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Wright in Your Own Backyard

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Wright in Your Own Backyard PRESERVATION - NEWSLETTER RACINE, INC. Fall 1988 Wright In Your Own Backyard Preservation-Racine's thirteenth annual Tour of Historic Places will provide lucky tour-goers with more to see in one afternoon than any of the dozen tours which have gone before it. Twelve buildings will be available to ticket holders to be walked through or visited on Sunday, October 2nd, between noon and 6 p.m. Notice that this year's tour is being held one week later than usual—on the first Sunday of October rather than the last Sunday of September. The change was necessary because Wingspread could not be made available on the traditional tour date. The theme this year is "Frank Lloyd Wright and Associates." Each of the buildings which are featured was designed either by Frank Lloyd Wright himself, by an architect who studied and worked with him, or by Taliesin Associated Architects—the firm which was established by Wright's widow, Olgivanna, to carry on his philosophy for living and his style in architecture. "WINGSPREAD" Designed in 1937 by Frank Lloyd Wright. /soBcer i/o/{AJVt£/i'~~ The centerpiece of the tour is "Wingspread" (1937), designed by Wright, named by him, and also deemed by him: "the last of the prairie houses." Built as a residence for Herbert F. Johnson, Wingspread was Wright's largest single family home. Its pinwheel plan—with an octagonal central section and wings that spread out from it in each of the points of the compass—accounts for its name. The long, low wings emphasize the horizontal line, which is the most immediately recog­ nizable characteristic of the Prairie Style; but the three-story living room at the center of the house, which Wright called "the wigwam," is its most dramatic feature. A thirty foot chimney tower rises from the center of the living room to serve five fireplaces on four different levels. The Johnson family lived at Wingspread until 1960, when it became a conference center and the headquarters of the Johnson Foundation. The second Wright design which may be "experienced" is "The Great Work Room," the hub of the S. C- Johnson Administration Building (1936), at Fourteenth and Howe Streets. As a courtesy to tour-goers, Johnson Wax will open that central office area, but the rest of the building will be closed. (A tour of the entire Administration Building was provided by the company for Preserva­ tion-Racine's tour in 1986.) The Great Work Room is, however, the focus of Wright's design. From it a forest of slender, tree-like columns with "lily-pad" capitals soar to a translucent ceil­ ing composed of skylights constructed of glass tubing. Within the red brick walls of this enormous room are aligned the desks and chairs designed for it by Wright and commissioned by Johnson Wax from the Metal Office Furniture Company (now Steelcase of Grand Rapids, Michigan) exactly fifty years ago. It is a unique working environment, perhaps, one of the most pleasing in the world: truly streamlined and evocative of the Thirties, yet gracefully efficient even in the Eighties. The Golden Rondelle will also be open to ticket holders. It was designed by the architectural firm of Lippincott and Marguleis of New York City as the Johnson Wax pavilion for the New York World's Fair of 1964. When the fair closed, the Rondelle was dismantled and reconstructed in Racine in a new setting designed for it by Taliesin Associated Architects. The theater reopened here in 1967. In the Golden Rondelle on the Sunday of the tour, Don Kalec will present a fifty minute program on Frank Lloyd Wright entitled "Nature Patterns." It is a multi-image production, showing the evolution from nature of Wright's abstract decorative designs. Kalec was formerly the director of research and restoration for the Wright Home and Studio in Oak Park and he is now an associate professor at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. "Nature Patterns" will be presented at 12:15, 1:45, 3:15, and 4:45. THE PRAIRIE SCHOOL A complex of five buildings designed between 1964 and 1978 by Taliesin Associated Architects. ^c^f?^7" i^^4'A,!f^^^— The Prairie School, at 4050 Lighthouse Drive, will be open for the tour. Its complex of buildings was designed by Taliesin Associated Architects between 1964 and 1978 under the direction of Charles Montooth as chief architect. The school is comprised of five buildings, four of which are linked by enclosed hallways and house the Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools, as well as an art center, a theater, television and music studios, and the school's administrative offices. The four connected buildings expand in a low-lying contour along the flatland on which they are located: their volumes defined by the circles, curves, and incurves of Wright's later work. There is extensive use of glass, and brick walls both outside and inside. The horizontal line is emphasized from the ground to the roof by bands of low brick walls, ribbons of narrow windows, and particularly by the continuous strips of wood and stone trim which sinuously follow the lines of deeply overhanging eaves or the arcs of flush-set cornices. The fifth of the school's buildings—a field house—sits separately from the academic cluster, where it crouches like a huge brick Quonset hut whose expan­ sive black roof recurves from the ground back to the ground. The Prairie School currently enrolls approximately 440 day students. Some of the school's students. teachers, and staff will guide tour-goers through the buildings. St. Patrick's Church (1924), at 1100 Erie Street, is another stop on the tour. It was designed by Barry Byrne, who received his architectural training in Frank Lloyd Wright's Oak Park studio from 1901 through 1907. As an independent architect, Byrne began'designing houses, but by the 1920s he had established himself as one of the Midwest's most imaginative designers of churches and school buildings. In his plan for St. Patrick's Church, Byrne employed the rectilinear mass associated with the Prairie Style, but he added to it lancet windows and stone finials—which are Gothic details often found on churches—and pie-crust capstones above the main entry doors and along the parapet—whose geo­ metric forms are Art Deco and rarely seen on ecclesiastical buildings. The style might be called "Moderne Gothic" and the design is still fresh, clean, and up-to-date more than sixty years after the church was completed. Byrne also designed the rectory, which was constructed along with the church, and in 1930 he designed St. Patrick's School, located behind the church at 1109 Douglas Avenue. Byrne's first building in Racine was St. Catherine's High School, at 1200 Park Avenue, which was finished in 1924. ST. PATRICK'S CHURCH Designed in 1924 by Barry Byrne. Three houses designed by Edgar Tafel complete the buildings on this year's tour. Tafel is the author of Years with Frank Lloyd Wright: Apprentice to Genius. During those years he was project engineer for a number of Wright's buildings which were then under construction—including the Johnson Wax Building and "Fallingwater." Tafel has the distinct honor of being a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and he still maintains his own architectural office in New York City. THREE PRAIRIE STYLE HOUSES Designed by Edgar Tafel and built in Racine between 1947 and 1949. Tafel designed two Racine residences in 1947. Both were constructed of old paving bricks which had been reclaimed from streets in Racine and Kenosha that were being repaved at that time. -The house at 432 Wolff Street is the smaller of the two. Rather than facing the street, all the living areas are grouped around a terrace at the back of the house. Service and carport areas are at the front. Clerestory windows admit light from the front while they preserve privacy by not allowing passers-by to peer inside. The plan—like that of many Prairie Style houses—is open: all interior partitions being removed except in the bedroom wing. Brick is used inside and out, and of course, a fireplace is the focal point of the living spaces. The larger house, at 2910 Michigan Boulevard, is oriented to the front because it overlooks Lake Michigan, and almost every room has a window facing the water. Because it is a two-story house, the plan is not nearly as unrestricted as that of the Wolff Street house, but the living room and dining room are open and the fireplace is the center of focus. The house is constructed of the traditional materials of the Prairie Style: masonry, wood, and glass. Stained cypress siding hori­ zontally divides the ribbons of glass on the first and second stories and bridges the brick masses on either side of the facade. Deeply projecting eaves hover over the house and a broad-roofed canopy shelters the entryway and forms a carport. The third Tafel house was designed in 1949 and has been nicknamed "Stardust" by former owners. The house stands on three acres of land along Lake Michigan and commands a superb view of the lake—especially from the 270 degree sweep of the windows in the master bedroom. The house is constructed of flagstone from the Crab Orchard Mountains of Tennessee, of cedar, and large expanses of glass. One of its most intriguing design elements is a porch with a pagoda roof clad in copper. The landscaping of the grounds around Stardust was planned by Jens Jensen—one of America's most accomplished landscape architects.
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