paid homage to Sul- Morningstar, Freeman, compiler, Fifth Annual Report the Pueblo Board livan by using his current work as a point of departure. of of Trade Association, Reviewing the Trade and Commerce of Pueblo, There are ground-story arches which harmonized with Colorado, for the Year Ending Dec. 31, 1892, Pueblo, 1893. those of the Post Office and the Opera House, but the or- Morrison, Andrew, ed., The City Pueblo and the State Colorado, nament on the exterior and interior incorporates variations of of Geo. W. Engelhardt & Co., St. Louis and Pueblo, 1890. on the type of ornament that Sullivan was inventing for banks during the period when the Thatcher Building was Morrison, Hugh, Louis Sullivan, Prophet of Modern Architecture, New York, 1935. designed (Fig. 29). 107 Through these surviving neighbors, the grand old opera Schuyler, Montgomery, A Critique (with Illustrations) of the Works of Adler & Sullivan, D. H. Burnham & Co., Henry Ives Cobb (Great Amer- house of Adler & Sullivan still manages to preserve a ican Architect's Series, No. 2), Architectural Record, New York, 1895. ghostly presence (Fig. 30). University of Cincinnati Westermeier, Clifford P., Colorado's First Portrait; Scenes by Early Art- ists, Albuquerque, 1970. Cincinnati, Ohio 45221

105 H.-R. Hitchcock, The Architecture ofH. H. Richardson and His Times, 1956, 11-12. Cambridge, Mass., rev. ed., 1961, 211; L. Draper Hill, The Crane Library, 106 H. Allen Brooks, The Prairie School: Frank Lloyd Wright and His published by the Trustees of the Thomas Crane Public Library, Quincy, Midwest Contemporaries, Toronto, 1972, 50. Mass., 1962, 28-29; Henry F. Withey and Elsie Rathbun Withey, eds., 107 Gornick, 32, 44-49 et passim. Biographical Dictionary of American Architects (Deceased), Los Angeles, Frank Lloyd Wright and the Imperial Hotel: A Postscript

Kathryn Smith

Frank Lloyd Wright wrote so convincingly of the Imperial ners were initiated in imitation of European and American

Hotel in Tokyo that until now it has seemed unnecessary ways. In 1887, at the instigation of the Imperial govern-

to elaborate on his account. Valuable as it has proven to ment, a group of prominent businessmen was brought to- be, Wright did not concern himself with the dates and de- gether by two distinguished citizens, Ei'ichi Shibusawa tails necessary to weave together a historical sequence of (1840-1931) and Kihachiro Okura (1837-1928), for the pur- events. Important issues that have remained obscure in- pose of building Japan's first Western-style hotel. The site clude the preliminary discussions between Wright and the chosen was 15,000 square feet of leased land in the center hotel management; the sequence of events in design and of downtown Tokyo, close to the Imperial Palace. The construction including numerous delays, postponements, group formed a joint-stock partnership called The Imperial and crises; and the circumstances under which the building Hotel and capitalized it at 260,000 yen ($130,000). The was finally completed and Wright returned home. 1 The building was begun in 1888 under the supervision of two story of the Imperial Hotel is a dramatic one and when the German architects, but was completed by Yuzuru Watan- complete outline of events is revealed, Wright's achieve- abe of the construction office of the Home Ministry. 2 The ment emerges as even more remarkable than has formerly first guests were received in November, 1890. The three- been believed. story structure (Fig. 1) of wood, brick, and plaster, was The background for Wright's invitation to come to To- designed in the French Second Empire style. In addition to kyo can be found in the opening up of Japan to the West the guest rooms, the hotel included a ballroom, dining that had occurred during the late nineteenth century. The room, billiard room, lounge, smoking room, and reading arrival of Westerners, thanks to increased trade with both room. Until the opening of its successor thirty-two years

Europe and the United States, necessitated the provision of later, it was the most luxurious hotel in Japan and over suitable and comfortable accommodations of a type gen- time established itself as one of the leading social centers erally unavailable in Japan at that time. It was the ex- in Tokyo. pressed purpose of the then-emperor Meiji to encourage ties During its first years of operation, the hotel often re- with the West and as a result, numerous changes in man- mained unfilled. Although this was disappointing finan-

I like would to thank Mrs. Frank Lloyd Wright and the Frank Lloyd Wright becomes . . . There is even some confusion in the literature concerning Memorial Foundation for permission to reproduce and quote from un- the year in which the earthquake occurred." Reitherman, 45-46. This ar- published material by Frank Lloyd Wright, and Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer and ticle is intended as a chronology of historical events and as such does not the members of the Taliesin Fellowship for their assistance during my attempt a definitive discussion of the Imperial Hotel. Critical issues such research. With the exception of the Darwin D. Martin correspondence or as an analysis of the building's expressive form and detail and an expo- as otherwise noted, all letters to or from Wright quoted in this paper are sition of its structure require studies that could not be encompassed in from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. The Martin correspondence is this article. An evaluation of the building's structure is an especially com- owned jointly by the Department of Special Collections (M355), Stanford plicated matter. Most important, Wright's explanations of the structure University Libraries (hereafter Wright-Martin Papers, Stanford), and the have been challenged by contemporary engineers; see Reitherman, 42-46 University Archives (MS22), State University of New York at Buffalo and 70, and Bennett, 6. In addition, Wright acknowledged that changes

(hereafter Wright-Martin Papers, Buffalo). The collection is divided made on site during construction were so extensive that the surviving chronologically, SUNY-Buffalo holding originals dated 1902-1914 and drawings ho longer accurately reflect the structure as it was built. When Stanford those from 1915-1935. Photocopies of the other institution's orig- the building was demolished in 1967, detailed photographs of the structure inals are available at each location. My research was conducted at Stan- were taken. They are reproduced along with a Japanese text by Nobumichi ford. Robert Sweeney generously provided numerous unpublished cita- Akashi, Frank Lloyd Wright in Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, 1972. Conflicting tions gathered for a forthcoming revised edition of his Frank Lloyd Wright, data also exists as to who assisted Wright in the engineering. Although An Annotated Bibliography, Los Angeles, 1978. Both his book and the Wright as architect must be credited with the design, the involvement of citations from his continuing research have contributed invaluably to the others is in question. Among those who must be considered are Julius substance of this article. I am also grateful to Edgar Kaufmann, Jr.; Henry- Floto, a Chicago structural engineer (Floto, 122); Samuel A. Lewis, a Chi-

Russell Hitchcock; Virginia Kazor, Hollyhock House; Julia Meech-Pekarik, cago mechanical engineer (Bennett, 6); and R. M. Schindler, the Viennese Metropolitan Museum of Art; Carol A. Rudisell, Stanford University Li- architect, employed by Wright between 1918 and 1921 (Esther McCoy, braries; Ichiro Inumaru, Imperial Hotel; Jenny Wolfe Schwing; and Paul Five California Architects, New York, 1960, 167). However, because of

Hanle. the significant changes made on site, it is difficult to determine how much 1 building. to com- This was pointed out as recently as 1980 by Robert Reitherman writing any of these individuals contributed to the final And plicate it to assess the contribution in the A1A Journal, "It is symptomatic of this building's story that there matters further, would be necessary of Paul Mueller, the on-site builder, had extensive experience with are conflicting reports concerning such a basic point (as whether or not who the concrete similar soil conditions in Chicago. was reinforced) . . . The more one examines the story of the Hotel, 2 Imperial the more vague and contradictory the historical record The Imperial Hotel, 6. daily, the original purpose of the venture was more dip- lomatic than it was commercial. The hotel represented Japan's entry into the international community and as such served as an important symbol. In the years that followed, business gradually increased as the result of political events: the Sino-Japanese war (1894-95), the annexation of the Philippines by the United States (1902), and the Russo-Jap- anese war (1904-05). The result was an increased awareness of Japan in the West, and thus the flow of tourists as well as businessmen increased until, by 1906, the Imperial Hotel was in need of additional rooms. The hotel expanded by erecting the Annex, a two-story frame building containing forty rooms, directly behind the original building, and by acquiring an existing hotel, the Metropole, some distance away. In the next few years, transportation links were improved to Europe, with the Trans-Siberian railroad, and 1 Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, 1890, destroyed 1922 (photo: Impe- across the Pacific with the expansion of steamship lines. In rial Hotel) 1910, the Metropole could no longer function as a hotel and was closed. At this time the idea first arose of replacing the outmoded nineteenth-century Imperial Hotel with a new, larger, and more modern building. would work under reasonable terms he would be the first Frank Lloyd Wright was recommended for the job the one." 6 Gookin, who was at that moment in New York cat- following year. The person responsible for the introduction aloguing and mounting the Japanese art collections of the was Frederick W. Gookin, a prominent Chicago banker, Public Library and the Metropolitan Museum, immediately whose expertise in the field of Japanese prints made him sent off a letter to Wright with the good news. Gookin one of the nation's foremost authorities. 3 Gookin had noted that he presumed Wright would soon hear directly known Wright for some years, since their mutual passion from Hayashi, adding, "I sincerely hope this may lead to

7 for Oriental art, especially woodblock prints, brought them your getting the commission." It seems certain that Gookin, together frequently. In 1908, they had collaborated on an familiar with Wright's talents both as an architect and as exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago (Fig. 2)." Gookin a connoisseur of Japanese art, believed that he was on that served as curator; Wright designed the installation. basis the ideal person to design the new Imperial Hotel.

Gookin had heard about the proposal to construct a new "Somehow it seems to me that this would be a great op- building for the Imperial Hotel no later than the first half portunity to do a stunning thing," Gookin explained. 5 of 1911. He mentioned the job to Wright and inquired "Would it not be possible to retain the feeling and spirit of whether he would be interested. When Wright responded Japanese architecture and yet construct a building that favorably, Gookin sent off a long letter to Aisaku Hayashi, would be comfortable according to standards and require-

General Manager of the Hotel, informing him that he had ments of travellers from the rest of the world? If you would found the right architect for the job. By the beginning of do this you would build a building that would be an object October, Gookin had received a reply from Tokyo. "Many lesson to Japanese and Europeans and Americans alike. And 8 thanks," Hayashi wrote, "for your opinion of Mr. Wright. I believe it can be done."

I shall write him shortly after completing a rough plan ac- Wright's knowledge of and sympathy with Japanese art cording to my idea. If he would not be too radical and was a major reason why he had been proposed as the de-

3 Gookin, like Wright, was an amateur collector; however, after his re- many years. Hayashi, like Gookin and Wright, had a close connection tirement in 1900 he became a professional when he was hired by numerous with and abiding interest in Oriental art. He had served as the assistant collectors and museums in the Midwest and the East to curate their Jap- manager of the New York office of Yamanaka & Co., dealers in Japanese anese print collections. He worked closely with the well-known Chicago and Chinese art objects. It is not known when he began this position; collector Clarence Buckingham, and became the first curator of Japanese however, he left it in 1909 and returned to Japan where he became manager prints at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1913 when Buckingham gave his of the Imperial Hotel. "Manager of Hotel Resigns Position," Japan Ad- collection to that institution. Wright had sold prints to Buckingham some vertiser, April 20, 1922, 1. years before and Gookin had acted as Buckingham's advisor. (Who's Who 6 Hayashi's letter has not survived; this quotation appears in Gookin to in Chicago — The Book of Chicagoans, Chicago, 1926, 347; "F. W. Gookin Wright, October 6, 1911 . This letter seems to refute the widely cited con- Dies, Oriental Scholar," New York Times, January 19, 1936; Wright to jecture that Wright and Hayashi had known each other in New York. It Darwin D. Martin, December 2, 1910, Wright-Martin Papers, Buffalo. now seems likely that it was Gookin, rather than Wright, who had met 4 Kostka, 7. Hayashi at Yamanaka & Co.

5 There is no record of how Gookin became aware of the proposal to 7 Ibid. build a new hotel. It is possible that he had known Aisaku Hayashi for 8 Ibid. 298 THE ART BULLETIN JUNE 1985 VOLUME LXVII NUMBER 2

iting his Hiroshige prints. This occasion also marks the first appearance in print of Wright's ideas on Japanese woodblocks. 13 The news from Gookin regarding Hayashi's interest in him as a candidate for architect of the new hotel coincided almost exactly with Wright's permanent departure from Oak Park in 1911 and his move to newly built quarters at Spring Green, Wisconsin. His withdrawal had been prompted by his decision to leave his family to be free to live with Mamah Borthwick Cheney, an Oak Park woman with whom he had fallen in love. Between 1909 and 1910, he and Mrs. Cheney spent a year together in Europe. The 2 Frank Lloyd Wright, Installation of Japanese print exhibition publicity set off a wave of scandal that rocked both Wright's Art Institute of Chicago, 1908 (courtesy Art Institute) at practice and his family. While waiting to hear from Japan, he was completing his new home, Taliesin. Here he and signer of the new hotel. 9 Although his interest in Japanese Mamah Borthwick, who had returned to her maiden name art can be dated well before the turn of the century, it was after her divorce, were starting a new life together. not until about 1902 that he began to collect Japanese Wright was corresponding with the Imperial Hotel by prints. 10 And when Wright chose to make his first trip out- 1912; but discussion was postponed at the death of Em- side the United States in 1905, it was not to Europe as one peror Meiji on July 30. When communication resumed, it would have predicted, but to Japan. After an intense period was decided that Wright would go to Tokyo to discuss the of work, which was highlighted by the construction of two job in person, travelling with Mamah Borthwick. "I am major buildings in Buffalo, New York — the Darwin D. sailing for Japan tomorrow," Wright wrote Darwin Martin Martin House and the Larkin Administration Building — on January 10, 1913, "in search of the commission of con- Wright decided to take a long vacation to rest. He was sulting architect for the new Imperial Hotel, which the gov- accompanied by his wife, Catherine, and two former ernment is to build and operate. I have been in touch for clients, Mr. and Mrs. Ward Willits of Highland Park, Il- some time — almost six months. The Mikado's death post- linois. They embarked at Vancouver on February 21 aboard poned affairs and I now have the tip to come on. The build-

11 the Canadian Pacific steamship Empress of China. This ing is to cost seven million dollars — the finest hotel in the first trip lasted about three months. During their stay, they world. Of course I may not get it then again I may — it were to see Japan (Fig. 3) as it had been depicted in the would mean forty or fifty thousand dollars and a couple 14 prints of Hiroshige and Utamaro, before the rapid West- of years employment if I did — so wish me luck." ernization of the intervening decades. The Wrights re- While in Tokyo, Hayashi informed Wright of the returned on the Empress of India, disembarking in Vancouver quirements for the new building and showed him the site and returning to Oak Park on May 14, 1905. I2 As a result (Fig. 4), a rectangular plot of land contiguous to the old of this trip, Wright's status as a collector improved appre- hotel on the west and facing Hibiya Park on the east. 15 The ciably. While in Japan, he had taken the opportunity to property, adjacent to the Imperial Palace, was the location shop for prints of a quality and quantity unavailable in the of the residence of the Home Minister, which was to be United States. One year after his return, the Art Institute removed. During his stay, Wright drew up preliminary

acknowledged the importance of his collection by exhib- plans (Fig. 5), examined the soil conditions, and made sug-

9 13 It seemed also to have played a major part in Wright's securing the job Wright essay in Hiroshige: An Exhibition of Colour Prints from the for himself and in building support for his ideas. The fact that Hayashi Collection of Frank Lloyd Wright, Chicago, March 29, 1906.

and an influential Board member, Kihachiro Okura, all shared with Wright 14 Wright to Martin, January 10, 1913, Wright-Martin Papers, Buffalo. an interest in aesthetics, affected the character of the new hotel and as- 15 Prior to the 17th century, the entire area adjacent to the Imperial Palace sured its realization over the sometimes conflicting proposals of the more (at that time, the castle of the shogun) was under water. It was part of business-oriented board members. the so-called "Hibiya Inlet," an extension of what is today Tokyo Bay. 10 Wright to Martin, n.d. (ca. 1908), Papers, Wright-Martin Buffalo. Between 1590 and 1606, during the early stages of the settlement of the 11 Wright to Jane Porter, February 21, 1905. city, known then as Edo, the inlet was completely filled in and an elaborate

12 system of moats and canals was built throughout the region extending I am indebted to Donald Kalec of the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and out from the castle. These changes in the topography resulted in the dif- Studio for this information. The ship, the line, the place of origin, and ficult soil conditions which were to prove such a problem in the design the destination appeared on a portion of a packing crate used as a support and construction of the new building. Wright found eight feet of soil cov- under a piano placed in a wall of the playroom of Wright's Oak Park ering approximately sixty feet of liquid mud, which he nicknamed "cheese," house. Kalec confirms that this remodeling occurred prior to 1910. It is with ground water extending within two feet of the surface. I am grateful thus possible to conclude that this crate contained art objects that Wright to Henry Smith of the History Department of the University of California was shipping home on his return in 1905. The date was noted in the Oak at Santa Barbara for information on the site's history. Park Reporter - Argus, May 20, 1905, 4. . WRIGHT AND THE IMPERIAL HOTEL 299

gestions regarding building materials. 16 After a visit of about four months, he returned to the United States in May. "The planning of the Imperial Hotel is 'up to me' finally—," Wright announced to Martin on June 11 17 Wright's confident declaration ignored the formal steps that would involve another three years. Although Hayashi was di- recting the planning of the new building, he was subject to the final authorization of the Hotel's Board of Directors.

It was necessary for Wright to develop the preliminary plans to present to the Board for their final approval. During this stage, Wright received the large commission for the Mid- way Gardens; before this building was finished, he was engulfed in the greatest tragedy of his life, the murder of Mamah Borthwick and several others and a fire at Taliesin on August 15, 1914. Another year and a half would elapse

before final approval would be given for the hotel. It is likely that circumstances in Tokyo contributed to the delay, as well as Wright's own troubles. 3 Wright, photograph taken in Japan, 1905 (photo: Frank By 1915, a decision had been made that Hayashi would Lloyd Wright Home & Studio Foundation, Oak Park, Illinois) travel to the United States. The purpose of this trip seems

to have been twofold. It served as an opportunity for Hay- ashi to tour the best hotels in major American cities in order to refine the requirements for his new building. Secondly, Hayashi intended to stay at Taliesin for several weeks to they spent several weeks going over details of the plan. examine Wright's developed scheme thoroughly. While in Hayashi was pleased with what he saw and planned to re- the Midwest, Hayashi would be able to view a number of turn to Tokyo to present the drawings to the Hotel Board. 20 Wright's buildings firsthand. "As America has furnished Confident of approval, Wright informed Martin on Feb- most of the models from which the modern Japan has cop- ruary 28, "I am not going to Japan for at least a year and ied," Hayashi recalled, "and, moreover, as that country is then only for a few months at a time to keep in touch with

my second home, being the land where I spent my early the progress of the work — which will not start for ten or 21 years, it was but natural that I should seek in that land for twelve months at least." Hayashi and his party returned material for elaboration and completion of my plan. Ac- to Japan on March 25, departing San Francisco on the 22 cordingly I took an American trip with the result that I had Tenyo Maru, which docked in Yokohama on April 14. been enabled to observe and study most advantageously Despite Wright's predictions, he was preparing to leave plans and systems on which hotels in that country are built for Japan before the end of the year. After six years, the

and maintained. From the Pacific coast to the Atlantic I project was officially underway when the Board made a went through in every detail over the method and man- decision to accept Wright as their architect. 23 He was hon- agement of American hotels, which had given me a knowl- ored in Chicago at a banquet which also served as a fare- edge of inestimable value broadening my views and rip- well party; a few days later, Wright departed for Japan. He ening my plan." 18 was accompanied by Miriam Noel, his companion since The Japanese party, which was made up of Hayashi, his shortly after the Taliesin tragedy, and his son, John; they wife, Takako, and the Tokyo architect Tori Yoshitake, de- took an automobile with them, a Country Club Overland. parted for America by December 1915 or January 1916. 19 On December 28, 1916, they sailed out of Vancouver on By February, they had arrived at Taliesin (Fig. 6) where board the Canadian Pacific steamship Empress of Asia, for

16 This appears evident in a letter from Hayashi to Wright dated August, building. 1913, "Things must keep you quite busy, but hope something will come 19 "Hotel Man Returns From American Trip," Japan Advertiser, April 15, of the Hotel plan. Please see that the concrete facing exposed all sort of 1916, 10. The article notes that Yoshitake "is taking a big part in making weather such as we have in this part of the world will stand the test of the plans for the new hotel." It is probable that his role was confined to time, and is practical. I have been getting several inquiries from manu- the formulation of the program and perhaps to an interpretation of Jap- facturers in America to whom I have referred you. The ground question anese building methods and other practical matters. is not settled, but there is every hope of deciding before long." 20 Sherman Booth to Darwin D. Martin, March 1, 1916, Wright-Martin 17 Wright to Martin, June 11, 1913, Wright-Martin Papers, Buffalo. Papers, Stanford. 18 "An Acknowledgement," Hotel Monthly, xxiv, June, 1916, 82. I am 21 Wright to Martin, February 28, 1916, ibid. indebted to Robert Sweeney, who provided this obscure reference, which 22 "Social and General," Japan Advertiser, April 14, 1916, 5. clarifies the meaning of Wright's assertion that he received the Imperial 23 Hotel job after Hayashi had completed a tour in search of the ideal Booth to Martin, December 30, 1916, Wright-Martin Papers, Stanford. Booth notes that Wright had been paid $8000 for the preliminary drawings. 300 THE ART BULLETIN JUNE 1985 VOLUME LXVI1 NUMBER 2

5 Wright, Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, 1913-14, perspective (copyright Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, 1962)

Arato Endo and another Japanese draftsman who is recorded only as Tatsura. Wright was also becoming more

deeply involved in collecting Oriental art (Fig. 7), especially Japanese prints. His contact with Tokyo began about a year following his return from Europe and subsequent break with his old life in Oak Park. This was a period of increased financial crisis for Wright, who began to deal in prints to supplement his income. 4 Map of Imperial Hotel and surrounding In Japan he had greater area, Tokyo (drawing, Jenny Schwing; opportunities to purchase rare woodblock prints which he photo, author) could bring home to sell to collectors and museums. "I tried to increase my fee," Wright explained, "by mixing my brains with my money, buying things I knew the quality and value a thirteen-day crossing to Yokohama. 24 Upon their arrival of, — cheap — hoping to realize a good profit on them on January 9, 1917, they 26 were met at the dock by Hayashi, when I came back — ," who escorted them the eighteen miles to Tokyo. Throughout the teens and twenties, Wright used his ex- The purpose of Wright's visit was to begin preparations panding Japanese print collection as collateral to obtain for construction — to examine the site thoroughly, make substantial loans from rich former clients such as Darwin test borings, arrange for acquisition and manufacture of Martin and Francis Little, or simply as a source of income materials, and hire draftsmen to prepare working draw- from sales, to such collectors as William Spaulding of Bos- ings. Wright spent four months in Japan in 1917, and when ton or such museums as the Metropolitan in New York. His he was ready to return home in it April, was agreed that association with the Imperial Hotel brought him into con- John would stay behind. The preparation of the working tact with Hiromichi Shugio, who was a member of the Im- drawings would take place at Taliesin with the assistance perial government art commission. With his guidance of Japanese draftsmen. April On 21, Wright embarked at Wright was able to view prints the ordinary American col- Yokohama on the Canadian Pacific steamship Empress of lector would never see. On the negative side, however, as Asia, on a twelve-day sailing bound for Vancouver. He Wright's investment grew, often involving most of his com- arrived back at Taliesin on 17. 25 May mission from the hotel and, at times, more than his col- For more than a year Wright remained in the States pro- lector-clients had allotted, he became the victim of forgers ducing the working drawings, in addition to ongoing and who passed fakes on to him, or authentic prints that had new work at home. He was assisted during this phase by been surreptitiously reworked. During these years, Wright

24 "Here to Build Hotel," Japan Advertiser, January 10, 1917, 1; Wright, often departing shortly after the annual spring festivity, the Imperial Gar- 1946, 96-97; Wright (1932, 1943), 1977, 226. Wright preferred the Ca- den Party, held during the height of the cherry blossom season. "Social nadian Pacific Railway as his transportation to the Orient. He could take and General," Japan Advertiser, April 20 and 21, 1917. Returning on the a direct train between Chicago and Vancouver, which along with Seattle same ship was his fellow Chicago architect Howard Van Doren Shaw, and San Francisco, was one of the three West Coast departure points for who was completing a tour of China and Japan. "Tokyo Should Hold To Japan. In addition, the CPR steamships made the crossing faster than any Her Old Traditions in Architecture," Japan Advertiser, April 21, 1917, 1. other line, averaging ten to thirteen days at sea instead of fifteen to nine- 26 Wright to Martin, August teen. In addition to 20, 1922, Wright-Martin Papers, Stanford. Wright's obvious need to waste as little time as pos- For a discussion of sible, he also one aspect of Wright's activity as a dealer, see Julia suffered from seasickness. Ships departing from the north- Meech-Pekarik, ernmost ports such "Frank Lloyd Wright and Japanese Prints," Frank Lloyd as Vancouver or Seattle made faster time than those leaving from Wright at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1982, 48-56 and San Francisco. Wright preferred the faster route. idem, Frank Lloyd 25 Wright and Japanese Prints: The Collection of Mrs. Wright favored the months of February, March, and April in Tokyo, Avery Coonley, Washington, D.C., 1983, 3-11. WRIGHT AND THE IMPERIAL HOTEL 301

alternated among the roles of architect, recognized art collector, and major print dealer. In November, 1917, seven months after returning from his most recent trip to Japan, he was accorded an exhibition of his collection by the Arts Club in Chicago. The following summer, he was deep in negotiations with the Metropolitan Museum over the sale of a substantial group of prints. Over the next few years,

his activity as an art dealer would grow until it almost ri- valed his work as an architect. Amid the negotiations with the Metropolitan in 1918, 6 Takako Hay- Wright was booking passage for Japan. Plans had been ashi in living made in Tokyo to begin clearing the site at the end of Sep- room, Taliesin, 1916 (photo: tember, in preparation for construction which was to com- Frank Lloyd mence that fall. Opening-day ceremonies were scheduled Wright for two years later, in the fall of 1920. The building was Foundation) to be constructed with a combination of traditional and industrial materials — brick, stone, steel, and reinforced concrete. The structure was designed to respond to the difficult soil conditions and the threat of earthquake, an ev- erpresent danger in Japan. The design called for free-float- ing foundations consisting of rows of shallow concrete piles driven into the soft mud. The reinforced concrete slabs of the floors rested on the piles as a tray rests on a waiter's fingers. 27 The Company had capitalized the hotel at 2,000,000 yen, but an additional large sum was set aside for equipment and furnishings. 28 To begin supervision of the construction, Wright set sail from Seattle with Miriam Noel on October 30, 1918. They departed on board the Nippon Yusen Kaisha steamship Fushimi Mam, arriving in Yokohama eighteen days later, on November 17, amid Ar- mistice celebrations. 2'

The opening months of 1919 passed and construction still loomed far in the future. Although Hayashi announced in late February that building would commence "before the cherry blossoms have whitened the ground and been blown 30 away," at the end of May the site was still being cleared. Writing to Louis Sullivan in April Wright complained of the slowness that characterized work in Japan; but despite the lack of progress, he informed Martin in June that he had been working very hard for the past six months. 31 Per- haps the unfavorable conditions contributed to Wright's

becoming ill for three weeks in late July and early August with what he described as an "oriental malady."32 After re- covering from his illness and with construction at last underway, Wright returned to the United States in September. 7 Frank Lloyd Wright, Taliesin II, 1914-24, interior showing He had been away two months short of a year, and nu- Wright's Oriental collection, Spring Green, Wisconsin (photo: merous personal and professional matters were pressing at Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation)

27 Henry-Russell Hitchcock, In the Nature of Materials, The Buildings of Wright of November 4, 1918 that the names of Wright's assistants were Frank Lloyd Wright, 1887-1941 New York, (1942), 1973, 68. Fujikura and Endo. Arato Endo to R. M. Schindler, February 2, 1919, Santa 28 R. M. Schindler Collection, Art Galleries, University of California, "Soon Begin New Imperial Hotel," Japan Advertiser, September 19, Barbara. Frank Lloyd Wright, Letters to Architects, selected and with a 1918, 1. commentary by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, Fresno, 1984, 11. 29 "Social and General," Japanese Advertiser, November 16, 1918; Japan 30 'To Break Ground For New Hotel," Japan Advertiser, February 26, Advertiser, November 19, 1918. Although Wright employed the veteran 1919, 1; "Social and General," Japan Advertiser, May 31, 1919, 5. Chicago builder Paul Mueller as contractor, no mention has been found 31 of the date of his arrival in Tokyo. Wright's two Japanese assistants stayed Wright to Louis Sullivan, April 30, 1919; Wright to Martin, June 9, behind in the United States for six weeks touring the sights and visiting 1919, Wright-Martin Papers, Stanford.

Wright buildings, finally 32 departing from San Francisco on December 12 Wright to Martin, August 8, 1919, ibid. and arriving in Yokohama on the 29th. Louis Sullivan notes in a letter to 302 THE ART BULLETIN JUNE 1985 VOLUME LXVII NUMBER 2

home. One of the most important was the commission for was two stories high, containing about forty-nine rooms, a theater to be built in Los Angeles for the oil heiress Aline six suites consisting of a sitting room, two bedrooms, and Barnsdall. In July she had purchased a large site in Hol- a bath, and four similar suites, each with a penthouse-bed- lywood and was anxious for Wright to begin work on the room. In addition, there were lounges (Fig. 11) on both the plans and construction. He stopped over in Los Angeles first and the second floors. Wright, who had maintained between Seattle and Taliesin to meet with her. 33 Although rooms in the hotel, took the opportunity to design an apart- Barnsdall hoped that Wright had returned home to work ment for himself on the second floor in the northeast corner on her buildings, his first concern was leaving for the East (Figs. 12-16). "In my particular nook in Tokyo," Wright

Coast where he could sell a large group of Japanese prints recalled, "was a small living room with a fireplace — fire he had brought back. After dropping in on a former drafts- always burning — balcony filled with dwarf-trees and man, Antonin Raymond, in New York, and persuading him flowers, bedroom with balcony and bath, a small dining to come to work in Tokyo, Wright returned to Taliesin to room where meals were served from the hotel. All were on plan for Barnsdall's property. His stay was hectic, and after the main floor of the apartment. But a narrow stair led up only three months in the States, he was again sailing for from the entrance way to a commodious studio-bedroom

Japan. With Raymond and his wife and Miriam Noel, he built as penthouse above the roof. I slept there and had set boarded the Nippon Yusen Kaisha steamship Suwa Maru, up my drawing board where I could work disturbing no which pulled out of Seattle on December 16, 1919. After a one and tumble into bed when tired out."36 Several features stopover at Victoria, the boat docked in Yokohama on New of the building were novel. Electrical heating units, for in- Year's Eve. 34 stance, hung down low from the ceiling and radiated heat Upon arrival in Tokyo, Wright was immediately greeted into the room (Figs. 13-14). The bathrooms were especially with bad news. Just four days before his boat docked, the noteworthy for the wall-hung toilet, exposed pipes (which Annex of the 1890 hotel had completely burned to the could also serve as towel racks, the hot water pipe heating ground. 35 In addition to the obvious financial loss, the Ho- the towel dry), and handcrafted copper basin and bathtub tel was suffering from a desperate shortage of rooms. Al- (Fig. 16). most ten years had elapsed since the need for a new hotel Wright had not been back in Japan a month before he had arisen and the demand in 1920 was far greater than it was taken critically ill. His condition was so serious that had been in 1910. Although construction was at last un- his seventy-eight-year-old mother, Anna, decided to make derway, with the foundation well along, the work was be- the long Pacific crossing to be with him. She sailed out of hind schedule. In light of these considerations, the man- Vancouver on February 19 with Dr. Luff, a woman phy- agement decided almost immediately that the Annex would sician, on the Empress of Asia, arriving in Yokohama on be rebuilt as a modern facility. Wright was asked to execute March 2. 37 By the time of her arrival, the foundation of the the design. Speed in this instance was of the greatest im- new hotel had been finished. Although the completion date portance. The drawings (Figs. 8-10) were completed within was now pushed forward to 1921, the management was the first ten days of Wright's return. encouraged that the Annex was nearing opening day (Fig. When compared to the larger building that Wright had 17). On April 25, the first rooms were available for oc- been designing for seven years, the Annex was a simple yet cupancy. A tremendous effort on the part of the Wright elegant building. In conformity with its temporary pur- office (Fig. 18) had brought about completion within four pose, the Annex was constructed of wood frame and plaster months of the fire. 38 and was more reminiscent in its details of Wright's own By the spring of 1920 it was at last possible to predict a

Taliesin than the elaborately ornamented building under definite completion date for the new building (Fig. 19). It construction to the east. It was located just south of the was announced that the opening day would be November old hotel and was connected to it by a corridor. Square in 3, 1921, commemorating the birthday of the late Emperor plan, the building wrapped around an interior garden. It Meiji, under whose reign the plans for the structure had

33 Arato Endo to R. M. Schindler, September, 1919 (as in n. 29). Clarence working drawings. A bedroom in Wright's apartment (Room 113) is il- Thomas to Wright, September 27, 1919; Baraboo Weekly News, October lustrated in H. T. Wijdeveld, ed., The Work of Frank Lloyd Wright (1925), 9, 1919. New York, 1965, pis. 128-129. 34 Wright to Aline Barnsdall, December 9, 1919; Antonin Raymond, An 37 Anna Lloyd Wright to Jane Porter, February 19, 1920, Frank Lloyd Autobiography, Rutland, Vt., and Tokyo, 1973, 65; Japan Advertiser, Wright Foundation, Scottsdale, Arizona. Weekly Home News, February

December 31, 1919. 19, 1920; Japan Advertiser, March 3, 1920; "Tokyo Hotels Are Filled To

35 Capacity," Japan Advertiser, March 4, 1920. The Weekly Home News "Imperial Hotel Annex Goes Up in Smoke — Loss Placed At Over A mentioned that Wright's mother had intended to accompany him in De- Million Yen," Japan Advertiser, December 28, 1919, 1. it. 36 cember, but her health had not permitted Wright (1932, 1943), 1977, 227. It is not possible to be definite in de- 38 in n. Darwin scribing the completed Annex since no photographs have survived except Arato Endo to R. M. Schindler, April 27, 1920 (as 29). Martin wrote to Alfred MacArthur on April 22, 1920 (Wright-Martin Pa- of the interior of Wright's apartment. It is possible that changes took place pers, Stanford) that returned from Japan leaving Wright's during construction. For instance, details of Wright's apartment (Rooms Dr. Luff had there suffered a relapse. 111-13 on the second-floor plan), do not correspond exactly with the mother because he had WRIGHT AND THE IMPERIAL HOTEL 303

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8 Wright, Imperial Hotel Annex, Tokyo, 1920, elevations (copyright Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation 1982)

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9 Wright, Imperial Hotel Annex, Tokyo, 1920, first-floor plan (copyright Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation 1982)

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10 Wright, Imperial Hotel Annex, Tokyo, 1920, second-floor plan (copyright Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation 1982) 304 THE ART BULLETIN JUNE 1985 VOLUME LXVII NUMBER 2

11 Wright, Imperial Hotel Annex, Tokyo, 1920, lounge, de- 14 Studio-bedroom in Wright's apartment, destroyed 1923 stroyed 1923 (photo: Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation) (photo: Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation)

12 Wright, Imperial Hotel Annex, Tokyo, 1920, living room in 15 Studio-bedroom in Wright's apartment (photo: Frank Lloyd Wright's apartment, destroyed 1923 (photo: Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation) Wright Foundation)

13 Living room in Wright's apartment (photo: Frank Lloyd 16 Bathroom in Wright's apartment, destroyed 1923 (photo: Wright Foundation) Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation) WRIGHT AND THE IMPERIAL HOTEL 305

cepted the job, Wright believed that construction would take two years, of which only a few months would be spent in Japan. Instead, the two years had passed, most of which Wright spent in Tokyo, and only the foundation had been completed, leaving the greater part to be done. The de- mands of this schedule, including his numerous trans- oceanic voyages and accompanying bouts of seasickness, the unrelenting pursuit by Miss Barnsdall, who required his attention when he did return home, and his frequent trips to the East Coast to sell Japanese prints, were taking their toll. Wright longed to spend a restful summer in the

comfortable surroundings of his familiar Taliesin, but it proved impossible. Miss Barnsdall, feeling unfairly ne- ^3V'ilnl glected, was growing more impatient as the months passed. JU2=JUgj^ She believed that Wright had returned to the United States solely to work on her project and insisted that he come out to California to meet with her. Wright reluctantly left Wis- consin in August to spend a couple of weeks in Los An- geles. 41 At the end of his visit, Miss Barnsdall had more

than doubled the scope of her project, to include a self- contained theatrical community living and working on Ol- ive Hill. Her enthusiasm was now running high, and she KEY A. Imperial Hotel wanted all the plans completed and ready for construction "" B.Tle Am'x"" before Wright returned to in Back at C ..,„„,,»:,„ Tokyo November. DKibiye FWk Taliesin, while work proceeded on the Olive Hill drawings, Wright also spent part of his time meeting with buyers of 17 Map of site of Imperial Hotel buildings, Tokyo (drawing, Jenny Schwing; photo, author) Japanese prints. In October, a crisis occurred at Olive Hill, completely shutting down construction there, and neces- sitating another trip to California. Wright postponed his departure for Japan until December, giving the Barnsdall job as his reason. Conditions on Olive Hill were chaotic

and required his presence up until a few days before sailing. 42 After a demanding five and a half months in the States, Wright sailed out of Vancouver on December 16, 1920, accompanied by his assistant, William E. Smith, on the Empress of Asia (Fig. 20). At the same time he made arrangements to ship a Cadillac to Japan for his friend Hay- ashi. The boat docked in Yokohama twelve days later on 18 Aisaku Hayashi's party for Wright and his staff, Tokyo, December 28. 43 1920 (photo: Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation) Wright's final years in Japan were to prove increasingly difficult. During the more than two years since he arrived

to begin supervision, he had been ill both years and had 39 been initiated. With work underway on the superstructure spent the Christmas holidays away from home. It had been of the building, Wright was able to find time by the end seven years since the murders at Taliesin, which had pre- of June to return to the United States to attend to the ceded his relationship with Miriam Noel. Their life together

Barnsdall project. By July 1, he was back in Los Angeles continued his defiance of American social convention which for a week inspecting the progress on the initial phase of had begun with his break from Oak Park ten years before. construction on Barnsdall's own residence on Olive Hill. 40 His association with Miriar Noel was stormy and drain-

During the summer of 1920, the strain of the Imperial ing. The strain of these years is evident in a letter to his Hotel commission was becoming apparent. When he ac- daughter, Catherine, and her husband, Kenneth Baxter, on

39 "New Imperial Hotel Will Be Completed in November, 1921," Japan 28, 1920, and December 9, 1920; Aline Barnsdall to Wright, October 22, Advertiser, May 14, 1920, 4. 1920; Wright to Martin, October 31, 1920, Wright-Martin Papers, 40 Stanford. Memorandum by Wright, n.d. (ca. August, 1920); Baraboo Weekly News, July 15, 1920. 43 Smith's arrival was noted in "Social and General," Japan Advertiser,

41 December 30, 1920. Although no mention is made of Wright, it is safe to Wright to Martin, August 11, 1920, Wright-Martin Papers, Stanford. traveled together. Reference to Hayashi's Cadillac 42 assume he and Smith Sophie Pauline Gibling to parents, ca. October 20, 1920, ca. October was made by Wright in a letter to Schindler, June 23, 1921. OUO THE ART BULLtUN JUNfc 1V05 VULUMfc LAVll WUMWR z

19 Wright, Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, 1920, perspective (copyright Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, 1942)

February 7, 1921. "It was," he wrote, "a rather lonely "While the south wing of the new building may not be fin- Christmas and New Year's this year. Christmas and New ished on schedule time," the builder, Paul Mueller, pre- Year's used to be so lively and full of everything from candy dicted, "it is practically certain that unless unforeseen dif- to grief — that of late years I rather dread it for its lack of ficulties arise we will be able to turn over the main building little children. I hope all is going well — with the business and the north wing for the formal opening on schedule time. and the house. Particularly the house. Not many people We have 350 men at work on the building every day now, nowadays have one — or have the art of making one. and we expect to get the number raised to 500 before long.

Sometimes I think the good old fashioned house is a thing All we want now is to continue as the hotel is going at the of the past in America. ..." Of his life in Tokyo, he ex- present time; if we do we will be able to finish in good 45 plained, "I am never very well here but my Welsh ire will time." wear through — never fear. My work is very hard — in- Shortly after this announcement, Wright made plans to tense concentration and immense responsibility — I would return to the United States for a very short trip to supervise like to rest at Taliesin more than I have done these five the completion of the Barnsdall residence and two smaller years past. Especially has this last year been strenuous with houses from the master plan. The work had been proceed- the Los Angeles work coming in on the new Imperial work. ing for the past six months under the supervision of R.

Once upon a time I never could strike the bottom of my M. Schindler. Miss Barnsdall had gone off to Europe, turn- physical resources — but now I find that very grey hair ing her authority over to her business manager. She had and fifty-three years — indicate something that I will have grown highly suspicious and distrustful of Wright, and as to pay attention to — in this climate — which is the worst a result, she had left a check with strict instructions that it ."44 in the world I believe — would be the last. The buildings had to be completed within In spite of Wright's fatigue and the state of his spirits, the agreed-upon amount. Wright arrived in Los Angeles in he pushed on toward the scheduled date of the formal open- late May, and by early June he had departed for Wiscon- ing in the fall. In addition to the modern technology that sin. 46 He spent the first weeks of his return in a whirlwind was being used in the pouring of the concrete, extensive of telegrams between Los Angeles and Taliesin, attempting handicraft was going into the cut stone, which was being to get cooperation to finish the Olive Hill buildings. After carved on the site, making the area across from Hibiya Park taking out two weeks in early July to go to New York, one of the busiest places in Tokyo (Figs. 21-22). By the probably to sell Japanese prints, he returned to Los Angeles latter part of April, 1921, it was evident that some parts to oversee the finishing details on Olive Hill. Then, after of the building were much farther along than others, as this strenuous year of work in Tokyo and Los Angeles, work began on the third and final story of the north wing. Wright took his most leisurely trip across the Pacific. On

44 45 Wright to Catherine and Kenneth Baxter, February 7, 1921, from a pho- "Work Is Begun On Hotel's Top Story," Japan Advertiser, April 24, tocopy in the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia 1921. University. 46 vVright was at Taliesin by the second week of June. Sophie Pauline Gibling to parents, June 5, 1921; Wright to Schindler, June 19, 1921. WRIGHT AND THE IMPERIAL HOTEL 307

as the opening day passed and costs continued to rise. 49 On

no \o l M l BYES WHICH November 19, a couple of weeks after the anniversary of the late Emperor's birthday, Schindler wrote Neutra, "Well,

our trip to Japan fell through. Just received a letter from

Wright which says he is not willing to start much other work in Japan after the hotel. The climate makes him sick and the conditions are not particularly favorable. He writes that he will return in the spring and looks forward to starting something new here."50 The months between the passing of the scheduled opening and Wright's final departure were probably the most trying of his entire stay in Japan. Criticism of the new build-

ing's design and of Wright as its architect was mounting with delays continuing and costs rising. In addition to this

strain at the site, Wright was facing other personal and professional defeats in the fall of 1921. Work had come to a halt in Hollywood because Miss Barnsdall refused to pro- ' 'l HI- " EMPRESS O] PAl IFIC) ceed with the next phase of the master plan until Wright , is ibt miislf. completed his work in Japan and returned to America for good. He also had received a severe blow to his finances because of his dealings in Japanese prints. A telegram from thai the entire world is absorbed in this dominating necessity. New York had arrived informing him that the last group Machines will lead t<> .t new ordei both oJ work and oi leisure. of prints he had sold were almost worthless because they Entire cities have to be constructed, or reconstructed, in order had been reworked. As a result, Wright, eager to make rovide -\ minimum oi comfort, tor ii tliis is delayed too restitution, found himself in need of money. 51 He cabled long, there m.t\ he .i disturbance <>i the balance oi society. Miss Barnsdall to act magnanimously and settle his past- i\ is .in unstable thing and is cracking under the con- due fees. 52 fusion caused in fiftj years oi progress which have changed The strain between Wright and the Hotel Board in the the i.tee ol the world mote than the List six eetituries have opening months of 1922 was at its height. Various members done. were suggesting that details of the building should be elim- 'I'lie time is ripe tor construction, not lor foolery. inated to lower the cost and speed the completion. Wright

20 Empress of Asia, ill. in Le Corbusier's Vers une architecture, received strong support from Hayashi and, more impor- 1st ed. 1923 (written between 1917 and 1922) tant, from Baron Okura, a rich and influential member, who was in sympathy with the design; but the worst was yet to come. On April 16, 1922, the first Imperial Hotel July 30, 1921, he and Miriam Noel departed from San Fran- burned to the ground. The damage included the death of cisco on the maiden voyage of the Pacific Mail steamship one guest, destruction of property totaling one million yen, Empire State, stopping in Honolulu and arriving in Yo- and with the exception of the limited facilities of Wright's kohama on August 15. 47 Annex, the loss of the Hotel's accommodations and ser- As November 3 approached, the date of the scheduled vices. Speculation immediately began to circulate that the formal opening in Tokyo, it was apparent the hotel Imperial Hotel would close. "I expect to have the entire new would not be ready. Schindler, Wright's assistant in Los building completed and ready for occupancy by May 15,"

Angeles, was waiting to hear whether Wright would tell Wright declared immediately, "but if the necessary help can him to come on to Tokyo. In October, the month he was be procured it may be possible to finish one wing of the to leave, Schindler reported to his friend Richard Neutra building within two weeks." 53 that "... the work was interrupted after the completion The day after the fire the Hotel Board met and came to ," 48 of the first part. . . Tension was mounting at the Hotel some hard decisions. They moved to put major effort into

48 Esther McCoy, Vienna to Los Angeles: Two Journeys, Letters Between 1982 (as in n. 26), 54-55, places this incident in 1920; however, a letter R. M. Schindler and Richard Neutra, Santa Monica, 1979, 137. from Sophie Pauline Gibling to her parents, November 11, 1921, pinpoints

49 it in 1921. One writer maintains that costs were climbing due to corruption on the part of the Japanese. Kirishiki, 135. 52 Wright to Schindler, September 12, 1921; Wright to Barnsdall, Septem-

50 ber 12, 1921. At exactly the same moment, Louis Sullivan a des- McCoy (as in n. 48), 138. made perate request for a cash loan. Despite his own situation, Wright sent 51 Antique Japanese woodblock prints were printed with some "fugitive" Sullivan $200. Sullivan to Schindler, September 8, 1921, in McCoy (as in dyes or colors that fade easily when exposed to light. The rarity and value n. 48), 147. of these prints are partly determined by the brilliance of their color. A 53 "Imperial Hotel Burns — One Person Dead," japan Advertiser, April New York collector, Howard Mansfield, had informed Wright that the 1922, 1. color in the prints he had purchased had been "improved." Meech-Pekarik, 17, 308 THE ART BULLETIN JUNE 1985 VOLUME LXVII NUMBER 2

pushing the new hotel through to completion. By that time, for a large section of the new Imperial Hotel will be com-

Wright had revised his prediction and now stated that the pleted, furnished and carefully swept. ... It will have north wing and central section would be open on May 25. been 1,000 hours from the time the Henderson cleared Furniture for the rooms was practically finished, plumbing the Hampton Roads when she docks at Yokohama at

had been installed, and the carpets had arrived and were noon tomorrow . . . Although the lobby, dining room, ready to be laid. All rooms in the central section were nearly many bedrooms and some other parts of the hotel will

complete except the kitchen and the banquet hall. High- be completed . . . , Mr. Wright sees the unfinished work

power electric lights were being installed on the site so that and regrets it. That the efforts of the workmen are ap- work could continue night and day, and the work force preciated will be shown tonight when the hotel man- was being at least doubled in size. The Board had decided agement is to be their host at a dinner on the roof of the to close the Hotel, but guests still in the Annex requested new building. A thousand bottles of sake will be drunk 54 that it remain open. to the honor of the new Imperial Hotel. . . . The dinner A few days after the fire, both of Wright's strongest sup- will take the place of the joto-shiki, a Shinto ceremony porters on the Board resigned. Baron Okura as President which should be held when the roof is erected over any and Hayashi as Manager explained that they felt obligated building put up in Japan. 57 to assume responsibility for the damage to the hotel and

its guests. Refusing to allow just two members to be singled On July 2, 1922 the north wing and the partially com- out, the entire Board resigned. By the first week of May, pleted central section of the hotel opened as scheduled. The an entire new Board had been elected, composed primarily new manager, H.K.S. Yamaguchi, credited the accomplish- of the sons of the former members. Hayashi's resignation ment to Wright. Although a number of the public rooms as Manager had been accepted, but he had been asked to and the entire south wing remained closed, Mueller esti- continue to supervise the completion of the new building mated that they would be completed in six weeks. This and the continuation of service in the Annex until a re- work could be done under Arato Endo's supervision, since placement could be hired. He and Okura and the former the south wing was a duplicate of the north. Wright made members of the Board were asked to join an advisory board. plans to return home, with the expectation that Mueller A new opening date, July 2, 1922, had been set to accom- would follow in August at the completion of the remainder modate the reunion of the class of 1881 of the United States of the building. After a number of tributes and ceremonies Naval Academy. 55 (Fig. 23) which Wright recalled movingly in his autobiog-

During this crisis, another dramatic event took place to raphy, he and Miriam Noel left Yokohama on the Pacific alter opinions regarding the new building. On April 26, ten steamship President McKinley on July 22, 1922. They ar- 58 days after the fire, Tokyo was struck by the most severe rived in Seattle via Victoria, B.C. on August l. Wright earthquake in thirty years. Wright, working in the north would never see Japan again. wing at the time, ran out at the sound of a crash. Fearing A few weeks after reaching home Wright reflected on that the large banquet hall section had collapsed, he what surely must have been one of the greatest adventures emerged to see that the brick chimneys of the old hotel, of his life. "My experience in the building of the great build- left standing in the charred ruins, had fallen. 56 With the new ing in Japan," he wrote his friend and former client, Darwin building completely intact, Wright's design had faced its Martin, "has taught me how difficult of realization my ideal

test and survived. in Architecture is. I had to come to close grips with every- The final days leading up to the arrival of the Annapolis thing in the field as the whole affair including furniture was

class of 1881 were unequalled in Japan in speed of con- made by my own workmen 'on the job.' I realize how in-

struction. The day before the opening, it was reported that, adequate my superintendence has always been — how rash

I was to aim so high and how much my clients had to give A thousand workmen for a thousand hours are to win in patience and forebearance to get the thing which in the their race against an American Navy transport, a race beginning they did not really want — perhaps."59

in which the distance is not physical, but that of time, Although separated by thousands of miles and an ocean,

54 58 "Imperial Hotel May Use Limited Annex Facilities," Japan Advertiser, "Enthusiastic And Cordial Welcome Is Given Members Of U.S. Naval

April 18, 1922, 12. Class Party," Japan Advertiser, July 3, 1922, 1-2; "Opening Tiffen Served 55 In Hotel Advertiser, July 4, 1922, 2; "Hotel "Manager of Hotel Resigns Position," Japan Advertiser, April 20, 1922, New Dining Room," Japan Architect Will Sail For U.S. 22," Advertiser, July 20, 1922, 1. 1; "Hotel Board Quits Because of Blaze," Japan Advertiser, April 21, 1922, July Japan spent in is still open to question. In a 1 and 10; "New Board Elected For Imperial Hotel," Japan Advertiser, May The amount of time Wright Japan letter to Martin his return, August 20, 1922, he states that he spent 9, 1922, 1. It has been speculated that Okura and Hayashi resigned be- on fifty-one months in evidence accounts for thirty-nine months cause the Hotel was on the verge of closing because of delays in the con- Japan. My additional months in 1905 and 1913 struction of the Wright building. Kirishiki, 136. between 1916 and 1922, with an seven total forty-six. had written in 1932 that he had spent 56 for a of However, he "Four Persons Dead; Million Yen Damage is Caused By Quake," Japan one thousand and nine days in Tokyo which equals thirty-three and a Advertiser, April 27, 1922, 1; Wright (1932, 1943), 1977, 244. half months. Wright (1932, 1943), 1977, 248. 57 "Thousand Men Win 1000-Day Race In Building Hotel Wing," Japan 59 Wright to Martin, August 20, 1922, Wright-Martin Papers, Stanford. Advertiser, July 1, 1922, 1. WRIGHT AND THE IMPERIAL HOTEL 309

21 Wright, Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, in construction, 1921 (photo: Imperial Hotel) 23 Wright and staff in front of Imperial Hotel, 1922 (photo: Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation)

J F M A M J J A S N D

H— 1916

1917

1918

1919

1920 :

1921

1922

24 Chart of Frank Lloyd Wright's time in the United States and (drawing, Jenny Schwing; photo, author) 22 Wright, Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, in construction, 1921 Japan (photo: Imperial Hotel)

Wright remained committed to the fate and reputation of livan's article in the Architectural Record; but as the months the Imperial Hotel. He was outraged when he read "A passed, Wright, who had moved to Los Angeles to establish 61 Building That Is Wrong" by the San Francisco architect a new practice, became involved in his work. Louis Mullgardt, which appeared in the November Archi- Instead of six weeks, the completion of the south wing tect & Engineer. For seven pages, Mullgardt itemized the took over a year. The occasion of the opening of the entire points that led him to conclude that Wright's design was building was to be celebrated on September 1, 1923 at an "... a monstrous thing of supposedly antique influence, official luncheon arranged by the new manager, Tetsuzo but really prehistoric in plan, design, structure, decoration Inumaru. The time had come when it would be possible to and state of decay." In summation, he declared, "The errors determine whether Wright's building would succeed or fail.

are so numerous and flagrant that it may be said this struc- Ironically, opening day and the most important day in the ture should never have been built."60 Wright remained con- history of the building were one and the same. Just a few cerned, as he wrote to Louis Sullivan in March, 1923, that minutes before the luncheon, Tokyo was hit by the Great the Hotel should receive critical support in architectural Kanto Earthquake, the most severe Japanese earthquake in magazines which could be sent on to Japan to influence the twentieth century. Within the next twenty-four hours, opinion. He mentioned that he was looking forward to Sul- the city was subject not only to continuous after-shocks,

60 Louis Christian Mullgardt, "A Building That Is Wrong," Architect b perial Hotel, Tokyo, Japan," Architectural Record, mi, April, 1923, 332- Engineer, lxxi, November, 1922, 81 and 86. 52. Kameki Tsuchiura, a former draftsman in Wright's Tokyo office, joined

61 him in Los Angeles in 1923. Wright to Sullivan, March, 1923; Louis Sullivan, "Concerning the Im- 310 THE ART BULLETIN JUNE 1985 VOLUME LXVII NUMBER 2

but fires, flashes of light, unexplainable gusts of wind, and worthy of special mention?" Wright wrote, "The Imperial changes in the oxygen content of the air caused by the mas- Hotel of Tokyo, Japan and 176 other Buildings of Note."63 sive and violent conflagration that followed the quake. Although the Imperial Hotel suffered some damage, none Otis Art Institute of of the dire predictions of its critics came true. The building Parsons School of Design/ stood and almost immediately became the unofficial center New School for Social Research for emergency relief. In the weeks that followed, the hotel Los Angeles, CA 90057 served as a home for refugees, dispensed free meals to thousands of homeless, and became the headquarters for foreign embassies, public utilities, and the Japanese press. Within a matter of days, the hotel became an object of praise for Bibliography Japanese and foreigners alike and Wright was hailed as its architect. 62 Bennett, Richard M., "Letters," A. LA. Journal, ixx, 1981, 6. effect earthquake that almost One immediate of the was Drexler, Arthur, ed., The Drawings of Frank Lloyd Wright, New York, all means of communication was cut off between Tokyo, 1962. Yokohama, and the rest of the world. Some information Floto, Julius, "Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, Japan," Architectural Record, lv, was being relayed by the Japanese press to foreign news- 1924, 119-23. papers. Wright read about the earthquake in Los Angeles. Inumaru, Tetsuzo, "The Imperial Hotel in an Emergency" (Tourist, 1924), hotel destroyed, but It was reported that the had been Japan Advertiser, January 24, 1924, 3. Wright refused to believe it. Finally, on September 13, the Izzo, A., and C. Gubitosi, Frank Lloyd Wright, Drawings, 1887-1959, legendary telegram arrived from Baron Okura assur- now London, 1972. ing him that the hotel had survived. It was followed shortly James, Cary, The Imperial Hotel: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Architec- after by one from Hayashi which read, "Imperial stands ture of Unity, Rutland, Vt., 1968. square and straight. Congratulations." Kirishiki, Shinjiro, "The Story of the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo," Japan Ar- In the months that followed, Wright gained a measure chitect, No. 138, 1968, 113-38. of fame as a result of the dramatic events in Tokyo. The Kostka, Robert, "Frank Lloyd Wright in Japan," Prairie School Review, experience of the Imperial Hotel had brought him wide- in, 1966, 5-23. spread public recognition for his work as an architect, not Raymond, Antonin, An Autobiography, Rutland, Vt., 1973. for the intimate details of his personal life. Although it was probably not until the publication of Fallingwater thirteen Reitherman, Robert King, "The Seismic Legend of the Imperial Hotel," years later that Wright would receive the national attention A.l.A. Journal lxix, 1980, 42-46 and 70. he was seeking, the Imperial Hotel and the Kanto earth- The Imperial Hotel, "The Imperial Story — 90th Anniversary Issue," Im- quake did what the Wasmuth portfolio had not. After years perial, Tokyo, 1980. of being ignored by the Chicagoan A.N. Marquis, the com- Tiltman, Hessell, The Imperial Hotel Story, Tokyo, 1980. piler of Who's Who in America, it was only a few months Wright, Frank Lloyd (1932, 1943) 1977, An Autobiography, New York. after the earthquake that Wright received notice that he

, 1959, Drawings a Living Architecture, New York. was to be included. On the form requesting information, for in answer to the question, "What have you done that is Wright, John Lloyd, My Father Who Is On Earth, New York, 1946.

62 "The Imperial Hotel In An Emergency by T. Inumaru," Japan Adver- York, 1962, 118-20, 141-45.

tiser, January 24, 1924, 3; Noel F. Busch, Minutes to Noon, Two New 63 The Kelmscott Gallery, Frank Lloyd Wright, Chicago, n.d., 55. RANK LLOYD WRIGHT CAN BE CELE- brated as a great maker of flowing space, or as a bold experimenter in new building technologies, or as a crusader who sought to bring the values of architecture within reach of the common man. Wright, the protean genius of 20th-century architecture, was all of those people. Even more, though, he was an architect who sought out the underlying nature of a place and who struggled to express that nature in a way that would be altogether his own. There is no better example of this than the series of houses Wright designed in the early 1920's in Los An- geles, a city he lived in sporadically during the unset- tled years between a tragic fire in 1914 at Taliesin, his home in Wisconsin, and the late 1920's. Wright

was uOtu &iUdCtSu aiiu lt.p6 : itil» U~y i.oj AXlg&iiiS', _iO considered the city wildly eccentric, but he loved its

landscape and reveled in the sense of freedom it offered from the rigidity of the East Coast and the Mid- dle West. The house Wright designed for John Storer in 1923, set into the lower reaches of the Hollywood hills, has always been among the great treasures in Los An- geles's remarkable heritage of residential architecture. But it is now more important still: its current owner, Joel Silver, a film producer, has just completed an elaborate and painstaking restoration, making this not only the most carefully reworked Wright house in Los Angeles, but among the most perfectly restored Wright houses in the United States. The house is one of four that Wright designed in a system of hollow, precast concrete blocks that he invented for Los Angeles, but hoped could serve as a model for similar systems elsewhere. Wright envi- sioned the system as workable both for grand man-

sions and for modest houses, and indeed it was: the blocks couid ie easily and cheaply reproduced and House is Top: When Frank Lloyd Right: The recent could be combined into either large or small struc- ripdations Wright's Storer House was restoration by owner tures. The trademark of each of these houses was not ugha completed in 1923, it Joel Silver makes the the plain blocks that made up most of the structure, s, one of stood almost alone against concrete-block facade of however, but the perforated blocks that gave a special decorative geometric pattern to each house. small the landscape of the the house look virtually The system yielded one sprawling house, the Ennis Hollywood hills. as it dkJ in 1923. House high over Hollywood; the gentle and gracious Millard House, the first concrete-block house, in Pas-

adena ; the small Freeman House, also in Hollywood, and still in the hands of the widow of its original owner, and the Storer House. The Ennis House is the grandest, and the Millard House, as the first of the series, is historically the most important, but in many ways it is the Storer House that is the most appealing. It was in the Storer House that so many of Wright's ideas, not only about technology, but about space and form and about the nature of Los Angeles, all came together. The Storer House is set neatly into the hillside above Hollywood Boulevard, on a site that was rustic and undeveloped in the 1920*s but that soon became as dense as an overgrown suburb. Wright piled the blocks into a series of small terraces that mount up the hillside and serve as a base for the main structure, in which the blocks are stacked into high piers, lifting fortwo-storiesT fcrhole structure seems, from the street, like a

grea* roVjnaad*, ?. porticc averk^ck-ng Lo:> ^igcl.-o. There is a hint of the Mayan influence that preoccu- pied Wright during the 1920's, but it does not over- Above The kitchen isthe, for the restoration. power the design, as in Wright's first Los Angeles rncdj!ler«tar*cToFthe The garage doors were residence, the Barnsdall House. Indeed, the Storer House has in with Wright's great prai- e, a sleek insertion that newly made, based on more common rie houses of the years before 1914, with their gener- leaves Wright's concrete shel Wright's designs. ous,, sweeping cornices. Here, the strong horizontal unriskrbed Ihe cabiiets are Right: The living room is the line atop the piers serves as a perfect counterpoint to of wood with hardware "n a grandest room of the the verticality, bringing the facade into a subtle bal-

Wrightian style. house, with the concrete- ance. The piers rush upward, and the cornice caps

their without it. Below: The driveway and block walk and a ceiling of energy squelching This remarkable compositional balance alone side entrance to the house wood creating a rich marks Wright's genius. But the house is rich in the are lined with Wright's texture. The table and spatial manipulations that were, if anything, even patterned-concrete blocks, chairs are by Uoyd Wright, more characteristic of Wright. There is a tightly con-

many of which were Prank Uoyd Wright's son. trolled sequence of move- (Continued on Page 72)

Sir tfflSEffsBTri- '

III

-• &&£$>. , r' • f * «**>*'/ closely to Wright's original design. In the case of the kitchen,

it proved impossible to recon- WRIGHT cile the need for up-to-date technology with Wright's de- 56 Continued from Page sign, and an entirely new room was constructed. But the de- ment toward the entry — all that Wright had ever be- sign here is highly sympathetic through a gate, up seven steps, lieved about houses embracing to Wright — there are cabinets then to the first terrace as the the land were extended here in of larch wood, similar to red- view back over the city begins a way appropriate to the land- wood, with metal hardware to unfold, then a right turn and scape, the drama and the dar- that could almost have been de- up seven more steps to another ing of Southern California. signed by Wright. The con- terrace with a small pool and The majesty and grace of crete-block walls and the woe- fountain. The house is entered this small but powerful house fully impractical grooved con- from this level, but there is no could not be totally obscured, crete floor have been retained, conventional door — there is but some of the things done to it and green marble counters and simply a glass door set within over the years in the name of shiny metallic appliances have the space between each of the renovation and modernization been added. They are, in a piers. came close to doing so. For one sense, a rich, sleek overlay The space thus flows in and period, some of Wright's con- within Wright's shell, and out between the piers, and the crete blocks had Deer, painted though they are not in any way room within joins with the out- yellow; much of the wood had Wrightian, they are not inap- door terrace. But it is not the also been painted, and 60 years propriate. complete merging of indoors of exposure had caused window In some cases, Wrightian ele- and out sought by the all-glass frames, doors, roofs and many ments were actually created walls of the houses of Interna- of the concrete-block pieces to that had not previously been tional Style modernism, the deteriorate badly. there. Perhaps as a cost-cut- European style that was in so Joel Silver — who says he ting measure — the house, esti- many ways Wright's antithe- had admired Wright since mated to cost $15,000 in 1923, sis. In this house, the piers al- childhood as a powerful, char- actually cost John Storer about ways stand as a reminder of ismatic figure — had sought to the garage doors de- the presence of structure, and buy a Wright house in Los An- $27,000 — signed by Wright were never there is a constant sense of en- geles for several years. It is not closure within. easy — there are only a handful built. Now, they have been The rooms inside have in private hands — and he did made, based on old sketches. Wright's characteristic low not succeed until last year. He Numerous perforated concrete blocks were recreated in ceilings, and the precisely con- snapped it up quickly, expect- trolled processional movement ing, he says, "to straighten the Wright's original pattern for the house, and an entire section through the house continues. house up and move in. I didn't of the the The entry is anchored by a fire- intend to do very much to it at facade over garage kitchen to place, and there is a dining first. But the more I got into it, and entrance had be rebuilt. in area to its right. To its left, a the more I wanted to do — the As everywhere the quality crafts- staircase slips a half-level more it seemed like it had to be house, the of down to a small library and done the right way." manship is remarkable — as if in bet- bedroom, and another stair Doing it correctly meant as- good, not some ways ter, goes a half-levt ! up to two more sembling a to»m of architects than what was made in bedrooms. That stair then con- and craftsmen, including Eric 1923. tinues up around the fireplace, Lloyd Wright, Frank Lloyd The interiors, like the over- climbing toward the main liv- Wright's grandson and a prac- all design, are Wrightian in ing space, a high room that sits ticing architect in Los Angeles; spirit without being precise in atop the entry room. Martin Eli Weil, a Los Angeles every detail." Joel Silver, The rooms are, in effect, spi- restoration architect, and under Linda Marder's guid- raled around the core of the Linda Marder, an interior de- ance, has put together a mix chimney, and Wright handled signer. Thomas Heinz, a of Frank Lloyd Wright furni- this spiral with considerable Wright expert based in ture and other pieces, mostly drama. We get a tantalizing Wright's early hometown of from the period of the house. glimpse of the main living Oak Park, 111., served as a con- The real prize is a richly or- space through a balustrade as sultant. namented table and chairs in we climb upward, which then The biggest job, Joel Silver the living room designed by disappears as the stair turns recalls, was not making design Lloyd Wright, Frank Lloyd and continues behind the fire- decisions, but simply restoring Wright's son, in 1926 for one of place, after which the whole of the physical structure of the his houses in Los Angeles; the room is revealed: an ut- house. "We had to redo every there is also a table from the terly Wrightian space, at once door, every window, every win- Isabel Roberts House, a open and enclosed, a room of dow frame to bring it back to Frank Lloyd Wright house in truly intimate grandeur, with a the way Wright had it," he River Forest, 111., and some redwood ce:!ing and oak floor savs. The mechanical systems Wright-designed china from that serve as a perfect counter- of the house had to be improved ii»e impei iai lintel in Tol:^, c. point to the roughness of the or rebuilt. The design team The overall effect, however, concrete-block walls. even decided to take off var- is not that of a museum, or The view of the city from be- nish and lacquer to restore the even of a period piece. The tween the front piers of con- wood to its original natural house gives every sense of crete block is best of all here, state, which means that the being lived in, of being a struc- while in the rear, where the wood on the outside of the ture of this time. It is now in steep hill rises higher, the room house has to be re-oiled each more perfect physical condi- opens directly into a patio. It is year. tion than it has been at any both a room and a pavilion — a The main intention of the time since its construction, and space that seems to fly out over renovation was not to turn the it stands not only as a homage the city, yet is anchored to the house into something resem- to Frank Lloyd Wright, but as land at the same time. It envel- bling 1923, however, but to a reminder that his work could ops you, and yet it opens and modernize its functioning while at once express its time and thrusts you out, too. It is as if bringing its appearance more transcend it. ;

closely to Wright's original design. In the case of the kitchen,

it proved impossible to recon- cile the need for up-to-date technology with Wright's design, and an entirely new room was constructed. But the de- ment toward the entry — all that Wright had ever be- sign here is highly sympathetic through a gate, up seven steps, lieved about houses embracing to Wright — there are cabinets then to the first terrace as the the land were extended here in of larch wood, similar to red- view back over the city begins a way appropriate to the land- wood, with metal hardware to unfold, then a right turn and scape, the drama and the dar- that could almost have been de- up seven more steps to another ing of Southern California. signed by Wright. - The con- terrace with a small pool and The majesty and grace of crete-block walls and the woe- fountain. The house is entered this small but powerful house fully impractical grooved- corr- - from this level, but there is no could not be totally obscured, crete floor have been retained, conventional door — there is but some of the things done to it and green marble counters and simply a glass door set within over the years in the name of shiny metallic appliances have the space between each of the renovation and modernization been added. They are, in a piers. came close to doing so. For one sense, a rich, sleek overlay The space thus flows in and period, some of Wright's con- within Wright's shell, and out between the piers, and the crete blocks had been painted though they are not in any way room within joins with the out- yellow; much of the wood had Wrightian, they are not inap- door terrace. But it is not the also been painted, and 60 years propriate. complete merging of indoors of exposure had caused window In some cases, Wrightian ele- and out sought by the all-glass frames, doors, roofs and many ments were actually created walls of the houses of Interna- of the concrete-block pieces to that had not previously been tional Style modernism, the deteriorate badly. there. Perhaps as a cost-cut- European style that was in so Joel Silver — who says he ting measure the house, esti- many ways Wright's antithe- had admired Wright since — mated to cost $15,000 in 1923, sis. In this house, the piers al- childhood as a powerful, char- actually Storer about ways stand as a reminder of ismatic figure — had sought to cost John doors de- the presence of structure, and buy a Wright house in Los An- $27,000 — the garage signed by Wright never there is a constant sense of en- geles for several years. It is not were closure within. easy — there are only a handful built. Now, they have been The rooms inside have in private hands — and he did made, based on old sketches. Wright's characteristic low not succeed until last year. He Numerous perforated concrete blocks were recreated in ceilings, and the precisely con- snapped it up quickly, expect- trolled processional movement ing, he says, "to straighten the Wright's original pattern for house, through the house continues. house up and move in. I didn't the and an entire section of The entry is anchored by a fire- intend to do very much to it at the facade over the garage kitchen to place, and there is a dining first. But the more I got into it, and entrance had be area to its right. To its left, a the more I wanted to do — the rebuilt. As everywhere in the crafts- staircase slips a half-level more it seemed like it had to be house, the quality of down to a small library and done the right way." manship is remarkable — as

bedroom, and another stair Doing it correctly meant as- good, if not in some ways bet- goes d half-lew! up to two more st*"hli,ig a team of architects ter, than what was made in bedrooms. That stair then con- and craftsmen, including Eric 1923. tinues up around the fireplace, Lloyd Wright, Frank Lloyd The interiors, like the over- climbing toward the main liv- Wright's grandson and a prac- all design, are Wrightian in ing space, a high room that sits ticing architect in Los Angeles spirit without being precise in atop the entry room. Martin Eli Weil, a Los Angeles every detail.' Joel Silver, The rooms are, in effect, spi- restoration architect, and under Linda Marder's guid- raled around the core of the Linda Marder, an interior de- ance, has put together a mix chimney, and Wright handled signer. Thomas Heinz, a of Frank Lloyd Wright furni- this spiral with considerable Wright expert based in ture and other pieces, mostly drama. We get a tantalizing Wright's early hometown of from the period of the house. glimpse of the main living Oak Park, 111., served as a con- The real prize is a richly or- space through a balustrade as sultant. namented table and chairs in we climb upward, which then The biggest job, Joel Silver the living room designed by disappears as the stair turns recalls, was not making design Lloyd Wright, Frank Lloyd and continues behind the fire- decisions, but simply restoring Wright's son, in 1926 for one of place, after which the whole of the physical structure of the his houses in Los Angeles; the room is revealed: an ut- house. "We had to redo every there is also a table from the terly Wrightian space, at once door, every window, every win- Isabel Roberts House, a open and enclosed, a room of dow frame to bring it back to Frank Lloyd Wright house in truly intimate grandeur, with a the way Wright had it," he River Forest, 111., and some redwood ceiling *"wi n»k floor savs. The mechanical systems Wright-designed china from that serve as a perfect counter- of the house had to be improved the iiiipci to i Hwtcl in To!:;, c. point to the roughness of the or rebuilt. The design team The overall effect, however, concrete-block walls. even decided to take off var- is not that of a museum, or The view of the city from be- nish and lacquer to restore the even of a period piece. The tween the front piers of con- wood to its original natural house gives every sense of crete block is best of all here, state, which means that the being lived in, of being a struc- while in the rear, where the wood on the outside of the ture of this time. It is now in steep hill rises higher, the room house has to be re-oiled each more perfect physical condi- opens directly into a patio. It is year. tion than it has been at any both a room and a pavilion — a The main intention of the time since its construction, and space that seems to fly out over renovation was not to turn the it stands not only as a homage the city, yet is anchored to the house into something resem- to Frank Lloyd Wright, but as land at the same time. It envel- bling 1923, however, but to a reminder that his work could ops you, and yet it opens and modernize its functioning while at once express its time and thrusts you out, too. It is if as bringing its appearance more I transcend it. INLANDSCAPE I

resolution obviously expressed a great deal of feeling in the state. "The Foundation would undoubtedly want to respond in a formal way. The grave was a symbol and symbols are very strong. They have nothing to do with bones or ashes, and a powerful symbol has been destroyed. But Wright will always be associated with the Middle West. Nothing can affect that. In 50 years that's what people will remember, and that may be the most important thing. Time is a great healer."

When Peters was finally reached at Talie- sin West, he said the Foundation is already at work on the design of a memorial for the

Arizona grounds. "It is to be a garden space, surrounded by a wall, where both Wright's and Olgivanna's asf.es will be interred"

When asked if a ptrfelit subscription wouid be necessary to fund the memorial, Peters

said, "Certainly not. The Foundation is a going concern, both undertaking new projects and educating students just as Wright did by combining their academic studies with work experience under staff supervision." When asked what response the Foun- dation had made to the Wisconsin resolu-

tion, he said, "None. It is a family matter

and I fail to see how it concerns the people " of Wisconsin Less than 200 miles from Taliesin, in Oak Park, Illinois, where Wright lived and prac- ticed for 19 years, people living in Wright houses are "scandalized and disturbed," and State Senator Philip Rock, who represents the district, has been approached about presenting a resolution similar to Wisconsin's in the Illinois legislature. Don Kalec, director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in Oak Park, expressed another viewpoint. "It's certainly a touchy

issue and it puts Taliesin in a bind. Mrs. Wright never really liked Wisconsin that much, and she ioved Arizona and Taliesin there, a community that she and Wright established. She didn't want to be buried other than where her husband was, so her wish seemed natural to her. She probably did not anticipate raising such a storm. On the other hand, Wright dearly loved Wis-

consin, and I certainly regret that he is no longer buried in the Midwest." Has the Midwest forever lost one as'pect of its genius? Has history been vandalized? Can one state legislature -or even two-

alter a fait accompli? Is it only a family matter? The debate continues while crops ripen in Wisconsin fields and, in the small cemetery where "generations of Lloyd-Jones descendants lie buried, a ring of flowers begins to bloom around the empty grave of Frank Lloyd Wright.

jane H. Clarke is assistant director of Museum Education- Communications at the Art Institute of Chicago. INLANDSCAPE

Arlington Cemetery to Hyannisport," one relative said bitterly. John Howe, an architect in Burnside, Minnesota, was, along with Peters, one of the original apprentices in the Taliesin Fel- lowship in 1932. Howe continued to practice with the Taliesin Associated Architects until 1964. "I am absolutely flabbergasted, [the disinterment] was an act of vandalism,"

Howe said. "The sneaky way it was done was particularly bad. They left the cemetery a mess, did not resod or level the ground, just threw some soil in the grave and re-

placed the stone marker. I was very angry

when I saw that mess [on May 24]. "We all know the valley is his homeland, his spirit is there. He designed a new chapel to be a memorial and even ordered the stone which was later used for something else. Wright had a deep love of the earth. he could hardly wait to get back to Wiscon-

sin each spring to start plowing. I think

moving the body was inexcusable, even if

Olgivanna did request it. The Foundation

board should have made a decision of its

own that took into account all of the people A Moving Violation? questing the return of the ashes. The Wis- who would be affected. The action shows Jane H. Clarke consin House approved the resolution on a real disregard for Wright and has done

Frank Lloyd Wright died April 9, 1959, at the April 25, 1985, and the Senate concurred violence to history." age of 90 at his Taliesin home near Paradise May 7. State Representative Joe Tregoning, Wright's will is on file in Dodgeville, Wis- Valley in Arizona. Three days later he was who presented the resolution on behalf of consin, at the Iowa County Courthouse and, buried in southern Wisconsin near Spring the 51st District, which includes Spring despite statements to the contrary, does not Green and just down the hill from his first Green and Jones Valley, stated in a letter to include burial instructions. "It's very un- Taliesin, built in 1911. A simple limestone Peters: "Much more than ashes have been usual for a will to include such provisions," rectangle with his name and birth and death taken from Wisconsin — the citizens of the said an attorney. dates was placed above his grave in the bur- state have lost one evidence of our history, When Wright's granddaughter, Elizabeth ial plot of his maternal ancestors, the Lloyd- spirit, and genius." Wright Ingraham, was asked about Wright's

Joneses, Welsh homesteaders who settled Astonishment, shock, and outrage are burial wishes, she replied, "I think it was in Wisconsin's Wyoming Township in 1844. the most common reactions of those who a tacit kind of thing, a general understand- The small graveyard in Jones Valley is next were close to Wright — even anguish. Robert ing. But Wright was always interested in liv- to Unity Chapel, designed by Joseph Sils- Graves, a landscape architect whose prop- ing. Like most vital people he did not con- bee and completed in 1886. erty adjoins Taliesin and once belonged to centrate on details of death." On March 21, 1985, Wright's body was Wright's favorite uncle, James, always Ingraham, an architect in Colorado disinterred by a local mortician. Following visited Wright when he was in Wisconsin. Springs, is chairman of Unity Chapel, Inc.,

. r,._:i. . „_, ,_i.) „,i.,ui:„u,,l r. v . c:..„ ci^maiiuii iii Mdu»scn, Wisconsin, int »a- "Wright loved Wisconsin," Graves 3c id. — mous architect's ashes were removed to Ari- "There's no question that he wanted to be years ago to restore Silsbee's chapel and care zona to be placed next to those of his third buried here. I am overwhelmed and dis- for the burial plot. She was shocked by the wife, Olgivanna, who had died March 1. couraged. I wrote to Wes Peters, who has body's removal and said the board will re- The removal was authorized by Wright's been a friend for years, to express the feel- view the matter at the corporation's annual daughter, lovanna, a resident of a sanitar- ing of my family and the people of this val- meeting. "We will certainly clarify our pro- ium in Connecticut, and ordered by the ley named for Wright's ancestors. I said, cedures. At the very least the custodian we Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation which ad- 'Frank Lloyd Wright transcended family employ at the cemetery should have been ministers both Taliesins and the related and friends, he was a man for the world. . . . notified by the mortician. However, in my

School of Architecture. William Wesley It was his decision to be buried in this fam- judgment, had the board been asked we Peters, a lifetime associate and Wright's ily chapel yard where the friends who stood would have had no power to refuse since former son-in-law, is chairman of the Foun- by him for years are buried. ... In one hor- the request was authorized by a close family dation's Board of Directors. rendous act the spirit of the valley has been member, his daughter, lovanna. Our corpo- Although the disinterment followed legal emasculated. For that the Frank Lloyd ration runs the chapel, we have raised procedures and was undertaken because of Wright Foundation will be judged.'" money to restore it and are building an en- the explicit wishes of the dying Olgivanna, "A body snatching," wrote ex-Wiscon- dowment so the chapel and burial plot will the act has raised a storm of controversy. Pe- sinite Karl E. Meyer in the April 19 New York be maintained in perpetuity. But we work titions circulated by outraged citizens of Times, "equivalent to uprooting Jefferson Closely with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foun- Wisconsin resulted in a state legislative reso- from Monticello for reburial in Beverly Hills." dation, which owns the land." lution protesting the body's removal and re- "Try moving John Kennedy's body from Ingraham felt the Wisconsin legislative^

July/August 1985 INLAND ARCHITECT 3 The Arizona Republic

A walkway past the Taliesen West drafting room leads from the living quarters in the residence of Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright died in 1959, and his widow, Olgivanna, continued to live here until her death this year.

Wright turn: World will pierce bubble of late architect's philosophy

"With all this poet-modernist junk, the has gotten rezoning for 74 acres south of world of architecture is at the lowest Taliesin West, land whose emptiness at- foothills, point it has ever been." tracted Wright to the McDowell — William Weslay Peters which he called "the edge of the world." Housing is planned for the acreage. By STEVE WEBB "Taliesin has historically been a flexible Special to the Republic group," Peters said. "It is constantly growing, and Frank Lloyd Wright always intended its SCOTTSDALE — Frank Lloyd Wright's structure to change with the circumstances." body may have arrived at Taliesin West just Taliesin and the Wright Foundation have in time to turn over in its grave. continued to stress Wright's theories of Two groups based at the architect's winter "organic architecture" by virtually sequester- retreat on about 200 acres at the foot of the ing themselves from the rest of the architec- McDowell Mountains soon will undergo tural world. If there is a change at Taliesin, it metamorphoses that his apprentice, William will begin with a lessening of that isolation. Wesley Peters, admits Wright surely would have opposed. But a changing world necessi- Organizational changes tates an adjustment to the famous architect's For the first time, three outsiders serve on principles, Peters, 71, said. foundation and the The changes include: the boards of the of business. of them is Phoenix attorney • The architecture school operated by the One Lewis Sr. other two are from out Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation most of the Orme The of state. year at Taliesin West has applied for Mrs. accreditation from the board of the National "Frank Lloyd Wright and Wright were always the ultimate source (of direc- Association of Architects Registration. The school teaches graduate and undergraduate tion) when they were alive," said Peters, who his 53rd anniversary at programs. Accreditation could fundamentally in June celebrated Taliesin and is now chairman of both boards. change its curriculum and staffing. Mr. Wright died, the Internal • Taliesin Associates, Wright's architec- "When Revenue Service ruled the foundation didn't tural firm, has survived him and is run by qualify for tax exemption," Peters said. architects who graduated from his teaching Now that they have split, he said, the program. The firm is working with the architectural firm will be able to grow more foundation to return to a year-round pres- the foundation will be able to ence at the original Taliesin near Spring steadily, and raise funds. Green, Wis. By the time of the death of The reorganization may be less obvious Wright's widow, Olgivanna, this year, the two now than the other changes at Taliesin, but ?oups had reduced their presence at architecture historian Michael Boyle believes aliesin East to the summer months. it may have the biggest impact on the Wright's ashes were moved to Scottsdale this architectural world. year at the behest of his widow's will to rest public alongside her's. "The foundation hasn't had any visibility since Mr. Wright's death," said • The architecture firm and the founda- Boyles, a professor at Arizona State Univer- tion, formerly one group, separated this year sity. "As near as I can tell, its primary to resolve tax problems that began in 1960. drawings. The profitable Taliesin Associates was concern has been to organize the This is a lengthy process an expensive formed as a subsidiary of the non-profit and one." foundation before 1960, but the Internal With funds to complete the archives, Boyle Revenue Service ruled that the relationship said, the foundation would be able to make made foundation funds taxable. The separa- them available to outsiders for the first time. tion allows the foundation to resume its tax-free status. He would like to see the drawings put on • Perhaps most important, the foundation — Wright, Extra E NW Wednesday, July Extra F The Arizona Republic 31, 1985

that it won't have the "Scottsdale look." Taliesin Associates and the Wright founda- Wright tion recognized as much when they were annexed into Scottsdale seven years ago. Continued From Extra E "We would have been against annexing with anyone, there didn't Foundation board is concerned that the but seem to be a accreditation-related changes don't go too choice," Peters explained. "It was a question of far. whether we wanted to be part of Phoenix or Scottsdale. We went where we felt more Taliesin Gates understood and where we could have more The foundation's decision to become a clout." developer has as much to do with Scotts- Taliesin Associates was also among the organizations and individuals contributing to dale 's rapid growth as it does with Peters' distaste for current trends in architecture. a Citizens Against Recall campaign to prevent a recall of six Scottsdale It has received rezoning approval for City Council Taliesin Gates, a 74-acre residential develop- members. ment of as many as 62 custom and Morosco thinks the Taliesin Gates development signals for the firm. semicustom homes. It also is negotiating with a new phase the state Land Department to develop an "Taliesin Associates has probably been 'area northeast of Taliesin Gates as a larger more concerned since 1959 with finishing Mr. residential community. Wright's work — building the designs he left "We're doing Taliesin Gates to protect behind when he died," Morosco said. "And ourselves," Peters said. "We don't like what I he left a lot of designs on the board. That will told the mayor (Herb Drinkwater) once was continue to be less important, and the firm's the most expensive squalor in the whole architects will become more important in world blotting out our view of the desert," their own right." referring to the expensive housing develop- Boyle said, "I would think that acting as a ment in north Scottsdale. developer is probably something they've Peters' opinion of Scottsdale's growth thought about doing for some time. I don't contains some irony. The city prides itself on think it will stop at Taliesin Gates, and that's tightly controlling its expansion. Through good. The hermetic environment they have ordinances regulating hillside development, lived in for so long has not been good. I think

commercial signs, building height and the i they know that." preservation of native plants, Scottsdale Still, Peters admits the firm exists very appears to codify the Wright ideals of much in its founder's shadow. On the one architecture appropriate to its environment. hand, it is charged with preserving work that Drinkwater himself is prone to question is a national treasure. On the other, its basic Lloyd Wright's work has been carried on by his apprentice, William Wesley Peters. approval for a public building if he is worried premises are flexibility and change. —

The Arizona Republic Extra! Wednesday, July 31, 1985 NW —- *

general studies, such as English composition, an architecture school at all: He used careers may be limited by Taliesin 's lack o) American history and political science. students to do his chores. accreditation. He came to the school aftei Wright "We currently teach a history of architec- Wright's students poured the concrete completing a bachelor's degree in art anc ture that encompasses the rest of world walls and built the wood frame for Taliesin English at Washington and Jefferson College Continued from Extra D history," Peters said. West, north of Shea Boulevard and east of in Washington, Pa., and said accreditatioi • The school may need to develop a more Pima Road. They still must learn building wasn't really a strong factor. exhibit. Wright left an extensive series of formalized library system. crafts to complete the program. "I was interested in doing post-graduati architectural drawings that have never been "They say a good architecture library has Tuition runs about $4,000 per year, work in architecture, but wasn't reallj used for construction. about 18,000 books," Peters said. "Actually, I including room and board. There are 30 to 35 impressed with anything the others had tc think our staff has a library that large among students, and the foundation has 37 archi- offer," Morosco said. Architecture school us that is available for student use." tects and associates on its staff. Peters said that if the school joins the The immediate objective of the Wright • The school may have to adopt a more "I'm sure he would have absolutely formal architectural community, it still will Foundation is to seek accreditation for its defined grading procedure. opposed (accreditation)" Peters said. "The remain separate in philosophy. architecture school. Representatives from the "They don't understand our means for only reason we care about it is for the "Post-modern architecture is an open ant National Association for Architect Registra- measuring the growth of individual stu- students' good. As of 1983, the National frank admission of creative impotence. It t tion have visited the school once and have dents," Peters said. "Frankly, we never cared Association of Archiects Registration board making buildings into window dressing," h« discussed areas that may have to be changed. before. We could tell how individual students requires architects to have an accredited said. "With all this post-modernist junk, the "Nothing has been decided," Peters said, were doing, and those that did poorly didn't college degree. Some states, including Ari- world of architecture is at the lowest point it but these are some areas that are being usually finish." zona, ignore this, but it could make a has ever been." considered: The school was controversial at its outset hardship for them." For that reason, Peters said, the Wright • The school may have to include a core of in the 1930s. Critics said Wright didn't run Jerry Morosco is one of the students whose — Wright, Extra F

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^-I iAj^O f\M^H (]^ 1985 J^ THB NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, Weight's

Legacy l' -^ ^lW In Wisconsin An excursion to Taliesin and beyond

By JOHN WELCHMAN

the southern approach to Spring i Green, Wis., from State Route 23, OnI the road bends in a long rainbow " curve around two of Frank Lloyd Wright's most remarkable buildings, the Hillside School then Taliesin, which ' can be glimpsed through foliage across a long, flat, tilled field. In Spring Green and its vicinity the visitor can experience the diversity and inventive- ness'of style developed during Wright's 50} year career. The southern Wisconsin town, a leisurely three-and-a-half-hour's drive from Chicago, is also a convenient base for those who enjoy architectural excursions. In addi- New York Times/Aug. 25. 1985 the area's pleas- The tion to Wright's innovations, Lloyd Wright's bedroom and studio at Taliesin near Spring Green. (ant landscape offers a variety of vernacular Frank styles, from Swiss chalets to ConushmuTgr's tion of stone and wood as they naturally met of the hills around about. And cottages. .. in the aspect 'the lines of the hills were the lines of the The Hillside School, built ir/f902^ef sand- roofs, the slopes of the hills their slopes. stone and native oak as a combination of Olgivanna Wright's "Frank country day and boarding school run by /TT. "(Quoted in Lloyd Wright: His Life, His Words, His Work, Wright's two aunts, was considerably re- f LI9W.) modele Fire in 1952 . One of the nota- Typically for Wright, the materials used ble features of the'school is the eloquent rela- for Taliesin, native cypress and plaster, were tionship between workshop and studio space fnot the most durable, and today the signs of to the north and, set at right angles, the living (decay are visible throughout, even though and recreational areas. This treatment of 1 Taliesin I II is occupied in the spring and working and living spaces recalls the similar summeTrnohths by the architects, adminis- /strategy Wright used to link the secular and and students of the Frank Lloyd \the sacred areas of Unity Temple in Oak .trators / Wright Foundation. The Foundation_is a non- I Park, 111. profit organization that operates a school of There is an especially interesting installa- architecture and an architecture practice. In tion in two rooms of models artdplans for the Guggenheim Museum m" New~~Vork (some- winter the Foundation is housed at Taliesin West in Arizona. In a curious way the sagging wharaitered in its final form J ; Broad Acres, the of timbers and walls increase a visionary plan for a city of the future, in and bowing connection of the buildings to the which Wright designed solutions to myriad the organic urban problems caused by the rapid expan- natural environment — not "on" the hill, but it as described Taliesin — sion of communications networks and auto*, "of" Wright though its deterioration reduces the quality mobile travel ; and the Wingspread Founda- J of abstractness that he also noted. tion, originally the home of Herbert Johnson,] in Racine (1937). This installation, together with a slide pre- low-slung, with Japanese-influenced in multilevel sentation in the living room and the array of walls and bowers the fabrics and motifs Wright employed, com- garden-courtyard, Taliesin is municates a sense of the architect's astonish- divided into two unequal areas: the ing range of production, attention to detail living quarters, called the house rlier this and genius in the creation of provocative, /and occupied until gg year by original and skillfully integrated spaces. The I Wright's widow. Olgivanna, and the area for office for his Hillside School is open to the public from ^Wright-used an and studio built in June to late fall, with daily tours every hour practice and school. Dams 1945 bring of into of from 10 A.M. to 4 P.M. (admission is $5; $2 the sound water the lake side the for children). For more information, call house. The exterior walls, once painted in the Taliesin at 608-588-2511. r—N, earthy colors of which Wright was so fond, have been restored to something like their y To build a home and studio on the "shining fobrow" (the meaning of the word_ taliesin in original hues. A close view of the interior of the house of- IjWelsh) and eventually to begin there an ar- 1 fers a succession of details. rcTuTectural school whosemembers lived to- memorable gether as a community ]was_ one of Wright's Down to the geometric patterning of the gates around the property, there is an invig- P (""deeply cherished dreams. The first two Talie- Ph0Wpm^B*IU-«'CH«l,a-« orating thoughtfulness and unity in this to- 1 sins were destroyed by fire, in 1915 and again J Leaded-glass window at the Gilmore house in Madison. in 1925. The present structure dates in the tally designed yet natural environment. from Taliesin across the main from the 1925 rebui lding. Taliesin is Looking 8flP«acre open to the public on a verylimited basis for estate toward the Hillside SchocTyoucan see the.wood and shingles of the Andrew T. Por- included an auditorium, gallery, performing special tours. For information, call 608-588- mile from Taliesin, off Route 23, overlooks County Road T from Route 23. fter house that Wright designed as a spaces and parking areas projecting into one 2511. Most of the building is visible from the summer the Wisconsin River and was planned by In the village, the Bank of Spring Green (residence for his sister, as well as his re- of the lakes between which the city is so spec- highway but not otherwise accessible to the Wright to take advantage of the surrounding was designed by Taliesin Associated Archi- markable earliest structure, the Romeo and tacularly situated. While this was never built public. -^ scenery. tects in 1972. Juliet Windmill of 1887, which he once called to devote to because of strained relations between the ar- According to Wright, "Taliesin was to be a\ Unity Chapel, built in 1886 for the use of Visitors who have more time officials, ; "the future in embryo." Due to be restored chitect and Wisconsin state there complete living unit genuine in r nt of com- Wright's family, with a simple interior de- seeking out Wright's works can take a differ- by the Foundation, the windmill is more than are three Wright buildings in Madison of spe- fort and beauty, yes from pig to proprietor.! signed by Wright, was the site until recently ent route back to Chicago by way of Madison, partially obscured by a quick-growing copse. cial merit and visibility. . . . Taliesin was_to be an abstract combina-| of his grave (his remains were disinterred Milwaukee and Racine. There are other buildings in Spring The Gilmore House at 120 Ely Place from Green under the conditions of his widow's will and For Madison, some 30 miles east of Spring is a writer living in New and the immediate area that are worth visit- 1908, built in plaster and wood trim, sits near JOHN WELCHMAN taken, amid much controversy to Taliesin Green, Wright once conceived a huge civic ing. The Spring Restaurant Continued on Page 24 York. Green about a West). The chapel can be reached by taking center, a complex of connected buildings that

L . ,

10 THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 1985

' - A few passenger boats continue to hummus or falafel suit ply the waters along the southern sea- Greek or tabbouli salads coast after Labor Day. The Finest- WHAT'S DOING IN kind departs from Perkins Cove on a 50-minute trip during which lobster Lodging traps are hauled and lobstering is explained. A one-hour cocktail cruise is Visitors can find lodging on a also offered. The rate is $4.75, $2.75 grassy bank at coveside, atop an 80- for children. For information and foot-high granite cliff or overlooking" Ogunquit reservations, call 207-646-5227. a tidal river. Shore Road in Ogunquit The 46-foot diesel-powered Eliza- is lined with motels and inns; many beth II (207-967-5595) makes one-and- rooms have private balconies with a-half-hour trips from Arundel ship- ocean views. Among them are the Sea 12 through 14. It costs $4, $2 for chil- yard in Kennebunkport down the Chambers (207-646-9311), dren, to tour all six properties. which has Kennebunk River to the open ocean.. doubles for $46 to $62 off season. Ogunquit *\rcov£ Tickets cost $8, $4 for children. Whale Rooms for two at the Sparhawk (207- watching is offered Ogunquit aboard the Indian 646-5562) range from $49 tu $63. An ef- (207-967-5912), a 75-foot passenger ficiency unit at tne Beachmere (207- Cape Neddick. i boat that leaves from Arundel wharf. 646-2021), right This old seaside town, named by on the Marginal Way. Nubble w-.i. o «-»,•£.- Sightings, usually of humpback and costs $53 to $68. Steps from the draw- Ughthoese the Abenaki Indians to mean "beauti- ^ir finback whales, are guaranteed, or bridge at Perkins ful place by the sea," has changed Cove is the River-' rk ( passengers are issued a free ticket for side (207-646-2741), which •*-4-Ynrk considerably over the years. Most of has double another trip. There is a full galley for rooms for $44 to $56 its huge tum-of-the-century hotels, breakfast and lunch. Tickets are $20. Rooms at the Cliff their porches lined with rocking House (207-646- 5124; Shore chairs, have been razed and replaced Road, Ogunquit) cost $50 to $76 for two. Weekend packages are with luxury hotels or converted to • ilr Dining available including one that offers a condominiums. i' room, breakfast each day a lob- Perkins Cove (off Shore Road), a and Seafood is the emphasis in the ster dinner for $104 a couple. cluster of shops, galleries and restau- Laurie O'Neill area's many restaurants, and usually The Stage Neck Inn (20M63-J8S0, rants and site of an unusual foot The Nubble Lighthouse in York. the view is as good as the food. Lob- off U.S. 1 A, York Harbor) isa drawbridge, was once a thriving art resort ster is still plentiful in autumn, with with an 18-hole colony; when Charles Woodbury, a golf course. Its double the day, including Edward Hopper, poise, a peaceful fishing village and a restaurant prices for the steamed or rooms with ocean or river views costs Massachusetts artist, first saw the visited or worked at the cove. center for lobstering. boiled versions fluctuating between $85 to $100. The Dockside (207-363- cove in the late lSOO's, with its yellow A collection of nautical antiques is about $6.50 and $9.50 a pound. For lob- and green dories and weather-worn Ogunquit was until recently a part 2868; off State Route 103 in York Har of town of Wells, its neighbor to on display at the Kennebunkport ster in a casual setting, try the Ogun- bor) is an early Maine homestead' fishing shacks, he is said to have pro- the

0: Miles : 3 the north, which is known for its an- Maritime Museum (Ocean Avenue) quit Lobster Pound (207-646-2516; with comfortable rooms and apart- claimed it an "artist's paradise." tiques shops and factory outlets as at the boathouse once owned by Booth Times/ Aug. 25. 1965 Woodbury, who founded the Ogunquit Tarkington. Hours are Monday to Sat- Art Association, and Hamilton Easter well as its protected marshland and aiday 10 A.M. to 4 P.M. and Sunday Field, a painter and teacher, bought crescent-shaped beaches. 11 to 4. Admission: $2. . By LAURIE O'NEILL land and buildings and rented space In Kennebunk, the Brick Store Mu- to artists. Many prominent artists of The Kennebunks seum (117 Main Street) is a row of Ogunquit and its coastal neighbors, handsome 19th-century commercial the Yorks, Wells and the Kennebunks, Many impressive Colonial, Fed- buildings that house a small collec- have been drawing crowds of sum- eral. Greek Revival and Victorian tion of artifacts relating to the area's mei visitors for more than a century. shipbuilding and seafaring era. A cur- seacoast region of southern The rent exhibit, "A Good Stand of Build- Maine, a roughly 25-mile stretch of ir- ings," through Sept. 21, is a photo- regular coastline, boasts a sampling giaphic essay tracing the develop- of everything the state has to offer. ment of Maine's connected farm There are rugged, rocky cliffs and buildings A display of 19th-century white sand beaches, salt marshes and quills follows in October. The mu- pine woods, art galleries and craft seum is open Tuesday througbh Sat- shops, lobsters and lighthouses. urday, 10 A.M. to 4;30 P.M. A sug- notoriously in Though congested gested donation is $1. summei the area can be a delight to visit off-season After Labor Day the crowds recede like the tide, but many Sightseeing restaurants, inns, motels, shops, galleries and local attractions remain The area's stellar attraction is, of open until mid-October or longer. course, the sea. The Marginal Way in Accommodations are more avail- Ogunquit is a narrow mile-long paved aole and in most cases less expensive, The ornamented Wedding Cake House in Kennebunk. footpath mat offers dramatic views of und the pace is less hurried. The a ihitjc mile beach and the open o< ean seems to have a fresh sparkle ocean Ai» easy walk with benches for U .S. 1) where you select your own lob- ments; doubles -ost $5i 10 $55 and as the sea lavender and gerardia restuig, it begms next to Barbaia ster from a saltwater tajik and pay by Visitors Who appleCiatfc a Sen^t 01 burst into bloom, the salt marsh takes Dean's restaurant oi, Snort Road and weight co the exact penny. 1 ne Lob- history can stay in a formei st*, **o on a soft purplish hue. September ends at ferkius Cove. ster Shack (207-646-2941; 1-eiKina tani b home in KeiuieounKpoi t. often brings the best weather of the The Wedduig Cake House on Sum- Cove) is a favorite with local people. Rooms have penoa hmusnings year with clear, warm days and cool, mer Street in Keiuiebunk is a traffic *t Barnacle Biily's (207-646-5575. some have four-postei oeas and fiie- crisp nights. Antra Dickerson stopper. It was built in 1826 oy George Perkins Cove), one of the region's places. Full breakfasts are included. A lobster shack in Cape Neddick. Among them are the Captain Jefferds w . Bourne, a cabinetmaker who, it is most popular restaurants, you can said, added the elaborate carved dine outdoors overlooking the harbor Inn (207-967-2311, Pearl Street), dou- The Yorks white fretwork thai gives the house or by the fireplace in the dining room. ble with private bath, $65 to $80; the homes line the shaded streets as a wedding gift to his Captain Lord Mansion (207-967-3141 of its name, Arrow's restaurant (207-646-7175; York is the earliest incorporated Kennebunk and Pleasant Street), double with private Kennebunkport, wife. Berwick Road, Ogunquit) serves nou- village in Maine (1636) ; it was the site prosperous shipbuilding bath and fireplace, $99 to $119, the > communities The Rachel Carson Wildlife Ref- velle cuisine-inspired dishes of grueling wars in a 1766 ' with the Indians — in . (separated 600- Chetwynd House Inn (207-867-2235, by the Kennebunk River) uge, off State Route 9 in Wells is a Colonial 1692 the home. The menu changes town was nearly wiped out — that were the home of sea captains acre sanctuary situated in a major Chestnut Street), double with private and often but recent entrees included during the American Revolution, and shipping magnates. migratory corridor. In early autumn, bath $79. Maine's a percent sales tax chartreuse of salmon for veal the local chapter of the Sons $15 and of Lib- Situated on the river a mile from sightings of broadwing and redtail applies to rooms and .neals loin with sweetbreads for $19 Appe- erty staged its own tea party, seizing the open sea is busy hawks, osprey and peregrine falcons, Kennebunkport tizers include lobstei mousseline 150 pounds of tea from the sloop Cyn- may Harbor. In its several marinas, as well as several species of shore thia in York Harbor. for $6.50 or Sichuan shrimp dump- Four distinct schooners and yachts share space birds and waders can be expected. Shopping communities make up the York town- lings for $5.25. with fishing boats and day sailers. The refuge is open daily year round snip: York village, the historic dis- The Dockside Dining noun. (20! Just northeast of the port is Cape Por- and admission is free. The area abounu> ui galleries and 363-4800; off State Route 103 in rork trictandtowngovemmentseat; York antiques, gift ana craft shops Among overlooks a marina. house Harbor, a fashionable summer colo- Harbor) A the most appealing are Masi Cove ny; specialty is roast stuffed duckling at York Beach, a family vacation Galleries (Maine Street, Kennebunk- oi spot ; and $11.50. In York village the Spice Cape Neddick. port), which represents some oo an Near York Life (207s)63-4902) offers an imagina- Beach, off U.S. 1A, is ists; Kennebunk Book Pon (Dock one of the tive menu in a casual setting. Appe- area's most painted and Square, Keiuiebunkport) housed in photographed sights, tizers include squid in a vegetable Nubble Light- tne loft of an ItJlh-Cenliuy iuiu ware- house. Built marinade for $3.25. Among the en- in 1875 on a barren out- house- and Quahog Bay (Perkins cropping and separated trees is sauteed veal cutlets with prc- from the Cove), which sells, prints baskets mainland for $12.95. For except at low tide, the fa- sciutto and provolone handmade clouung and whimsical cility is is chocolate amaretto or maintained by the United dessert there cards and jewehy States Coast pecan praline pie for $2. Guard and is one of the The reai d* aw however, are uie few remaining staffed lighthouses on Seafood and classic French cuisine factoiy uutlet stores on US 1 be- the Atlantic coast. are featured at the Kennebunkport tween Hampton, N H ana Weils In York village, several old build- Inn (207-967-2621) at Dock Square. Me., chat sell eveiything from Can- ings have been faithfully restored and King crab in Mornay sauce topped non towels and Dansk china to lutes preserved by the Old Historical York with cheese and bread crumbs is umbrellas and Bass shoes at 20 to 60 $13.95 Roast hnnol»«> •«— '• Wisconsin

Monroe is famous for its Swiss Che top of University Heights and was cheese (factory tours of the cheese- soon nicknamed the Airplane House making process are available), but for its wing-like projections and core its town square is one of the most that resembles a fuselage. It con- curious in the land. Centered around trasts strongly with the Buell house a towered courthouse and marred by across the street, the earliest house in its partial transformation into a giant the district, built by local architects parking lot, the square is surrounded in Queen Anne style and proportions. by an arcade of shops and boutiques The Herbert Jacobs house at 441 in a repertoire of nearly every con- Toepfer Street (not open to the pub- ceivable historical vernacular style being completely restored. It lic) is is — pseudo-Venetian, crenelated, a small-scale middle-income dwell- Swiss chalet, late Art Deco, some ing of one story in red brick with wood parts dating from the 187Q's. Even the details, affording privacy in a fairly more contemporary First National tight suburban setting. The innova- Bank is designed to blend with this tive use of prefabricated dry walls melange of styles. Of the shops, the and the geometric severity of its Baumgartner (1023 16th Avenue), a straight lines and intersections make gourmet cheese store, is outstanding it look like a graphic-design logo. New Glarus, dubbed America's Lit- The most complex and exciting tle Switzerland, is a confection of Wright building in Madison is the First Unitarian Church (1951) at 900 Alpine details. Because the town is University Bay Drive. Its outstanding largely inhabited and visited by peo- feature is its detailed east end with a ple of Swiss origin, some of the at- dizzying interior ascent of wooden mosphere feels authentic. The New tiers and an altar raised out of the Glarus Hotel, 008-527-5244, noted for same rough-hewn stone as the exteri- its cheese dishes, serves a fondue din- or. The triangle shape orders the ner for $7.95. whole stiucture, down to the meeting tables that can be fitted together road to Mineral Point neatly for large crowds or smaller runs due west through groups. Even the old bell, taken down The striped fields, alternately after a storm and deposited near the plowed and fallow, and entrance, is straight-sided. clumps of oak trees. There, Wright's Annunciation Greek Or- the Wisconsin Slate Historical Soci- thodox Church (9300 West Congress, ety preserves a remarkable group o( Wauwatosa, near Milwaukee) is Cornish miners' houses from the' easily accessible from Interstate 94. 1830'sand 1840's, built in Galena lime- Shaped like something between a gi- stone and timber, and modeled after gantic church font and a crown of similar simple dwellings in England. thorns, it represents a radical depar- The oldest, Pendarvis House (open ture in his religious architecture; but, daily from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. from May like all his work of this type, it contin- 1 to Oct. 31 : tour admission, $3 and $1 ues to function as a vital community for children; telephone, 008-987-2122), stands in a terraced garden and is In the middle of Racine, at 1925 furnished with some original items Street, are Howe the Johnson Admin- and others that have been introduced istration Building (1936-39) and Re- to suggest mid-19th-century everyday search Tower (1944-47), two widely life. These include a trundle bed and. a different applications of brick and gloss tubing. They constitute one of by foot on a pivot), needlework sam- the most innovative designs of work- plers with stitched-in errors, to show ing space of the 20th century and pro- that only God is perfect, and a hand- vide a suitable finale to this tour of painted potty chair. Wright's architecture in southern A short walk away is a little terrace Wisconsin. of houses known as the Row, one of If you drive to southern Wisconsin which has been over-i magi natively from Chicago (about an hour's trip), restored as a Cornish smugglers' pub. you can add some diverse but less In the gift shop you can sample saf- avant-garde architecture to your fron cake — a Cornish specialty that Wright itinerary. Interstate 90 takes resulted from the tin-for-salfron you to the state line, near Beloit, and trade with Spain. it is worthwhile at this point to leave A final stop on the way to Spring the fast lane and take a more lei- Green might be the House on the surely and scenic route through Rock (13 miles north of Mineral Point America's dairyland with its land- off Route 23), the high point of Wis- scape of green pastures and modest consin eccentricity The House on the wooded hills, reminiscent of the Eng- Rock is open daily from April 1 to lish shires. Nov. 15 from 8 A.M. until dusk Ad- This dairy farming community is mission is S10: $6 for children aged 7 notable for almost Infinite permuta- to 12; 11 for children 4 to 6. For infor- tions of the major rural building mation, call 608-935-3639. forms, house (often with hints of Al- Conceived by Alex Jordan, who pine chalet design), water tower, silo built most of the house himself 40 and bam (one is usually wooden and years ago, it has been expanded into a run-down, the other metal and mod- fantastic conglomeration of bric- ern) The silos look like so many a-brac and debris, a bizarre and occa- dairy campaniles, a contemporary sionally beautiful festival of Victori- vision of the towers of San Glmignano ans. Warrens of red-carpeted, dimly In Tuscany. lit intei connecting spaces are An interesting route through south- crammed With old music machines ern Wisconsin begins in Monroe (via (including a mechanically operated State Route 81). New Glarus (State symphony), dolls, stuffed animals Route 69) and Mineral Point (State and a whole Street of Yesteryear. A Route 39), before heading north central building houses what Is said to (State Route 23) for Spring Green in be the world's largest carousel.

Guide to lodgings and meals

Where to Stay ments and studios and provides a

There is ample accommodation in package rate for lodging and three most price ranges throughout this meals (to be chosen from a fixed itinerary. It is advisable to book in ad- menu) for groups. A double room vance for Spring Green, however, ranges from $21 to $55. particularly between Memorial Day in New Glarus the New Glarus and Labor Day Most »f the hotels and Hotel offers double rooms from

lodges a , e (yund along ' S. Highway $25.50. At tne Chalet Landha us Motel double 14 The KeaL riaven Muiel ( 60B-588- rooms range from $44 to $70; 23Z3), one of several designed by the lamily rooms with tour double members of the Frank Lloyd Wnght beds (in $55 art a bargain. TheChes- Foundation, is particularly good terfield Inn in Mineral Point, dating value, ranging between $28 and $34 from the 1830s, offers three period for a double room. There are two double rooms at $35 each including more unusual places to stay in the vi- Continental breakfast. cinity of I alieain. At Aidebai an Farm (aldebaran means to follow in Welsh Where to Eat and the name was chosen by Wes The Spring Green Restaurant (608- s ..ne.it 5H8-2571) Peter Wnght s disciples). on the Wisconsin River is you car. find country housing — noted for seafood specialties. Dinner meaning no maid service — in the is about $30 for two. house, main three cottages and a fn the village Itself, the Dutch bam, ail furnished. Prices range Kitchen (127 East Jefferson Street; from $15 to $25 a person a night, de- 608-588-2595) has an excellent range of pending on the size of the group. country-style dishes and puddings. Howe Cottage, built up in the hills by Between 400 and 500 people turn up Jack Howe, one of Wright's original for their famous (unreserved) had- apprentices, lacks running water and dock supper on Fridays. Dinner for can be rented asagetaway. For infor- two is about $25 Wes Peters designed mation about Aldebaran, telephone the garden where the special summer 608-588-7325 or 588-2951 garden menu can be enjoyed until Wildwood Lodge (608-588-2514), far- Labor Day, and Eugene Masselink. ther away the on Upper Wyoming once secretary to Wright, created the Road. h3s a similar variety of apart- cocktail lounge mural J. w Y

face as "the greatest living architect"; virtually unknown Fawcett house in 1935 . . . but only money after that! Loren Pope, original client for the Los Banos, California. The evidence presented in this clutch

Pope-Leighey house, informed Wright All this, of course, was after Mr. of recent books is that it also took a that "ten, twenty, thirty years from Wright had been appointed by the fan kind of mania as well, and that this now I'll still feel a very wonderful club, the media, and himself to the may have been the more important thing has happened in my life"; and Pantheon of American Glory, but how change, since all the Usonian clients the Hannas sat up all night reading did his clients see him during those lacked the means to realize Wright's the Princeton lectures and "by morn- earlier days when he was simply the version of their dreams, and had ing we were inspired to write a fan best domestic architect in Chicago? panics over money during construc- letter to Mr. Wright." Fortunately, Fred Robie, client of the last Prairie tion. Wright's change over from sim- they subsequently proved to be made School house, reminiscing half a cen- ply a very good architect to the of sterner stuff, rode their architect tury after the events, allowed that "I Greatest American Genius is the most hard, and finally got what must be became rather interested in his views. conspicuous aspect of his life and

Wright's best house of the thirties, And I thought, well if he was a nut, work that still eludes elucidation,

Falling Water not excluded, and in and I was maybe, we'd get along and it remains largely unstudied. the process provided example and swell." Even Finnis Farr's failed-Pulitzer bi- unbeknownst training for the clients Leonard Eaton once said that it ography, which tackled many matters for his best house of the fifties, the took intelligence to hire Wright before that the "Industry" would rather not by Reyner Banham

Frank Lloyd Wright's Hanna House; There are days when it seems the that ar- the historians craft— even categories Clients' Report, Paul R. and Jean S. Hanna, chitectural historians in North Amer- like "Organic Architecture," which Architectural History Foundation and MIT ica are divided into two camps: those he invented himself. To write about Press, 1981, 168 pp.. illus., $12.50 pb. who never write about Frank Lloyd him sympathetically requires one to The Pope-Leighey House, edited by Terry Wright at all, and those who never believe things which art historians do B. Morton, Preservation Press, 1969, 120 write about anything else! And those not normally believe — and from there pp., illus., $5.95 pb. who are in the first camp in- seem it is all too easy to slide over into The Robie House of Frank Lloyd creasingly inclined to regard Wright, the latter being a Believer with a capital B, and Joseph Connors, University of Chicago Press, as a closed cabal—"The Frank Lloyd never write about anything else. More 1984, x + 86 pp., illus., $25.00 cloth; $8.95 Wright Industry"— presided over by a unreasonable rubbish has been writ- paper. sinister conspiracy (consisting, alleg- ten about Wright than about almost Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House, Donald edly, of Bruce Pfeiffer, Edgar Kauf- any other architect that ever laid Hoffmann, Dover Press, 1984, 98 pp., illus., mann, and the Widow). stone upon earth, especially by peo- $7.95 pb. That this should be so, even at the ple who were in a position to know Frank Lloyd Wright level of jest, at the Metropolitan is bad news for architec- better — his clients. Museum of Art, Edgar Kaufmann, Bulletin tural history, and the worse for not Notoriously, Herbert Jacobs, client of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fall being surprising. Wright is still a for the first Usonian House, had no 1982, illus., $4.75 pb. poor fit in the standard categories of difficulty in addressing Wright to his

J)^5f(y*J fee OK

SEP 17 1985 UB's Jules Verne D ANN WHITCHER 7^^/^/^ rt^-v

t is a house the Buffalo Express the notion that a house must necessarily be tal absence of curves. As one entered the origi- described in 1904 as resembling a Jules a "box." And he stated that a building's colors nal house, one had a view down the entire

Verne design, so unusual was it in its and contours should echo the landscape—so length of a 180-foot pergola that was later des- "freakish" insistence on angles, its long unified were building and environment, so un- troyed. The main fireplace was two-sided and horizontal lines, its striking flow of necessary were the entrenched conventions covered with an exceptionally handsome rooms, its open, unfettered spaces. that made living space "artificial" in his view. mosaic wisteria pattern. Built for Darwin D. Martin between John F. Quinan, Ph.D., UB associate After reducing the number of rooms to a 1900 and 1904, the house is considered professor of art history and a Wright authori- bare minimum, Wright brought the ceilings one of the finest of the sprawling prairie resi- ty, comments: "In the 'Prairie House' Wright down and designed interiors so that ceilings dences of Frank Lloyd Wright's early period. created a uniquely American house type in and walls flowed together as one large en- Martin was a Larkin Company executive who which the excessive height, the traditional closure of space. The then-standard 12-foot commissioned Wright to build a house for him Gothic or classical decoration, and the boxy ceilings were lowered to today's level of 7-1/2 after seeing the house Wright had built for his rooms of the 19th century American house feet. In addition, ceilings and walls were paint- brother, W.E. Martin, in Oak Park, Illinois. It were replaced by a structure that hugs the ed the same color and corners were disguised was acquired by UB in 1967. ground, blends into the landscape, but still re- to create the illusion of continuous space. According to Wright, who died in 1959 at mains spacious and open." In line with Wright's belief in "organic ar- the age of 91, "a house ... can be a noble In the Martin House, each room literally chitecture," in which architecture wasn't consort to man and the trees." He debunked flows into another, and there is almost a to- divorced from the natural environment, all

FALL 1985 LJ SOURCE 7

i- /?- xs Architects become archaeologists in restoration work Loyalty to Wright's design prevails

Happily for Frank Lloyd Wright lovers everywhere, the Darwin D. Martin

House is getting much-needed repairs, John D. O'Hern, curator of the house, has announced.

Repairs include replacement of all gutters and sealing of the house's three skylights.

In addition, all exterior wood is being painted the original color, a dark green. Com- ments O'Hern: "The plaster overhangs will be sort of a mustardy gold color rather than Classic Wright features Wright also disguised all heating, lighting the yellow we have right now. And we just mark the Darwin D. and plumbing systems. Radiators were hidden Martin House: horizontal found out that the wood trim on the ceil- behind bookcases or covered by a woodwork lines, rows of windows and ing of the east porch is natural. So we're grille (the house now has modern baseboard Japanese-inspired going to be stripping that down and restor- heating), and plumbing was incorporated into sculpture. ing that to natural wood. All the roof leaks the walls or floors, access to which was only are being repaired as well." through small holes camouflaged by doors materials should be natural, he stated. Also, He adds: "With emergency conditions plaster to tinted designed to resemble laundry chutes. Many of was not be with earth tones; coming under control with the university's the brick to covered with the lights were recessed; natural illumination was not be stucco help, more careful thought can be given to or painted. was used as much as possible. Wright also the preparation of an historic structure house's pier cantilever construction made extensive use of skylights and similar The and report and a long-range plan for restoration devices to illuminate hard-to-light areas. allowed Wright to do away with walls entire- and fund-raising. ly. These were replaced with long sequences "Originally," notes Quinan, "you could see "I was able to obtain the original specifi- of windows, of at the time," states into the the point "unheard down basement from lower cations for the exterior mortar, so the mas- Curator John D. O'Hern. Because there are of the stairs." Edgar Tafel, the former Wright ons feel they will be able to match it pretty no walls, the interior spaces are apprentice author of Apprentice to open and and closely," O'Hern continues. "Well also be do- overlapped. "Interior spaciousness began to Genius: Years with Frank Lloyd Wright, re- ing more re-pointing where the mortar has of his architectural stored the its dawn," wrote Wright ap- Darwin D. Martin House to come out between the bricks, because proach. present form, having been hired for the work wherever mortar is missing, water gets in Wright had originally planned a house that during the administration of former UB Presi- and freezes and makes bands and knocks would be heated by its own hot water plant dent Martin Meyerson. Tafel put a skylight the walls apart." and filled flowers cultivated in its stairs with own over these and made other improve- Because no financial limits were imposed (later destroyed). that of the struc- conservatory There were ments were needed because on Wright while he built the Martin House, flowers in in piers tural that years. 16 huge vases outside the changes had occurred over the the interior design was one of the most in house. These flowers, said the Buffalo Express Especially memorable are the "Tree of Life" tricate ever executed for a private client. in describing plans for the unusual house, "will windows which once filled the Martin House. Originally, the house was conceived as a be watered outside the house simultaneously Now only a comparative few are left. These complex of related structures. A long per- by the turning of a single faucet inside the were "art glass," not stained or leaded glass, gola connected the house with a conser- house." in The paper added that "every point and contained a wisteria motif created with vatory, garage and stable at one end of the the building will be balanced by some other zinc cames. Ira Licht, writing in 1968 in Arts property and, to the north, with Wright's point. Errors in construction toler- said Wright referred to his windows cannot be Magazine, Barton House (built for Martin's sister, Mrs. ated; to correct one, the work must be undone as "light screens" and thought of them as tak- George F. Barton). The pergola, conserva- and a start made." ing the place walls. win- new of second story The tory, garage and stable were later destroyed. For his Martin House, Wright also designed dows, he added, "were heavily inlaid with a Other structural changes followed. After most of the furnishings, including the now fa- variety of colored glasses, often opaque or ir- 1937, when Mrs. Martin was widowed, the mous "barrel chair," and the landscaping; he ridescent." The effect, he said, was "abetted house lay vacant for 17 years. In 1954, it felt that these should be "all one with the build- by the supersession of leading by a then-new was purchased from the City of Buffalo ing." He also designed many of the lighting fix electro-glazing method which added a gilded (which had acquired it in 1946) by the late tures the poles. and even outside clothes All appearance." Buffalo architect Sebastian J. Tauriello. the furnishings Writes Charlotte formerly associate and woodwork were honey- Kotik, Changes took place during this time, in- colored fumed oak. Not only did Wright cre- curator of Buffalo's Albright-Knox Art Gallery, cluding the division of the house into four ate the furniture, he also positioned it. He also now a curator at the Brooklyn Museum: "The apartments. The configuration of the se- selected the flowers (gold colored), highly stylized, geometrical 'tree-of-life' motif and yellow cond floor, O'Hern notes, was almost en- and only apparently, infer captures Wright's attitude he or so one can symbolically own tirely changed. Even so, as New York Times from an letter in the with sur- undated the Wright-Martin toward windows as a connection critic Paul Goldberger pointed out in a re- correspondence, could fix rounding nature it appears in of the family clock. and many cent article, the Darwin D. Martin House There were no closets, although one was later Wright's early designs. The extreme styliza- "still evokes the promise of Wright's prairie put in. Wright simply didn't like them. CONTINUES ON PAGE 28

8 SOURCE I I FALL 1985 I

residences: its strong grids and reaching horizontals create a sense of both soaring above and embracing the land." O'Hern and members of the Darwin D. Martin House Advisory Board, founded by SAED Dean Michael P. Brooks, know the structural changes preclude a "pure" resto-

ration, even if that were financial feasible or architecturally desirable. "Of course, it's ssential that we preserve the Wright- lesigned flow of space, the quality of light hrough stained glass, the furnishings, the original colors of the walls, etc., insofar as

jt is possible to do so," an advisory report states.

"But we also believe it's important to preserve a sense of the dynamics of architectural design which led to several changes made in the house. Through documenting Wright's improvements and other adjustments made on the original built design, we can show the interaction of the architect and clients while the Mar- tins lived in the house." ping out any walls, they have "a pretty good timates that 25 percent of Martin House The advisory board goes on to state that idea" of what they will find, by virtue of their visitors are from out of state; many come

"in contrast to the more common preser- research. Recently, for example, O'Hern to Buffalo specifically to see the house. Re- vation attitude which assumes the impor- and his associates "did a lot of research cent tours have been arranged for visitors tance of static artistic qualities in a great about what was supposed to happen in the from the Cleveland Museum of Art, Illinois design, our practice will be more akin to lobby area, before we tore out a wall. Well, Institute of Technology and the University

archaeology's methods. We will exhibit how we tore it out, and thank God we found of Toronto. "We've had busloads of kids reconstructions were done, making public what we expected to find, which is the base from Ohio and other states, architecture the choices and reasoning of the restorers. of the wooden screen which used to hide students, city planners from Toronto and

Visitors will take away with them an un- the stairs." In every case, "full documenta- elsewhere, art students and interior design- derstanding of change as an element in the tion of both construction and appearance ers." Two regular tours are held each week story of great architecture." This documen- is required before any changes can be of the year, and interested persons may tation will come in the form of mock-ups, made," mandates the advisory board also telephone O'Hern at 716-831-3485 to drawings and photographs displayed where statement. arrange tours at other times. [appropriate to show restoration in progress. Furnishings, too, add a great deal to the As part of the restoration effort, O'Hern

Indeed, archaeology is pivotal to Martin restoration effort. Nearly all furniture in the will travel to Wright's Willits House in High-

House refurbishment. In the process of rip- house are original Wright pieces, if not origi- land Park, Illinois, the famed architect's first ping out a wall in the master bedroom nal to the house. The original dining room "Prairie" house built in 1902. This house, which is being restored to its condition dur- table was apparently thrown out, but Mar- says O'Hern, "is being totally restored with ing the Martin residency, O'Hern and his tin family photos show a round table (later adequate amounts of money. I'm going out

[associates found the original wall color as found in the basement) present in the din- there to check on their techniques, etc." Re- well as the original ceiling color. In the ing room. SAED student Stephen Koy, who cently, he lectured on Martin House resto- reception room, O'Hern points to "a little is also completing blueprints of the origi- ration at Wright's Hollyhock House in Los

I smudge in the wall . . . This is the original nal fireplace, is restoring that table, along Angeles, another Wright-designed building " wall and ceiling surface of this room. We with other furniture. open to the public. In addition, O'Hern has

sent a chunk of it to the State Bureau of In addition to the few "Tree of Life" win- a grant from the National Endowment for Historic Sites in Albany and they did an dows that do remain in situ, two doors from the Humanities to travel to Wright's Talie-

analysis of it for us. It turns out to be sil- the demolished conservatory are on ex- sin West in Scottsdale, Arizona, location ver leaf with a thin green wash over the top tended loan. "These are obviously wonder- of the valuable Frank Lloyd Wright Memori- of it, which is going to be very difficult to ful to have because there's no more al Foundation archives. There he will exa- duplicate. Mr. Martin had referred to his conservatory," says O'Hern. He has ob- mine 110 drawings, all having to do with room being green. That's all he knew. Well, tained bids to re-build the original windows the Martin House. that's the green it was." A similar surface, in one room of the house. These bids are Members of the Martin House advisory he adds, once existed in the dining room, based on the manufacture of the windows board are: Melissa Banta; Sheldon M. Ber- living room and library. in the original materials. The information low; SAED assistant professor Elizabeth In his research, O'Hern makes frequent gleaned will be used to apply for addition- Cromley; James G Dyett; John P. Fahey, reference to the often wry, often poignant al restoration grants. president of the Parkside Community As correspondence of Wright and Martin, as Recently, UB English Professor Emeritus sociation; University Archivist Shonnie contained in 250 letters written between J. Benjamin Townsend and his wife Finnegan; architectural critic and writer the two men from 1902 to 1935. These let- Jeanette Townsend gave the Martin House Austin M. Fox; Lorelei Ketter; Buffalo State ters, a gift to UB from the Friends of the two 18th century Japanese prints from the College architectural historian Francis R. Darwin D Martin House, are housed in series "The Mirror of the Beauties of the Kowsky; Susan McCartney, president of University Archives. Also available are the Green House" by Hanarubo. Two prints the Preservation Coalition of Erie County; letters of contract, letters ordering materi- from the same series were among those John F Quinan, Wright authority and UB als for the house, blueprints and taped in- selected by Wright for the Martin House, associate professor of art history; and terviews with the two Martin children, all O'Hern explains. Robert Shibley, chairman of the UB Depart- of which the university owns. Visitors continue to view this important ment of Architecture. Before OHern and his team go about rip- piece of American architecture. O'Hern es- —Ann Whitcher

FALL 1985 SOURCE ( THE WORLD'S SMALLEST THERMOMETER

Both magni- By Bruce S. Kershner fied 600 times, a human world's smallest thermometer and the hair seems The world's smallest heater may soon be the large com- newest entries in the pared to the Guinness World Book world's tiniest of Records. The minuscule devices were in- thermometer. vented during the last several months in the laboratory of UB biophysicist Frederick Sachs, Ph.D., to measure temperature changes in single cells as part of a biomedical research project. The ultra-microthermometer and ultra- microheater, as Sachs refers to the instru- ments, are part of hand-held devices that taper into a tip that is invisible to the unaided eye. "The sensing tip and the heating element are both approximately one micron in diameter," the associate professor of biophysical sciences relates. For comparison, a single strand of hair is more than 50 microns thick and there are

which results in impulses that travel through the neural pathways to the spinal cord and brain where they are perceived as touch, pain, pressure, or sound. Other less complicated sensory organs such as free nerve endings and Ruffini endings are found throughout the body but, until now, were too small to measure for TOUCH their response. However, the knowledge about their struc- Reduced to its quantum unit, ture and ability to send impulses has told us little about how the physical stimulation is ac- will we still enjoy it? tually translated into the electrical nerve impulse. The situation is analagous to a person BY BRUCE KERSHNER who has learned that flicking a light switch turns a light on and off because it somehow my pear to be an essential mechanism by which sends an electric current to the light. That per- Stimulateion channels!" the body communicates with itself, and how son will not, however, understand the fun- a —could this individual cells communicate with themselves." damental mechanism if he or she does not become the This cell-to-cell internal communication me- actually know how the switch box electroni- catchword of ans, in effect, that the body can be viewed as cally performs the operation.

the future to one large sensory organ, whose sensations in- The answer to the mystery of sensation, express erotic clude not only the generalized touch sense Sachs found, is at the molecular level in the interest? (both sexual and non-sexual) but also such cell membrane.

Maybe not, but it could be the way to ex- diffuse and internal responses as blood pres- The existence of ion channels is not new plain how erotic stimulation—as well as all tac- sure, cerebrospinal pressure, heart and lung but all other known ion channels such as those tile and kinetic sensation— actually occurs in inflation, bladder filling, distension of the gut, in nerve synapses, Schwann cells, muscle, the body. and organ stretch, even extending to such blood, pancreas and heart cells seem to be in- A UB biophysicist has discovered what universal functions as cell volume regulation sensitive to mechanical stimulation. They are could be the fundamental mechanism for the and body homeostasis. These physical senses instead triggered by electrical current or by perception of touch, body awareness, pressure are referred to as mechanoreception. chemicals such as calcium ions or neurotrans- and stretch (Journal of Physiology, June 1984 In addition, the mechanically- sensitive ion mitters. and June 1985 issues). Frederick Sachs, channels help to explain the senses of hear- The ion channels that Sachs discovered are Ph.D., found enzyme molecules on cell mem- ing and balance, which depend on the the first known to be sensitive to mechanical branes that, when touched, send an electri- pressure-sensitive hairs in the cochlea and ves- stimulation, that is, they can convert (trans- cal impulse through a channel in their structure tibular. duce) mechanical energy into electrical energy. to ultimately transmit physical sensation. The At first glance, one would expect that much Sachs' research indicates that the process

44 year old associate professor of biophysi- is already known about the mechanoreceptor that ultimately leads to perception of pressure cal sciences refers to these molecules as ion mechanisms. For instance, the structures of and touch probably works as follows: channels because of the exchange of ions certain microscopic specialized sensory organs "The cell membrane is basically composed through their pore-like structure. in skin, inner ear, muscles, tendons and joints of phospholipids overly- Sachs calls this mechanically sensitive type are well known. These sensors, which include ing a cytoskeleton net- of ion channel the "quantum unit of mechani- muscle spindle and Golgi tendon organs, coch- work of fibers," he ^% I .j . «i . i ^jachs inves- cal excitability." lear hairs, Pacinian and Meissner's corpuscles elucidates. Interspersed Otigateshow "If you subdivide it, there's no excitability and Krause end bulbs, respond to mechani- across this fibrous net- indlvidua i ce//s left, while larger structures just involve more cal deformation from pressure, stretch and work are large protein communicate ion channels and the couplings between tension. Some of these organs, when physi- molecules." with them," he explains. "These ion channels ap- cally stimulated, produce an electric current The large proteins are themselves.

10 SOURCE FALL 1985 THEWRIGHTSTUFF ii

if I don't: neither book even begins satisfactory of all studies of Wright's of museum conservation procedures.

to do justice to the remarkable and client relationships, which is the bet- The reconstruction of the Francis W. instructive environmental installations ter for being a self-study by two of Little living room at the Metropolitan of the house. Hoffmann does repro- his more thoughtful (and satisfied) Museum in New York has brought on duce the section of the house that my clients. Yet a sadness haunts this one of those smug and luxurious spouse prepared at the behest of admirable record of the commission- issues of the Bulletin with which the HABS*, in order to show how those ing, construction, use, and adaptation Great Looter of Fifth Avenue cele- installations are integrated into the of their house — the persistent and brates the acquisition of new booty

architecture, but I am left feeling that subtle frustration of their ambition under the guise of publishing schol-

those sweaty hours I spent getting up that it should pass into the public arly essays about it. The main contri- into the roof and down under the floor domain as a work of American art bution of this Wright issue to everyday

to work out how it was all done for that the public could visit and enjoy. scholarship will be as a source of

my chapter on Wright in Well Tem- In practice it has moved into the slides of his furniture, for the full- pered Environment are among the lost public domain as a grace-and-favor page color plates are among the best labors of architectural history. And residence for bigwigs of the Stanford sources many a college slide-maker where are Grant Hildebrand's model campus. A note of mild paranoia will ever see, and many have already studies of sight-lines and privacy? infects the closing pages of this vol- taken full advantage! The volume, But, then, the upshot of studying ume, and, for me at least, the matter assembled by Edgar Kaufmann, con- such matters must be to express regret is made worse by the fact that the tains caption material on all the that they didn't quite work, and that launching party for the book, at the Wright buildings from which furnish-

is not the kind of thing anyone but house, was the first time for a couple ings have found their way into the Edgar Tafel is allowed to say, now that of years that many of us had been Met, a useful essay on Wright's col- FLW is an accredited Ail-American able to get into this allegedly public lecting of Japanese prints, by Julia Genius. monument. Meech-Prekarik, and a nauseatingly

The Hannas do reproduce the dia- Even so, it is better to be able to self-congratulatory prefatory note by

gram of how their slot-like kitchen is visit a house like this in its entirety the Museum's director.

lit and ventilated — it is one of the and on its original site, than to see "Historic American Buildings Survey draw-

many satisfactions of this still most it in fragments and in the context ings. —

D B R

above FRANK LLOYD WRICHT, NORTHEAST BEDROOM. 1916, WITH JEANNETTE WILBER AT HER DESK, opposite and preceding page: FREDERICK C. ROBIE HOUSE. CHICAGO, 1909.

see discussed in public, never really It is a packed little volume, full course, there is no need to look for came to grips with this one, though of information, opinion and reminis- hidden persuaders. He was simply it notes extensively the manifest shift cence by practically everybody in- Oak Park's neighborhood architec- in Wrights fortunes and reputation at volved in the Pope-Leighey house tural enfant terrible, and he got jobs the beginning of the thirties. Yet, why clients, later inhabitants, site super- on the local word-of-mouth network, did the Princeton lectures make such visor, contractor, landscaper, furni- or from clients who had seen other an impact on people like the Hannas, ture builder, the National Trust, as houses by him. This emerges from the who seem barely to have heard of him well as the usual set-pieces by Edgar two studies of the Robie House, which before that time? Why did a reading Kaufmann and H. Allen Brooks. complement each other neatly in some of that miserable and self-serving The only light, however, that is ways. Thus, Connors explains the Autobiography produce in Loren Pope shed on Wright's power to mesmerize client's affluent circumstances by lay- "one fervent wish ... for a house potential clients long before they had ing out statistics on the growth of the created by you"? seen any of his buildings is a curious auto industry, but Hoffmann shows a The Preservation Press volume on phrase in Pope's third letter to his picture of Fred Robie in one of his the Pope-Leighey house ought to be proposed architect: "If you're making experimental vehicles. Throughout, some help here; the house is, as any eastern trips soon, use the 'one Connors's book looks to the larger

John Sargeant observed during his horse England' charge. It certainly cultural horizon and the work of other protracted battle with the widow and chips veneer in a hurry. And the architects, while Hoffmann's longer the Taliesin establishment to publish immigrants from the mid-west enjoy volume cleaves more to the local and his book, Frank Lloyd Wright's Uso- it." That sounds to me like the muffled anecdotal. Together they give gener- nian Houses, "the best documented of voice of grass-roots isolationist para- ous coverage of what is still Wright's all the Usonians, and the only one for noia, long before Tom Wolfe learned most remarkable house, but even so which the full correspondence be- to exploit it for fun and profit — Wright the complementary fit is not perfect tween client and architect has been as an early Reagan-style protective and there are gaps. released by Taliesin" because of its father-figure. Otherwise, clues are One of these I cannot mention "subsequent adoption by the National hard to find, even as close to the without declaring an interest, and am

Trust for Historic Preservation, and source as this. emboldened to mention it only by the re-erection at Woodlawn Plantation." For the Prairie House period, of offer of other reviewers to do it for me ® Friday, October 11, 1985— H-3

The Rolls-Royce of office furniture celona chairs that make up the classic "Knoll seemed possible. When Hans Knoll arrived in By Patricia Leigh Brown look" are still made here, 13 miles southwest of the United States, virtually no one was making Knight-Rldder Quakertown, no longer in Pennsburg but in a furniture to match the booming, sometimes EAST GREENVILLE, Pa. — Far from corpo- 350,000-square-foot unmarked facility in East austere contemporary postwar office buildings rate climes, where the office is a landscape and Greenville hugged by a cornfield and a parking being erected. If the boss had a roll-top desk deals are sewn like rows of wheat, lies the tidy lot. and swivel chair, most office-workers still rural Main Street of East Greenville, Pa. Inside, new technology coexists with old toiled behind clunky wooden desks made up of In an unprepossessing factory building just school. Veneer laminating presses, metal tube two pedestals and a set of pull-out drawers with north of here, a chair is being made. It took benders and machines that trim, round and a knee-hole in between. years to figure out how to make this chair, sand still-warm wooden panels create Stephens Back in Germany, the Knoll family had man- which starts off as a bar of stainless steel that is landscape systems, Hannah desk systems, ufactured furniture by modern architects, so hand ground, buffed, polished and bent, then Schultz chairs and Gwathmey-Siegel desks. when Hans got to America, he and Florence welded into two curved pieces that join in a Nearby, artisans stand hand-polishing the Mies called on their international group of designer graceful X. van der Rohe and bending wire around wooden and architect friends for work. The commis- All the feasibility and market research stu- boards to form the diamond-shaped seat bas- sions came and along with them, instant suc- dies in the world would argue against making kets of Harry Bertoia's famous chairs. cess. Before long, almost all the giants of mod- this chair — a chair whose structure is so deli- The furniture is trucked down Route 29. Past ern design, Charles Eames and George Nelson cately revealing that, even in a mechanized fac- Smiley Mark's garage, which still carries a excepted, were designing Knoll furniture. tory like this one, it still takes human judgment small stock of Studebaker automotive parts. One of the most notable was Italian-born and human hands to make it. Past the turn-off for the Globe Hotel, which fea- Harry Bertoia, who was invited here by Hans But there was no such thing as a feasibility tures Eero Saarinen and Marcel Breuer chairs Knoll and lived and worked in Barto from 1950 study back in 1929, the year Mies van der Rohe — and smorgasboard on weekends. Past Cab until his death in 1978. designed this, the Barcelona chair. There were Fryes, a cozy Swiss tavern and Knoll watering By all accounts he was a kind and quiet man no feasibility studies back in the mid-'40s when hole where, lying under the white linen table- who, recalls Knoll colleague Bob Longwell, Hans Knoll, a German immigrant with a hunch cloth beneath some unsuspecting diners' potato "found beauty and humor in everything he that modern architects would need modern fur- roesti, there is the original plywood mockup of looked at, whether it was the cornice of a build- niture for their new glass and steel office build- a Saarinen oval table. ing or a dog eyeing a fire hydrant." Bertoia was live ings, established what would become arguably And so it has come to pass that there are de- a mentor to the designers who still here; the most prestigious furniture manufacturer in signers in these hills. In Bally (population today, his memory is as indelibly welded to the the world. 1,051), in Barto (population 75-80), in Huff's region as the wires in a Bertoia chair. that chair — Legend has it that Knoll and his American- Church (population 75-80), in East Greenville Though perhaps best-known for born wife, Florence, came to this loamy, hilly (population 2,45a), there is a tiny enclave of the an airy assemblage of steel latticework that is region of eastern Pennsylvania on a summer country's most prominent designers of office as much a piece of sculpture as it is a comfort- vacation. Attracted by the Upper Perkiomen chairs, desks and work stations — living and able basket for the body — Bertoia's first love Valley's meticulous Pennsylvania German working in the country. was his sculpture. craftsmen, as well as an abundant supply of At odd moments, when the woods turn black- He left a monument in these hills. To reach labor — young men, disenchanted with farm- mysterious and dusk bathes the hills in orange it, you follow a dusty ribbon of road beyond the ing, coming back from the war — the Knolls set light, they seem like corporate elves — these "Mulberry Hill Orchard" and "live or dressed up their first furniture factory in a one-story men with sawdust in their ears supplying the rabbits" signs, to an old wooden barn next to tar-paper shack in nearby Pennsburg. world with classy office furniture from their the stone and clapboard farmhouse where his Today, Knoll — referred to as "Knalls" by hidden studios in the hills. widow Brigitta — who calls Bertoia chairs Pennsylvania Dutch locals — is a $164 million They are more apt to be reading "Office Au- "Harry chairs" and drives a VW Rabbit embla- company, with corporate headquarters on Mad- tomation and Administration" than the local zoned with a peace sticker — still lives. Down ison Avenue and pristine designer showrooms feed catalogue. the road are daughter Lesta and son Val, who in major cities around the world. Knoll furni- They don't exactly form a visible community. carries out his father's work at the Bertoia Stu- ture — the Rolls-Royce of office furniture — In fact, so much do they treasure their indepen- dio in Bally. graces swanky homes and image-conscious cor- dence and solitude that most of the area locals Bertoia's forms derived from nature. During porate headquarters, from the gray granite know only of "Knalls," the big local employer, his final years, he was particularly intrigued Hughes Aircraft building near Los Angeles to not of the influential colony of free-lance de- with sound, producing what he called "sounding CBS' soaring black granite tower in New York. signers in their midst. works" that, in reedlike configurations of beryl- But the "wire and air" chairs of Harry Ber- Most of them came initially to work for lium and nickel, mystically echoed nature's toia and the hallowed Mies van der Rohe Bar- Knoll, back in the heady days when everything own music. ^ Scottsdale H panel mulls resort plan By Patrick Dodclt Gazette Northeast Bureau Hi SCOTTSDALE — A Colorado rj company has hired Taliesin Associ- r , ated Architects to plan a 290-acre development, including a 300-room j3 resort and an 18-hole golf course, just southeast of Frank Lloyd ^ Wright's historic Taliesin West -^ The development, dubbed "Al- - cana," would include 100 acres •w owned by the Frank Lloyd Wright j§ Foundation but outside the bound- 's- aries of the Taliesin West National "*» Historic Landmark.

The Planning Commission will consider the case at 6 p.m. today in the City Hall Kiva, 3939 Civic Center Plaza. Property Investors of Colorado, based in Englewood, Colo., owns a 190-acre site previously zoned for 190 single-family homes and 496 resort rooms. That plan did not include a golf course. The new plan would include 248 homes on 147 acres, a golf club- house with several restaurants and 300 resort casitas.

The land is at the northwest comer of 120th Street and Cholla Road.

According to a report filed with the city's planning division, representatives of Taliesin and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation were concerned that nearby development would be out of character with the landmark. After meeting with the Colorado group at its Glenmoor development in the Cherry Hills area of Denver, the foundation agreed to include its land in a revised plan.

The new plan calls for a "desert golf course" that will have only about 60 acres of turf. The Colorado group and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation' have filed an applicaton with the state Land Department for a planning lease on another 280 acres,

north of Alcana, the report said. i If the group obtains the lease, the land would be planned as the' second phase of the development, the report said. TIMES TRIBUNE

in furniture and

Friday, October 25, 1985 — B-3

gadgets reflect social changes

NEW YORK (AP) — When a 1937 Electrolux vacu- For example, the Wright table and the crafts move- um cleaner was found for the Whitney Museum's ex- ment developed during the rise of industrialism. hibit on 20th century design, it was delivered by mis- When new machines began dominating the landscape, take to the cleaning staff. some people turned to straightforward designs and The error was forgivable because household items down-to-earth materials. are usually not the stuff of which museums are made. At the same time, those with a lot of money opted

. The Whitney's show, which runs through February, for a more opulent style from the past. This revivalist celebrates those familiar things that fill the Ameri- urge is reflected in the exhibit by William Colman's can home — furniture, televisions, ice buckets, vases, 1898 dressing table, a gaudy creation of hammered lamps, radios and coffee makers. silver. Called "High Styles: Twentieth-Century American During the Depression, when industry was idle, an Design," it offers 300 examples of furniture, appli- opposite force occurred, said Rosemarie Haag Blet- ances, textiles and graphic design, including a 1938 ter, a professor of fine arts at New York University, wall telephone, a Tiffany lamp, a Cuisinart and a din- who assembled the 1930-45 section. Some objects be- ner plate with the squiggly black-and-white pattern of came "streamlined." Even toasters and pencil shar- an old school notebook. peners took on a Flash Gordon look. People were The show, which emphasizes that American taste in looking toward the future.

design is as diverse and changeable as other aspects The relative wealth of the 1960s gave rise to "throw- of culture, is divided into five 15-year periods and one away chic" — modern plastic furniture that was not 10-year period. Each section has it own curator. designed to last "The notion that we were prosperous The exhibit also raises fundamental questions about enough to buy something and then throw it out was why we choose the things we do, and why some items titillating to people," Filler said. go out of style and are revived, while others simply go Of course, such waste brought its own response — a out of style. return in the 1970s to enduring values and craftsman- The rectilinear oak dining room table and low-sea t ship. criairs with high backs designed bv Frank Llovd Why some things come back into style after they suit wnent in 1899 would many rnntemnorarv homesT are rejected is another question raised by the Whit- "On the other hand, not many people want Kip Co- ney exhibition. People were sick of Art Deco in the burn's inflatable plastic chairs in their living rooms. 1930s, but those objects are chic today. Two specimens of his 1967 creations, which resemble "You throw out your parents' or grandparents' fur- sections from an orange, are shown in the exhibit. niture and buy what's new," Hanks said. "In the "Style changes are a response to social changes," '30s and '40s they were throwing out the Stickley fur- said Martin Filler, editor of House & Garden maga- niture and Tiffany lamps. It is a while before it zine and curator of the 1960-75 section. revives again."

j&y ) p^ H^ m* ARCHITECTURE VIEW PAUL GOLDBERGER ( *v The Case for Keeping Wright's Vision of the Guggenheim

most puzzling thing about the proposal to so in add the work of Frank Lloyd Wright — think, for exam- to the Guggenheim Museum, which was an- ple, of how important the void in the The center of the main t\>- nounced last winter and then revealed in its final tuiida is to the architectural ideas at play here If that form last month, is the relative silence with space were to be filled, even in part, it would lose its im- which it has been received. It has neither been pact and its meaning. And so, too, with the space outside. celebrated as an architectural triumph nor reviled as the For the main rotunda was not intended to have anything desecration of a landmark. A few architects have come compete with it — it was meant to stand alone, its grea' forward to support the plan, and the Carnegie Hill Neigh- circular form swirling free in space. bors, a community group in the portion of the Upper East It is a way of making architecture that is, of course, Side in which the museum is located, has made known its at odds with the normal and proper way of doing aungs in displeasure. But the response has been nothing compared York, New where we generally respect the clt>3e coimeo to the outcry that greeted the announcement by the Whit- tions between buildings. But the strength of rules lies in ney Museum, the Guggenheim's neighbor 15 blocks to the part in knowing where they can be broken, and in the southeast, that it wished to make a substantial addition to hands of genius such as Wright's, breaking the rules — its building. and thus giving us this great rotunda standing alone in The Whitney's plan, designed by Michael Graves, has space, disconnected from the street or from any other been the architecture world's favored subject of debate, structure — is exactly how it should be or gossip, or both, since last May, when it was made pub- • • • lic with iio small amount of fanfare. By midsummer it I say all of this with the utmost respect for the inter- seemed as if no one was talking about anything except nal arrangements Mr. Gwathmey has designed here. whether the Graves design would be the ruination or the from the standpoint f of interior organisation, there is no savior of Marcel Breuer's original Whitney buildings- question that the Guggenheim would be a better museum Vet when the Guggenheim commissioned the firm of if this addition were built. Most important, the so-calied Gwathmey Siegel & Associates to add to its building — the "little rotunda," the round section at the northwest corner major Frank Lloyd Wright building in New York and one of the building that is now used for offices, would be of the great works of 20th-century architecture in the ' opened up to the public as additional gallerv space. Fur- world — there seem to have been whimpers, not shrieks. ther, there is much to be praised for the way in which the Why t The difference between the two reactions is instruc- Gwathmey Siegel design serves the urbanistic needs of tive^ and tells us much not only about the two original East 89th Street, its side elevation working well as a buildings and the institutions they mediation between the main house, but also about / Guggenheim building and the state of architecture at this moment in our culture. J the townhouse scale of this East Side block. Moreover, the continual refinement of this scheme in the months that the architects have been developing it has The similarities between the situations first. In both improved it noticeably, and reduced the degree of intru- cases we are dealing with modern buildings that in a rela- sion into what we might call the Guggenheim's tively short time visual — the Guggenheim opened in 1959, the field. Last week, in a fairly substantial redesign that in- Whitney in 1966 — have reached the status of cultural volved lifting the projecting section higher, the scheme icons. Both are works of our time, visited every day of the underwent another improvement; it surely does year by people who can not ap- clearly recall the moment they pear to loom over the original building as much as it did in opened. These buildings are both, quite justifiably, con- the version made public a few weeks ago sidered landmarks, and they are among the relatively few But these things alone are, not enough co justify what modern structures in this city that are viewed with Louis re- Cbeckman is still a major incursion into one of the greatest spect,even love, buildings of the sort more often reserved for build- of ing modern building. The top, unfortunately, the 20th century. It-i.s an odd accident that the Guggen- ings, of much earlier generations. is fussy, pre- mediocre annex to the building that was erected many heim is not protected tentious and overblown. . by official iandmark designation — Another similarity is that both years ag t by Taliesin museums, as institu- Fellowship, the inheritors of Frank it is too to The top cannot, of course, be sliced off . new be an individual New Vork City landmark, tions, ;perceive their landmark buildings as too this design Lloyd Wight's architectural practice, small for and they point fre- and it does not fall within present needs, willy-nilly, even if the Whitney's administration were to any of the city s historic dis- But there, 1 think, the Whitney and the quently to sketches Wright himself left for a tall Duilding conceive of the tricts — but it is inconceivable that this building should Guggenheim part company. museum's future in more modest* terms, to rise be The Whitney is seeking to ut precisely the site of that annex, serving as a considered as for the projected layout of space inside the expanded anything other than a de facto landmark. morethan double its size, adding all kinds of new facilities backdrop for the main museum building. building And as such, it is difficult to see this addition, as well, as a vast increase would have to be reorganized. But given the high for all the in gallery space. The Guggen- If Gwathmey Siegel were proposing a building like respect contained heim quality of Mr. Graves's base section and the intriguing in its intentions, as a justifiable one. wants merely to add modestly to its gallery space that in he Wright sketch, there would be no problem: dialogue it initiates with the previously But why are substantial changes defensible at the and consolidate its 'backstage," or support silent and brood- Wright u plan was for facilities. Its a wafer-thin structure to house art- Whitney when they not desires, ing Breuer building, and given the fact that hauling are at the Guggenheim? Granting as an institution, are far more restrained. in the ists' studios, and it would have been more a concrete ami that I am uncomfortable sails would not be a bad idea for the over-ambitious Whit- about the overwhelming degree In this sense, surely, the glass certain than a real building. But such a structure is more muted reaction to the ney, it would seem as If there of change Mr. Graves has proposed for the Whitney Mu must be some way in which far tpo /arrow to Guggenheim proposal is perfectly ! contain the galleries, conservation areas reasonable. There is a a more reasonable program for expansion seum, I admit to feeling no qualms about a scaied-down kind of could be paired and offices that the hubris to the Whitney scheme that is museum now wishes to add. version disturbing with the better half of Mr. Graves's design. of his scheme. It all comes down, I think, to the, even jf you feel, as I To make room for these functions, do, that the Graves scheme is the architect fact that Marcel Breuer was not There is no such easy solution in sight for the not Frank Lloyd Wright, and without its respect for the Guggen- Charles Gwathmey has proposed a wider wing, cautilev- Breuer building, different as heim's problem. the Whitney is not ihe Guggenheim, hi triecaseofWright,] the Its requirements, more reasonable to ered forward from architectural language it speaks is: a taller rear section that would in itself The Whitney de- t_we have a building that '" r* thft triiinjfihaTit start with, are also more difficult to edit down. WW ^lii^^] sign, in short, calls for a The Gug- be somewhat like Wright's backdrorrhuilding. But cubic mass to rise beside the genheim the for irients of genius In the case of Breuer. we have a buiiding desperately needs gallery space to display its present Whitney building by ward section, which would be covered in pale green vile. Breuer (and virtually as distinguished oTih erigthTui3Tntegrity but far short of genius It is permanent collection (so, to be fair, does would on) large qs it > and then imposes project out so fai that it wouid reach the a vast, colonnaded top that the Whitney midpoint umeasonable to suggest that the Wngni building must , but it would be would sit get plenty of it even in a smaller ofthethaini-ptunda heavily astride both sections, weighing It would thus fill, at least in pan. he treated with even them Graves building). There is no land next more restraint thai, -he Breuei building dowyvand, indeed, visually door to the Gug- void over the north half of the engulfing the original building Guggenheim that is absu, — and that it is possible even the genheim that the museum can purchase for expansion, mat most conscientious/] The base is itself a remarkably deft as luteiy critical to the integrity of this great building. composition an agile the Whitney has done. and intelligent design does not do that, oniy because the/ post-modem The Guggenheim's officials feel That void, response to an unusually difficult that empty space, is in many ways as im- Guggenheim, and isolat- they have little chdice but to build for all its incredible power is ultimately thi" over the small and portant as any .filled space in the Guggenheim. It is often more fragile and delicate thing —— , MS Dr. and Mrs. Paul Hanna 20 Mitchell Place Stanford, CA 94305

Dear Dr. and Mrs. Hanna:

As a close friend of the Fellowship, I am sure you are aware of the restoration and expansion that is needed to continue the Frank Lloyd Wright legacy. I invite you to consider a gift to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation to help achive our educational and preservation goals. Last year, more than 200 persons responded to our request with gifts totaling $69,165.00. These funds were directed to restoration programs at Taliesin in Wisconsin. Specifically these gifts were used to rewire the house, Frank Lloyd Wright's home at Taliesin, a need which we were not able to fund from our other income. As you know, the Foundation is dedicated to maintaining and enhancing the work of Frank Lloyd Wright by ensuring that the School of Architecture and other educational programs continue. The work of Mr. Wright is kept alive for future generations through the programs of the Foundation and the restoration and expansion of these National Landmark facilities. We also appreciate the good will you have spread during your friendship with Taliesin. It is through private gift support from Friends of Taliesin that we are able to advance our work. I invite you to consider a gift to the Foundation this year. Whatever amount you are able to consider, please know that your support will be valuable in allowing others to experience the unique Taliesin experience. THE FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT FOUNDATION Thank you, indeed, for your consideration. A reply card is enclosed for your conveni FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

TALIESIN WEST • SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA 85261-4430 602 + 948-6400

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THE FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT FOUNDATION

Friends of Taliesin support the continuing operation of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. Become a Friend of Taliesin by returning this card along with your contribution or we will bill you quarterly beginning January, 1986. Checks should be made payable to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. Gifts to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation are tax deductible.

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Dr. and Mrs , Paul Hanna 20 Mitchell Place Stanford CA 94305 771433A1 12/14/85 HAN*20 ADDRLSS NOTIFY SENDER 01 NIW R J MANNA y PAUL 38TER ST '#502 PALO ALTO CA 9^301-12^2 DECEMBER 1985 DESIGN MARILYN MONROE MEETS FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

By Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer

During the final planning stages of film was Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. ture of the swimming pool. Naturally, the Guggenheim Museum, In 1957, Mr. Wright received a the large, circular living room provides Frank Lloyd Wright found himself phone call from the actress, who was at for a cinema with a projection booth at spending so much of his time in New that time married to Arthur Miller, the one end of the area and a film vault. York that the constant renting of well-known playwright. She wanted a Opposite, in the living room, is provi- rooms at his favorite hotel, the Plaza, Frank Lloyd Wright house to be built sion for a drop-down screen. On the became a burdensome expense. More- on a piece of property near Roxbury, second floor is a large costume vault over, he needed a New York office, Connecticut. An appointment was for Miss Monroe's wardrobe, and pro- given the amount of time he was spend- made, and she came over to the Plaza visions are made for a spacious nursery ing there. Since he loved the Plaza, he from her apartment in New York. Wil- and children's bedrooms. Since Miss decided to rent a studio apartment on liam Wesley Peters, Mr. Wright's son- Monroe was anxious to have children the second floor. in-law, was in the apartment when the of her own, the nursery is an important The Plaza became office and home doorbell rang. He opened the door and feature of the upper-level plan. for Mr. and Mrs. Wright from 1954 to was astonished to find Marilyn Mon- Before work could be started on the 1959, and they spent a great deal of roe standing alone at the door asking to house, Marilyn Monroe's life had be- time there each year. One afternoon, see Mr. Wright. Mr. Wright appeared come increasingly difficult. She sepa- Mrs. Wright went across the street to at the door, invited Miss Monroe in, rated from Arthur Miller, and the the Paris Theatre to see a movie. Upon and immediately spirited her into the studio complained of her erratic be- returning, she exclaimed about the ac- living room of the suite. havior during filming. Her dream to tress she had seen for the first time. The house that they discussed and build a Frank Lloyd Wright home for

"You will love her, Frank, she is so tal- that Mr. Wright designed for her was herself and for the children she longed ented, vivacious, natural. They cast her based on the project he had earlier de- to have was reluctantly abandoned. in a very sexy role because she is stun- signed for Robert Windfohr in 1949. Her tragic suicide, some years later, ning, but the thing you will like best The property in Roxbury had a slight grieved all of those who had met her

! about her is that she is so natural " Her slope going down to a running brook, and grown fond of her the several times name was Marilyn Monroe and the and Mr. Wright made that slope a fea- she visited the Plaza.

TREASURES OF TALIESIN 76 UNBUILT DESIGNS OF FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT BY BRUCE BROOKS PFEIFFER • BRUCE BROOKS PFEIFFER. SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY PRESS 1985

62 HOUSE & GARDEN .

Recipes that bid you a warm welcome.

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Kahlua Irish Coffee Kahlua Hot Apple Cider Stir 1 ounce Kahlua and 1 ounce Warming and wonderful: 1-1/2 Irish Whiskey in a cup of hot ounces Kahlua to 8 ounces hot

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Roger Kennedy tells how he and his wife, Frances, have made their house a home for the spirited work of three little-known architects PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN HALL

1 he distinctive colors and forms of the Kennedys' American decorative- arts collection generated the design for the interiors of their house. Above: A detail from a leaded-glass window designed by Harvey Ellis now decorating the Kennedys' dining room. Opposite: The view from Frances Kennedy's study extends to the living room through transparent planes, including Woodson Rainey's windows etched with a Sullivan design.

152 ^Km __ ======iwKKKKK^~~~ =li__ Wi "*2 J' M^^^'"l«aM|>^MX nK "—^"^^^^ ' _. | .„.. _.

fluted cast cement columns with Ionic capitals, a wooden bench and balustrade surround the porch and western view. The eight-foot bronze angel Amor Caritas in the Atrium

garden, opposite, is one of Saint-Gaudens's representations of the Ideal. 1 ools of colored light spill from the windows in the living room, both views, onto a rug designed by Saskia Weinstein. Weinstein's subtle color scheme and built-in furniture accentuate the clean geometry of the room's structural grid, which in turn frames the Purcell and Elmslie panels set in new windows. Above: A sand-cast teller's wicket from Louis Sullivan and George Elmslie's Owatonna bank tops the fireplace.

never knew him in his prime, but he must have been a that no one, no architect and certainly no client, ever fully force of nature. When I met him he was in his eight- owns a work of architecture and why each inhabitable I ies, with only an hour or two a day in which he could work of art requires, periodically, reinterpretation. summon his energies to talk, but he exhausted me faster Living with the work of men who believed as passion- than he exhausted his tired, old, consumptive body. That ately in this kind of art as did Purcell means offering, al- was in the 1960s. ways, their work to be reinterpreted and, sometimes, William Gray Purcell was a passionate man. He dra- recombined. My wife, Frances Kennedy, and I have gooned me into architectural history, and I feel him at my been, in a modest way, collectors of bits and pieces of ar- elbow at this moment, urging me on. Everything I have chitecture that would otherwise have been lost. We have written is really about the thesis upon which he was insis- been lucky in finding designers who could help to recon- tent: that architecture makes no sense as an expression of stitute these fragments into new works of art.

the pure work of genius, that it is, instead, a collective I met Purcell in the early sixties, not long before his form, requiring many people to complete and producing death. But with a man like him, death merely diminished

a public object set where all may see it. I have recently his presence to a greater potency than many of our dim-

called a book Architecture, Men, Women and Money, a ti- mer acquaintances, and upon his recommendation we

tle that would please him, I think, because it tries to sug- have also been living, so to speak, with his friends George gest why buildings are built and by whom. It also suggests Elmslie and Harvey Ellis. It happens that they prede-

154 '• :

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/ Ann Hartman carved the octagonal breakfast room, seen from the patio, from a dining ell off the kitchen. The Purcell and Elmslie panels, set in the wall and lit from above, are from the now demolished Capitol Savings and Loan Association building in Topeka, Kansas. Hartman also designed the octagonal table, here set with reproductions of Frank Lloyd Wright's china for the Imperial Hotel.

ceased him, Elmslie in 1952 and Ellis in 1904. We have non, if we have one—Elmslie had over his drawing board also carried on a posthumous friendship with Louis Sulli- a copy of a Harvey Ellis drawing for a jewel-box bank.

van and a gingerly dalliance with Frank Lloyd Wright, (The original is among the Ellis drawings at the Universi- though by the time we discovered Wright there was such ty of Minnesota.) The drawing is of a superb building, so a throng about him that he didn't seem to require much compact and elegant, so much in advance of anything of

from us. its time ( 1888), that after Purcell called my attention to it The throng was not so dense about Ellis and P & E I began pursuing what was left of Ellis's work. (Purcell and Elmslie, a partnership that operated after This was not easy. Ellis was an alcoholic, with a pro- Elmslie left Sullivan, in 1909, and continued until 1922). pensity for disappearances. He had made the reputations About their work hovered an insistent pack of derogators of many lesser architects by his willingness to work on and destroyers. This was especially ironic since, unlike competition drawings for major buildings; when the Wright, Purcell himself derived much pleasure in in- work was done he would disappear, leaving among the creasing the reputations of others. He told me, for exam- firm's remaining draftsmen a reputation for eerie quick- ple, that in 1906 and 1907, while Elmslie was working ness and skill but no written claim on posterity. The St. with Sullivan on the building that has always seemed to Louis Union Station shows his hand, though the credit me America's indisputable masterpiece, the National goes to Theodore C. Link. The only surviving building of Farmers' Bank in Owatonna, Minnesota—our Parthe- any elegance from the great (Text continued on page 201)

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1 he stair is screened by the original structural grid, above, which was opened by Saskia Weinstein. Below: Purcell and Elmslie fixtures light the entry. Overleaf: Two views of the dining room designed by Ann Hartman around pieces by Harvey Ellis. His stained glass panels, left, are a focal point of the room. Celtic interlacery gives an exotic air to Ellis's crystal cabinet, right, with curving glass doors and deeply carved serving table. 1

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**•-/' 1 wo clerestory panels and fragments from larger windows, rescued by Kennedy from a now-demolished house designed by Ellis, decorate the windows of his study, above. Below: On the opposite wall a mahogany serving

table by Ellis is now a library table. Over it, a tapestry-print fabric bulletin board. Opposite: Purcell and Elmslie windows in Frances Kennedy's study color the view of the garden beyond.

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1 AVERY GRAND LITTLE HOUSE On a Swiss lake, a collector revels in his treasures

BY ROSAMOND BERNIER PHOTOGRAPHS BY OBERTO GILI

W.e are somewhere in Switzerland and on the very edge of a lake. Every Sunday in summer the sailboats would drive Raoul Dufy crazy with their delicate wheeling in and out of the crisp little waves. Duck and swan contribute likewise to the general animation, even if the great distant mountain—one of the most famous in all Europe—sulks the day away somewhere in the clouds. Both Byron and Shelley lived not more than a mile or two away, by water. Jean- Jacques Rousseau knew this stretch of the lake very well, and so did Camille Co-

rot, one of whose best landscapes missed it by a whisker. In the twelfth century Saint Bernard of Clairvaux passed by, too, in the course of one of his more ex-

tended promenades, but we cannot be sure that he noticed it. (When one of his companions remarked to him on the beauty of the lake, he said, "What lake?" and went back to his devotions.)

The house that comes down to the lake at this particular point is neither large

nor old. But it is very pretty, in an eighteenth-century way, and its present owner

bought it not so many years ago from a member (Text continued on page 204)

162 FALLINGWATER P.O. Box R, Mill Run, PA 15464 (412) 329-4666 or 329-8501

WHOLESALE ORDER FORM

NOTE CARDS

Box of 12 $ 3.25

POSTCARDS .15 each POSTERS 2.50

SLIDES Set of 20 6.00

PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTS - 11" x 14"

'Summer Evening ' or 'Winter Snow' 8.00

PRICE QUANTITY ITEM DESCRIPTION PER ITEM TOTAL

Grand Total $

SEND TO BILL TO

Resale Number

Shipping costs will be added to order when received, FALLINGWATER MUl Run, Pennsylvania 15464 412-329-8501

Kaufmann Conservation

December 18, 1985

Paul R. Hanna House "Honeycomb House" 737 Frenchman's Road Stanford, CA 94305

Dear "Honeycomb House":

As you probably know, Fallingwater is a world- famous house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The house was entrusted to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy by Edgar Kaufmann, Jr. and is open for public tours. Brochures describing Fallingwater and our Conservancy are enclosed.

We have recently produced postcards, posters, note cards, slides and photographic prints featuring Fallingwater which we retail in our small shop at Fallingwater and which we also sell at wholesale to other shops.

For your consideration, samples of the postcards and note cards are enclosed, and a sample of the poster will follow under separate cover. Also enclosed is a wholesale order form which includes all items available

Sincerely,

Maxine L. Burnsworth Shop Manager

MLB/aea Enclosures

Entrusted to Western Pennsylvania Conservancy • : :

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204 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222

Western Pennsylvania Conservancy 316 Fourth Avenue Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222

Paul R. Hanna House "Honeycomb House" 737 Frenchman's Road Stanford, CA 94305

Address Correction Requested Return Postage Guaranteed

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V The Arizona Republic :«s Intpriorc;ILV^I lyyl O >Home«entertainment

Doyle Sanders/Republic Cathaline Cantalupo is an intern archivist at Taliesen West in Scottsdale. Taking inventory Archivists wade through late architect's papers By ANN PATTERSON a future in-depth study of her own. Center for Renaissance Studies in "They told me to call Taliesen. 1 Arizona Republic Staff Her doctorate study is in clothing, Chicago. While in Chicago she did and, in the conversation, Bruce "I feel a little like the man who part of a program offered in visited Wright's Robey House and Pfeiffer asked me to apply as an .opened King Tutankhamen's tomb cooperation with the Costume In- wondered aloud, "Where are the intern archivist. 1— look at all those beautiful stitute of the Metropolitan Mu- papers about this house? Where "I did not expect the richness of things," said Cathaline Cantalupo seum of Art and York New are the plans and the documents this collection. I'm living in a as she leafed through manuscripts University. and the photos? museum," she said. knd drawings that once belonged "Frank Lloyd Wright's work jo Frank Lloyd Wright. was not confined just to making "There's no other collection like buildings," she said. "He designed this in the country. To me it is the dresses for the wives of his clients. closest thing I could have to sitting He designed his own hat. I would next to the real man. It's as if I like to prepare a proposal to write were looking over his shoulder." on Mr. Wright's ideas on costumes Cantalupo, whose home is New and design." York City, is well along in her The intern archivist said she eight-month stint as an intern and others at Taliesen call Wright archivist. She is helping to copy "Mr. Wright" because "I think it the Wright archives for the Getty makes them feel he is still here. Center for the History of Art and It's a way of remembering and the Humanities in Santa Monica, honoring him." Calif. The Getty Center, an operating The archives at Taliesin West in arm of the J. Paul Getty Trust, Scottsdale contain virtually a com- will duplicate the majority of the plete record of the architect's work Wright archives to make them and thought, including 21,000 more readily available to scholars. plans and drawings; about 198,000 This is important, Pfeiffer said, pieces of paper with Wright's because the Frank Lloyd Wright letters to clients and his notes for Foundation plans to sell about 100 books, lectures and articles; and of Wright's drawings through a "tens of thousands of photo- New York dealer. Thirty drawings graphs," according to Taliesen's already have entered private col- permanent archivist, Bruce Brooks lections. Pfeiffer. "We are selling to provide an Wright guarded his work "jeal- endowment for the buildings in ously and fiercely," saving every- Wisconsin (Wright's other school, thing that pertained to it, Pfeiffer in Spring Green). This will mean said. we have duplicates," he said. Pfeiffer already has prepared a Among treasures Cantalupo is computerized listing of items in examining are the plans for the archives. Cantalupo's job is to Wright's Imperial Hotel in Tokyo complete the inventory, ensure the and those for the Johnson Wax conservation of materials, and buildings in Racine, Wis.; letters organize and assess the data. Her he wrote while originating the work, and that of her successors, is Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum bjging funded over a three- to in New York City; correspondence eight-year period by a $200,000 with master architect Louis H. grant from the Getty Center. Sullivan; and the original manu- "The first thing is to see what script for Wright's book, A Testa- there is, decide what projects are ment, published in 1957 when conceivable in a year and to create Wright was 88. He died in 1959. descriptive texts in one- or two-line "Obviously, he was a genius," entries," she said. "Then the next she said. . scholars can thread a theme "He had something to say about through the projects." She also everything — the future of cities, will carefully remove drawings his philosophy of religion. I can't from mounted display boards and imagine that people whose special slip them between acid-free papers field 16 literature, for instance, under dust covers, among her wouldn't be interested in what other duties. Wright had to say about books." After the collection is dupli- In her own area of study, cated, copies will be available at costumes, Cantalupo said, "The the center in the form of micro- documents show that Mr. Wright film, photographic transparencies, could create a dress. His design black-and-white prints and tape-re- ability was total." cording transcripts. Cantalupo got her job after Cantalupo, who is working on spending last summer as a fellow her doctoral degree, has an eye on at the Newberry Institute Library MB v

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