E D U C A T I O N | A D V O C A C Y | PRESERVATION THE MAGAZINE OF THE FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT BUILDING CONSERVANCY SPRING 2011 / VOLUME 2 / ISSUE 1 IN THIS ISSUE Wright Overnight Guest Editor: Michael Bridgeman president’s MESSAGE an experiential learning opportunity I have been personally blessed with living most of my life in four extraordinary houses of Wright’s design, Usonia I and Solar Hemicycle, in and near Madison, Wisconsin, designed for my parents Herbert and Katherine Jacobs, and then Taliesin and Taliesin West, where I lived and worked from 1958 until 2003. As an You can’t teach “experience,” nor can you describe adult I can attest to the power of these transformational exactly how that form of learning and understanding environments designed by Wright and how their quali- enters one’s consciousness, although all of the senses ties of scale, light, vista and refuge shaped my life. As a definitely participate. The opportunity of staying three-year old I only knew that they were fun to live in, overnight in a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright light flooded in, the floors were always warm, interest- gives one the opportunity to be the participant in that ing people visited us from around the world, and all my experiential learning process. Many times, there are friends wanted to have parties there. Interested visitors few expectations, but the architectural environment, were always welcomed and asked to pay a small fee. inside and out, will begin to have a conversation with I hope you enjoy the wide variety of use and scale in the overnight visitor if allowed to just BE in the space. the overnight stay sites we have chosen to illustrate our People describe this experience in many ways. A recent theme for this issue. newsletter from Seth Peterson Cottage quotes a guest’s experience: “The use of ceiling height to define space Susan Jacobs Lockhart President, is nice to read about, but to experience how it works Frank Lloyd Wright has been amazing!” Building Conservancy CONTENTS Cover photo: Palmer House master bedroom courtesy of Jefferey and Katherine Schox. Any images not creditied are from the Conservancy’s collection. SaveWright is a semi-annual publication of the 1 Editor’s Welcome: Wright Overnight Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy. 2 Historic Park Inn and City National Bank: A Century of Change Guest Editor: Michael Bridgeman Executive Editor: Susan Jacobs Lockhart 6 Muirhead Farmhouse: The Whole-House Experience Managing Editor: Jeffrey Levine Copy Editor: Linda Botsford Contributing Editor: Janet Halstead 12 Price Tower: The Tree that Escaped the Crowded Forest Designer: Debra Nemeth 16 Penfield House: A Tale of Adaptive Re-use The mission of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy is to facilitate the preservation and maintenance of the remaining structures designed 20 The Palmer House: A Masterpiece of Seclusion in Ann Arbor by Frank Lloyd Wright through education, advocacy, preservation easements and technical services. 23 Pleasures of Wright Overnights Bring Rewards to Houseowners, Too tel: 312.663.5500 25 Letter from the Executive Director: Surrounded by Beauty email: [email protected] web: www.savewright.org © 2011, Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy president’s MESSAGE editor’s W E LCO me wright overnight In early 1993, I received a belated birthday present from friends: a weekend at the Seth Peterson Cottage (1958) near Lake Delton, Wisconsin. It had been opened to lodgers late the year before and was, at the time, the only Wright house anywhere that was available for rental by the public. Though the present was a bit late, our visit in early June was delightful: two nights in the cottage set among the woods of Mirror Lake State Park. Since that time many more Wright buildings have become available for overnight stays. This issue of SaveWright details six of those special places, all of which continue to be used as designed—as places of residence. Three of our authors focus on places built as private homes—the Palmer House, Penfield House and Muirhead Farm. Each provides a different experience for those who stay and each demonstrates the variety of reasons that owners have for opening their houses to guests. The houseowners have the passion and commitment that marks many who live in Wright’s houses plus a keen business sense about preservation and maintenance, pricing, marketing and guest relations. For each, the experience of open- ing their house has been an adventure. AB O Fallingwater offers a variation on access to a private house. The staff has found an U T inventive way to make the house available to overnight visitors while continuing to Michael Bridgeman is T operate and maintain the immensely popular destination. H communications director for E Wisconsin Public Television. E D I T O R Our article about the Park Inn Hotel spotlights the last hotel by Wright still standing. He recently completed a sev- en-year term on the board of It will soon return to its original purpose, though in ways that reflects changes in the the Madison Trust for Historic hotel business and traveler expectations since it was built 100 years ago. The Price Tower Preservation and continues is a case of adaptive reuse with apartments now rented as overnight accommodations. to lead walking tours of his- toric neighborhoods. He is a The growing number of places available for lodgers expands the range of experiences member of the Conservancy that people may have with Wright and his ideas. Short of ownership, overnight stays and has assisted in organiz- ing the silent auction at the offer the most intimate encounter, letting us spend time with a place, inside and out, annual meeting for the last unhurried and relaxed. Fortunately, there are owners, including those featured in this three years. edition of SaveWright, who place a high value on sharing the experience with others. Many people, including me and my friends, are the beneficiaries of their generosity. The fortunate owners of Wright houses experience their houses not only through changing cycles of light but also the changing cycles of seasons and of lives. For the rest of us, an overnight stay, a few unrushed hours of discovery, of sleeping and waking in an environment that encourages us to listen to “our own prized internal song” is a gift. Michael Bridgeman Guest Editor 1 PHOTO BY MARK HERTZBERG. Historic Park Inn Hotel in 2008. Historic Park Inn and City National Bank: A Century of Change B Y A N N M A CGRE G OR One hundred and one years after its original opening, the Historic Park Inn Hotel and City National Bank in Mason City, Iowa, the last standing hotel designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, will open again to the public, its restoration and rehabilitation complete. The grand opening, scheduled for September 10, 2011, marks the culmination of ef- forts begun in the 1970s. The years had not been kind to the buildings. Bank failure in the early 1920s, conversion of the bank to retail space and competition from a more modern hotel subjected Wright’s building to major alterations of the bank exterior, re- AB moval of many of Wright’s best lobby details and finally, the deterioration of the hotel O rooms into homes for pigeons. U T Ann MacGregor spent 30 Local citizens, however, recognized the building’s significance and worked to place the T H years in health care adminis- Park Inn Hotel and City National Bank on the National Register of Historic Places. E tration with the last 20 years A U This set the stage, but the road to restoration wasn’t easy. Private attempts at renova- as the founding executive tion of the hotel failed. A local foundation took on the effort with some success, but T director of Hospice of North H Iowa. She retired in 2000. could not meet city expectations. Then, in early 2005, a citizens’ group came forward OR In early 2005, she became to form Wright on the Park, Inc. (WOTP). Given the hotel by the city and boosted by involved with the formation a grant enabling them to purchase the bank portion of the structure, WOTP set out of Wright on the Park, Inc. In on an $18 million dollar mission: “to own, preserve, maintain and educate the public the spring of 2005, the board about The Historic Park Inn Hotel designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.” of directors appointed Ann as the executive director. Ann With that daunting figure in front of them, WOTP, made up of a volunteer board and is the first to admit that she an executive director, established three fronts: directing immediate needs to stabilize the “failed retirement!” buildings, planning the restoration and raising the funds. In cooperation with Bergland and Cram, a Mason City architectural firm, and Henkle Construction Company, WOTP faced the issue of how to meet contemporary needs and still be true to Wright’s original design. 2 . ARCHIVES ibrary L UBLIC P ITY C ASON M OF courtesy HOTO P City National Bank “modernized” circa 1930. PHOTO COURTESY OF MASON CITY PUBLIC LIBRARY ARCHIVES. PHOTO COURTESY OF MASON CITY PUBLIC LIBRARY Park Inn Hotel circa 1911. The story of the Hotel and Bank began in 1908 when ARCHIVES Mason City attorney J.E.E. Markley’s daughters at- ibrary tended the Hillside Home School near Spring Green, L UBLIC Wisconsin. Impressed with the architect’s design for P ITY the school, Markley suggested Wright design a new C City National Bank. Markley and his senior partner, ASON M OF James Blythe, also wanted new law offices and a mod- ern hotel to better serve clients.