TTHE LAI JOMLLA HISTORIECAL SOCIEKTY MAGAZEINE EPFALL 2 0E15 VOLUMR E 4, NO 3 TALIESIN: The Frank Lloyd Wright Legacy Revisited LA JOLLA HISTORICAL SOCIETY MISSION Executive Director’s Message The La Jolla Historical Society inspires and empowers the community to make La Jolla’s diverse past a relevant part of contemporary life. he La Jolla Historical Estate, Ike Kligerman Barkley Architects, John and VISION “TSociety inspires and Diane Kane, Luce et Studio, Margie Warner and John The La Jolla Historical Society looks toward the future while celebrating the past. We preserve and share La Jolla’s em powers the community to H. Warner Jr., Donald and Jeannette Yeckel, Artworks distinctive sense of place and encourage quality in the urban built environment. The Society serves as a thriving make La Jolla’s diverse past a San Diego, and modernsandiego.com. You can find community resource and gathering place where residents and visitors explore history, art, ideas and culture. relevant part of contemporary more information about the exhibition elsewhere in life. ” So reads the new mission this issue, and we hope you will be able attend the BOARD OF DIRECTORS (2013-2014) statement of the Society, opening and join us for the lecture. Ellen Brown Merewether, President adopted on July 20 by the Our Spring Appeal 2014 fundraising campaign Vice President Seonaid “Shona” McArthur Board of Directors as part of ran well into the summer, surpassing past spring James Alcorn, Vice President Judith Haxo, Secretary Heath Fox an update to our strategic appeals in both the number of donors and the amount Treasurer Donald Quackenbush, plan. The intention of this statement is to focus the of funding contributed. We are especially thankful Nick Agelidis Diane Kane Society not on what we do, but why and for whom. to all of our members and supporters who gave to this Lisa Albanez Donna Medrea Elizabeth Thiele Barkett Carol McCabe The strategic plan vision statement expands on the campaign. Your support is crucial to the ongoing Ruth Covell Molly McClain Meg Davis John Peek concept: “The La Jolla Historical Society looks activities of the Society, and we are most grateful! Laura DuCharme-Conboy Nell Waltz toward the future while celebrating the past. We There are also people to recognize and thank for Tony Crisafi Margie Warner David Goldberg preserve and share La Jolla’s distinctive sense of the success of this year’s successful summer camps. place and encourage quality in the urban built Our Young Photographers Summer Camp was STAFF environment. The Society serves as a thriving presented in two one-week sessions from July 6-17 in Heath Fox, Executive Director [email protected] community resource and gathering place where collaboration with Outside the Lens, a nonprofit Bill Carey, Research Assistant residents and visitors explore history, art, ideas and organization specializing in photography and digital [email protected] culture.” Together these statements give emphasis to media youth programs throughout San Diego County. Michael Mishler, Archivist/Curator the strategic intent that we serve by making the rich We are very appreciative for this collaboration and [email protected] history of the community meaningful to current and thank OTL Executive Director Elisa Marusak Thomson Historian/Docent Coordinator Carol Olten, future generations, and they will guide decision and her terrific staff for this great program. Our popular [email protected] making, drawing our attention to the ideas by which Young Architects Summer Camp also held two one- Peter Soldner, Graphic Designer [email protected] the past can inform the present and shape the future. week sessions for middle school students July 20-24 Our fall exhibition this year is Frank Lloyd and for high school students July 27-31. We are MAGAZINE Wright’s Legacy in San Diego: the Taliesin Apprentices, extremely grateful to the architect-instructors, Editor Contributors an exploration of those who had studied under architect home owners, food vendors, and volunteers, who gave Carol Olten Nick Agelidis Design & Layout Bill Carey Frank Lloyd Wright in his Taliesin apprentice so generously in support of these camps. Special Julia deBeauclair Pat Miller program and then designed and built an array of appreciation to architect Laura DuCharme Conboy for Keith York Columnists Ann Zahner structures throughout San Diego. This exhibition her leadership of the program. Heath Fox examines the work of these apprentices, as well as We are very grateful for the institutional support Michael Mishler Carol Olten other local architects influenced by the Wright legacy. that comes from the City of San Diego Commission Printer The opening reception is Friday, September 25 from for Arts and Culture, and from you, the members of Neyenesch Printers 5-7pm, and the exhibition is open to the public the La Jolla Historical Society. On behalf of the Board September 26, 2015, to January 17, 2016. In of Directors, staff, and volunteers of the Society, we GENERAL INFORMATION conjunction with this exhibition, architectural thank you most sincerely and hope to see you at our historical Alan Hess will present a lecture entitled events and activities often! Mailing Address: Contact Information: PO Box 2085 858•459•5335 How the West Shaped Frank Lloyd Wright (and Vice La Jolla, CA 92038 [email protected] Versa) on October 22 starting at 7:00pm at the (email) Locations Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla. We are Office and Research 7846 Eads Avenue Monday - Friday very grateful for the funding provided for this project Heath Fox La Jolla, CA 92037 10 a.m. - 4.p.m. by Ray and Ellen Merewether, Nick and Lamya Executive Director Agelidis, Elizabeth Courtier – Willis Allen Real Wisteria Cottage Thursday - Sunday 780 Prospect Street Noon - 4 p.m. La Jolla, CA 92037 www.lajollahistory.org Cover Image: Taliesin apprentice Frederick Liebhardt designed this residence for his family in 1950 at 7224 Carrizo Dr. Follow the Society on This photo depicts the front entry with natural stone embedded in cement and support beam set at an angle – both design elements typical of Taliesin. Editor’s Note n the spring of 1984 I had the fortune as a medical issues and had had to Iwriter for the San Diego Union newspaper to be taken to the vet. visit Taliesin West with the purpose of interview - Mrs. Wright was seated ing Olgivanna Lloyd Wright. The occasion was in her private quarters with a the 25th anniversary of Mr. Wright’s death on blanket tucked around her April 9, 1959, when he became ill after Easter when our introductions were celebrations and was taken to a Phoenix hospital made. She appeared, perhaps, where he died at the age of 91. Little did I know a little frail, but conversed then but that almost a year to the date after I did with a great deal of conviction Carol Olten the interview, Olgivanna, herself, would be dead about a great deal of every - at the age of 85 – the victim of a heart attack (or that in a bizarre turn thing – first her dogs, to take in her will she had specified that Mr. Wright’s the edge off things, then the body be exhumed from its burial site in “WE GOT IT ALL build ing of Taliesin, the trips Wisconsin, cre mated and the ashes mixed with TOGETHER WITH between East and West, the hers for placement in a Taliesin West monument). THE LANDSCAPE continuin g of the Foundation What I most remember now about – WHERE GOD IS and so on. She talked about experi encing Taliesin and Mrs. Wright for the ALL AND MAN Olgivanna Lloyd Wright. Credit: The Frank Lloyd Mr. Wright and what it was first time is a feeling of wonder – and strangeness. Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern like to know and be married IS NOUGHT” Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia The architecture, of course, remained awesome University, New York). to him, how he liked to always in the true sense of today’s overused drive too fast, his opinionated word. So, too, the desert landscape views of architecture (his own in which it was set: all natural and others) and what he rocks and arid dirt under a canopy believed about Taliesin West of flat blue sky. There was a lot (“We got it all together with of organic reality here. But it was the landscape – where God is tinged with mystery, something all and man is nought.”) metaphysical. She showed me her private The mood came in part from quarters, including a tour of a some thing Mrs. Wright stated closet that Mr. Wright had with more than considerable zeal in designed to hold sweaters. the first part of the interview: “He We were served a proper tea is here. He is not dead. In every on fine china and, by the end wall and every ceiling, he is here. of the afternoon (for time had Everything you see here we worked gone quickly!), I said goodbye on together. We put our hands Taliesan West, Scottsdale, Arizona Photograph by Juan Carlos Bretschneider and got into my rented car and and our hearts into this, the two of us and all our many apprentices.” drove back out of that amazing Wright-designed Taliesin gate inspired At this point I had heard some of the stories about Mrs. Wright by a Native American petroglyph, feeling I had been in a time zone running Taliesin like an iron maiden, bossing apprentices and fel lows strangely still in this world, but also eerily out of it. not only about professional lives but also about personal ones and that The road from Taliesin led through a housing development built she sometimes was referred to as the Dragon Lady.