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Home , Frank Lloyd Wright, Lloyd Wright, Marion Mahony Griffin, Steinway Hall (Chicago), Walter Burley Griffin

Illinois Women Artists, Part 31 Drawing (1867-1959) that probably solidified his reputation as America’s most in a new way celebrated , although until recently published histories have By Kristan H. McKinsey largely ignored her. Director, Illinois Women Artists Mahony spent her early years in Project Lakeside, a rural section of Winnetka, Illinois, where her family moved after arion Mahony (1871-1961) the Great Fire destroyed their did not allow prevailing home when she was just a few months M convention to deter her from old. She lived around the corner from a a career as an architect at a time when beloved cousin, Dwight Perkins (1867- men of that profession, and members 1941), who would influence her path to of the building trades in general, architecture, and with whom she and viewed women wanting to practice her four siblings explored the nearby architecture suspiciously. She was born Lake Michigan beach to the east and into a family of educators and social Skokie Marsh to the west. The family reformers, and grew up surrounded by moved back to Chicago following the strong women in an environment that death of Mahony’s father in 1882 and fostered gender equality and collabora - her mother took a teaching position in tion. As a licensed professional, she Longfellow Public School. The family F.P. Marshall Dwelling, Winnetka, redefined architectural draftsmanship spent several summers in Winnetka Illinois, 1910 (not built). Walter in the early 20th century through her during that decade, where Mahony Burley Griffin, architect; Marion beautifully composed and rendered developed a love of Nature that inspired Mahony Griffin, delineator. drawings that combine perspective, her efforts as an adult to preserve open [Courtesy of the Mary and Leigh Block plan, and sections on a single sheet of spaces within urban settings and led her Museum of Art, Northwestern paper. And it was her work as senior to incorporate plantings into her archi - University, Gift of Marion Mahony draftsman for Frank tectural renderings. Griffin, 1985.1.100 ] Another significant influence on her the first woman licensed as an Mahony was her mother’s association architect in the . with Chicago-area feminists, religious Mahony returned to Chicago in reformers and intellectuals. Clara 1894 to take a job with her cousin in Perkins Mahony joined the Chicago the newly completed Woman’s Club and socialized with a that Perkins had designed for Steinway group of female activists advocating for & Sons. Several other progressive suffrage and for educational and labor inspired by the Arts and reforms. She encouraged Mahony to Crafts Movement and the philosophies follow her cousin Dwight to study of rented space along - architecture at the side Perkins in the loft-like top two Institute of Technology (MIT), the floors. They were part of The Eighteen, most respected architecture school in as Wright dubbed the group who the United States at that time. Mary gathered regularly for meals and lively Hawes Wilmarth (1837-1919), a mem - discussions. This genial working ber of Chicago’s early women’s clubs environment with architects who and participant in various social reform developed the cemented efforts, provided the funds. Mahony Mahony’s penchant for working was one of eight women who enrolled collaboratively. When Perkins no in 1890; four years later she was the longer had work for her, she freelanced second woman to graduate from MIT with the others. Wright, who had with a degree in architecture. In recently set out on his own after January 1898, Mahony was among the working as a draftsman for JL Silsbee A young Marion Mahony Griffin, initial group of young architects and the firm of Adler and Sullivan, about the time she was an archi - to take the state licensing exams, the hired her as his first employee in 1895. tecture student at MIT. first in the country; she passed, making

10 I LLINOIS H ERITAGE She became Wright’s chief draftsman active designer completed; she spent and architectural renderer, working for the next decade writing the unpub - him until 1909. lished memoir of her life with Griffin Current scholarship suggests that and his work, The Magic of America in the early years of their working rela - (available at www.artic.edu/magico - tionship, Mahony helped determine famerica ). She died a pauper. Wright’s ideas on family life as they Mahony’s greatest contribution related to the design of homes and to architecture was her elegant contributed ideas that appealed to his draftsmanship and distinctive style of many female clients. She became a delineation, strongly influenced by close friend and confidant of his wife 19th and early 20th century Japanese Catherine (“Kitty”). Wright was famil - prints. She surrounded the building iar with Mahony’s independent design elevation with flattened vegetation ideas. He admired her thesis project at worked in outline to suggest it set MIT, a 3-room artist’s studio connected within mature vegetation without indi - to a residence, intended to encourage cating a specific site. Often she artfully direct collaboration between the and organically added the floor plan painter and his (or her) assistants and and section. Mahony’s renderings were reflecting her keen interest in joining recognized at the time as innovative various aspects of a person’s life. This and stunning presentation drawings, innovative design presumably informed and are now considered works of art by the two-story studio space he added themselves. onto his Oak Park home in 1898. Mahony designed the All Souls Church in Evanston (1904) and a Bibliographical resources home for her brother Gerald in Elkhart, , architect, Marion Mahony Griffin, delineator, Alice Friedman, “Girl Talk: Indiana (1907). Her plans for a Marion Mahony Griffin, Frank mansion for in Dearborn, J.G. Melson Dwelling, Mason City, Iowa, 1912, ink on drafting linen. Lloyd Wright and the Oak Park Michigan, were abandoned after Studio,” Places Journal, June 2011. Mahony and Wright disagreed; they Gift of Marion Mahony Griffin, 1985.1.120. Accessed 12 Apr 2017. never reconciled. She refused to https://doi.org/10.22269/110616 manage Wright’s office after he left Hermann von Holst who did take over Marion Mahony Reconsidered, Kitty and moved to Europe in 1909 the abandoned practice convinced Edited by David Van Zanten, The with the wife of a former client, but Mahony to complete some of the Press , 2011 unfinished projects, including the Anne Watson, Beyond David Amberg house (1910) in Grand Architecture: Marion Mahony and Rapids, Michigan, and the Adolph Walter Burley Griffin – America, Mueller and Randolph Mueller houses Australia, . University of (1910) in Decatur, Illinois. Illinois Press, 1999 An architect working Wright’s Marion Mahony Griffin — office between 1901 and 1906, Walter Drawing the Form of Nature , Burley Griffin (1876-1937), designed Debora Wood, ed., Block Museum, the landscaping for many of Mahony’s 2005 projects. Their working relationship Glenda Korporaal Making grew into a personal one, and in Magic: The Marion Mahony Griffin 1911 they married, probably at her Story insistence. Mahony spent the rest David Van Zanten, Marion of her life working alongside him, Mahony Reconsidered , University of encouraging him to seek out projects Chicago Press, 2011. and in general promoting his career. Alasdair McGregor. Grand This collaboration led them to Australia Obsessions: The Life and Work of in 1914 as winners of a competition to Walter Burley Griffin and Marion design a new capitol in and Mahony Griffin. Penguin, 2014. Marion Mahony Griffin in her then to , India, in 1936 to H. Allen Brooks, The Prairie later years. She was known as design a university library. Following School: and His much for her exquisite architec - his death, Mahony returned to Midwest Contemporaries , 1972 tural drawings as for her designs. Chicago in 1939, her career as an

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