Stanford University Libraries iiL§19£,J25 779 186

m

//i

'if'

ram Collection wm D Gift of Professor and Mrs. Paul R. Hanna IH9H OBJwaBBkYiJ'M'.s WmBBA maBM ill HWHBmmL Jtf.' //: mMmm HH

,.,.7v£fiK fii'MM W

>-v$iV3 dmftf

iffjfi MyJJi(7Jtiw/7?amm WmSBm V It 4ZJ/'I*WJfl vv. I i i •

BBk #2w Mm WKEMSmWwBmm BHH HHL EH. >»&$$%,

ffinEH Bfl Ml '''' i\ UHBHHmH '

HiBSPWB US ilii Frank Lloyd Wright Collection

Gift of Professor and Mrs. Paul R. Hanna

Stanford University Libraries

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT GENERAL

VOLUME 6

January, 1970

Through

November, 1974

I I IU

THE CIVIC CENTER MARIN COUNTY CALIFORNIA In 1956 the Marin County Board of Supervisors authorized an ex- penditure of $511,000 for the purchase of a 140 acre site about three miles north of San Rafael for development of a civic cen- ter complex and county fairgrounds. Coupling the seat of county government with the necessary facilities to make the selected site into a center of community activity had long been the dream of many far-sighted citizens. World famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright was engaged by the Board of Supervisors to prepare a Mas- ter Plan to encompass the elements of this daring concept.

In March 1957 Mr. Wright present- ed plans for the first construc- tion phase - the Administration Building. A year later he added plans for the fairgrounds pavil- ion, playgrounds, lagoon and gen- eral civic areas.

The Master Plan connected gently sloping hills with graceful hori- zontal buildings springing in great arches over entrance road- ways between the hills. Rising from these arches the various levels of the building seem to float from hill to hill. From without, the buildings form a tranquil line in harmony with the surrounding landscape.

In an address to the people of Marin County in July 1957, Mr. Wright said: "Beauty is the moving cause of nearly every issue worth the civilization we have, and civilization without a culture is like a man without a soul.... The good building is not one that hurts the landscape, but one that makes the land- scape more beautiful than it was before that building was built."

Mr. Wright died in April 1959 and his preliminary plans were left in the hands of a group of his associates, The Associated Architects of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. The experience and understanding of this group conformed with Mr. Wright's basic architectural principles.

1 . ADMINISTRATION BUILDING

This first phase was financed by accumulating County general funds between 1958 and 1962 on a pay-as-you-go basis. A construction con- tract was awarded in January I960 and the Administration Building was completed in October 1962. It houses the County's Administra- tive, Financial, Public Works, Planning and Welfare Departments as well as the main branch of the County library.

A plastic skylight covers a central mall extending the length of the building, giving natural light to usually darkened areas. It is designed with areas open to the sky which permit circulation of out- side air. This makes a natural setting for gardens inside the build- ing in which native trees and shrubs of the Bay Area flourish. Clivia beds on the entrance level lend a beautiful verdant color. In early spring their enormous clusters of bright orange blossoms amaze the most fastidious gardeners.

Some of the many striking features of the building are the warm earth red interior walls with golden trim, chambers that can be merged together, continuous balconies with circular openings - each framing its own view of the landscape.

Special walnut furniture enhances all rooms and was made in the work shops of correctional institutions of the State of California. Its handrubbed quality makes every area especially attractive. Tables and chairs in the library are especially suited to either little or big people.

The County library is on the fourth floor immediately under the dome. There are no windows in the main area and indirect lighting around the cir- cular wall is reflected from the ceil- ing to provide a soft light on working areas which eliminates all glare.

Art displays are exhibited in various areas and in the foyer of the Board of Supervisors chambers by special arrange- ment and supervised by the Marin Museum Association. MARIN COUNTY CIVIC CENTER AND FAIRGROUNDS . .

HALL OF JUSTICE

The Hall of Justice will continue the style of the Administration Building and is designed for requirements of County judicial func- tions. Attached at the North West area of the Administration Build- ing, it will bridge two hills and have two arched drive-through entrances. These entries separate the main public access from all traffic to the jail

Upon the completion of the Hall of Justice, practically all County governmental operations will be united under one roof. Inter-depart- mental liaison with readily available public access should tend to improve efficiency.

This building will house the Courts, Law Agencies, offices of the County Clerk and Recorder and the Health Department. It is designed to provide for additional court rooms with the advent of future population increases. This new wing will be completed in the spring of 1968.

Many revolutionary design concepts of courtroom, jury rooms, judges chambers and general judicial space requirements have been care- fully considered and incorporated in the plans. Round courtrooms represent a major break with tradition, spectators will sit in curved rows and a curved table will serve attorneys in the jury trial. A lectern in the middle of the well will permit judge and jurors a clear view of the witness and attorney arguing the case. These and many other facets were the result of many hours of work with Bar Association members, judges and specialists in court pro- ceed i ngs FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

The overall plan envisions numerous other buildings and site development concepts looking forward to a future day when this Civic Center will be the focus of activity for the majority of the County's citizenry.

The Veteran's Memorial Auditorium will become reality within the next few years. It encompasses an 880 seat permanently stepped floor theater with stage and a separable flat floor exhibit area of approximately 13,000 sq. ft. which can be adapted by use of telescoping risers to provide additional seating up to 2,000 in the theater area. Provision is made for a massive movable bi- parting vertical steel acoustic partition to form a complete separation between the small 880 seat area and the larger flat floor space. When in place, this partition will permit indepen- dent simultaneous operation of both facilities.

The Fair Pavilion, the Natural History Museum, the Children's Island, the Fine Arts Museum, and the Community Building are now under early design consideration. Additional governmental and service facilities will be built as need demands and financing will permit. A restaurant, heliport, and yacht basin will some day complete the complex in its presently considered scope.

The Health and Welfare Building is shown on the Master Plan as a separate structure near and running parallel to the Redwood Highway on the west side of the Civic Center property. It will accommodate the Welfare Department and such related activities as then may be in existance. I Initial planning indicates completion ^ of construction in 197^, but this program could be accelerated to meet space requirements if financially feas ible. .

SOME LITTLE KNOWN FACTS

The total cost of the Administration Building including architect's fees, furnishings, site development and landscaping was $5,152,000. The estimated cost for the complete development of the Hall of Jus- tice is $11,300,000. These figures do not express adequately all of the elements of the growing community pride in the accomplishment which the Civic Center Complex represents.

The predominant landscaping theme in the selection of planting for the grounds was to utilize native flora with attention to minimum maintenance costs. Consequently plants of evergreen varieties pre- dominate - pyracantha, ceanothus, juniper, acacia, ivy and ice plant. The main entrance driveway to the Administration Building is divided by Mount Fuji flowering cherry trees. The internal planting beds feature such items as olive trees, bamboo, star jas- mine, lantana, schefflera, azaleas and clivia. The seasonal beds around the fountain on the cafeteria plaza are always bright and colorful .

The Administration Building requires 500 tons of refrigeration for summer cooling. The cooling tower is under the cafeteria plaza so as not to defile the building design. The two 1 50 h.p. boilers are vented through a smoke stack concealed in the golden aluminum spire and are capable of generating 6,000,000 B.T.U. each.

All the fountains utilize recirculated water. The fresh water level in. the la- goon is maintained by run-off from sea- sonal rain and the extensive sprinkling system for maintenance of the grounds.

The Administration Building is a center of county activities, accommodating meetings of all manner of c iv i c 'groups Almost every evening several groups meet in various rooms. These organiza- tions vary from government affiliated activities to small committee meetings of such dissimilar nature as investment clubs to k-H activities to Great Books discussion groups.

6. .

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Achievement of the County Civic Center project is a tribute to the efforts of farsighted and progressive Supervisors, County officials, and Marin County Citizens who have been determined

To provide a central focus for both governmental and community

act i vi t ies To do no violence to the natural beauty of the Marin County

sett i ng To provide adequate space and facilities for local government services To provide flexible space arrangements allowing for changing needs To utilize sound and lasting creative architectural concepts.

Carrying through of the project would not have been possible with- out courage on the part of the County Supervisors who gave consis- tent leadership, and without great surges of citizen support. It is to be hoped and expected that Marin County citizens, cognizant of the magnitude of this significant contribution to their lives and those of their children as well as to future generations, will work together towards completion of the entire master plan.

With the rising tide of California population, Marin County will continue to grow. Astute planning for the future will place empha- sis on preservation of its vast heritage of natural beauty in an age when population expansion is most often accompanied by the ugliness of man's work. Great architecture has a way of outliving memory of cost in current appreciation of utility and beauty.

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS First District - John F. Mclnnis Second District - Ernest Kettenhofen Third District - Peter H. Behr Fourth District - Thomas Storer Fifth District - William A. Gnoss THE CIVIC CENTER MARIN COUNTY CALIFORNIA In 1956 the Marin County Board of Supervisors authorized an expenditure of $51 T ,000 for the purchase of a T40 acre site about three miles north of San Rafael for development of a civic center complex and county fairgrounds. Coupling the seat of county government with the necessary facilities to make the selected site into a center of community activity had long been the dream of many far-sighted citizens. world famous architect frank l.loyd wright was engaged by the board of superv isors to prepare a Master Plan to encompass the elements of this daring concept.

In March 1957 Mr. Wright presented plans for the first construction phase, TO N0VAT0 / the Administration Building. A year

\ MARIN COUNTY \ , later he added plans for the fair- V^ ! ] CIVIC CENTER 1/ SAN J /ff /J grounds pavilion, playgrounds, lagoon FRANCISCO and general civic areas. (loij Ja/p^

SAN RAFAEL 5*^^^L The Master Plan connected gently

^^L-^sCanSELMO ) sloping hills with graceful horizontal \S BAY )y\ buildings springing in great arches / ROSS TkENTFIELD over entrance roadways between the

LARKSPuK hills. Rising from these arches the

^^fcfcORTE \ various levels of the building seem to Ml TAMALPAIS \MADERA\ float from hill to hill. from without, /">"' \ MILL valleyJw^to * / \ ^^ANFRANCISCO the buildings form a tranquil line in

harmony with the surroundi ng landscape , in an address to the people of the marin county in july, 1957, mr . Wright said;

' 'Beauty is the moving cause of nearly every issue worth the civili- zation we have, and civilization without a culture is like a man without a soul. . . The good building is not one that hurts the landscape, but one that makes the landscape more beautiful than it was before that building was BUILT. "

Mr. Wright died in April 1959 and his preliminary plans were left in the hands of a group of his associates, The Taliesin Associated Architects of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. The experience and understanding of this group conformed with Mr. Wright's basic architectural principles. ADMINISTRATION BUILDING

This first phase was financed by accumulating County general funds' between 1958 and 1962 on a pay-as-you-go basis. a construction contract was awarded in january 1960 and the administration building was complet- ED in October 1962. It houses the County's administrative, financial and physical development departments as well as the main branch of the County Library. a plastic skylight covers a central mall extending the length of the BUILDING, GIVING NATURAL LIGHT TO USUALLY DARKENED AREA. It IS DESIGNED with areas open to the sky which permit circulation of outside air. this makes a natural setting for gardens inside the building in which native trees and shrubs of the bay area flourish. clivia beds on the entrance level lend a beautiful verdant color. in early spring their enormous clusters of bright orange blossoms amaze the most fastidious gardeners.

Some of the many striking features of the building are the warm earth red interior walls with golden trim, chambers that can be merged to- gether, continuous balconies with circular openings - each framing its own view of the landscape.

Special walnut furniture enhances all rooms and was made in the work shops of correctional institutions of the state of california. its handrubbed quality makes every area especially attractive. tables and chairs in the library are especially suited to either little or big people.

The County library is on the fourth floor immediately under the dome. there are no windows in the main area and indirect light- ing around the circular wall is reflected from the ceiling to provide a soft light on working areas which eliminates all glare.

Art displays are exhibited in various areas and in the foyer of the board of supervisors chambers by special arrangement and super- VISED by the Marin Museum Association. MARIN COUNTY CIVIC CENTER AND FAIRGROUNDS HA Ll_ OF JUSTICE

The Hall of Justice continues the style of the Administration Building and is designed for requirements of county judicial functions. attached to the north end of the administration building, it will bridge two hills and have two arched drive-through entrances. these entries separate the main public access from all traffic to the jail.

Upon the completion of the Hall of Justice, practically all County governmental operations will be united under one roof. inter-departmen- tal liaison with readily available public access should tend to improve efficiency.

This building will house the Courts, law agencies, offices of the County Clerk and Recorder and the Welfare Department. It is designed to provide for additional court rooms for future needs.

Many revolutionary design concepts of courtroom, jury rooms, judges chambers and general judicial space requirements have been carefully considered and incorporated in the plans. round courtrooms represent a major break with tradition, spectators will sit in curved rows and a curved table will serve attorneys in the jury trial. a lectern in the middle of the well will permit judge and jurors a clear view of the witness and attorney arguing the case. these and many other facets were the result of many hours of work with attorneys, judges and specialists in court procedings. FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS The overall plan envisions numerous other buildings and site development concepts looking forward to a future day when this clvic center will be the focus of activity for the majority of the county's citizenry.

The Veteran's Memorial Auditorium will become reality within the next few years. It encompasses A 700 SEAT PERMANENTLY stepped floor theater with stage and a separable flat floor exhibit area of approximately

13,000 sq. ft. , which can be adapted by use of telescoping risers to pro- vide additional seating up to 2,000 in the theater area. provision is made for a massive movable biparting vertical steel acoustic partition to form a complete separation between the small 700 seat area and the larger flat floor space. when in place, this partition will permit independent simultaneous operation of both facilities.

The Fair Pavilion, the Natural History Museum, the Children's Island, the Fine Arts Museum, and the Community Center are now under early design consideration. additional governmental and service facilities will be built as need demands and financing will permit. a restaurant, heliport, and yacht basin will some day complete the complex in its pre- sently considered scope.

a new office building is shown on the Master Plan as a separate structure near and running parallel to the red- WOOD Highway on the west side of the Civic Center property. It will accom- modate ANY FUTURE REQUIREMENTS OF county departments.

Initial planning indicates completion of construction in the mid i970's, but this program could be accelerated to meet space requirements if financially feasible . . .

SOME LITTLE KNOWN FACTS

The total cost of the Administration Building including architect's fees, furnishings, site development and landscaping was $5,152,000. the cost for the complete development of the hall of justice is $11,500,000. These figures do not express adequately all of the elements of the grow- ing COMMUNITY PRIDE IN THE ACCOMPLISHMENT WHICH THE ClVIC CENTER COMPLEX REPRESENTS

The predominant landscaping theme in the selections of planting for the grounds was to utilize native flora with attention to minimum maintenance costs. Consequently plants of evergreen varieties predominate - pyra-

cantha, ceanothus , juniper, acacia, ivy and ice plant. the main entrance

driveway to the administration building is divided by mount fuj i flowering cherry trees. the internal planting beds feature such items as olive trees bamboo, star jasmine, lantana , schefflera, azaleas and clivia. the season- al beds around the fountain on the cafeteria plaza are always bright and colorful The Administration Building requires 500 tons of refrigeration for summer cooling. The cooling tower is under the cafeteria plaza so as not to defile the building design. the two 150 h.p. boilers are vented through a smoke stack concealed in the golden aluminum spire and are capable of generating 6,000,000 B.T.U. each. ALL THE FOUNTAINS UTILIZE RECIRCULATED

WATER. The fresh water level in the LAGOON IS MAINTAINED BY RUN-OFF FROM SEASONAL RAIN AND THE EXTENSIVE SPRINK- LING SYSTEM FOR MAINTENANCE OF THE GROUNDS

The Administration Building is a center of county activities, accommodating meetings of all manner of civic groups. Almost every evening several groups meet in various rooms. these organiza- tions vary from government affiliated activities to small committee meetings of such dissimilar nature as investment clubs to 4-h activities to great books discussion groups. 6. .

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Achievement of the County Civic Center project is a tribute to the efforts of farsighted and progressive supervisors, county officials, and Marin County citizens who have been determined

to provide a central focus for both governmental and community activities to do no violence to the natural beauty of marin County setting to provide adequate space and facilities for local government services to provide flexible space arrangements allowing for changing needs to utilize sound and lasting creative arth itectural concepts

Carrying through of the project would not have been possible without courage on the part of the county supervisors who gave consistent leadership, and without great surges of citizen support. it is to be hoped and expected that marin county citizens, cognizant of the mag- nitude of this significant contribution to their lives and those of their children as well as to future generations, will work together towards completion of the entire master plan.

With the rising tide of California population, Marin County will con- tinue to grow. Astute planning for the future will place emphasis on preservation of its vast heritage of natural beauty in an age when popu- lation expansion is most often accompanied by the ugliness OF MAN'S

WORK .

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS First District John F. McInnis Second District Ernest Kettenhofen

Third District Peter H . Behr Fourth District Thomas Storer

Fifth District William A . Gnoss THE CIVIC CENTER MARIN COUNTY CALIFORNIA In 1956 the Marin County Board of Supervisors authorized an expenditure

of $51 i ,000 for the purchase of a 140 acre site about three miles north of San Rafael for development of a civic center complex and county fairgrounds. coupling the seat of county government with the necessary facilities to make the selected site into a center of community activity had long been the dream of many far-sighted citizens. world famous architect frank l.loyd wright was engaged by the board of superv 1sors to prepare a Master Plan to encompass the elements of this daring concept.

In March 1957 Mr. Wright presented plans for the first construction phase, / ^ TO NOVATO / NT the Administration Building. A year \ . \ MARIN COUNTY later he added plans for the fair- V^ L 1CIVIC CENTER (l1 c' /?j SAN J grounds pavilion, playgrounds, lagoon /Li and general civic areas. flfi FRANCISCO JJoTJ Ju C^ V- SAN BAFAFI \^ B^^^^i^^^;~^^^m v ^riA^ ^ The Master Plan connected gently

FAIRFAX -/^ ) sloping with _« — «SAN ANSELMO / T hills graceful horizontal BAY buildings springing in great arches x ^l / ROSS TKENTFIELD W ^5 over entrance roadways between the larkspurN^ hills. Rising from these arches the ^"•CCORTE N various levels of the building seem to Ml TAMALPAIS ^\MA0ERA float from hill to hill. from without, /^s \ MILL valleys/to / \ /'""SANFRANCISCO the buildings form a tranquil line in

i harmony with the surround ng landscape , in an address to the people of the marin county in july, 1957, mr . Wright said;

' 'Beauty is the moving cause of nearly every issue worth the civili- zation WE HAVE, AND CIVILIZATION WITHOUT A CULTURE IS LIKE A MAN WITHOUT A

SOUL. . . The good BUILDING is not one that hurts the landscape, but one that MAKES THE LANDSCAPE MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN IT WAS BEFORE THAT BUILDING WAS BUILT. "

Mr. Wright died in April 1959 and his preliminary plans were left in the hands of a group of his associates, the tal1es1n associated architects of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. The experience and understanding of this group conformed with mr. wright's basic architectural principles.

I. ADMINISTRATION BUILDING

This first phase was financed by accumulating County general funds between 1958 and 1962 on a pay-as-you-go basis. a construction contract was awarded in january 1960 and the administration building was complet- ED in October 1962. It houses the County's administrative, financial and physical development departments as well as the main branch of the County Library.

a plastic skylight covers a central mall extending the length of the building, giving natural light to usually darkened area. it is designed with areas open to the sky which permit circulation of outside air. this makes a natural setting for gardens inside the building in which native trees and shrubs of the bay area flourish. clivia beds on the entrance level lend a beautiful verdant color. in early spring their enormous clusters of bright orange blossoms amaze the most fastidious gardeners.

Some of the many striking features of the building are the warm earth red interior walls with golden trim, chambers that can be merged to- gether, continuous balconies with circular openings - each framing its own view of the landscape.

Special walnut furniture enhances all rooms and was made in the work shops of correctional institutions of the State of California. Its handrubbed quality makes every area especially attractive. tables and chairs in the library are especially suited to either little or big people

The County library is on the fourth floor immediately under the dome. there are no windows in the main area and indirect light- ing around the circular wall is reflected from the ceiling to provide a soft light on working areas which eliminates all glare.

art displays are exhibited in various areas and in the foyer of the board of supervisors chambers by special arrangement and super- VISED by the Marin Museum Association. MARIN COUNTY CIVIC CENTER AND FAIRGROUNDS

3. HA Ll_ OF JUSTICE

The Hall of Justice continues the style of the Administration Building and is designed for requirements of county judicial functions. attached to the north end of the administration building, it bridges two hills and has two arched drive-through entrances. these entries separate the main public access from all traffic to the jail.

For the first time, practically all County governmental operations are united under one roof. inter-departmental liaison with readily avail- able public access should tend to improve efficiency.

This building houses the Courts, law agencies, offices of the County Clerk and Recorder and the Public Social Services Department. It is designed to provide for additional court rooms for future needs.

Many revolutionary design concepts of courtroom, jury rooms, judges chambers and general judicial space requirements have been carefully considered and incorporated within this building. Round courtrooms represent a major break with tradition, spectators sit in curved rows and a curved table serves attorneys in the jury trial. a lectern in the middle of the well permits judge and jurors a clear view of the witness and attorney arguing the case. these and many other facets were the result of many hours of work with attorneys, judges and specialists in court procedings. FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

The overall plan envisions numerous other buildings and site development concepts looking forward to a future day when this clvic center will be the focus of activity for the majority of the county's citizenry.

The Veteran's Memorial Auditorium will become reality in 1970. It encompasses a 700 seat permanently stepped floor theater with stage and

a separable flat floor exhibit area of approximately 13,000 sq . ft. , which can be adapted by use of telescoping risers to provide additional seating up to 2,000 in the theater area. provision is made for a steel acoustical partition to form a complete separation between the small 700 seat area and the larger flat floor space. when in place, this partition will per- mit independent simultaneous operation of both facilities.

The Fair Pavilion, the Natural History Museum, the Children's Island, the Fine Arts Museum, and the Community Center are now under consider- ation. Additional governmental and service facilities will be built as need demands and financing will permit.

a new office building i s shown on the master plan as a separate structure near and running parallel to the Redwood Highway on the west side of the Civic Center property, it will accommodate any future requirements of County departments.

5. .

SOME LITTLE KNOWN FACTS

The total cost of the Administration Building including architect's fees, furnishings, site development and landscaping was $5,152,000. the cost for the complete development of the hall of justice is $11,500,000. These figures do not express adequately all of the elements of the grow- ing COMMUNITY PRIDE IN THE ACCOMPLISHMENT WHICH THE ClVIC CENTER COMPLEX REPRESENTS

the predominant landscaping theme in the selections of planting for the grounds was to utilize native flora with attention to minimum maintenance costs. Consequently plants of evergreen varieties predominate - pyracan-

tha , ceanothus , juniper, acacia, ivy and ice plant. interior plantings are

semi-tropical and include olive trees, bamboo, star jasm ine , lantana, acuba ,

potocarpus, sarcococca, sansevier1a, ginger, schefflera , xylosma azalea, ,

rubber plant, fiddleleaf fig, ph ilodendron , sword fern, bird of paradise and clivia. the seasonal beds around the fountain on the cafeteria plaza are always bright and colorful.

The Administration Building requires 500 tons of refrigeration for summer cooling. the cooling tower is under the cafeteria plaza so as not to defile the building design. the two 150 h.p. boilers are vented through a smoke stack concealed in the golden aluminum spire and are capable of generating 6,000,000 B.T.U. each.

All the fountains utilize recirculated water. The fresh water level in the lagoon is maintained by seasonal rains and natural underground sources.

The Administration Building is a center of county activities, accommodating meetings of all manner of civic groups,

almost every evening s e v e r a l groups . meet in various rooms. these organiza- tions vary from government affiliated activities to small committee meetings of such dissimilar nature as investment clubs to 4-h activities to great books discussion groups. .

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Achievement of the County Civic Center project is a tribute to the efforts of farsighted and progressive supervisors, county officials, and Marin County citizens who have been determined

To provide a central focus for both governmental and community activities to do no violence to the natural beauty of marin County setting to provide adequate space and facilities for local government services to provide flexible space arrangements allowing for changing needs to utilize sound and lasting creative arth itectural concepts

Carrying through of the project would not have been possible without courage on the part of the county supervisors who gave consistent leadership, and without great surges of citizen support. it is to be hoped and expected that marin county citizens, cognizant of the mag- nitude of this significant contribution to their lives and those of their children as well as to future generations, will work together towards completion of the entire master plan.

With the rising tide of California population, Marin County will con- tinue to grow. Astute planning for the future will place emphasis on preservation of its vast heritage of natural beauty in an age when popu- lation EXPANSION IS MOST OFTEN ACCOMPANIED BY THE UGLINESS OF MAN'S WORK.

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS First District John F. McInnis Second District Peter R. Arrigoni Third District Michael Wornum Fourth District Louis H. "Bud" Baar Fifth District William A. Gnoss . m X LBrVis^JUOglfcA VANf-wi;

'

mEfc I

• •vJt

^&-i

Manifestly, Nalure loves and. continually seeks individuality. Nature places her premium upon

it, resists and punishes the loss of it in the great fields of her glorious creation. If our artificial

civilization as a way of life goes contrary to this divinity and does not learn the nature of it,

does not learn secrets of becoming behavior and appropriate character, does not know the

necessary change of form, then what is going to happen to us?. . . Great art alone can prevent

us from becoming spiritually paralyzed by our standardizations, from being sterilized me-

chanical systems, losing the rich and potent sense of life . . FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

/f>o

Sarasota's Performing Arts Hall provides in one structure, The Performing Arts Hall was designed by William Wesley ideal visual and acoustic conditions (or Concerts, Recitals, Peters, Chief Architect o( Taliesin Associated Architects Opera, Musical Comedy, Ballet and Legitimate Theater. and Vice President of The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.

The Hall is designed and equipped to be completely ad- The exterior and interior colors of the building, as well as

justable between the extremely varied acoustical require- all floor coverings and fabrics were selected by Mrs. Frank ments from a Concert Hall to the Legitimate Theater. Two Lloyd Wright, who for thirty-five years, worked with her automated dividing curtains allow a reduclion in seating husband in the selection of color schemes for his world

capacity to render ideal viewing and hearing conditions famous buildings. Mrs. Wright is President of The Frank for the full variety of functions. An integrated acoustical Lloyd Wright Foundation. The Theater Consultant for the enclosure and built-in provisions for altering the rate of project was George C. Izenour, internationally known

reverberation combine to provide a truly multi-purpose theater design consultant who is Professor of Drama and facility. Director of Electro-Mechanical Research in the Yale School Luxurious retractable seating has been custom designed by of Dr; O. the Architects specifically for the Van Wezel Hall. Radial Knudsen, Ph.D. Dr. Knudsen is Chancellor Emeritus of aisles are eliminated by the use of continental type seating, the University of California in Los Angeles and is recog- which allows for a greater number of people ideally close nized as the dean of acoustical authorities. Other consul- to the performing area as well as affording maximum ease tants were Fraioli-Blum-Yesselman, structural engineering and E. R, Ronald and Associates, mechanical and electrical THE GRAND FOYER is located below ihe of circulation, spacious leg room, and optimum sight lines. sloping rear sealing portion ol ihe house. engineering. The Henry C. Beck Company, General Con- The building is owned by the City of Sarasota and is located This eleyanl intermission gathering place is tractors of Tampa, Florida were the general contractors on the southwest portion of the Civic Center Site. A garden siluated midway between It both Lobbies. for construction which began in April, 1968 and was commands a magnificent view toward City terrace and circular lawn connects the building with ihe completed in December, 1969. Island and the Keys to ihe southwest through tall windows and glazed doors. The Grand Foyer and its connecting Garden Terrace overlook a spacious semi-circular lawn and beach sloping to ihe shoreline.

Designed tor Florida's mild climate, ihe Grand Foyer and Garden Terrace become one continuous space opening out lo ihe

romance ol Sarasoia Bay itself,

OFFICE SPACE is located one level above Wheelchai ENTRANCE and exit lobbi re located ihe entrance at both sides ol the stage. Addi- l.inili lobbies. These i; cal travel at tional space on the floor above is used lor From the n erved parking a ows of se lighting and technical equipment storage. dd.tional rows the stage 11 This level connects wilh the Operator's Cat- The Grand Foyer is are below Rows live walk which includes projection facilities as both lobbies. Circular slat to twenty ight gradually ele ate up frc well as the light and sound control rooms. lobby level lo the upper ri ihe lobbies THE CIVIC CENTER SITE

THE PERFORMING ARTS HALL has been designed and oriented to form a part of the fully developed Civic Center Master Plan which was prepared by the Taliesin Associated Architects as part of their contract with the City stages. of Sarasota. The Plan is to be executed in three The Third Stage drawing. It or plan of full development is shown on the accompanying lakes into account the certainty that many of the existing buildings now

located in the Civic Center will eventually be replaced by newer more ap- propriate buildings correlated with each other as features of an overall concept.

All buildings are interconnected by lines of covered walkways. Pools, foun-

tains and gardens of native planting enrich the open spaces and soften the roadways and parking areas.

The Master Plan provides an overall scheme for achieving an economically better sound facility while providing a richer, more beautiful and way of it will life for the people who are to live, work and play in the environment shape.

TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION

SEATINC Continental slyle seating with push-back chain. 39 inch back-to-back row spacing.

Capacity Orchestra 1720 I2tl rows)

Fores I age Lilt Wagon 54 ( 3 row)

177B scats, (olal

43'-0" STAGE DIMENSIONS Centerline to Wall Clear from Cenlerline -tS'-O" 45 "3

STAGE DEPTHS Proscenium Plaitei Line 10 Upslage Wall: 3B|-(T

LOADING DOOR Located upstage tight.

Outer door: 1V-0" wide . )' -6" high. Inner door HMr widc*e'-0" high.

ARCHITECTURAL 44'-0" wide > 20'-0" high — Drama Opening.

*" i PROSCENIUM 60-0" wide . 31-0" hiH.1i -- >. < h :-i r,i Shell Opening

The width of the architectural proscenium it adjusted

flexible, cable guided asbestos curtain. Safety cut lines arc localed v the proscenium, slagc let! and slage right Opivaimg lines are at the iiunlcrweighl ballery down slage left. ,n Act Curtain is hung V-0" upstage of the plaster lino. "" vy^ ^m^J^Mr^or^fP"^^^^ - ^ Teaser and Tormentors )l.'-0" wide . 12 -CT high— minimum 2'-3" plaster A Black Velour Teaser is localed upstage of ihc line. Bljrk Voloui Tormentor; are localed stage led and right 2'-7- upslagc ollhe plaster line.

12*-0" ol STACE TRAPS the Tripped Area is 2fl'-tl" wide * deep and is composed tiaps sl.nls -i'-o" upslage plaster line. iweki- "ir" • J-iV n.ips fn.l row lit (mm THIRD STACE MASTER PLAN Floor ol Irap room is 11/ -fi" below slagc door.

it ENCLOSURE Dimensions wr-cr wide al Ironl * 3T-fi" svrde at back . 3S'-0" clear deplh.

1T'-n" upstage of i sei: Front ci -' upstage or piaster I Roarceiling

plj.lcr line Control* .if St.ige Managers Omsulf. (ji.ti side w.ill is divided inlo

tw i i . i

Down lighting fulures are contained in Ihc orchestra enclosure ceiling. STACE AREA They are wired in nvelve 20 amp circuits and (erminale at Ihe Patch Panel.

STAGE LIFT Dimension? 53'- 3' wide t 1T-11" deep. Area is S03 square feci.

Slops: Stage Level; Auditorium level; Orchestra Pit Level; Trap Room and Seat Wagon Sloragc Level.

Capacity: 50 pounds per square loot — lilting, 100 pounds per square loot — suslaining.

ORCHESTRA PIT 53'-0" wide • lb' V deep. 700 square feet tnlal ,

Capacity : 70 to 80 Musicians.

>'.-,.,„, Thirty dimmers." iw,. pr.,.,. I system; solid-Hale dimmers, Capacity: 26 dimmers @ 6 KW; 4 dimmers @ 12 KW, 6 non-dims @ 12 KW.

Palch Panel: Localed in the slagc right wall.

load Circuits: All Load Circuits are 20 amp capacity with grounded

Lighting Balcony 26 Compapy Switch: at Stage right III. uigni ripe j h 4 W| , c scrvK , Ugh. Pipe Drop Botes 32 , ^ £ "** "°° imP ' ph BooTdTo bS^ 16 Foresiage Lid Floor Pockets 4 Stage Floor Pockets 36 Trap Room Ceiling 4 TOTAL 190

52'-8" 3'-10* LIGHT PIPE A Numbei One Light Pipe, long, is bung upslage of the plasi Two addilionat pipes are localed upslage. Thirty- two 20 amp circuits are provided.

The light pipe is power operated. Live load capacity is 2000 pounds. Controls are localed at Ihe Slage Managers Console.

COUNTERWEIGHT Tliirly single purchased Manually Operated Counterweight SETS LineSelsot 5 linesL-acli.il 13'-l>" on c-nte. f ach line Set Is Manually Opcraled attached to a V/j- standard pipe ballen. Line sell arc

. Ing rail localed .si the stage led wall.

pfiumls Loading C.jlk-ty l 45'-HV al.tive sl.lge Hour Loll Blocks are undi-rhung iy|,.- [tier live Flying Height is approiimaiely 49-0" Irom slage floor. PORTAL (K)

between ih L' Ail Cm!, tin .i >i.fl thi- Teasi-i line sel number 2

I... ..I. ,1 l! -]" upstage- "I ihi plaster line.

MASKING DRAPERIES Borders - Three al 56'-0" wide * 8'-0" high. Legs— Three ..,.!.. I,. legs) ,il W-(r wi-li' . 24-0" high Traveller — Two panels, each 30".rj" wide x 24' -0" high; Traveller Track.

STAGE MANAGER'S Curwok- is localed sl.igr- left II is castored and allached to CONSOLE approximate!) 2Cf-W ol flexible cable. II contains: Orchcsl Shell Control I'oi-ii'i Rigging Conliols. O.rh. .fr.i Lilt Controls; Panic liglit and Non-Dim Conliols; Inlcrcom Conliols. Scnpi Desk, Operating lighls. elc. DRESSING ROOMS *o type iocation svc lav 1 Slar Stage Level Yes Yes No 4 Slar Trap Room Level Yes Yes Yes 2 Chorus Trap Room Level Yes Yes Yes

Green Room located ai stage level, ofi slagc loft.

COSTS Building Construction and Slagc Equipment 11,942,250 Site Development 238,000 Furn.sh.ngs and MISC, Equipment B5.2S0 Architectural and Engineering Fees 158,500 Legal, Fiscal Testing and Misc 51,00

TOTAL PROJECT COM . . S2.47S.OOO

UNIT COSTS Has.-il nn Building ( mis linn

1.77B Seats ..I SI ,092 p CI Ml Based on Tolal PrOJCCI Cosl PERFORMING ARTS HALL SEATING 54,900 Square Feel ai MS.08 per sq ti 1,778 Seats al 11,392 per seal

i , HI .. i i i. i ' / - i t "£> '? o a. H

Ten letters from Frank Lloyd Wright

to Charles Robert Ashhee

by ALAN CRAWFORD

The friendship between Frank Lloyd Wright and Charles Robert Ashhee

[Fig. 40a] has often been noticed in connection with Ashbee's introduction to

1 frank Lloyd Wright: Ausgefuhrte Bauten. The following letters, found in Ashbee's journals, add to our knowledge of this friendship; and perhaps to a sense of its intellectual complexity.

Ashbee first met Wright at some time in late November or early Decemher 1900. Fie was impressed, and wrote in his journal:

Wright is to my thinking far & away the ablest man in our line of work that 1 have come across in , perhaps in America. He not only has ideas, but the power of expressing them, & his Husser house over which he took me, showing me every detail with the keenest delight, is one of the most beautiful and the most individual of creations that I have seen in America. He threw down the glove to me in characteristic Chicagoan manner in the matter of Arts & Crafts & the creations of the machine. 'My God' said he,

'is machinery, & the art of the future will be the expression of the individual

artist through the thousand powers of the machine, the machine, doing all those things that the individual workman cannot do, & the creative artist is

the man that controls all this & understands it.' He was surprised to find

how much I concurred with him, but I added the rider, that the individuality of the average had to be considered, in addition to that of the artistic creator himself. 2 This journal entry appears to witness the forging of one of those links that connect the Arts and Crafts to the Modern movement. And it is true that Ashbee, especially in his later writings 3 adopted a positive tone in dealing with the problem of machines. Rut his solution to the problem was quite different from Wright's. To Ashbee, to control machines meant to relegate them to heavy industry, leaving the production of domestic goods to a revived system of handicrafts. And then, there was so much in his 'rider'. The weak phrase 'the individuality of the average' diplomatically concealed the fundamental Morrisian ideal, that workmen should take pleasure in their work. Ashbee could see the bearing of this on Wright's vision - he saw that the development of a machine aesthetic would do nothing to make the work of machine- minders any more pleasant.

Ashbee's visit to Chicago was part of a lecture tour on behalf of the National

Trust, 4 and he left Wright as secretary of an informal committee to push 5 64 forward the work of the National Trust in Chicago. Soon after getting back

A^Msw^ * in one) .

to England in February 1901, the Ashbees asked Wright to come over to Crawford: England. They got no reply until 3 January 1902: WRIGHT-ASHBEE My dear Ashbee: - I don't propose to let our friendship, so well begun, slip LETTERS

away from me, but what I can say to you to show you my real feelings, when my dreadful procrastination has given you such doubts - and such surety of faithlessness? You and your good lady held out to me last Spring one of the most real of many known temptations and all but brought me to England last July. But poverty, - and the immediate prospects of a small feast for the family inter- ests (the first in years) held me fast. The year has proved neither feast nor famine, but a very modest mean, and lam still tofo]poortocometoEngland.Idon'tfeelthatIhavegrownmuch

either, - in I fact am truly blue . .

Your report I read with avidity and your type, I like - contrary to first expectations. I caught at your name in the 'Review' some time ago and read your article in one of our magazines. You see my ears are pricked up for news of you and my eyes are on the watch for signs of your work.

1 am sending by post a little packet of prints, with most sincere wishes for 'A Happy New Year' and kindest regards to your wife and mother - believe me,

Your friend, Frank Lloyd Wright To C. R. Ashbee Esq., 1 Great College St., London, South West. January 1902 6 The report to which Wright refers is Ashbee's Report ...to the Council of the National Trust ...on his visit to the . . . (1901), and the type 'Endeavour- designed by Ashbee at about this time (Fig.40b). The article may be an account which Ashbee wrote of the Arts and Crafts Movement in England, but this is not certain 7 . And if the 'Review' is The Architectural Review, Wright probably noticed Ashbees name in a review of a recent exhibition of pianos, designed by architects, at Broadwood & Sons." After this letter there is a gap of six years in the preserved correspondence until October 1908. Ashbee had written to Wright, saying that he would be visiting Chicago on another lecture tour, and received the following reply My dear Friend Ashbee: -

Sometime ago I received the note telling of your proposed trip to America. I know of no one whose coming to Chicago would be a greater event in my little world. Meeting with you again will be something to look forward to with pleasure and I hope we can see a good deal of each other Your work I have seen reviewed recently and was glad to have a glimpse of it. I wonder how far apart we are now on some of the matters we used to discuss. With agreeable remembrances of your former visit and looking forward eagerly to your next, I am Sincerely yours, Frank Lloyd Wright'' The 'work' to which Wright refers was probably Ashbee's book Craftsmanship in Competitive 10 Industry, which appeared in 1908. 65 .

architectural In December the Ashbees stayed with the Wrights in Chicago, and Ashbee

history 13 : 1070 invited Wright to come over to Sicily to see the Villa San Giorgio that he was building at Taormina, and then to go on to Campden. There was some hope of this trip taking place, as Wright had some 'German business'" to do - presumably the Wasmuth project. But on 3 January 1909 Wright wrote: Dear Ashbee: -

Your invitation is a great temptation. How 1 would like to go with you to Sicily and to your England. But work has piled up ahead - quite unexpect- edly. Two bank buildings, a hotel and some residence work in Mason City to the tune of about twenty five thousand pounds, - and the Lexington - a wilderness of small apartments, costing some hundred thousand pounds: -

all on the boards here now for continuous attention. Add to this a number

of fine residences in different parts of the country and you will see that I must make hay while the sun shines, particularly as this year has been a lean one. No temptation to 'desert' was ever so difficult to resist as this one from you

and I shall only postpone the visit - surely I shall join you in England within

a year. Your stay with us is now a bright and particular family tradition,

which we enjoy going over together often . . As ever, Wright 12 Wright eventually went to Europe in the autumn of 1909. There he received invitations to visit the Ashbees in England. On 31 March 1910 he wrote to Ashbee explaining that he had not visited them while in London for personal reasons, and expressing the hope that he would not lose Ashbee's friendship. 13 Ashbee answered this letter two weeks later. He said that Wright's action would not make any difference to their friendship, and that he thought that 'men when they have reached a certain stage of mental development, carry their God, - their own Heaven & Hell, - inside them & the ethical problems that grow of this knowledge of good & evil, are matters they alone can solve'. 14 Wright replied on 8 July: Villino Belvedere, Fiesole,

July 8, 1910 Dear Friend Ashbee - Your kind, - & you can never realize how welcome - letter has awaited an

answer longer than I expected - when I delayed it in order that I might know

what to say. The fight has been fought - 1 am going back to Oak Park to pick

up the thread of my work and in some degree of my life where I snapped it

. . I . And shall come to see you on my way - early in September. My contract

with Wasmuth in Berlin will keep me until then ... 1 have received a budget from the office lately also which shows two items in which you are

concerned unpaid - 1 enclose check to cover these. They have failed to send

the address of the workman who made the last and if you will see that his

due reaches him I will be much releived [sic]. This is all the news and all the business.

. . . Human beings are resilient, recuperative powers in themselves - when 66 young - who shall say when they grow old M think I know when they grow -

old - now. But you see I am cast by nature for the part of the iconoclast. I crawford :

must strike - tear down, before I can build - my very act of building destroys wright-ashbee

an order - established with much that is virtuous [?] embalmed or at least letters

embedded in it - and it is hard to keep what was best in the life that was in

the life that is to be, Yet that is what we would do; you and I - from 'opposite

ends of the same stick' as you once put it - And in me this is a dangerous

quality to be tempered and made useful by such as you - I have learned much from you already in ways you little suspect - and will learn more.

The 'little carven, colored corners of the world' have taught me somewhat

of the thing you would have them teach me - I think - I would like to see

some of them through your eyes - 1 have been very busy here in this little eyrie on the brow of the mountain above Fiesole - overlooking the pink and white, spreading in the valley of the Arno below - the whole fertile bosom of the earth seemingly lying in the drifting mists or shining

clear and marvelous in this Italian sunshine - opalescent - irridescent. I have poked into the unassuming corners where this wondrous brood of Florentines - painters sculptors, sculptor painters and painter sculptor

architects worked. I declare you can not tell here; - there was then no line drawn, - between mediums, - The sculptor as joyously painted in marble as the painter sculptured on canvas and both together tangled architecture

in either and made it of both. The very music of living -, some of these

things in the aggregate - It would be educational but unkind to classify them

as paintings, sculpture and architecture. We could have great fun at it

though. I have read Ho wells, Ruskin and Vasari on Florence and these men

and in my travels I have been surprised to find that all European culture in

the fine arts worth considering except the Gothic of the Middle ages is but a

lesser light lit from these Italian flames of the 12th 13th 14th & 15th centuries -

an afterglow in the 16th - But we can talk of all that - ... I hope Mrs

Ashbee is well and that you are prospering - that all goes as it should - but never does for those who work with single minds for love of work - profit- ably. - But profits are intangible things at their best, - counted into the palm at their worst - meanwhile believe me always - your devoted friend anxious

somehow to prove it - to serve his own feeling of friendship for you and

wishing to be remembered to the rare lady that is your helper. Frank Lloyd Wright 15 The reference to two items in which Ashbee was concerned suggests that Wright employed him, and possibly also one or more members of the Guild of Handicraft. And, unless Wright's office was handling his private finances, it seems likely that they were employed on work for his buildings. It has not been possible, however, to discover what the work referred to was, as the

whereabouts of the office records of the Guild of Flandicraft, if they still exist, 16 is not known. Wright failed to enclose the cheque for this work, and Ashbee replied pointing this out, referring, confusingly, to 'the 3 commissions you

,' 17 speak of. . Wright responded promptly but inefficiently, and then had to write on 24 July: Dear friend Ashbee.

I have just found a letter I wrote you some days ago returned to me for more 67 . .

architectural postage. I was glad to have it returned because it was an unmanly wail and

history 15: 1970 could only lower your respect for me I am sure. I have destroyed it and will

not say the tilings I said. You know 1 have been engaged here in the prepara- tion of drawings - for a representative monograph of my work. About 73 buildings are shown by plans and perspective drawings in about 100 plates.

The work is in Wasmuth's hands and so far I have had 12 proofs. I am to

own this work outright - & have bought it because I believe it will be profit-

able and there is no cleaner way for an architect to find his money than in

the sale of his own works in this way. 1 have a contract with this house for

1000 copies. Their work is very good - lithography - I must acknowledge but

their slow movements drive me to desperation. The German mind is a

ponderous affair i find. I thought of giving them up and asking you to help

me find someone else but they are doing a little better and I will wait with

w hat patience 1 can command. 'I must be patient' is a phraze the Italians use

continually - and 1 will adopt it. 1 will send you a prool or two so you may

judge of the scope of the work and its character although the better things

have not yet been reached. 1 should like your criticism too. The work is to be in portfolio - the text inserted in loose form in a pocket inside. The plates to carry thin paper cover-sheets with the plans - floor plans - printed on them. There will be some plates printed in grey on cream colored paper, some in sepia on cream - others in grev or sepia on grey paper with white

tinted walls - or skv. It is rather large - they employ their largest stones - but

I am sick of over-reduction and yearn for a face-full in each project. In - addition to this - or rather before 1 undertook it - they had written me in America - for material for a Sonderheft to appear in a regular series now in publication. This material to consist wholly of photographs of actual work and plans. Some of the photographs wanted could not be obtained

until a month ago and on this account I am told that this portion of the work must go over to the beginning of next year. This work was their enter-

prise - but I had counted on the two appearing together. The monograph giving the office-ideal, - the architects rendering of his vision - his scheme graphically proposed in his own manner - the Sonderheft, the photographs, of the results in brick and mortar. The article on the work was to have been

written by some German in Cologne whom I do not know.

I am tempted to take this out of their hands if I can honestly - do so and

give it to someone else or own this too - myself- It would be more profitable

I think than the monograph - and wonder what publishing house in London

perhaps, or in Germany, beside Wasmuth - could undertake it on short notice. Do you know of one?

I suppose I will have to 'bide their time' however. They are now two

months behind agreement, with the work. I am so much in haste because I need the moral support the work in beautiful dress and strong form would

give me in the scramble to my feet that lies just ahead. My position is one I

cannot see in perspective as another sees it. I have not the angle or - I fear

the elevation but I am going to do what I can . .

. . .1 leave here September first. Shortly after the tenth I hope to be with

you for some days, until I sail . . 68 - Outside the house in the corner in Oak Park - since I left there a year ago .

the twentieth of next September I have written only my mother - one rR.wuoRD:

letter to Guthrie and to you - drop me a line soon - 1 am glad to know you wright-ASHBEE too have made Fiesole yours. Where did you live when here - ietttrs as always yours devotedlv Wright' Villino Belvedere Fiesole Italy

,s July 24

The 'representative monograph' was produced under the title Attsgefiirhte 9 Bauten und Entwiirfe von Frank Lloyd Wright} The 'Sonderheft' was published in 191 1, with the title 8. Sonderheft der Architektur des XX.Jahrhunderts: Frank Lloyd Wright. The 'article on the work' was written by Ashbee, and called 'Frank Lloyd Wright: Eine Studie seiner Wiirdigung von C. R. Ashbee F.R.I.B.A.' The 'Sonderheft' 1" was also published, separately, as Frank Lloyd Wright: Ausgefuhrte Bauten.

Wright stayed with the Ashbees at Campden that September, and it was, in tact, during this stay that he asked Ashbee to write the introduction to the popular edition, a request that was prompted not entirely by intellectual sympathy: Sept 26 en route to the 'Blucher', 5.30 pm Dear brother Ashbee -

I am off- bag and baggage at last and right lucky it is for you too and for me -

because I am sure you could not possibly have stood me until another sailing day and we should have quarreled and hated each other over that silly old

article - T am afraid - It isn't worth the division it might bring between us

and I am sorry I exhibited my 'individualism' so strenuously but at least you

have as bad a case yourself- That is why you don't like it on principle. But

you have been kind and generous to me anyway and I don't mind telling you that my desire to have you say the foreword for me was a pure bit of

sentiment on my part - because I liked you and I turned to you at the critical

moment . .

- As for you - old fellow you are as rank a case of individualism and as

delightful a fellow man as I could wish I only want a crack at you sometime.

I want to do a preface to your work when you collect it and launch it - I

think 1 see you squirm and take a malicious pleasure in gloating over your agony - So fare you well As always your friend Wright

My conscience troubles me - Do not say that I deny that my love for

Japanese art has influenced me - I admit that it has but claim to have digested

it - Do not accuse me of trying to 'adapt Japanese forms' however, that is a

false accusation and against my very religion. Say it more truthfully even if it does mean

saying it a little more gently. W. Please forward immediately all the proofs that may have arrived before mv letter to Wasmuth cuts them off and oblige vours FLW. 21 The 'silly old article' over which Wright and Ashbee disagreed was, presumably, 22 'In the Cause of Architecture', from which Ashbee quoted in his sympathetic, 69 "

ARCHITECTURAL but not uncritical, introduction. The argument HISTORY of this introduction runs 13: 1970 mostly along expected lines. The interest and value of Wright's wc k"s een to he in his determination, amounting sometimes to heroism, to n astr he machine and use it at all costs, in an endeavour to find the forms and treatm n °f ^ tradidon '" °" the other ?" ^ ^ hand, th s is'een tooTeadlead tor too great a severity in design • I have seen buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright's that I would like to the enchanted touch with wand; not to alter their structure in plan or form or but to clothe carcass them with a more living and tender detail. I do noTknov how and the time is not yet - nor would I like to see Wright do it himself becauTe I do not believe he could for thus to clothe themLuld mean Craft 'chodTf smanship that would tell of the intimate life of America, nd little of that imply a quietude and poetry and scholarship which our English cnurche

Ashhee here seems to apply criteria incompatible in practice. For the severe geometrical and impersonal' character of Wright's design was an essent ai part of that use of mechanization which Ashbee had applauded argument But "hb ,s not genuinely inconsistent. Elsewhere in the int-T . t makes the familiar point tit the architecture IfThe Middl ^t ch particularly suited to the Prairies;" but he makes it in such a way S

closely followed. I, was his principles, ,„d „„, his style, ,hl, Ashl,ee .j™

Peace. On 9 February Wright invited him to visit Taliesin Dear friend Ashbee Won, yon come to Taliesin - (j«, -.0 miles west of Madison -) f„, , few d„s

Whenever I think of my abuse of your friendship [Here I am much ashamed Wright gives an optimistic account of his life af TaliesinT Here hopmg you can come and bide a while - this corner of th* , ,u

but it may be overlooked on bright morning - Till later' Wright ... v b e ,ieSin "^ *"" ** mt ,;emT,s^ *- 1« - * *™ Noe, In 1934 Ashbee received through the post an elegant prospectus for the Crawford: Taliesin Fellowship and the following letter: wrigiit-ashbee

My dear friend Ashbee: I am sending you a copy of the prospectus of the lftters Taliesin Fellowship, founded and being conducted by myself.

I have taken the liberty of including your name in the list of 'Friends of the Fellowship' believing that this would not meet with your disapproval. [Taliesin seeks support not only from the young, but also from all men of

affairs sympathetic towards Wright's ideals.j High regard for you and your own work along similar constructive lines makes you a friend from whom we solicit continued support and interest in

any way you feel free to give it. Sincerely yours, Frank Lloyd Wright 29 The last letter dates from Wright's visit to England in 1939. On a postcard, on n May, Wright said: Dear Ashbee,

I am sorry not to have seen more of you - my one old friend in England. And we did appreciate the luncheon at your nice old country place - fully expect- ing to see you all again.

But, frankly, I am getting tired. I've been so rushed to and fro giving four hard lectures and many talks beside -

When I tire I get bored and want to escape. After the last lecture tonight

and a dinner at the MARS group tomorrow evening we are [?] taking the night train to , on the way home stopping in Dalmatia a few days. I've met some of your old comrades - l.utyens and Voysey in particular - loved

them both . . . Affectionately my dear man as always Your Frank Lloyd Wright Olgivanna and Iovanna 30 Garland's May 11, 39. Ashbee died in May 1942, so this was the last time the two men met.

NOTES i Berlin, 1911. The connection between Wright and Ashbee was noticed in e.g. N. Pevsner 'Frank Lloyd Wright's Peaceful Penetration of Europe', The Architects'

Journal Jxxxix (1939), pp.731-734; Reyner Banham, Theory and Design in the First Machine Age (I960), pp. 145, 147; and in Edgar Kaufmann ]r's introduction to Frank Lloyd Wright: The early work (New York, 1968). 2 The Ashbee Journals, Dec. 1900. The forty volumes ofAshbee's Journals are kept at King's College, Cambridge. Besides the letters and references given in this

article, there are letters from , and material relating to, Catherine Lloyd Wright Sr.

All the relevant material is indexed in the Library under 'Frank Lloyd Wright'. In the present article no attempt has been made to correct mis-spellings, repeated or omitted words, loose punctuation &c. Editorial remarks have been inserted where words were found hard to read or illegible. For reasons of space, it has been necessary to omit the least important passages. Where these are more than conventional expressions, they have been paraphrased. One letter, architectural of 31 March 1910 and part of letters of8& 24 July 1910 have also been omitted, as history 13: 1970 permission to quote them was not given. A short account of Ashbee's career was given by B. G. Burrough in The Con- noisseur clxxii (1969), pp. 85-90 & 262-266. 3 Should We Stop Teaching Art? (1911) and Where the Great City Stands (1917). 4 The National Trust appears in Wright's An Autobiography (New York, 1933) as

.' 'the Natural Trust for planes of historic interest and natural beauty, . . (p. 165). 5 Cutting from a Chicago paper, probably The Chicago Tribune, Ashbee Journals, March 1901. 6 Ashbee Journals, 3 Jan. 1902. © 1970, F.L.W.F. 7 In Vol.111 of The Ashbee Collection', a set of photograph albums kept at the

Victoria & Albert Museum, there is a cutting of the heading of what may be the

article referred to. It reads: 'Arts and Crafts in England / By C. R. Ashbee / A Brief Sketch of the Development of the Movement by a Distinguished Architect r\tn l/ji. sfrUljwfZir' and Craftsman.' Neither the name nor the date of the magazine is on the cutting.

<<*•' if 8 Architectural Review \x(\90l), pp. 172-176. On Ashbee's piano the black keys were replaced by purple ones.

9 Ashbee Journals, 24 Oct. 1908. © 1970, F.L.W.F. This letter is addressed 'To

Mr. C. R. Ashbee, London, England. October 24 - 1908' and is on Wright's special vellum-like paper, with the brown and red square and Oak Park address. 10 London and Campden, Glos., 1908. 11 Ashbee Journals, 25 Dec. 1908. j(t 12 Ashbee Journals, © 1970, F.L.W.F. 3 \in. 1909. This letter is addressed to 'Mr. - 1909' written C. R. Ashbee / Stanford University / California / January 3 and on Wright's special paper.

13 Ashbee Journals, 31 March 1910. © 1970, F.I AV.F.

14 Ashbee Journals, 13 April 1910. This entry is a pencil version of a letter to

Wright. It is not clear whether it is a rough draft or a copy of the letter sent. Ashbee often kept such versions of his letters when he was writing on subjects or to people he thought were important. 15 Ashbee Journals, 8 July 1910. © 1970, F.L.W.F. 16 Mr Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer kindly checked the archives at for me, but found no reference to this work. 17 Ashbee Journals, 14 July 1910. Version of a letter from Ashbee to Wright. 18 Ashbee Journals, 24 July 1910. © 1970, F.L.W.F. For Ashbee in Florence, sec- Virginia Woolf, Roger Fry (1940), p.71.

19 Berlin. The introduction by Frank Lloyd Wright is dated 1910.

20 I do not know why this separate issue was made. Perhaps Wright did attempt to take the 'Sonderheft' out of Wasmuth's hands, and a compromise was reached, Wasmuth issuing the number in the series as planned, but also pro- ducing a separate issue for Wright, Frank Lloyd Wright: Ausgefiihrte Bauten was re-

issued in 1968 as Frank Lloyd Wright: The early work (New York, Introduction by

Edgar Kaufmann Jr). In this edition Ashbee's introduction has been printed from the 'original English text, which, in the German edition, appeared onl\ in German translation' (publisher's note). Part of the introduction, however,

is printed in German, because it was 'not included in C. R. Ashbee's original

text' (p. 9). This part contains remarks on Japanese influence on Wright. 72 Possibly Ashbee revised his original text following Wright's letter of 26 Sept., and so this part of the introduction was separated from the rest and not pre- cr afford : served with it. I do not know of anv reason for supposing that the part printed wright-ashbee in German in 1968 was not hy Ashbee. ietters References below to Ashbee's introduction are to the 1968 edition. 21 Ashbee Journals, 26 Sept. 1910. © 1970, F.L.W.F. 22 Frank Lloyd Wright, 'In the Cause of Architecture', Architectural Record xxiii (1908), pp. 155-221. 23 Frank Uoyd Wright: The early writ (New York, 1968), p.4.

24 ibid., p. 8.

25 ibid., p.4.

26 ibid., p. 7. 27 Ashbee Journals, 9 Feb. 1916. © 1970, F.l .W.F. 28 Ashbee Journals, 25 Feb. & 14 April 1916.

29 This letter is not in the Ashbee Journals, at Cambridge. It is tipped into a copy of An Autobiography (New York, 1933) which Wright sent to Ashbee. I am grateful to Miss Felicity Ashbee for lending me this book. 30 Ashbee Journals, 11 May 1939. © 1970, F.L. WF.

Note: 1 am indebted to the Frank Uoyd Wright Foundation and to Miss Felicity Ashbee for permission to quote from unpublished material. The copyright of t he letters ofFrank Lloyd Wright belongs to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and is marked in each instance '© 1970, F.L.W.F.'.

A CHRONOLOGlCAl LIST OF C, R. ASHBFF'S ARCHITECTURAL WORKS

"The following list is simply an orderly presentation of the evidence to be found, mainly in the principal documentary sources. These are: C. R. Ashbee, A Book

Cottages Little . . of and House* . (1906); drawings in the RIB A Drawings Collection (chiefly lor in buildings Cheyne Walk); drawings in the care of Mr George 1 lart (lor buildings in Chipping Campden); The Ashbee Collection, a set of four photo graph albums which once belonged to Ashbee and is now at the Victoria & Albert Museum. The list is almost certainly not exhaustive, and probably .not accurate. The dates are meant to cover broadly the period of building. A few minor works, monumental in character, have been included; but all interior decorations, church screens &c, on howc\er large a scale, havclieen excluded. ('A \\

1 he Carlyle House, Cheyne Row, I ondon. lSi^fl). Restoration. The Magpie and Stump House, 37 Cheyne Walk, 1 ondon. 1894. For his mother, Mrs H. S. Ashbee. Ashbee's London architectural office was in this house. Demolished 1969. Much of the interior decoration is preserved at the Victoria & Albert Museum. The Wombourne Wodehousc, near Wolverhampton. 1895-97. Alterations

to the west front; addition of a billiards room and a chapel. For Col. T. B. Shaw-Hellier.

Nos. 72-74 Cheyne Walk, London. 1897. No.73 for Mr E. A. Walton. After his marriage in 1898, Ashbee lived in No. 74, until 1902. Destroyed by a architecturai parachute mine, 17 April 1941, which also destroyed Nos.71, & 75 history n: i'i7o Cheyne Walk, and much of Chelsea Old Church. The W. Turner House, 118-119 Cheyne Walk, London. 1897-98. J. M. Restoration; addition of a studio at rear. For Mr Maxwell Balfour. SS. Peter & Paul, Horndon-on-the-Hill, Essex. 1898-99. Restoration.

Nos.38-39 Cheyne Walk. London. 1899. No.38 for Miss C. I. Christian. St Mary's, Stratford, Bow, London. 1899. Restoration, with Thackeray Turner. W. R. Lethaby, Philip Webb and C. Winmill, for the SPAB. Badly damaged during the second world war. The Court House, Long Crendon, Bucks. 1901. Restoration. For the National TrustO).

Hallingbury Place, Bishops Stortford, Essex, c. 1901. Addition of a billiards room and conservatory. For Col. Archer-Houblon. The whole building

has since been destroyed by fire. Nos75 Cheyne Walk, London. 1902. For Mrs W. Hunt. Destroyed 1941. Woolstaplers' Hall, High Street, Chipping Campden, Glos. 1902. Restoration. The Ashbees lived here from 1902 to 1911. Studio behind Dover's House, High Street, Chipping Campden, Glos.

1902. For Mr G. 1 oosley. Market Place, High Street, Chipping Campden, Glos. Date uncertain; after 1902. Repairs. Two cottages at Broad Campden, Glos. 1902-03(1). Conversion of derelict buildings. C. R. Ashbee's own propertv. Coombe End, Whitchurch, Berks. 1902-03("(). Addition of one wing. For Mr

]. Rickman Godlee. Cottage in the High Street, Chipping Campden, Glos. 1903. An existing cottage was demolished and the materials used to build a house on a different plan, but in a similar style. For Mr W. N. Izod. Block of two cottages at Catbrook, near Chipping Campden, Glos. 1903.

For Mr ]. B. Gripper. Elm Tree House, High Street, Chipping Campden, Glos. 1903. Conversion of the house; Ashbee had his Campden architectural office here. Conversion of derelict malt house at the back, for use as workshops by the Campden School of Arts & Crafts; this building has since been destroyed. Thatched Cottage in Watery Lane (now Park Road), Chipping Campden. Glos. 1903. Conversion. For Mr R. Martin Holland. Slated Cottage in Watery lane (next door to the above). 1903. Conversion. Also for Mr R. Martin Holland. Cottage on Lord Gainsborough's Estate, Sheep Street, Chipping Campden,

Glos. r. 1903. For Lord Gainsborough

The Island House, High Street, Chipping Campden, Glos. 1903(?). Restora- tion. For Mr E. Peter Jones. The house has been altered since. The Thatched Cottage, Westington, near Chipping Campden, Glos. 1904 Addition of a gable; conversion of a stable into a studio. For Mr Paul Woodroffe. Roberts' House, High Street, Chipping Campden, Glos. Date uncertain; 74 after 1904. Conversion. The Cedars, Westington, near Chipping Campden, Glos. 1905. Removal of Crawford : one wing; additions: gable oriel and bay windows. For Mr St John Hankin. wright- ashbff

I ittle Coppice, her Heath, Bucks. Date uncertain; before 1906. For Mr H. i etters Wrightson.

The Shoehorn, Orpington, Kent. Date uncertain; before 1906. For Mr Henry Fountain.

Cottage at Abbots Langley, Herts. Date uncertain; before 1906. For Trinity College, Oxford. The Stanstead House, Dromenagh Estate, Iver Heath, Bucks. Date uncertain; before 1906.

Five Bells, Dromenagh Estate, Iver Heath, Bucks. Date uncertain; before 1906.

Cottage at Findon, Sussex. Date uncertain; before 1906. For Mrs William Hunt's nursing home.

Cottage in Watery Lane (now Park Road), Chipping Campden, Glos. Date uncertain; between 1902 and 1906. Conversion. For Mrs H. W. Wrightson and Mrs Thompson. Block of three thatched cottages at Catbrook, near Chipping Campden Glos. 1906. Fifty-two industrial cottages in the area of Birchfield Road, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire. 1906. For Mr E. Peter Jones. The Poor House, Holcombe Rogus, Devon. 1906. Restoration. For the Rayer family. The Norman Chapel, Broad Campden, Glos. 1905-07. This house was built on the basis of a derelict chapel, which had been used as a dwelling-house. For Mr Ananda Coomaraswamy. The Ashbees lived here from 1911 to 1919. -\ House in the Stefania, Budapest. 1905-07. For Mr Zsombor de Szasz. th rml'i'y >*." P>f[W?/ Uplands, Ledbury, Herefordshire. Date uncertain; before 1907. Addition of a wing. For Mrs Curtis.

Byways, Yarnton, Oxon. 1907. For Mr H. A. Evans. House at Wroxton, Oxon. Date uncertain; probablv after 1908. For Mr Fitzgerald. The Cottage, Brimscombe, Glos. Date uncertain; probably after 1908. For Mrs Graves Colles. Manor Gate Cottage, Ockley. Surrey, Date uncertain; probably after 1908. Wackies Hill, Peaslake, Surrey. Date uncertain; probably after 1908. Conversion and addition of studio wing. For Miss Liddle. Villa San Giorgio, Taormina, Sicily. 1907-09. For Col. T. B. Shaw-Hellier. Porthgwidden, Cornwall. Date uncertain; before 1910. Rose garden, and the addition of a verandah. For the Spottiswoode family. Chelsea Old Church, Cheyne Walk, london. 1910. Restoration. Badly dam- aged 1941. (Attribution doubtful.) CthUa -Nm74949-»54 Squirrels Heath Avenue, -iikka Park, Romford, Essex. 1911. In association with Gripper & Stevenson, architect. ,-\ No.71 Cheyne Walk, london. 1912-13. For Mrs &$.. Trier. Destroyed 1941. House at Sidcot, near Winscombe, Somerset. 1912-13. For Mr S. Maltby Parish Church, Seal, Kent. 1913. Repairs to the vestry. 1914. Repairs to the ' tower. 1936. Repairs to the east window. ,erUS - ™ em ,9 ' 8 22 Repair and """tniction ', of the Citadel, : Rampart Walk hhtoit andf „: wo ancent markets; laying out of gardens. For the Pro-Jerusalem Society Godden Green, Sevenoaks, Kent. 1924. Alterations. 1936. Swimming pool The house belonged to Mrs Ashbee's family. The Ashbecs lived there from 1923 to 1942. Church at Shoreham, Kent. (»)1925. Repair to the porch. The Hatch Godden Green, Sevenoaks, Kent. 1932. Conversion .For Lady Campbell. }

MINOR ARCHITECTURAI WORKS BY C. R. ASHBFF Street lamp-cum-drinking fountain, Tamworth, Staffs. Date uncertain; befo re 1 ovn.

Gravestone for Col. T. B. Shaw-Hellier, Taormina, Sicily, r. 1911. Carey Gates, Harvard, Mass. Date uncertain. Gates at Poyston, Haverfordwest, Herefordshire. Date uncertain For Dr Henry Owen.

Sar^bbsi

VOL 18 — NO. 183 SARASOTA, FLORIDA, MC

Agnew

Clarifies

Doctrine THE LEWIS AND EUGENIA VAN WEZEL BANGKOK (AP) - PERFORMING President Spiro T. Agnev pears to be making headw communicating a clearer d ARTS HALL tion of the Nixon Doctrine ' leaders of U.S. allies in Asi Conversations with dipL and members of the vice dential party indicate Agr off to a good start as a pre tail emissary. One of the main reasor his 11-nation Asian tour w clear up misunderstari about the policy President on outlined last July in Gu;

policy combining a U.S. p to meet its treaty commiti and provide a nuclear shie America's Asian allies, wh the same time empha Asian self-reliance. Agnew today completei

first part of his trip and fl neutralist Nepal after vis

four firm U.S. allies—the I pines, South Vietnam, Nal ist China and Thailand. In each country, goveri leaders questioned him c about what the United St? going to do. In each, he h? en the same firm reply TONIGHT, 8:30 P.M. the United States plans main an Asian power anc its commitments, but tha must take more of the bur their defense.

American officials in Ba Finishing Touches told newsmen they though of the problem has been th doctrine indicates more

change in emphasis than i tic policy. An Agnew

termed it more a chan On Arts Hall Today tone. The difference, he s; that when Nixon and / lionrinuea »K*«*' on rage •, •lni talk about Asian ri tol Touches On Arts Hal

sultz r

idfe Drive

On Vfet Pullouf

AgncW I Nixon's ommission Has Splendor Of Hall Steals Show On Gala Opening

S^Y^^ \ou

Sarasota Theater-Goers Praise 'Tiara'

visiting from his (Continued From Page 1A) for the city leaders "who had of and the wise in Switzerland, ap- present and former city com- the courage home missioners and workers on the leadership" to overcome ad- parently was aware of the versities they faced in br- various committees formed to color controversy but dis- product to bring the hall to reality. inging the final counted it. They thought their work realization.

was worth it. "Sarasota," Peters said, "is "I expected it to be bigger

"I feel it's going to make singularly blessed with ad- and I don't mind about the difference in • tremendous vance vision." color," the European youth the pattern of cultural activi- City Commissioner David said. ties in Sarasota," said Dallas Cohen, a lifetime member of

Dort, a member of the ar- the theater's operating com- His date,- Lucy Judsen, 15, selection committee mittee, expressed his emo- chitect visiting from Chicago with and the design committee. tions on the new facility. her grandparents, said, "The "It's going to fulfill all the "I'm very grateful and very j color is pretty it will hopes of those who have thankful and very hopeful," and j dreamed about this for many, Cohen said. "I think this draw attention." many years." magnificent building is the So Broadway came t o Gerald Ludwig, a city second most important of its commissioner when the com- kind in Sarasota after the il Sarasota to perform in the munity theater idea was con- Ringling complex in establi- city's proud new amethyst b; ceived, remarked, "I live on shing the city as a cultural the bay. St. Armands and coming center. There will be more across the causeway when the pain and travail but it will roof was black and the rest more than justify itself."

purple I hated it. Now I love County Co mmissioner it." William Carey congratulated The professional caution of the city on its achievement. Sarasota playwright Joseph "It's magnificent, really Hays was expressed by the magnificent," Carey com- comment, "It's beautiful but mented. "It's the most I'm waiting to see how it outstanding civic ac-

functions, to see it in action." complishment of the city to A worker for the 1964 bond date. It will do much to im- issue which provided part of prove and stabilize the cul- the money for the project, tural image of Sarasota." Paul Stannard, said "You Theater-goers began to en- Architect Wesley Peters can't call it controversial any ter and take their seats more ... in lavender tux more. Even people who hated than an hour before the the color love it now. It's scheduled 8:30 rising of the eyes," Sanford said. "Ive the greatest thing that ever curtain. never seen such splendor. happened in Sarasota." Among them were this New York can't equal it and Frank Lloyd Wright Foun- year's King Neptune and his New Yorkers will be en- dation architect William Queen Athena, Frank and Pat vious." Wesley Peters, who created Sanford. And the young were among the basic design of the struc- "The so-called purple ogre the audience.

ture, had high words of praise has changed its color in our Robert Pettby, 17, a native ,

(Dictated) January 4, 1970

Mr. Vernon D. Swaback Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Taliesin West Scottsdale, Arizona 85252

Dear Vernon:

We are grateful for your note. We are delighted at yours, and other Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation notes following your visit here.

We shall be happy to meet Schennum and Thompson in Sarasota.

Thanks for the beautiful article on the place.

Taking off tomorrow.

Cordially

Paul R. Hanna

PRH:bl Maxwell Cook And Wife Among Early Arrivals For Gala Opening

By FLORENCE SCHNEIDER She also remarked on the we've often come into town She wore a turquoise and gold coincidence that new plant- just to see the hall all lit up." brocade evening gown, heavi- ings on St. Armands Key, of ly embroidered with gold eipo ue ash n Mrs. Kenneth Thompson purple and lavender asters, beads at the high neckline. and Mrs. Ed Hoyt also wore blended beautifully with the white gowns for the opening Several women at the first- S3AIM: hall's colors. reception. Mrs. Thompson's nighters' reception were in Women, at a champagne was in white chiffon with pantsuits. Mrs. Paul Wolfe reception which preceded the bodice trimmed in white bu- combined black satin pants musical opening, looked as gle beads, accompanied by a with a gold and black brocade though they had chosen white turquoise chiffon stole. Mrs. tunic. gowns so they wouldn't clash Hoyt topped her white gown, Gold lame, banded in em- with the hall's colors. with gold beading at the broidered purple and orange neckline, with a red velvet Mrs. D. William Overton, flowers, was used for Mrs. evening coat. Their husbands wife of the mayor, was in Herbert Stoddard's pantsuit. are city manager and assis- white crepe with heavily tant city manager, respec- Mrs. Clarence Stokes, in beaded halter neckline. tively. black velvet evening gown, The Overtons live on Bird admitted she'd "gotten over Mrs. William Kip said, Key and she said, "The hall the initial shock" of the "The building is even more is the most gorgeous sight building's colors. "It's stun- coming over the bridge. Since beautiful than I expected it ning both inside and out," she the lights are on at night, to be. The colors are lovely." added. jo §jaqua]S3M jajiBM 'sjiy Pub 'ajM eaB siueaBdpuBjg •lB»a2 s.itqBq em •bjosbjbs '•Attjfj isaA\ptj\[ gel %WS 'K "".of -saj\[ pub -jj\[ 10 .lam^npn 'initnc -n upcno a T/i He* -> "/ cL 2 a ? -a s L ji<^ Curtain Rises On New Era Of Performing Arts In Sarasota Sarasota Theater-Goers High In Praise Of Their Latest Gem In Bayfront Tiara

By DICK BLOOM haust the most complete of admit that our new gem is best wishes on this gala

Herald-Tribune Staff Writer dictionaries. an amethyst." opening night of the Van The curtain rose about ei ght Broadway came to Sarasota The first telegram read by Wezel Performing Arts Hall. minutes late on "Fiddler on Monday night and was wel- Overton was dispatched from This structure is a fine asset the Roof" alter Mayor D. comed with enthusiasm in William Overton made some New York by "Fiddler" Pro- to your city and a tribute a lavish brand new theater. brief comments to an already ducer Harold Prince. to the combined community And Sarasotans, getting obviously enthralled audience. "We're all so proud and efforts which made it possi- their first close-up view of Introducing his fellow city honored that 'Fiddler on the ble. It is another outstanding their $2.5 million Van Wezel commissioners, architect Roof has been chosen to example of why Florida living Performing Arts Hall, un- and open your fabulous new is the very finest. My per- questionably converted early theater managing director theater. Already have word sonal congratulations t o comments of derision at its Harry Draper, Overton read on what extraordinary build- everyone and who helped lavender hue to superlatives several con gratulatory ing it is," Prince said. "All make this great hall a of splendor. telegrams and identified the of us involved with 'Fiddler' reality." Comments made by first particular gem by which he send congratulations and best Early arrivals at the nighters as they entered the hopes the theater will be wishes for dazzling theater theater, located on this richly endowed grand foyer known. future for Sarasota in your coastal city's choicest bay- of the theater included the "I know all of you will join new Van Wezel Performing front property, were special repeated use of such equally me in saluting the latest gem Arts Hall." guests of the mayor at a pre- spendorous adjectives a s in the Bayfront Tiara of the From Gov. Claude R. Kirk curtain champagne party. "magnificent," "tremendous," city of Sarasota," the mayor Jr. came these words: They included the architects, "awesome," and more to ex- said. "We all must surely "Please accept my very (Continued On Page 11A, Col. 1)

Hie Herald-Tribune Tuesday, Jan. 6, 1970-

There is a 20 m.p.h. world 700 miles at sea.

After you get off of a 600 m.p.h. jet, it's kind of nice to wander around our relaxed little island. Everything and everybody runs a little slower here than almost any place else on earth. Golfers don't rush from hole to hole. Sun lovers don't have to wade through a sea of people on our pink beaches. We have so many! Sightseers don't have to wade through waves of people on our tidy little squares. On our island, you'll find just about every sport that you'll find any place else, plus one thing that you'll never find any other place on earth: And that is our slow, enjoyable way of life. A life where nobody is ever too busy to smile. A place where everybody talks to everybody. That's why so many people who come to Bermuda keep coming back. Some who come never leave. They've discovered there is only one Bermuda. Tell a travel agent you want to join them. Or write Bermuda:

6 1 , New York, N.Y. 1 0020 or 6 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60602. >

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Class of Service SYMBOLS

DL = Day Letter This is a fast message WESTERN UNION unless its deferred char- NL«*Ntght Letter acter is indicated by the .International proper symbol. LT "Letter Telegram

The filing time shown in the date line on domestic telegrams is LOCAL TIME at point of origin. Time of receipt is LOCAL TIME at point of destination

UP9P PST APR 8 70 LE?15 L PFE?0? AB PDB AR VUY PHOENlY ARIZ 8 U59PMST CR AND MRS PAUL HANNA 7*7 FRENCHMAN'S ROAD STANFORD CALIF

I "OULD LIKE TO HAVE YOU BOTH PRESENT AT THE RECEPTION I AH GIVING FOR WES AND HIS BRIDE AT TALIESIN '-'EST ON APRIL 1? FROM 4 TO 6. CAN YOU JOIN US? *RS FRANK LLOYD BRIGHT

T2 U f-

(509 >.

SF1201(R2-65)

^ 1

a i i Li Mill o A walkin g tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright houses in OaTTParR and River FoTest

by Sheldon A. Mix

On the day in the late 1880's when years later) to the Adams House, his benign Saturday in spring and ex- with many different levels, with Frank Lloyd Wright made his first last in Oak Park, completed in 1913. tends through the brisker weekends stairtowers at the four small squares visit to the suburb of Oak Park he Wright moved to Oak Park in 1889, of late autumn. One advantage in between the arms of the cross in was unhappy with the architecture and hung out his own architect's going out to Oak Park-River Forest the auditorium. The auditorium is he found. He later described the shingle in 1893. Sixteen years later, is that, in the course of a long walk, small and intimate. Light comes houses as an "aggregation of unin- in 1909, he severed tics with his you can sec as many as thirty build- from groupings of five windows in spired carpenter work." In the flourishing practice, his wife and ings that Wright designed (there each of three sides and through the twenty years following that visit he children, and Oak Park. He had fifty are seventy-four in Chicago). roof, often called an "egg crate" was to give Oak Park and its west- years of life ahead of him, years in because it contains twenty-five sky- I began the walk at , as influential archi- lights. Linear geometric ornament ern neighbor, River Forest, more which, the most one of the great achievements in

have graces the auditorium i: striking than a score of buildings represent- tect of his time, he would a Wright's Oak Park years. The build-

Yet if his patterns accenting each of the ing an entirely new domestic archi- succession of triumphs. ing, at Lake Street and Kcnilworth, career had ended at the time of his architectural elements: skylights, tecture. Within a radius of about a is made up of two sections—one of flight from Oak Park, Wright's dom- stairtowers, balconies, pulpit, and mile, students can trace the devel- them square with a Creek cros's in- inant place in the story of modern lighting fixtures. Worshipers enter opment of that architecture—from scribed in it (the auditorium), the the house that Wright built for his architecture would still be secure. other rectangular (parish house), new bride and himself in 1889 (an The season for touring Wright connected by a narrow entrance The Arthur Heurtley House is a adjoining studio was added six houses normally begins on the first loggia. Inside, the space is complex, 7902 milestone in Wrights work.

'"'""GRAmY BY tlYANA CARMtSA CHICAGO MAGAZINE: APRIL 1970 31 g m,\z <-',! fe "-•. .A ^^m^^^" ArH £?U

/ ' ii '<-.

_ **.:•- «i.

V«^„

P^ IS jfcit-j.pi v.v„- v» leeway siM ' '-! ft" ,J .^^»m - *-- - pi -I

- il""--— '! - x" i Si 'h

-. seesaw?^ . XsF^^SSBB *3*ftOfc&Tfe

NtUtSf?.' 'i/H^?iSe

32 CHICAGO MAGAZINE: APRIL 1970 Ihe auditorium by way of ramps un- der the pulpit and stair to main-

floor seating and to the balconies, Wright manipulated these levels so

that no one in the pews feels much higher or lower than the minister. When the service ends, the congre- gation departs at either end of the

pulpit, and thus their back is never

to the altar.

Looking at Unity's exterior today,

with its cubes and planes, its ab- sence of a steeple, some must wonder how Oak Parkers back in

1907 received this unusual church. Within a block of Unity are three

other churches, all in Gothic tradi- tion, with prominent belltowers.

But also within the block is the Elks Club Building, designed by Oak

Park architect Elmer E. Roberts and

built in 1914; its resemblance to

Unity Church is remarkable.

Besides making a clear break with conventional religious architecture,

Unity Temple was in the vanguard of poured-concrete construction. For the concrete of the exterior,

Wright specified a rough-pebbled

aggregate that has weathered to a soft golden tone. The upkeep of

Unity Temple has been a growing

problem for its small congregation, to the point where an officer of the church who's an architect estimated that renovation would cost $375,000. This would be $300,000 more than the original cost of the building.

Leaving Unity Temple I crossed Lake Street and walked east toward Euclid Avenue, passing Wright's

Memorial Fountain, at Lake and Oak, a small, simple monument with an inscription noting that the

architect designed it in 1909. At

Euclid the route turned left on the west side of the street and a few blocks down passed the George Fur- beck House (1897), at 223 N., and

Charles E. Roberts Stable (1896), at 317 N. Euclid Ave., which Wright remodeled as a house. Another block brought me to Chicago Av- enue, where the route turned right for two short blocks to East Avenue and made a left, crossing the street on the west side, to the Edwin H. Cheney House (1904), at 520 N. East

Left, top and bottom: The (1908). Top, right, then clockwise: The Chauncey Williams House. • Unity Temple's

lighting fixtures highlight its geo- metric designs. ' The Roberts House is enlivened with unexpected ornamentation. • The atypical Fricke House was built in 7902. ->'-; •_• . i-s

CHICAGO MAGAZINE: APRIL 1970 33 t5 \ fs

~ >--.-iU— : *-•'* ' •• --"- .^J ',, ^-'»«'~J^«>/ r.""

T'- : ' :~Vy3 "-'"'"' y';;^:- - 1

***miX*M3bmm immm*imihmJrt+2* a.-\ . -.

/

i IIIII&

: !%f lip

- : .

;^c>C ...-.,_- ,• ^ ^ | t^si..

Ave. This early Prairie House, a one- House, on the southeast corner of Three short blocks farther west to Left, top and bottom: The Winslow story brick with walled terrace, rib- Iowa Street and Scoville Avenue. Kenilworth Avenue and a left turn House is one of Wright's master- pieces. • formal inglenook laces bon windows, and garden walls This house is much like the W. E. brought me closer to that concen- A the entrance. Above: Wright's fa- toward the rear, is especially elo- Martin House a block away, at 636 tration of Wright houses around vorite was the Coonly House. quent with the Wright message of N. East Avenue. The date of the Forest Avenue. On the west side horizontality sitting as it does be- Fricke House is 1902; that of the of Kenilworth, at 611, is the plaster- tween two high boxy frame houses. Martin House, 1903. Both houses and-wood-trim O. B. Balch House the firm, and the official beginning

It was the original lady of this have yellow plaster exteriors and (1911), another lone vote for the of his private practice. The three house, Mamah Cheney, who joined dark brown trim, and both have a horizontality and ribbon windows houses on Chicago Avenue, at 1031,

Wright in his flight from his wife height that places them in sharp con- in a line of upright wooden boxes. 1027, and 1019, are dated 1892 and and children. trast with Wright houses built not Walking south one block to Chi- 1893 and probably would be over- long afterward— looked by any Wrightseer who Continuing north on East Avenue the Robie House, cago Avenue, I turned right and you pass one of Wright's early clap- for example. Two blocks west of the walked past three of the "moon- wasn't following his guidebook. boards, the H. C. Goodrich House Martin House, at 710 Augusta Blvd., lighted houses" that Wright de- On the southeast corner of Chicago

(1896), at 534 N. East Ave., and at is the Adams House (1913), the es- signed while under contract with and ForestAvenue is Wright's house the next intersection go right one sence of the horizontality toward Adler and Sullivan and led to his and studio. The house was built in block to the William C. Fricke which Wright had been working. quarrel with Sullivan, his break with 1889, in the informal Queen Anne

34 CHICACO MAGAZINE : APRIL 1970 35 CONTINUED FROM PACE to the children, too, because they entrance lo the Hcurllcy House was are learning there is something an engaging example of this spe- other than cliches, than settling for cialty. Wright was already at work the same old thing. For example, barriers lowering the between ex- when they're asked in school to terior interior. and Leaving the front draw a house, they have to make a walk near the entrance, you go up conscious choice: They can draw a

two steps to the terrace and cross it house with horizontal planes, like to an arch through which you pass their own, rather than settle for a *,m into an enclosed area that leads to house with a peaked roof and a the door, which opens onto a re- chimney on top." ception room. The arch, formed On my way back to my car for the with tapered brick, is a restrained drive to River Forest, I passed two elegance as it offsets the dominant more Prairie Houses. Both were old- horizontal banding. er than the Gale House and quite For the past several decades the different from the Gale and Heurt-

Heurtley House has been divided ley designs. The P. A. Beachy House into a pair of apartments. Fortun- (1906), at 238 Forest, incorporates ately, most of the Heurtley House's an earlier dwelling within its brick, occupants for its sixty-eight years plaster, and wood trim, and was the have been people who cared; the last Prairie House built with a gable leaded glass, the decorative wood- roof. Closer to Lake Street, the work, all the marks of attentive Frank Thomas House (1901), at 210 craftsmanship are still there, the Forest, had an openness and a dom- living-room ceiling, for instance, inant horizontal line that were un- where the dark molding forms a usual in its day. Neighbors saw it pair of apex-facing triangles and as another strange creation by the four trapezoids or the built-in din- unconventional architect who lived ing room sideboard with doors of down the street. leaded glass. With its horizontal My first stop in River Forest was the lines and flowing quality, the j. Kibben Ingalls House (1909), at Heurtley House was a milestone in

562 Keystone Avenue. I parked and 1 Wright's progress toward his mas- began a short walking tour that terpiece, the Robie House, which would take me by three Wright he designed five years later.

houses in addition to the one I was

From the Heurtley House I walked looking at. Set back on a deep front south a hundred feet or so to little lawn, the Ingalls House, with its Flizabeth Court, between Forest perfect symmetry looks strikingly and Kenilworth. On the south side formal. As is common with Wright's is another Wright building, the Mrs. designs, the dining and living rooms isimmt Thomas H. Gale House (1909), 6 and three bedrooms of the Ingalls Elizabeth Court, a visual minority of • Seven Interstate highways converge Indianap- House have three exposures. on one opposing its neighbors in a olis to give you more limited access highways to more major market areas than any other city in the contest of planes vs. peaks. In its Turning left at the next corner, I U.S. In addition, 12 U.S. highways are linked to the forthright interplay walked two blocks, made another of projecting Interstates via circum-urban 465. An abundance of and receding planes, the Gale left, and found the Isabel Roberts planned plant sites and developments adjacent to the 465 loop put you within 30 minutes of other House has been called the genesis House at 603 Edgewood Place. any part of the city. of "Falling Water," which came Isabel Roberts was a secretary and two-and-a-half decades later. In the bookkeeper at the Wright Studio, • In Indianapolis, over 100 established motor truck and this house, of the brighter Gale House Wright designed a low- one lines offer shippers first morning delivery to cities budget solution to the problem of jewels of the Oak Park years, was within a 300-mile radius, including Chicago, Detroit, Louisville and St. Louis, second morning delivery to a small house for a small lot. built for her in 1908. It was planned cities within a 600-mile radius, and third morning in the form of a cross and is a The present occupant of the Gale delivery to cities within a 1,000-mile radius. charming exercise in horizontality, House is architect Howard Rosen- with a deceptive plan that makes it winkel who had admired the house • For complete information and assistance on sites, look like a one-story dwelling when buildings and other data, including computerized site as a schoolboy growing up in the selection services, actually it has two levels. write lohn Hardy, Area Develop- neighborhood. This admiration is ment Director, Dept. H215 or call collect 317 635-6868. still strong enough to overcome Behind the tall windows facing the irritations at a leaky roof and a street is a two-story living room, small balcony that fills up like a with a balcony above the large INDIANAPOLIS bathtub when it rains. "Wright brick fireplace leading to four 'PiWetGjgf/sfco* never let practicality or structural rooms on the upper level. In the problems interfere with his design arm of the cross north of the living INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA 46200 concept," said Rosenwinkel. But room is the dining room; south of the problems don't bother the it is a porch with an opening in the Rosenwinkels because, as he ex- ceiling to accommodate an elm Wright pressed it, "Our family finds joy in tree that did not want lo living in a work of art. It's important disturb. The porch is kept unhealed

CHICAGO MAGAZINE; APRIL 1970 79 a

in the winter so th.it the tree will In his autobiography Wright said,

liv- not l>e thrown out of its cycle. "... I saw a house, primarily, as able interior space under ample As I left the Roberts House and

shelter. I liked the sense ol shelter in started to walk away from it, I the look of the building. "The Wins- looked back and wondered that low House is an inviting shelter. such a contemporary-looking de-

sign could have predated World I walked through the elegantly arched porte-cochere on the north War I by half-a-dozen years. Not

far away, at 530 Edgewood, is one side and was surprised to find that of the earlier Wright houses, built the back of the house is completely

for Chauncey L. Williams in 1895. different from the front. In place of The Williams House typifies an- the front's quiet symmetry, there's a other aspect of Wright's develop- dynamic arrangement of forms— " ment—a design dominated by a projecting wing, a polygonal stair- steep-pitched roof, including a high tower with long narrow windows, cone—capping a corner bay— that a semicircular terminal housing part resembles the traditional witch's of the dining room. to serve as the hat, with an overhang The stable behind the house is no brim. A minor curiosity in the fa- ordinary stable or coach house. cade of this house is the mound of Some architectural observers feel

boulders incorporated in the Roman that because of its horizontality, brick on each side of the front closeness to the earth, and espe-

door. The boulders are mementoes cially because of its cruciform prairie's era of gla- of the Illinois composition, it forecast even more ciation, but more interesting than about Wright's future than the that, they were gathered from the house did. Des Plaines River, which lies be- I was admitted to the house by Mrs. hind the house, by the Williamses, William S. Walker, who has lived the Wrights, and the E. C. Wallers. there with her husband and three An architect as unconventional as sons for twelve years. The curtain- Frank Lloyd Wright needed clients raiser on the main floor is the ambi- with courage, money, and an ap- PIPER-HEIDSIECK CHAMPAGNE PIPER BRUT 1964 VINTAGE PIPER PINK • CUVEE DES tious inglenook that claims your

AMBASSADEURS • PIPER EXTRA DRY NON-VINTAGE • RENFIELD IMPORTERS. LTD., N.Y. preciation for his enthusiasms. It is eye as soon as y n " pass through the most fortunate that there were such front door into the reception hall. people around in this early period You reach the hearthside by walk- of his development. ing up three wide stairs, past a pair of decorative pedestals, and across Among the first clients to recognize Wright's genius was William H. the raised floor to the arcade, justas you reached the front door outside Winslow, the wealthy head of a three large concrete firm of ornamental ironworkers, by going up steps, past a pair of impressive urns, who in the early 1890's gave the to the entrance terrace. Oak Park architect, then in his mid-

twenties and not well-known, an The hearth is at the center of the important commission shortly after house. Before the steps to the ingle-

he had established his independent nook, a hallway runs left to the practice. The result of that oppor- library, right to the living room. In

Dortt miss a single copy of tunity was the next and last stop back of the living room is the porch, CHICAGO on my walk, which now continued and beside it, in line with the south down Edgewood to Lake hearth-center, is the dining room. Street, turned right for one short The seclusion of the library, sepa- block to Auvergne Place, and made rated from the rest of the house by Be sure to notify your posioif ice AND send the completed lorm below to: another right through granite gate- the reception hall, illustrates an im- posts leading to the secluded little portant point with Wright, who in CHICAGO Magazine street that had been cut through laying out his floor plans liked to 211 E.Chicago Ave. the old Edward Waller estate. The provide such hideaways which Chicago, Illinois 60611 Winslow House is the second one sheltered him from the hubbub. PLEASE PRINT on the right. NAME The Winslow House was the first This simple but subtle ancestor of milestone of the Oak Park years. OLD ADDRESS the Prairie House was built in 1893. Their last came fifteen years later—

It expresses the beauty and serenity shortly before Wright's departure CITY STATE ZIP of the horizontal line in four main from the community—with the cele- If possible, please attach a recent label. ways—abroad lower band of Roman bration of two masterpieces that NAME brick; a frieze above it composed were comprehensive statements of of intricately ornate tile; the his ideas on domestic architecture NEW ADDRESS stepped, limestone trim dividing in his first period of creative matur-

CITY STATE ZIP the two bands; and the low hip roof ity. These masterpieces are quite

with great overhangs on all sides. different—one, the Robie House,

CHICAGO MAGAZINE: APRIL 1970 built on a restrictive South Side lot; The impression is that of a modern the other, the Avery Coonley house in southern California. Bui

House, which luxuriated on four no, Virginia, it's really norlhr*rn

acres of land in suburban Riverside, Illinois, 190B. southwest of Oak Park. Both of LET ME GIVE YOU The arm of the house's "U" nearer these houses vie for top scholarly Scotlswood comprised five bed- as well as popular attention and are A TIP FOR A CHANGE rooms, a study, an office, a dressing generally regarded as the finest room, and screened terrace or sun Prairie Houses. But the size of the THE HOTEL OF LA SALLE STREET room facing a wide expanse of lawn Coonley House, together with its and beyond, the street. The other is as "You see, the way I look at it, a hotel only spacious surroundings, places it in arm contained the living and dining it Sure, we've got good as the service gives you. a class by itself. rooms, kitchen, playroom, three beautiful rooms, excellent restaurants, special The association of Wright and the bedrooms, a dining room and porch meeting rooms for groups of 12 to 1,000. Even a Coonleys was a propitious one. for servants, and utility rooms.

great location, especially when you're doing When they met him for the first time Northeast of the house was the business on La Salle Street. Mrs. Coonley explained that she stable and the gardener's collage. and her husband were there be- In the mid-1950's (he house was di- But it's the way we cater to you that makes your cause they had observed in his work vided into two residences, and the stay something special. To us, you're important. the "countenance of principle." other buildings were likewise con- So take it from me. Next time stay at the La Salle "This was to me a great and sincere verted, so now four families live on 372-0700. Chicago. Call us direct (312) We honor compliment," Wright recalled in his the estate which is slated to be

most major credit cards. I'll be looking for you." autobiography. "So I put my best named a National Historic Land-

into the Coonley House." For their mark in the near future. the part Coonleys were wealthy, After the Coonleys moved in they they give could Wright a generous commissioned Wright lo build a site, and they wisely refrained from playhouse for their daughter which >

interfering with his creativity. In he completed in 1912 at 350 Fair- retrospect Wright, himself, con- banks Road, a block southwest of cluded that the Coonley House was the Coonley House. The playhouse the "most successful of my houses was later remodeled and converted from my standpoint." into a family residence.

I car, picked up my and drove east I was lucky and got to see the in- on Lake Street to Harlem Avenue, teriors of both halves of the Coon- turned right, drove three miles to ley House. In walking about the Longcommon Road, where another living and dining rooms and through right took me into Riverside's busi- the hallways you are struck by the

ness district. From there it is only openness and freedom of move- six-tenths of a mile to the Coonley ment, the horizontal flow outward

House—across the railroad tracks, and the ties with nature. make a right, and connect with Mrs. Jeanne Shepro has lived in one Scoltswood Road. One of the half of the Coonley House for more Coonley House's two addresses is than a decade, but continues to 300 Scottswood. make little discoveries in its design

The Coonleys' acreage was deep —like a variation in a section of within a meander of the Des Plaines molding that she had never noticed River. On this attractive plot of Mid- before, or a different interpretation dle-West flatland Wright built an of some geometrical abstraction. elongated, irregular U-shaped house Telling of the zeal for her house that that can't be seen fully from any apparently has never diminished, single position on the ground. It is Mrs. Shepro related how, on nights a statement, on a kingly scale, of when the heat in their bedroom Wright's horizontal style. All major failed, she and her husband would rooms are on the second level over- carry their mattresses close to the looking the gardens. living-room fire, where they would

Although economy was not a ruling lie on their backs and study the pat-

matter, Wright chose frame con- terns of the ceiling. A little later I struction for the Coonley House, tried this form of Orienlal medita- with exterior walls banded— the tion, and realized that this was how lower sections coated with cream- to let your eyes and mind do their The La Salle Chicago colored plaster, the upper decorated work— relaxing on your back near a with a glazed ceramic tile mosaic. roaring fire. Following the interplay The Motel of LeSelle Street The photograph of this house that of triangles and parallelograms was rare experience and one I'll never Chicsgo B0B02 is usually published is one showing a the garden front, just below the liv- forget. It helped me savor one ing room, embracing the swimming quiet truth from the legacy of Frank

pool (originally a reflecting pool) Lloyd Wright: a man's home is his and the terraces, urns, and greenery. work of art.

82 CHICAGO MAGAZINE: APRIL 1970 £an frantfete fxatttitwr APRIL 19, 1970

+/W&*mw^^>>&m' \ nrymmi^ fflysMffiw*

NEW HALL OF JUSTICE AT MARIN CIVIC CENTER ADDS TO WRIGHT MONUMENT I m going to bridge these hills ) with graceful arches" Frank Lloyd Wright's

100th Birthday Gift Marin . CountyCountv isIs rushingrnshino- the.v.__ .-.««.. ~i Wrightw.-;....f ...,.,. ~i.-_.li__ ,, ,, _.. ______latest phase died shortly after his 20-minute Jslenor of the famous malls, illuminated by natural County Civic Center partly vision was materialized in drawings, v for but the ,.it iroin a plastic sentimental plan was roof, offer hillside reasons: closely carried out in construction greenery rising from behind retaining walls by an associate, Aaron G. Green. This year is the and fresh air from areas open 100th anniversary of the to the sky. It was the only building Wright birth of Frank Lloyd Wright. designed From one level's walkway for governmental to another use and intended j t -\en people can chat back and forth across The $2.6 million the es the auditorium at the Center ; of bureaucrats to what can mall. will be finished V in December and for the first time the achieved at less square foot The circular theme is carried out county fair will be staged dur- cost than aver- even in ing the age. courtrooms, an area of which summer of 1971 at the Auditorium Green says there had been no and the open pavilion to new thinking for the past be built next to it. Running horizontally across the tops of 150 years. Wright, four hills, a four-level who was legend for most of structure with a his bright Marin County's protessional life, sky blue roof springs courtrooms now are es- died a short time after he from arches in looked the gullies. sentially round and place the at the proposed 140-acre judge, law- site in San yers, jurors Rafael. After and witnesses in a close func- 20 minutes of pondering he Rows of arches and circles on upper tional relationship. said: floors carry out the theme for outside view- Closets are available to "I ers, and just about store evidence, a know just what I am going everybody inside has a to do here. special display rack" accommodates I going view — through arched charts m to bridge those hills with graceful windows echoing the arches." roundness of its hills. and drawings, and a c o u s 1 1 c -- s are good enough to make a public The result was the $16.7 address system un- million Marin necessary. County Civic Center.

PGX*

HH1 ~-j^

May 5, 1970

Mr. Edward L. Morris Director of Programming Chicago Educational Television Association 5400 N. St, Louis Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60635

Dear Mr. Morris:

I am enclosing copies of my correspondence of last July concerning the Frank Lloyd Wright program.

I have heard nothing since our July corres- pondence and would be grateful if you could tell me the present status of this material.

Cordially,

Paul R. Hanna Emeritus Professor Stanford University

PRH:bl

Enc.

CHICAGO DAILY NEWS

Saturday-Sunday, May 9-10, 1970 :

Rape of Robie House

The attack on Robie House might older and younger generation has have been a scene from a Grade-B grown out of just such vicious, appar- Civil War movie where the heartless ently pointless, assaults. rebels violate the fine old Southern Some of the students who came mansion and chop up its priceless along later to help clean away the heirlooms. Except that this was 1970, debris said that the predators were of and fact, not fiction. the Maoist wing of the campus chap- There could hardly be a more apt ex- ter of the Students for a Democratic ample of mindlessness at work. Society, and that they had accused the institute of "upholding American capi- The Robie House, a masterpiece of talism and imperialism." Frank Lloyd Wright, is an irrepla- That is pure nonsense — an obvious ceable monument. Its occupant is the put-on. Adlai Stevenson Institute for Interna- Whoever attacked Robie House was tional Affairs — surely not a relevant either demented or out to destroy target for a demonstration against the America — and the dimensions of the Vietnam War. Its work is in no way crisis this week show that that is no concerned with the war; indeed, direc- idle threat. tor William R. Polk observed after- Luckily many students are them- ward that "I think if you were to can- selves beginning to realize this. At vass our fellows you would not be able Northwestern the serious students have to find one who supported the war." begun to isolate the wild-eyed hell-ra- Nevertheless, the vandals came kers. At Yale and elsewhere students charging in like Huns, hacking the have begun reflecting on the self-de- mellow old woodwork, mutilating pic- feating nature of the destructive or- tures (including one of Eleanor Roose- gies, and seeking other means of ex- velt and another of the late Adlai E. pressing their concerns. There are

Stevenson) . chopping up a 900-year-old better ways, of course, and there are Egyptian table with an ax, ransacking signs that the Establishment is in a the institute files and scattering the mood to listen, if the concerns are rea- papers outside the house. sonably stated.

It is critically important for serious We hope the trend toward responsi- students at the University of Chicago bility will continue, and the wreckers and elsewhere to face the question: recognized for what they are. What

, "To what point?" For a king-size por- they are wrecking is of greatest value ' tion of the misunderstanding between to their fellow students. VTTW/ Channel 11 & WXXW/Channel 20, 5400 N. St. Louis Ave., Chicago, Illinois 60625

31 2/222-0380 ArV 312/583-5000-TWX ^pV

John W. Taylor, Executive Director

Officers:

Edward L. Ryerson, Honorary Chairman Newton N. Minow, Chairman Irving B. Harris, President Don Paul Nathanson, Vice President Stanley M. Sorensen, Vice President Alfred C. Stepan, Jr., Vice President Gardner H. Stern, Sr., Vice President Joseph S. Wright, Vice President Carl S. Stanley, Treasurer Robert L. Foote, Secretary May 12, 1970 Trustees:

Robert R. Barker Mrs. Etta Moten Barnett Charles Benton Charles L. Brown Fairfax M. Cone James W. Cook Paul R. Hanna Ronald E. Cramer Mrs. Emmett Dedmon 737 Frenchman's Road Edward S. Donnell Donald Erickson Stanford, California 9h30£ Robert L. Foote Bert A. Getz Bruce J. Graham Dear nr. H^nna; John D. Gray Paul W. Guenzel Homer P. Hargrave, Jr. have had to wait a year John H. Johnson I blush to find out you William A. Lee for an answer to your kind inauiry. Your letter of Leonard S. Matthews Henry W. Meers last July must have been forwarded tone. I was on Newton N. Minow year and that Donald McKellar vacation all of the month of July last William E. McManus the reason I did not see it. Donald S. Perkins would be Mrs. Harold L. Perlman Peter G. Peterson George A. Ranney In any case, a copy of the film of Frank Lloyd James F. Redmond for -$100. If you would care William G. Salatich bright can be purchased Alfred C. Stepan, Jr. to order one at that price we could have it to you W. Clement Stone Robert E. Straus in two or three weeks' time. J. W. Van Gorkom Robert B. Wilcox Benjamin C. Willis I do regret this mighty delay but hope the film Members: might be of interest and use to you. Adler Planetarium Art Institute of Chicago Barat College of the Sacred Heart Sincerely, Chicago Board of Education Chicago Historical Society 1 Chicago Medical School ^^ Chicago Public Library (3-Trvrn^ Chicago Zoological Society College of Jewish Studies College of St. Francis 5hn J . summers DePaul University Elmhurst College Executive Producer Field Museum of Natural History Forest Preserve District of Cook County George Williams College Illinois Institute of Technology JJS/mak Indiana Uinversity John Crerar Library Lake Forest College Library of International Relations Loyola University Mundelein College Museum of Science and Industry National College of Education Newberry Library North Central College North Park College Northeastern Illinois State College Northern Illinois University Northwestern University Orchestral Association Purdue University Calumet Center Roosevelt University Rosary College Saint Xavier College University of Chicago Television Association University of Illinois Chicago Educational Valparaiso University May 15, 1970

Mr. John J. Somraers Executive Producer Chicago Educational Television Association 5400 N. St. Louis Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60625

Dear Mr. Sommers:

Thank you very much for your prompt reply to my inquiry concerning the Frank Lloyd Wright film. Can you give me a little more information about the film; whether it is black and white; whether it is 16 mm, 8 ram, or super 8 mm; whether it is accom- panied by sound, etc.

I am rather sure I would like to order a copy but would like to have a little more information before I do so.

Sincerely yours,

Paul R. Hanna

PRHjbl Marin's Glamorous Jail

Marin County prisoners are the only ones cell with rubber padded floor and walls, tel- for in the world to have the distinction of being evision monitors guards' observation, incarcerated in a Frank Lloyd Wright jail. and frosted windows. It's the pride of San Rafael, but it's not So far, the most frequent complaint of too different from regular penal quarters jail employees is they have a lot of walking Prisoners are brought from the jail to the to do around the buildina. However, they courtrooms' holding cells through tunnels. probably would have more if the jail were in facilities. The jail features a modern kitchen, a drunk separate Dr. Paul R. Hanna May 20, 1970 737 Frenchmans Creek Stanford, California 94305 31270 0860

Re: Development of Properties

T A M N T

SERVICES RENDERED DUE

Reimbursable Expenses

Travel TAA #5650

Mr. David Wheatley to San Francisco Sept. 25, 1969, for meeting with Dr. Hanna.

Air Fare $119.70 $119.70

T A L I E I ASSOCIATEDS N ARCHITECTS

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT FOUNDATION

T A L I E S I N

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA 85352 602 948-6400 THIS STATEMENT OF ACCOUNT IS FOR PROFESSIONAL SERVICES RENDERED AND IS DUE UPON PRESENTATION PLEASE MAKE CHECK PAYABLE TO TALIESIN ASSOCIATED ARCHITECTS

IN. M

m

Oh

I

Imperial Hotel Lives

fe>

1 1

1

'* '

N

y

H l

- f-.;>- Frank Lloyd Wright's old Imperial Hotel, in downtown Tokyo, has a successor called—appropriately enough— the Imperial Hotel. The neAV building, standing on the same site as the old one, is seventeen stories tall. Restaurants special- izing in Chinese, Japanese, American and Continental cui- sines are featured. There's also an English grill, a coffeehouse, and even a French restaurant with French chefs and waiters.

Each guest room is sound-proofed, and is equipped with its own radio, color TV, and well-stocked refrigerator. In addi- tion, there's a complete shopping arcade, a health club, swim- ming pool, many services, and convention and banquet fa- cilities.

TRAVEt, JUNE, 1970 >r :

June 3, 1970

Mr. William Wesley Peters Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Taliesin East Spring Green, Wisconsin

Dear Wes:

We are inclosing our check for $200.00 as a gift con- tribution to your Foundation.

I am also returning a bill recently received for air- fare for David Wheatley to San Francisco on September 25, 1969 for meeting with the Hannas.

I believe I am justified in protesting this bill for three reasons

1) According to ray daily records, I did not ever call for or authorize a conference with David Wheatley in September, 1969. He came on his own initiative, not at our invitation.

2) My records do not show a conference with David on September 25, 1969. As a matter of fact, I left home on September 24 for Los Angeles and did not return to Stanford until late on September 25th. The visit must therefore have occurred on another date. However, the error in date is a small matter. 3) 3) I realize that our communications were ineffec- tive and we never did get from David what we asked for, namely the engineering study, drawings, and cost studies of our vandal-proof house. Instead, we got from David a very elaborate sketch for a beautiful but terribly expensive beach house that we did not want at that time. Eventually, we may ask you to design us a second home but that will have to wait.

Knowing that the Foundation was out of pocket for David's airtrip (unauthorized by me) to San Francisco in the early autumn of 1969, we wish to assist. Please accept the $200.00 check as a gift to the Foundation and acknowledge receipt of same.

Jean thoroughly enjoyed her trip to be with you and • your bride at the reception. I regret deeply that I was unable to be present. On one of your trips to the Bay area, please bring your bride and be our house guests. Let us know in advance so we can plan to have the guest house clear and be at home ourselves.

Jean and I send our love to Mrs. Wright and our fondest greetings to you and Svetlana. Extend our best wishes to the Fellowship.

Cordially,

Paul R. Hanna

prh/js

brp\D a

CorgrgjjA* drGGrxuda ro rpG EGTiOMapTb* xpugear wrapGa ro Aon gug gAGrjgug* qtag onx. IGgu gug i 3Gug onx. joag ro wra* M^rdpr gug onx gug pG powc onraGjAGa* ggAgucG ao mg cgu bygu ro pgAG rpG dncap ponaG cjGgj; Aonr purge gug pG onx ponaG dnGapa* r^r na jojom tu 'j oug o^ Aonr. rrrba ro rpG b^a grGg 1 bjGga6 prxud TTW/ Channel 11 & WXXW/ Channel 20, 5400 N. St. Louis Ave., Chicago, Illinois 60625

312/583-5O0O-TWX 910/221-5459

John W. Taylor, Executive Director

Officers:

Edward L. Ryerson, Honorary Chairman Newton N. Minow, Chairman Irving B. Harris, President Don Paul Nathanson, Vice President Stanley M. Sorensen, Vice President Alfred C. Stepan, Jr., Vice President Gardner H. Stern, Sr., Vice President Joseph S. Wright, Vice President Carl S. Stanley, Treasurer

Robert L. Foote, Secretary

Trustees: June 8, 1970 Robert R. Barker Mrs. Etta Moten Barnett Charles Benton Charles L. Brown Fairfax M. Cone James W. Cook R. Ronald E. Cramer Mr. Paul Hanna Mrs. Emmett Dedmon 737 Frenchman's Road Edward S. Donnell Donald Erickson Stanford, California 9b305 Robert L. Foote Bert A. Getz Bruce J. Graham Dear Mr. Hanna; John D. Gray Paul W. Guenzel Homer P. Hargrave, Jr. Irving B. Harris I am sorry that your questions were not all John H. Johnson in previous correspondence. William A. Lee answered Leonard S. Matthews Henry W. Meers Newton N. Minow The Frank Lloyd bright film is black and white, Donald McKellar William E. McManus a 16 mm single system with sound and is 28 minutes Mrs. Harold L. Perlman in length. Peter G. Peterson George A. Ranney James F. Redmond William G. Salatich Again, please contact us if you have further Carl S. Stanley place an order. W. Clement Stone questions or would like to Robert E. Straus John W. Taylor J. W. Van Gorkom Thank you. Robert B. Wilcox Benjamin C. Willis

Members: Sincerely, « Adler Planetarium Art Institute of Chicago Barat College of the Sacred Heart Chicago Board of Education Chicago Historical Society Chicago Medical School John J. Sommers Chicago Public Library Chicago Zoological Society Executive roducer College of Jewish Studies College of St. Francis DePaul University Elmhurst College Field Museum of Natural History JJS/mak Forest Preserve District of Cook County George Williams College Illinois Institute of Technology Indiana University John Crerar Library Lake Forest College Library of International Relations Loyola University Mundelein College Museum of Science and Industry National College of Education Newberry Library North Central College North Park College Northeastern Illinois State College Northern Illinois University Northwestern University Orchestral Association Purdue University Calumet Center Roosevelt University Rosary College Saint Xavier College University of Chicago Chicago Educational Television Association University of Illinois Valparaiso University 1 T c

Juno 9 i 1970

Professor Edmund Burke Feldman University of Georgia Athens, Georgia

Dear Professor Feldman

Thank you for your thoughtfulness in sending us a copy of your new book, BECOMING HUMAN THROUGH ART. We note with satisfaction that our home has been selected by you for illustration of Frank Uoyd Wright's work.

'//hen you come to the Bay Area, let us know so that we can have a visit.

Cordially yours,

Paul R. Hanna

PRHiod —Photos: "Richard Neutra" from "The Masters of World Architecture" series, George Braziller, Inc.

Neutra houses allow inhabitants "to see nature around them and feel themselves a part of it."

lectern, he placed the book upside down so we could see the pictures. Neutra then explained how his fa- RICHARD NEUTRA mous houses, some of them with push- button-operated glass sliding doors, Survival Through Design opened onto luxurious gardens and the landscape beyond, so that those inside could always see nature around them and feel themselves a part of it. The legacy left by an architect who strove He said that he turned to his drawing board only after he had carefully stud- to bring man into harmony with nature and believed ied the living habits of his clients. He often even lived with them. And, to that the purpose of technology is to enhance life. ascertain their most secret and private architectural wishes, he would often ask both husband and wife to write by WOLF VON ECKARDT sign of nose rings, corsets, and foul- down their individual desires without

aired subways. . . . Organic normalcy comparing notes. Incidentally, he Richard Neutra, the last of the has been raped again and again by claimed that none of his clients had pioneers in modern architec- man. ... If design, production, and ever been divorced; neither husbands ture, died on April 16, a week construction cannot be channeled to nor wives could bear to give up a before Earth Day, an occasion on serve survival, if we fabricate an en- Neutra house. which much that he had said for half vironment—of which, after all, we He talked about science and about a century was reiterated. seem an inseparable part—but cannot human biological, physiological, and He had spoken too early, too inces- make it an organically possible exten- psychological needs, and spoke of how santly, and, at times, perhaps too stri- sion of ourselves, then the end of the not only his houses, but also his many dently to be fully understood. At any race may well appear in sight." His school buildings, big projects, and com- rate, the obituaries of Neutra mainly slogan (as well as the title of one of munities would be designed to accom- praised the superbly elegant houses he his rambling books) was "Survival modate them. In his buildings he was had designed back in the 1930s for through design." particularly careful to avoid the little wealthy people in California. The I first heard him talk about his hopes irritations of modern life that can add houses are simple, cubist compositions and his houses in front of a hotel in up to major frustrations. For instance, of steel and glass, part of the Ameri- ' New Orleans during the national con- "Bad acoustics," Neutra said, "can lead can avant-garde that came to be vention of the American Institute of to shouting, and that calls forth an known as the "international style." Architects in 1959, the year Frank argumentative mood." But Neutra set out to create more Lloyd Wright died. There had been It began to drizzle outside the New than a style hotel. But, although the rain new of architecture. Like , gasps and smiles when he made his Orleans the early Le Corbusier, he stood for a entrance at the opening cocktail party, may have spoiled his book, it did not totally new concept of what architec- for he wore a pork-pie hat and black dampen his enthusiasm. About an hour ture is all about. It was to be about cape, as Wright was wont to wear in later, the owners of the Volkswagen people rather than just buildings. It his last years. appeared. At first, they too listened in was to be the means of bringing man Neutra immediately started to lec- silence, but after a while they politely back into harmony with nature and ture to the group that gathered around suggested that Neutra move himself himself. He wanted it to be the art of him, and soon he had a big coffee table and his book elsewhere since they had using technology to enhance life on book of his works brought down from to drive away. Earth rather than destroy it. his hotel room. It was too heavy for "I have not finished, young man," Neutra called his concept "bioreal- him to hold; so we all walked out of the Neutra said quietly, like a mere aside, ism." Nature, he said a generation ago, party with him to the hotel driveway. without looking at either the man or "has too long been outraged by the de- Using the roof of a Volkswagen as a his wife (who were not at all young),

62 SR/JUNE 6, 1970 —

much as one might instruct a waiter he deliberately made dramatic use of during an animated dinner conversa- the new technology, of the smooth tion. And he continued to talk for quite products of the machine. And he de- a while. voted much effort to devising new In subsequent years, I sometimes means of construction and prefabri- found his vanity, which rivaled that cation to serve the same ends Wright of Frank Lloyd Wright, a trifle irritat- had in mind. Neutra's approach in- ing. He used to call, it seemed to me, volved more than simply placing his a bit too insistently to offer me an in- buildings in the landscape with such terview. The last time he called I said skill that they merged with their gar- just as insistently that I was on a dens and views. He was also deeply deadline. "Aren't you ever on a life concerned with the effect of his build- line?" he retorted. ings on those who used them. He And now he is dead. He died of a showed greater concern perhaps than heart attack in Wuppertal, Germany, any other architect with the impact at seventy-eight, while on a lecture of temperature, sound, smell, lighting, tour. His death occurred within a color, texture, and physical movement year of those of Walter Gropius and within his buildings. And he not only Mies van der Rohe, and five years listened to what biologists and behav- after Le Corbusier drowned in the ioral scientists could tell him about Mediterranean. those things, but also relied on his Leafing through his prolific writings, own observations. Wherever he went, and once again on a deadline for this he would whip out his sketchbook to "Dramatic use of the new technology." article, I realize that Richard Neutra record, as he put it, his "sympathetic may have offered us a life line, after all. awareness of life." And yes, he probably had some right to After all the Earth Day oratory, "prove" that design can avert disaster. assume Frank Lloyd Wright's mantle, Neutra's awareness may seem almost "An architect, like any other artist," but not because he was ever a faithful trite. Yet, we have not, I am afraid, he once said, "can never prove things disciple of the master like those who fully grasped the idea that design for strictly speaking." And for all his talk still carry on, a bit ludicrously, at survival is not a matter of only polic- of biorealism, Neutra could never Taliesin. For one thing, despite Neu- ing pollution or recycling sulphur. It point to a decisive, original, scientific tra's admiration of Frank Lloyd must also include the thoughtful de- or technological innovation in his ar- Wright, he had too strong a talent of sign and placement of a park bench, chitecture. But who can? his own. ("Wright is not a stepping- the insulation of a bedroom wall There is not likely to be any great stone," Neutra once said.) For another, against sound, the color scheme of an break-through. The art of environmen- Neutra was already steeped in the doc- office, the texture of a pavement, and tal design is not an art of sensational trines of the architectural revolution the sound of a splashing fountain. It innovation, but rather of quiet evolu- that brought Gropius, Mies, and Le must begin, in short, with good archi- tion and adaptation to the unchanged Corbusier to the fore when he first met tecture and the quietly creative details and unchangeable ways of nature and Wright at the funeral of Louis Sulli- and qualities that are too often dis- of man. But Richard Neutra did much van in Chicago in 1924. ("It was like missed as nothing more than esthetic of the "patient spadework" he felt coming into the presence of a uni- luxuries but of which Richard Neutra must be done. He handed us that life corn," Neutra later recalled.) was a great master. line. Neutra was born in Vienna in 1892 None of Neutra's always handsome I can just hear him say: "I have not and grew up with the modern move- and sometimes inspired buildings finished, young man." ment and its dreams of marrying art and technology. Before he came to America in 1923, he worked in Vienna with Adolph Loos, who idolized the United States and declared that orna- ment was crime. Later he worked with Eric Mendelsohn, who was to forge steel and concrete into fantastic new expressions. The first buildings Neutra designed on his own, after he had settled in Los Angeles (the Jardinette Apartments of 1927 and the Lovell "Health" House of 1929), were international-style pure and simple. And that was at a time when the Bauhaus building had just been completed in Dessau, Germany, and both Mies and Le Corbusier were still working on their first major com- missions. Outwardly, Neutra's build- ings showed not a trace of his admira- tion for Frank Lloyd Wright or of the several months he had spent in the drafting room at Taliesin. Neutra freed Wright's concept of Thoreauvian romanticism. In its place, Interiors show a concern for "texture and movement."

SR/JUNE 6, 1970 63 . I< '

M o o T5 k^ CD 5-i XI CO CO O O 5^ d 03 3 o O CJ 05 r-H O cj 05 O 3 cq O CO O CM CD CD CD CD c a 5n 3 -u o O "3 T5 ^ cj d T5 CD d 05 05 -3 ^ 5-.* 5w o .^ !h CD Sh 05 T5 *-> CD CO CD 05 CD Xi 3 o O d o in . CO J&4 o d „ d 3 O — 5-. d 5-. . O O X O -)-> d o5 o o3 d >* • >» ccs l-J too X r-l d d T5 05 cd

O 05 5-. Q o CD T3 o 5-i o 3 U CQ a 5-i d 05 d u > CD CD rJ Ph 03 cu 5w cti 5-i T3 CJ H CO m XI x CD d CD » CO Q H o O CO 3 5-t

oo I— or CO I— C_3 CN Z CO m — <_3 or 00 "< < Z ^ O m in 2 CD - i . i o

«=c co — oo < Q " i- co zn i— o i— o °= co S£ O GO CC u 00 - oo —

00 UJ CM CE < -°

, t

B3

:$&im&

I I '

fcyO CD H 5 3 > H i-h 0) O - ^ o •-• 2 £ -1 in +j CD (1) CD S x5 »H S3 43 . 3 2 * a <» o3 (, N to • 43 +j ^s CD -J5 bfl . O CO *» oj £ >« T— bjog M CO A , « T3 O g CD 9> U CD O !> 0) o3 O r—I • w

^ Oj CD

LO o CtS .3 £. 3 -a O bJO^ s>^ CO u o3 O oJ

T3 CD 0) -^..mi?CO £ 03 O J 5 rt O o O o CO O nJ «J 03 !>> +3 -a A OS -u c— 5 Sh o oS O ;>> 43 U >> o rH 3 CD 43 CD •> • I—I rt oo. 1—1 en CO O Ph >

1— < o 1— o o ct: (3

en 1— o \— to • 1- X o 1— OJ C3 a: oo CD i i O nl ^_J Q_ cvo OC u >- 00 — O - ^ o LU CO

July 17, 1970

Mr. William Wesley Peters Taliesin Associated Architects Taliesin East Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Spring Green, Wisconsin 53588

Dear Wes:

Jean and I have been gone for over a month. Upon our return we found your letter of the 20th together with the enclosed check. You are most generous in returning the check but I still feel we should somehow compensate the Foundation for the expense involved in having David Wheatley accompany you to San Francisco. We are deeply impressed by the spirit in which you returned the check, and will let the matter rest there. We will make it up in some other way.

Somehow we feel we may have missed you and your wife when you made a recent trip to San Francisco. I am sure both of you will be coming again and we want so much to entertain you as our house guests. Have you any idea how soon such might be possible?

Cordially yours,

Paul R. Hanna

PRH:bl 1

> a o a Ef CO H

"*.V.T,- 9

BPB

1

h

Ere

August H , 1970

Mr. Vernon D. Swaback The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Taliesin West Scottsdale, Arizona 85252

Dear Vernon:

I have just returned home to find your letter of July 15 together with the magazine which describes a fascinating house.

We are hoping that we can get to Taliesin before too long.

Our best to Mrs. Wright, Wes , and the fellowship.

Cordially,

Paul R. Hanna

PRH:bl o n H O w

Social Education • October 1970 653

Observational Measures for Improv- classroom sequences to practice the cod- available resources of the New York ing Instruction Clinic: Participants ing skills of teacher behavior develop- metropolitan area and its adjoining will utilize video tapes of actual class- ed by Ted Parsons of the University states. The city will be viewed as a room behavior to practice skills in ana- of California at Berkeley. laboratory for the social studies and, lyzing teacher questions, interaction Registration information will be with the help of the local arrange- analysis, and content analysis. Alberta contained in the printed program and ments committee, a wide variety of cul-

Sebolt, Resource Learning Laboratory, on the advance reservation form that tural and social experiences is being Sturbridge, Massachusetts, director. accompanies the program booklet. planned. Open houses and special brief- Research Training Clinic: This is a ings as well as a special program at the two-day clinic in which participants School Visits United Nations have been arranged. will study small-scale research designs The local committee has arranged Further information and a reservation that they can use in their individual for visits to selected educational pro- form will accompany the program classrooms and schools. Ambrose A. grams in the Schools booklet. Prepared materials on these

Clegg, Jr., University of Washington, on November 23 and 24. Further in- and on commercial tours will be avail- director. formation and a reservation form will able in the NCSS registration area. Guided Self-Analysis Training Pro- accompany the printed program. gram: This two-day clinic will be a re- Adjunct Meetings peat of the four USOE-funded training Local Tours and Briefings The following meetings have been programs cosponsored last year by The Program Planning Committee scheduled during early week activities: NCSS for more than 400 educators. believes that the three-cycle program College and University Faculty Assem- Participants will utilize video tape can be enriched and amplified by the bly, November 24, all day; Local Dis-

SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, New York City: New York Park Commissioner Robert Moses called it an inverted oatmeal dish and silo"; art critic John Canaday called it "a war between architecture and painting"; avant-garde groups called it "a masterpiece." NCSS members coming to New York City for the 50th Annual Meeting will want to judge for themselves. An excellent way to begin is to examine the view of the interior from the ramp which spirals around six stories of the structure. o <

ft fa

/ Senators Landmarks: bad news with a few bright spots 's Albert Sullivan House in Chicago (below) designed for his mother in 1892 and later the residence of the architect himself, was demolished this spring, having fallen into decay beyond repair. Southern Illinois University plans to reconstruct the facade on a branch campus.r Cervin Robinson, HABS

ists, government, and developers,

is endangered by an interpretation of Federal preservation rules which

would forbid its use as a commer- cial structure. The building was de-

signed in 1873 by Alfred B. Mul-

lett, who also designed the Old State, War and Navy Building in Washington, D.C. The building's owner, the General Services Ad-

ministration, is expected to make

its precedent-making decision in the near future.

The Chicago City Council voted Frank Lloyd Wright s Genev- >nn 37 to 5 not to designate Louis Sul- (below), Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, livan's Old Stock Exchange (Febru- was torn down this year. I* 'as ary, page 42, September, page 35) designed in 1912. Wright'? Pa a city landmark. The way is now (1910) in Mason City, Iowa :: open for real estate developers who ously deteriorated. have purchased the building to The owner of Frank Lloyo construct their proposed 40-story Wright's Warren Hickox House office building on the site. (1900, Kankakee, III.) is looking for

The Old Post Office in St. Louis a sympathetic purchaser. Contact (above, right), long the object of Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer at the Frank controversy among preservation- Lloyd Wright Foundation.

36 ARCHITECTURAL RECORD November 1970 nt

> H t- 1

il '*•»'>' i

Ltt

38 Sites Designated National Landmarks

Frank Lloyd Wright 's rendering ot the cruciform Unity Church. The temple at left is con- hected by an entrance hall with Unity House at right, that portion used for social needs.

Three historic districts and two 20th- buildings that were once the wealthy century landmarks are among 38 historic nucleus of the city; and the Green sites in the Midwest and New England Historic District, New Haven, Conn., designated National Historic Landmarks an urban complex dominated by three by Interior Secretary Rogers C. B. churches built between 1812-16.

Morton in late February. St. Louis's Two structures designed by Frank

beleaguered Old Post Office also gained Lloyd Wrigh t were the only 20th-century this long-sought recognition. sites included among the latest designa- tions. The Avery Coonlev House (1907- Sites of national significance meriting 09) in Riverside, 111., summarized the this highest designation are evaluated architect's principles of domestic archi- by an advisory board of the National tecture to that date. In recent years the Park Service and recommended to the lot has been subdivided and the house Secretary of the Interior. The recent converted into two separate dwellings. additions bring to 920 the National Wright's Unity Temple (1906-07) in Historic Landmarks included in the nearby Oak Park, 111., has continued in National Register of Historic Places, its original use, however, and today is which now encompasses approximately the subject of an extensive fund-raising 2,400 sites of local, state and national campaign to carry out needed restora- importance. tion (Box 2211, Oak Park, 111. 60303).

The newly designated historic dis- A complete descriptive list of the new

tricts are the Pullman District, Chicago, designations is available from the Press

111., the first major planned industrial Office, U. S. Department of the Interior, community in the United States (see Washington, D. C. 20240.

Historic Preservation, Vol. 22, No. 2); Brochures further explaining the Na- the College Hill District, Providence, tional Register programs may be ob-

R. I., containing more than 150 restored tained from the National Trust.

/ rtfrr v^4 k6H A/qh/^ fyc^/j // *?/ 1 .

en

W

i\Ii m

^

H !=• ST s. O O to -^ 3^ >rt^ S t = 5- « " &* 2.3 sr _ ^ - O v: g. o 2-ft 2 65 Cfl a y en ft5T ft ft o 3. 25 63 & cr m N O "2 ft" 3 O co e p o B »c o rft — o a- o e "*CTQ 65 50 e -o 3 ft as 3 T3 g- 8- < 3 ft S 65 "3 ft > a 3 rt- as OTQ O 03 CO 3" O »i fj c ,_ ft r- "i 00. 05 H ft n ft p S as .r •"* c. Q. . «rt 115 ST. 63 CD CO t— 3«-»- » rt> 65 <<5 W . (T> g o ft 3 2rt 2-<-* Q. ° ft p" 65 3t ft) ft 3. 2. ft ?\ 3 OQ M . « 5 ft3 p- O ps 5.5- ft CO Q, ft o «< X Eg ° ft p 3. ft) s ft *. 65 3 5* 3 S= 65 2 ft £• v: to p: a r ft I

-> O T3 o as to ~ 65 3 e. OQ o '1 a- ft p 3 " « 3 > en >° c — a S ft E? B a. ft £ ft cr 3 § 2 ^ £. n p- 2. 65 CO ^ £ "1 p; p c I P- c CO 65_ rt- >— a o < 5' rt.§ & ft Hi C, ft -I CO c a «•„ ft o* en 2 ft> ft »n re m i?g S-ft^S ft " a a to ^ l 1 S§ S £ft tn 05 s 3 a 2 3 < R S-g O "1 P ft o s-affS? 3 §§•» a, ^ CO .. cr. p a 3 2 a* to ft p- a o ft a ** r* 3 ft I— rt- i o* **> - 63 c^™ p»5 3 to fB ft, to^ 3 to p- 3 ft ft O -i P* ^ w q n 63 1=1 BJ§ 3 ft 2 2. <-i ° n OfQ P* <^^ w CO fB O ft O" P-OQ » ft a, a ^ 2. ft 65 C. a m co o _. o * W 3 3 P to pr I-! fB §2 SLC <"• 5? en en O p:>a & m Cd rt tP P" « fB ^ en 2 Crj 85 w j p rt£?. C 65 w 3 ft r m H P. ft K &3 JS 3 3 o a CO p 65. 2- re a ft to ft s± 3 ° . K3- 5p- en rt- r*- ft q'^ eo 1—1 3* co a ft ft L. o ft B. 3 - ^ ffS: O rt ft & ft 5 o S. £5 3 3 O" B3 3 65 3T a; to 3. 3 C ft 3 fB ft ,- 3' O ft •— S"S B & O" O TO p- to to to CO 63 as 32. *" rB = 3 p; fB 3 oo ?' ft ft 3 . aw ? P 3 ? ft

to C5 cr s: 65 to 65 p- 3* to o i^_j o ^ f? o S- c ^ =ft ft _ 3 ft 2 ^ 2 to ft as ft p ^^ "^a i /T\ rt B v^ fB ft H 3 °-ft s. O to65 i. j* rfr-»- s3 - , i 2 — 4H3 " p ft p to §r»5 « w ^ T rt- ^ 5 o P3 3 ft < 2" 2 ^ rjrq 3 i^ ft 3 ft W^O S-co 3 M.ft o fa fc < SJ ? 6365 "JCO '"," «" 3 g33 r/> to 33 O 3-3 3 co ft ^ C rt rt 'w >] ,5" - ^ < o ^ ft a Joogalg ° ^ O- * ft < o p 3" CO rt s tn 2 S" 3 , CO <<; to co ft (B co rt. as ij. < °- SP ft 5 w ? 3 sr 3 2 «• 'g^ft-E^ 3 ft 5 3r 2 to K 3*0 M. Q. co' ft «. § ft >S 5* 65 §. ^ ° 3 3 o o oS ft Pw 3-2:^1^^ ft U to o to 3 - C 3' 2 rt ft r o fr° C 2 3-2rt I—' rt "1. CO (TJ 2!3fS-^ ft ""< « ft CO p. • 2 ^ Bf 5t 3 to ft ft w to > * rt- 2 3 ,_, -< « a <-• co co 3. rt- p - JT w 63 3 5T =« to 3 co 3-3-g-g g*^; So « gtm gO 3 xj 3^ -1 3- -h r* ft 3 3" to ET. 2 ^ 3. ft -rt rt r6 P = " S ^ !« ft ^ 3 p 65 to65 TO , 3 ftp*" Pp 3 rt. p; _, ft ^ to 3 rt, 3"< CO S* rt- M "> •P M 5' » sft W ft 3= ft Q, 3 3 P a 2 fB 3 to "ft ^ 2 g ^ ft » ^ ^toS;sr 3 e » aoa 2 cr I » § £ «< a hh sr g g J- -• n a s: S 2 ft§3ft?Tp; § ft 2. 2 2 S- rt- 65 p; p P co_

^^..f^^A^.^ S.+*T..i *

Lloyd Wright structure . The only Frank C. Morris in in S.F., the store he designed for V. Maiden Lane, stands empty and debris-strewn. Reese Palley has moved his art gallery out and Anton iito .the old Lizzie Arden spot on Sutter. Marguleas, present owner of the Wright gei% mu- e*«/i thinks the city should buy it as a downtown //,,-/, seum, not the worst idea I ever heard .

3 v* fy-MC-X<"D Vkf^xK i PALO ALTO TIMES, PALO ALTO, CALIF., FRI DAY, SEPT. 24, 1971 Bay Area gets new performing arts theater

By PAUL EMERSON new concert halls with a gala seating system, will be for- Sandor Salgo of Stanford Uni- The Marin Veterans Memo- opening Saturday night. mally inaugurated with a con- versity. rial Auditorium will join the The $3.5 million dollar facil- cert by the Marin Symphony Highlighting the program Bay Area's growing list of ity, with a unique flexible Orchestra, conducted by Prof. will be the world premiere of

Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium The theater-exhibit hall stands by a lagoon just off Highway 101, some 20 miles north of San Francisco. a new composition by com- poser Darius Milhaud and a guest appearance by famed operatic star Dorothy Kirsten. Milhaud's "Suite in G" was especially commissioned for Saturday's big opening event. Miss Kirsten, who has been a leading opera performer for more than a quarter of a cen- tury, will be guest soloist with the orchestra in arias from Charpentier's "Louise," Puc- cini's "Madama Butterfly" and "Tosca" and Cilea's "Andriana Lecouvreur." In addition, Maestro Salgo, long-time conductor of the Marin Symphony, will lead the orchestra in Beethoven's "Egraont" Overture and Richard Strauss' "Till Eulen- spiegel." A champagne buffet supper, The auditorium, whose seat- augmented by live popular ing can be varied from 800 music and a light show, is capacity for smaller events KIRSTEN DARIUS MILHAUD. planned for after the concert. up to 2,000 for the larger at- DOROTHY Opening of the auditorium will become the tractions, louring professional concert tions are the Lawrence Welk will mark the culmination of of the Marin Symphony home attractions also will be Show, comedian Bill Cosby's a construction project which Marin series of the and the booked at the auditorium by show, and Frula, the Yugosla- began, in 1968 and the hoped- Francisco Symphony, San outside producers, who will vian national folk dance com- for beginning of a new era in which totals four concerts this use the hall on a rental basis. pany. the performing arts for Marin coming season. Among the upcoming attrac- County. LET NO ONE assume, however, that this Marin auditorium will be a home for resi-

dent companies or orchestras. It contain ^ no a^4 C V) r cl<2, storage spaces or areas for building and mounting productions. Everything must be brought in and taken out for each event. It is simply a building for rent under the management of the county Board of Supervisors, with no program money in its budget.

Yet it is a start, and when the creative needs and push is generated in the communi- ty, a program will inevitably come and with

it. side buildings to house the additional activi- ty. Marin has had a long wait. Actually, the building itself was finished many months ago, but the people in charge wisely held up the scheduled opening date until the additional $500,000 could be funded to complete crucial internal features. Now it has a proper chance to demonstrate its merits fairly.

The original planning back in 1959 was haunted by the confusion over what the build- ing's program should be. Veterans' groups were pushing for a flat-floor convention and sports facility. The Taliesin architects finally sold the Marin Board of Supervisors on the concept of a multi-purpose program with an emphasis on the performing arts combined with the exhibition -convention feature. • • • MORE WILL COME later as the area to the east of the auditorium is developed, whether along the lines of the architects' pro- posed pavilion, or open air fair grounds, or with additional buildings. Flexibility to suit Marin's as yet indefinite and undeveloped needs is still the key note. That open end wait- ing for the local potential to evolve is the healthiest possible sign.

It is especially significant that the Marin INTIMATE THEATER, EXHIBITION HALL auditorium is opening just at this time, when the nation is almost obsessively fascinated with the inauguration of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC

CIMULTANEOUS WITH the Kennedy Center O opening last week, the Pittsburgh Sym- phony Orchestra gave the inaugural concert of the new $10 million Heinz Hall for the Per- forming Arts. Under the direction of the noted Austrian acoustician, Dr. Heinrich Keilholz, a grand old movie theater built in 1927 has been remodeled into a 2729-seat auditorium, with a large stage house added for the production of opera. In the lobby, marble columns, Baroque pillars and gold leaf reflect the gleam of great crystal chandeliers.

Pittsburgh. Pa. isn't awestruck about the Kennedy Center. They are rather agog about

their own new hall, and that's the way it should be.

The real cultural impetus of a Marin coun- ty is not something that comes out of great central edifices, national show places. It is something that happens all over the country in . every community.

As far as the people in this area are con- cerned, the cultural experience that happens in their lives is what counts, not what takes place in New York or Washington. The flexibility of the design also' permits the auditorium to be converted into a flat floor arrangement that, can be used for art exhibits, conven- tions, and various design shows. There is a 1,200-seat section that "extends out 75 feet when in full use. If a smaller con- figuration is desired, 10 elec- tric motors can be activated which telescope the entire section into a tightly com- pressed roll-away bank mea- suring 8*4 feet in depth and

.JO feet in height. The entire process takes only a few minutes to accomplish. The facility was designed by Taliesin Associated Archi- tects of the Frank Lloyd

Wright Foundation, the firm which also designed the nearby Marin Civic Center. The theater-exhibit hall looms beside a lagoon just off Highway 101, about 20 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Executive director of the auditorium is Leon Kalimos, former general manager of the San Francisco Ballet. He said future plans call for a summer concert series and special programs aimed for school children. The Marin Auditorium is the third major new concert

hall to be built in the Bay Area in the past two years. The others are the 2,000-seat Zellerbach Auditorium at the University of California in Berkeley, and the 2,571-seat Flint Center for the Perform- ing Arts, which opened in May at De Anza College, Cupertino. The 2,700-seat San Jose Community Theater, still under construction, will be-I come the area's fourth new concert hall when it opens in February. Acoustical qualities of the Marin auditorium, of course, will have to await the presen- tation of live concerts. The acoustical consultant on the project was Vern 0. Knudsen. The hall comes equipped with an acoustical shell and mov- able panels of sound absorp- tive curtains. CONCERT PROGRAM NOTES picmERE mwiim

SEPT. 25.119711

Marin Veterans' Memorial Building Civic Center, San Rafael

Courtesy of Marin Symphony Association Minneapolis

*

destroyed betore spring, tect who is chairman of nor will the porch be re- the committee, said he ad- moved before then, she mires the Stevensons for Architects work to save said. making few alterations on the house over the years The Frank Lloyd Wright and for attempting to sell house, she said, has been it to an individual who state's first Wright house quietly on the market for would do likewise. two yea r's. The land would probably be easier (According to the archi- By Peg Meier agreement with the coun- tions will require that part to sell if the home were tects, the house has had Staff Writer cil stipulating that if they of it be torn down, the 55- not on it because the very little remodeling. It cannot sell the Wright clerk said. That part year-old house needs re- was winterized in 1951 The first Frank Lloyd house within two years would be the unheated pairs, she added. and some interior ceilings Wright-designed house in after construction starts porch, which extends to- were modified at that Minnesota, the Francis W. on the new house, they ward the site of the new, Yesterday the architects time. But the exterior and Little home on Lake Min- will demolish the Wright house. expressed empathy for the 95 percent of the interior netonka, may be torn house. that Mrs. Stevenson said Stevensons in their at- are said to be intact.) down next spring if the the new house should be tempt to sell the Wright ">wners cannot sell it. Even if the Wright house completed by April 1. The building. William W. is sol d, sideyard regula- Wright house will not be Scott, a Minneapolis archi- In an attempt to prevent that, a group of Minneso- ta architects pledged Fri- day to try to save the Deephaven house, or at least to make extensive photographic and written records of it before it is de- molished.

Wright designed the house as a summer retreat for Little in 1913. It was built in 1915 to 1917, the same time Wright's Imperial Hotel was constructed in

Toyko, . L i 1 1 1 e 's son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Raymond V. Stevenson, now live in the house and are building a smaller, more convention- al house next to it.

The Village of Deephaven has granted the Steven- sons permission to start a second house on their property despite a village ordinance prohibiting two houses on the same parcel of land.

Mrs. Julienne W e i d n e r, Staff Photo by Earl Seubert village clerk, said that the Stevensons have made an The Francis W. Little house in Deephaven, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1913, may be demolished.

i Scotl said that the follow- Little purchased property ing steps will be taken by on Lake Minnetonka in Koine. his committee: 1908. During the prepara- S-foics, ?<^ U)ri«,Wt tion of plans for the Members will attempt to Wright house, Little de- list the house with the Na- signed and built a smaller tional Register of Historic cottage to house his fami- Sites and Buildings of the ly. The cottage, which fol- National Park Serivce. lows Wright's ideas in ar- Registration is a prere- chitecture, is being torn quisite for obtaining fed- down now to make room eral funding to preserve for the new house. the house. Construction on the Hlep will be sought from Wright house took three the American Institute of summers. (Construction Architects (A I A), the was halted in winter in AIA's Historic Resources those days). Wright was Committee, architecture making frequent trips to journals, the National Japan to supervise the Trust for Historic Preser- building of the Imperial the vation, Frank Lloyd Hotel, so the Little home Wright Foundation, and was slowed. from groups that saved Frank Lloyd Wright's Ro- Also there are said to bie house in the Chicago have been some squabbles suburb Riverside, 111., of between Wright and Lit- from destruction. tle. For example, Wright wanted the dining room Local architects may work and kitchen in a separate with the Minneapolis In- building, and Little did stitute of Arts to photo- not. Little won. graph the house and to preserve blueprints and Little family was held records. The in high esteem by Wright. autobiography The architects indicated In his would that they would like to see (1933), he wrote: "I at the house sold to a private like to tell of the home Francis individual. But they also Peoria built for discussed the possibilities Little, himself an intelli- manager of using it as a civic cen- gent builder and ter, a school or a founda- of civic gas plants . . . and tion headquarters. * especially tell of the house I built for him on the Douglas Fuerst, 23, a Min- shore of Lake Minneton- neapolis resident who is ka. I like that house much, studying studio art at the but I liked the Littles University of Minnesota, more." is one of the first local persons to become inter- The three -level house ested in saving the Little sprawls 250 feet over and House. For months he has between two wooded lake- written to architecture side knolls. Like other of groups for suggestions on Wright's prairie houses, it how to prevent destruc- was designed for a partic- tion of the house. ular piece of topography and appears to be married said she Mrs. Stevenson to the land. has received some phone calls and letters urging But unlike many of her to preserve it. Howev- W r i g h t 's earlier prairie er, none have offered con- houses, its exterior is of crete proposals, she said. bricks in shades of brown and terra cotta rathej- than Francis Wilde' Little, her' of stucco. father, was an executive According to an architect and of the Peoria, 111., gas working to sav the electric company. He had house, the main living Wright design two Illinois area is raised above the houses, one of which was natural grade and is built. When Little's never reached by impressive steps from a lower entry ill health forced him to re- drive. The main level tire, he decided to move to consists of a series of liv- Minneapolis, the home of ing spaces, a very lirge his wife's parents, and to porch, build another Wright-de- music room, a large signed home. aallery hall with sleeping rooms and stairs to the * dining room below. Gala Opening

Marin Veterans' Memorial Building

San Rafael, California

September 25, 1971

iPiimiii t fTOlft

"Culture consists of the expression by the human spirit of the love of beauty.

And civilization without a culture is like a man without a soul.

"We will never have a culture of our own until we have an architecture of our own. An architecture of our own does not mean something that is ours by way of our own taste. It is something that we have knowledge concerning.

We will have it only when we know what constitutes a good building and when we know that the good building is not one that hurts the landscape but is one that makes the landscape more beautiful than it was before that building was built. In Marin County you have one of the most beautiful landscapes

I have seen and I am proud to make the buildings of this county characteristic of the beauty of the county.

"Here is a crucial opportunity to open the eyes of not Marin County alone, but of the entire country to what officials gathering together might themselves do to broaden and beautify human lives."

Frank Lloyd Wright From an address to the people of Marin County, July 1957 A dream fulfilled

Work on the construction of the new to see even one of the buildings completed The result is the brand new Marin Marin Veterans' Memorial Building for he died the following year. The Veterans' Memorial Building. And as the began February 1968. But the real work was taken over by a group solid walnut doors open for the first history of the building dates back of architects who had worked with Wright time for a gala concert by Marin's Symphony more than a decade earlier. and they were assisted and supported Orchestra, the words of Wright quoted by Mrs. Wright. The group, known as the on the previous page seem eloquently It was in 1952 that Marin County's Board Taliesin Associated Architects (Taliesin appropriate. This is indeed a chance for of Supervisors and other county officials being the architectural school founded by Marin County to open the eyes of the began February 1968. But the real Wright and his wife in 1932), was headed by entire country "to what officials gathering civic center. Marin County was growing Chief Architect William Wesley Peters. together might themselves do to at a startling pace. And the needs broaden and beautify human lives." of its future citizens must be met. Final plans were approved by the In 1956 land for the center was purchased. Board of Supervisors in 1959. And in The 160-acre site in San Rafael had 1962 Marin had a magnificent new been recommended by two citizens' landmark: the Administration Building, committees. And a year later the selection the first step in a dramatic new civic center. of the architect was announced: Frank

Lloyd Wright. It was an inspired, perhaps But this center was to be more than a even daring choice. Wright had a series of government buildings. The early reputation for certainly never doing the planners envisioned a complex that predictable and even though he was would care for the cultural needs of Marin in his later years and had won international County residents too. As soon as funds fame, many still considered him avant- were available, work was begun on garde. But the choice immediately the new theater-exhibition hall. It was to gave the new center national interst and be unusual, maybe even unique. The recognition. (And it would give Marin theater-exhibition hall had to be flexible an architectural monument that was a to accommodate all the community groups. It a fitting tribute to Wright's genius. should provide space for exhibitions Many people now travel to Marin from all as well as a modern, acoustical setting parts of the country to see the buildings.) for symphony concerts, recitals In 1958 Wright presented plans for the and a complete stage facility for entire development. But he was never musicals, drama, ballet. .

Nfc

UK^*

,*& *''VC »*»« niiiiinwi'rwiti' ww»

»*k^« ^t*T"

f .*-.**-•' '•J^flfe:

- $H$& r* »

=i^k* \

1P%Mh MVUm^ r>_ . % »»' " '* • » ^pc^M ^^

-"" ^P ^m

^^1^^^ .^^^^^^

; •^- * HH ,5 ^3r_>' * > . • * .' * - -.

¥*-. MARIN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA OPENING CONCERT MARIN VETERANS' MEMORIAL BUILDING

September 25, 1971

SANDOR SALGO, Conducting

DOROTHY KIRSTEN, Guest Artist

PROGRAM

OVERTURE "EGMONT" Beethoven

SUITE IN G (World Premiere) Milhaud

DE PUIS LE JOUR - "LOUISE" Charpentier Miss Kirsten

INTERMISSION

IO SON L'UMILE ANCELLA - Cilea "Andriana Lecouvreur"

TU, TU AMORE TU - Puccini "Madama Butterfly"

VISSI D'ARTE - "Tosca" Puccini Miss Kirsten

TILL EULENSPIEGEL R. Strauss Dorothy Kirsten Darius Milhaud

Miss Kirsten celebrated another gala even greater acclaim in other roles Milhaud is ranked as France's greatest performance a little over a year ago when including "Tosca," "Madama Butterfly," living composer and is also one of she observed a quarter century of Violetta in "La Traviata" and perhaps her the most widely respected men in American performances at the Metropolitan Opera best known interpretation and her music. Born in Aix-en-Provence, he on March 6. The radio broadcast of ultimate triumph, "The Girl of the Golden became caught up in the high fever of her performance as Mimi in "La Boheme/' West." She also sang the leading intellectual life in Paris before the the role that introduced her to the Met, roles with the San Francisco Opera in First World War. He joined a group of included a special intermission salute such contemporary works as "Triolus composers who later became known to Miss Kirsten and on stage the soprano and Cressida," "The Dialogue as "Les Six." They associated with was presented with a silver bowl by of the Carmelites" and "L'Amore dei Tre Res." Jean Cocteau and Erik Satie to provide,

Rudolf Bing. The following fall she became When she sang the title role of along with Stravinsky and Ravel, the first singer to celebrate 25 years "Louise" at the Met she studied it with much of the ferment and vitality that gave with the San Francisco Opera, opening the composer Charpentier who wrote life to Paris as the musical world the season as Tosca. Another honor across her score, "You are my last Louise, center in the 1920's.

bestowed upon Miss Kirsten during her I will never teach another." anniversary season was the release Upon the fall of Paris in 1940, Milhaud In the course her by both RCA and Columbia Records of of career many other and his family escaped to of her most treasured recordings. honors have come Miss Kirsten's way. and then to the U.S. The same year he She holds several honorary degrees joined the faculty of Mills College Miss Kirsten made her professional from universities. Orchids and a race horse in Oakland. He recently left his post at debut with the Chicago Civic Opera in have been named for her. And her Mills to return permanently to France. the small role of Poucette in "Manon" in 1940. State Department sponsored tour of Russia One of the most prolific of modern One year later she was singing the title in 1964 was pronounced one of the most composers, Milhaud has written several role of "Manon" as well as other successful ever undertaken by operas, music for plays and ballets, leading roles. Two seasons later she made an American artist. symphonies and choral and chamber works. her debut with the New York City In his early music he asserted his Opera and in 1945 she made her debut in After 25 years at the Met, Dorothy Kirsten individuality in a bold dissonant style, Mimi with both the San Francisco shows no signs of deserting the stage. developing the technique of polytonality. and Metropolitan Operas. She is busier than ever with opera His "Suite in G" premiered tonight Mimi may have been the vehicle of her and concert appearances and she holds was commissioned especially for Metropolitan success but she soon went on to an occasional Master Class at UCLA. the opening of the new theater. Sandor Salgo Marin Symphony Orchestra Personnel

Founded in 1951, the Marin Symphony First Violin Cello Bassoon Charles Meacham, Jean Mitchell, Principal Virginia Ojeda Orchestra has grown from its original Concertmaster Chris Jennings *George Voitoff number of 30 members to 75 musicians. Joyce Mcllvain Doris Boyd Susan Willoughby Willem Wegman Mona Dubman Contra-Bassoon Its original founders are still active Helen Byer Gordon Patricia Elvebak Raymond Ojeda as players or supporters. Ruggiero Pelosi Geraldine Maxwell Allyn Otnes Thomas Foris French Horn Charles Rosso Alice Boland David Sprung In 1965 the role of conductor of the Marjorie Whittlesey Roger Pyle Sharon Williams orchestra was assumed by Mr. Salgo. A Barry Boland Richard Rice Gail Sprung Gloria Wong Alan Clark native of , Mr. Salgo received Geraldine Chesnut Eddy Walter Ann Oppenheim Ann Johnson the traditional intensive European Ann Nelson Bass Trumpet James Jenkins musical education which he extended with Toni Navone, Principal Ralph La Canna Minnie Ruth Klipfel Grace Hathwell Laurie McGaw special studies in violin, chamber *Eugenia Newman John Weinstein Rae Williams Charles Bubb music and conducting under George Szel Robert Steele Trombone Second Violin Clyde Niesen His work as Music Director and * Ziegler Robert Szabo Donna Salarpi, Principal Dorothea Carl Christensen Conductor of the annual Carmel Bach Harris Elvebak Jack Sudmeier Harold Becker Festival has received national Lucia Schultz Ruth Chatfield Jean Chandler Tuba acclaim. Maestro Salgo has also served William Castelli *lrene Pruzan Henry Niebolt *Jean Williams as guest conductor of several Madeline Dubman *Vincent Di Bianchi Tympani European orchestras including the Royal Mildred Lutge Oboe Lynn Dowdey Doris Hamilton Jean Stevens Philharmonic in London. Maestro Salgo Percussion Carrel Johnson Marcia Lang James Dalrymple is also currently Professor of Music Sy Yuan Ellen Biondi Bruce Bedayan Sam Ziegler at Stanford University. English Horn Terry Bozio Virginia Schryver Carolyn Michaelian Lea l.atson Beth Williams William Gibson Clarinet Viola William Tull Harp *Arthur Bauch, Patricia Mason Beverly Bellows Acting Principal 'Richard Burke Elizabeth Birnbaum Celeste Thomas Rose Mabel Pittenger Faith France Charles Molle Librarian Suzanne Sargeant Eddy Walter Elizabeth Mitchell Virginia Schryver Joan Lundblad Gerald Gaines Ruth Burton Sue Buchignaur Chris Johnson *Guest Instrumentalist A hall for many uses

The beautiful new Veterans' Memorial provisions for altering the rate of rever- Building has many attributes. One beration assure acoustical excellence

of the most important of these is its for a wide variety of programs. versatility. And that's the way the planners If exhibition space is needed, 1,188 seats of the Civic Center wanted it. They can be telescoped into the rear wall wanted a facility that could take care of of the theater and the wall moves forward Marin's many-faceted needs. They on a track to create a smaller theater wanted an exhibition hall, a large theater of 900 seats. This leaves 15,000 square for concerts or meetings and a small feet of floor space behind the wall theater for more intimate gatherings. for use as an exhibition hall. The moveable

The architects ingeniously solved the wall is soundproof so that the problem by providing all of these exhibition hall and smaller theater can in one impressive building. (The dome is be operating at the same time. the largest unsymetrical reinforced This unique feature gives Marin perhaps dome ever constructed.) But the interior one of the most unusual performing of the building can be changed to arts buildings in the country and helps suit varying needs at the push of a button. to provide maximum cultural For symphony concerts, musicals, plays, benefits to its citizens. operas, ballets, large meetings, etc., So call it a concert hall or an intimate the building provides a luxurious 2,088 theater or a convention hall for seat theater with the very latest sound meetings or an exhibition hall equipment and a lighting board that can or an opera house or a legitimate handle the most complicated productions. theater. The Veterans' Memorial Building The orchestra pit can seat 85 musicians is all of these things—and a building and the stage is 60 feet wide with a depth Marin can indeed be proud of. of 34 feet from the curtain to the back. All seats have a full view of the stage and have been custom designed by the architects of the project. An integrated acoustical enclosure and built-in Marin Veterans' Memorial Building

Architect: Taliesin Associated Architects Board of Supervisors Orchestra Pit: 620 sq. ft. on lift. of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Louis H. (Bud) Baar, Chairman Lift may be positioned at stage level for Fourth District use as thrust stage or at audience William Wesley Peters, Chief Architect Peter R. Arrigoni, Jr., Vice Chairman level for additional rows of seats. Aaron G. Green, Architect Associated Second District Ocoustical Control: full orchestra Mrs. Frank Lloyd Wright, John F. Mclnnis shell on stage motorized for quick Decorating and Color Consultant First District and easy setting. Motorized absorbing Michael Wornum Structural Engineer: Renan Dominguez acoustical curtains on side of theater Third District Consultant on Acoustics: to reduce normal reverberation time Arnold M. Baptiste Vern O. Knudsen, Ph.D. for chamber orchestra, drama, cinema, etc. Fifth District Sound reinforcement system for Mechanical Engineer: Alexander Boome speaking, musical comedies, etc. Theater Consultant: Audience Facilities George C. Izenour and Associates Auditorium: 2,088 seats in 34 rows, seats Stage Rigging: operating rail, Executive Director, Building & Grounds: fully upholstered. 16 rows of these, stage manager's console, act curtains,

Leon G. Kalimos 1,188 seats on motorized telescoping risers teaser, light pipes, 33 free batten sets. which may be removed to form an exhibition Stage Lighting: control console, hall with 900 seats remaining as a amplifier dimmer units, flown light pipes (3), separate theater. Foyers are provided company switch, side stage pro-proscenium on both sides of the theater. vertical light pipes, selection of stage

Exhibition Hall: 15,000 sq. ft. of flat lighting fixtures, lighting catwalk floor space separated from theater at rear of theater. by soundproof partition. Truck access Projection room, light control room, sound provided; spot lighting in ceiling. control room at ceiling in rear of theater. Production Facilities Four star's dressing rooms for up to four Stage: 2,376 sq. ft., 72' wide by 33' actors each, two chorus dressing rooms, deep behind proscenium. Side stage areas backstage lounge, office-meeting room space. approximately 700 sq. ft. with truck door. Proscenium opening 60' wide, 29' high. Traps and trap room provided. Photography, ®Dandelet '.'"" -J >^f urn-ill "

.; :"

/ GRAPHIC ARTS »> OF MARIN INC .

S.t, SqK. 25 , 1971 TRE MINNEApoLIS STARTAR

Minneapolis Star Photo by Jack Gillis

Future of first house in Minnesota designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright is uncertain Wright house to be razed?

V. Stevenson, said yesterday that Mrs. Stevenson said the guest By BLAIR CHARNLEY ; Minneapolis Star Staff Writer she and her husband arrived at the house will be torn down, and the

The first Frank Lloyd Wright decision to move out of the house Stevensons intend to build a more house built in Minnesota will be de- only after a great deal of soul- conventional house. Demolition of molished within two years unless searching. the guest house is expected to begin the "right person comes along" to "It is a lovely house. It is a beauti- next week. buy it, its owners said Friday. ful house. But the children have Even if a suitable buyer for the Described as one of the architect's gone, and it's too much for us to house is found, a long porch which "greatest creations," the 250-foot- cope with," she said. to within 22 feet of the long house was built on a wooded extends Nearby is smaller guest house, have to be razed. 5V2-acre Lake Minnetonka shore lot a guest house may which was not designed by Wright, in 1913 by Francis W. Little. but which is in a style similar to the Little's daughter, Mrs. Raymond main house.

1

I Juliene Weidner, Mrs. However, he said, tne Deephaven village clerk, house is structurally said yesterday that the sound. "Really, it all boils Village Council in August down to economics. The granted an "extreme" var- land values have increased iance in side-yard width so tremendously, the taxes regulations on the under- are outrageous,' he said. standing that the porch of the entire house would be He was skeptical of the razed within two years. possibility of federal funds being obtained to preserve A group of Twin Cities the house. The Minnesota is attempting to architects Legislature passed a law save the house, or to pre- permitting communities to serve extensive plans and stop destruction of such photographs if it cannot landmarks, he said, but be saved. "to saddle the taxpayers of If the house is saved, it Deephaven with that will be as a residence and kind of expense might ex- not as a museum or other cite some opposition." type of public building, Not the least of the Mrs. Stevenson said. She problems faced by any said she does not believe new owner would be the Deephaven officials would public curiosity all Wright allow heavily used pub- a buildings excite, Mrs. Ste- quiet lic building in the venson said. residential neighborhood. She said they have wel- "Also, I am not going to comed visitors — by ap-' have anything next to me pointment — for years. that involves a great deal "But some people simply of public traffic," she said. feel it is their right to tour A University of Minne- the house at all hours," sota expert on American she said. architecture agreed with "Some of them are very her. rude. It becomes a perfect "Many people think that nuisance," she said. any old building can be- The house was designed come a museum," said in 1913 for Little, a utility Donald Torbert, professor executive from Peoria, of art history. 111., who knew Wright and "It is still usable as a had owned another house, and I think it Wright-designed house. should be kept in that Originally designed as use," he said. "If you try a summer home, it re- to turn it into some oil quired some conversion company's rural office, it's when the Stevensons not going to work." made it a full-time resi- A problem for any ten- dence. ant of such a vast, ram- It is an example of bling house would be the Wright's 'prairie architec- upkeep. It was built in an ture" style, and is de- era of skilled craftsmen, scribed by Torbert as "one who were able to spend of the relatively few re- countless hours on the maining buildings from construction. Wright's earlier years that can be thought of as a "Some of the craftsman- real contribution to world ship is no longer possi- architecture." ble," said Bemie Benson, It is one of editor of a magazine pub- nine ac- knowledged lished by the Hennepin buildings by Wright County Historical Society. in Minnesota. A tenth was disavowed by In addition, some of the Wright because he disap- concrete in the building, proved of the site. put in before the advent of modern concrete technolo- gy, is crumbling. .

September 27, 1971

Dr. Paul Hanna 737 Frenchman's Rd. Palo Alto, California

Dear Dr. Hanna:

Enclosed is a photograph of the Frank Lloyd Wright bust in plaster of paris. The bronze copy which was shown in Helsinki, Finland in the memorial exhibit of Mauno Oittinen last year, received a great deal of attention from all the art critics and also from Alvarfc Aalto, the very well known Finnish architect, who also knew Mr. Wright for twenty years.

We were at East Taliesen for ten days with Mr. Wright. He sat for Mauno morning and afternoon. He wanted three copies of his bust, but apparently according to the enclosed clippings, they were in financial difficulties. Many times later we met Mr. Wright, in New Yonfc and also in Mexico City, for he was eager to have the bust in his possission.

Included in this envelope is a brief copy of the sculptor's works I do not have my husbands material regarding the past ten years in Finland. They are still in New Yonk in storage. I shall have them here within two or three weeks whish includes the Frank Lloyd Wright bust in bronze.

§incerely yours,

Anna Oittinen Premiere of Milhaud Work Mon., Sept. 1 27, 97 1 * ^,n Jfraacbc* Ct|ronide Marin Hall's Gala Opening

By Robert Commanday grasped procedures on which it is founded. Short melodic isn't another There one phrases, connecting in a quite like it—that new Vet- mosaic of contrasting orches- erans' Memorial Auditorium tral colors, are spun into lon- in Marin County. The com- ger periods, compounded into munity that prides itself on a complex totality, being different has finally, MOOD after a 19-year effort, ac- These skeins are layered quired multi - a purpose into a full texture of highly building that as a concert detailed and rhythmic activi- hall, works — and very well. ty that wants breathing The $2.5 million Marin Au- room. But uppermost, the ditorium was put to the test mood whether in the pastor- at a gala opening Saturday ale, scherzo or "very expres- featuring the Marin Sym- sive" andante, is happy, vital phony and soprano Dorothy and positive. Especial pleas- Kirsten. Sandor Salgo con- ure is found in the Andante ducted the premiere of Dar- where Milhaud's lyricism ius Milhaud' s Suite in G, a prevails, and in the wonder- The new $2.5 million Veterans' Memorial Audi- rich, complex work which ful play of quick and wide torium in Marin county. was commissioned for this contrasts between soloists event and found sonorous re- and groupings of rich sound. in the hall. sponse pushbutton system to modify building's gentle circular The Marin Symphony han- BALANCE the hall's sound personality. dome are continued within. dled the intricate workings unique feature which Curved wall and ceiling pan- commendably. given the too The sound flows full and A strong incursions of brass even around the house. There converts the Auditorium into els sweep inwards in com- a 872-seat concert hall and a plementary, undulating mo- and footfaults inevitable is superior balance between large exhibition salon tion, directing the feeling and from even a superior com- the deep vibrating tone of the was sound munity orchestra like Mar- basses and the shimmering part of George Izenour's con- the sight and graceful- tribution as consul- ly. in's. overtones of the cymbals theater tant. 1188 arm-chair There were two unappeal- Dorothy Kirsten's arias while middle range clarity The seats on the telescoping, re- ing elements — the circular (Charpentier's "Depuis le and the softer, blended movable risers are uphols- designs above the proscen- jour," Cilea's "Io son umile. pre- sounds are handsomely ", tered, but stiffer than the 872 ium and Mrs. Frank Lloyd . . Puccini's "Vis si served. loge-type chairs in front. Wright's color scheme, a tir- d'arte," "Tu, tu, tu?" and Thanks to the large convex Aside from a mighty drafty ing, brittle combination of "Un bel di") were disap- forms on walls and ceilings, cross-current from the air bright blue and sand shade. pointing, rendered without excellent sight lines through- creating system over the last It was an exemplary act to an individual emo- out and the absence of a bal- rows, there are no important commission the Milhaud tional context. cony, tliis grand sound is uni- disadvantages in the Suite for this opening, even WORK formly diffused. The effect is "cheap" seats. though it turned out to be not Salgo, behind her consis- essentially the same in the Economy is most noticea- his most impressive work. tently in accompaniment, last few rows as up front, ble in the side lobbies, The 20-minute, four- didn't have the feeling for given an inconsequential crowded almost to the im- movement piece is not clear her work and neither did she. drop-off in volume level. passable, panic-hazard point despite the direct, easily Miss Kirsten's voice was full When the San Francisco during intermission. A larger and carried well, but it lacks Symphony plays its short entrance foyer at the rear, radiance now. The acoustical series there, it should sound reserved as a reception area truth of the new hall re- so immeasurably more thrill- Saturday, might alleviate vealed a tone which is no ing than in the Opera House this later. longer firm and pure. as to give an inspirational Salgo conducted Beetho- impetus to its projected new DESIGN ven's "Egmont" Overture in home. The visual design is dis- COMPLEX a performance that was tinctive and pleasing. The overdone and pretentious, Credit belongs to the Talie- towering cylindrical forms though sonorous, Strauss's sin Associated Architects un- enclosing the stage house, "Till Eulenspiegel," with ex- der William Wesley Peters' and the shape of the main cellent horn work, was also very direction. The Taliesin group aggressive, driving, iiji continues the work of Frank many ways original, the best Lloyd Wright including furth- and most exciting of the eve- er development of his famous ning. Marin Civic Center complex. Salgo brings good sounds Dr. Verne Knudsen planned and strong feeling fom this the acoustical aspects includ- group while containing a ing the orchestral shell and a sure, unified ensemble. The Marin Symphony and the en- tire county have a good fu- ture in Marin's new home for the arts. 42 $aitJFratwfc»

JVIusic Vlforld' ||||i|i,||||||iii|i|i|iiiiii,iiiii,ii,|,iiii,ii,iiiiiii|imi!i|1111 Marvelous Marin's True Achievement For the acoustical consultant, Verne O. Knud- sen, the inside continuation of the building's outer curvatures meant ideal possibilities for good sound lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll! Robert Commanday diffusion which he realized. He and the theater con- sultant George Izenour designed push-button systems MELANCHOLY tales about new audi- ENOUGH to modulate the hall's characteristics. The telescop- toriums. It's time to tell a success story — how ing risers with 1188 seats are rolled away and a the Marin Veterans' Memorial Auditorium turned sound-insulating wall moves in to form simultane- out so well. ously usable exhibition and concert halls. In the The day before Saturday's gala Marin opening, small hall, heavy cotten flannel can be rolled down the chief architect, William Wesley Peters, visited behind the "transondent" side panels. This can cut the Chronicle offices brimming with confidence. the reverberation time down from 2 to the 1.2 sec- "People always say 'Multipurpose buildings don't do onds better suited for drama, lectures and public anything right.' I, say they should do everything meetings. right." Flexibility of purpose was the Taliesin Associated Architects' answer to the typical dilemma that faced Izenour the people of Marin 10 years ago. The Board of Su- KNUDSEN AND were first associated with the Taliesin group on the Arizona State pervisors didn't know what it wanted. The architects College Grady Theater had to resolve the conflicting wishes of the veterans' Gammage which they regard as a mmajor break-through. The Taliensin-Knud- group (exhibition and sports facilities) and the art sen-Izenour collaboration is continuing for the lovers (auditorium). Then they had to provide the 2150-seat San Jose Community Theater long-range program and continuity of purpose. The now under construction. Like the Gammage Theater, it will Board of Supervisor personnel changed so much that have a flying balcony with open space between it and none of the original program-educated members are the theater's back wall to permit free sound circula- still in office. tion, no sound trapped as under conventional balco-

nies. - Some ideas of the acoustician's problem can be ARCHITECTS' solution, convertible audito- THE measured by the effect of different dress in the audi- rium-exhibition hall, was accepted. ence. "A girl ,jn a miniskirt is only about one-half as The Taliesin group proceeds under Frank Lloyd absorptive as is a man or woman in a more conven- Wright's original philosophy — "to create a total tional costume, and a girl in hotpants has almost environment for a better life for humanity." Peters negligible absorption," Knudsen points out. (An ar- cites the Marin Civic Center as a unique expression gument for or against hotpants? Or is it hotpants of this. for hot music?) Peters answers criticisms that the silo forms The orchestra shell must be shaped so that it which contain the new auditorium's stage house vio- forms with the house, one . Knud- lates the natural landscape. "Silos are one of the sen's motor-operated shell for Marin is 18 gauge most architectural things on our rural landscape. It's steel, doped to have the acousticsl properties of wood. a strong, positive form and that's what a stage house Musicians have a powerful mystique about wood. should be. I think it is a handsomer thing than to put Knudsen tells how the cellist Leonard Rose rapped a up a big, solid masonry wall to stop highway similar doped-steel shell in the Gmmage Theater sounds." with his knuckles and exclaimed, "Ah, excellent, it's • • • wood." *V O ENHANCE THE auditorium's aspect from the "X highway side, Peters hopes for high tree land- scaping and a handsome piece of sculpture in the center "to make a great vertical splash." "The west parking lot was supposed to have appeared like a sea Of trees," he said. Because of economies, the view is now a "sea of asphalt and Detroit iron." The cylindrical shapes of the stage house made possible sturdy, self-supporting and economical cin- der block construction. The main roof is the largest unsymmetrical reinforced concrete dome ever con- structed. Together, the "silos" and dome ideas con- tributed to holding the theater's cost to $1200 per seal (the national average for comparable theaters is $3200 per seat).

September 30, 1971

Mrs. Anna Oittinen Clift Hotel C) 868 Main Street Redwood City, California 94063

Dear Mrs. Oittinen:

Thank you for your letter and the material enclosed. Indeed we would like to get acquainted and to see the bronze bust of Mr. Wright done by your husband.

My wife and I will be gone until about December 20th, but during the Christmas season or after the New Year, let's try to get together.

Will you call us during the Christmas holi- days so that we can arrange a time of meeting?

Cordially yours,

Paul R. Hanna

PRH:bl *AUL m. MANNA

e**JTO«lwA

**!•)

ir< -tor;

' J°Se r ^rS'l' center i. »«. Calif ornj

' Has, Texas "?atej

1 lr " tor: ***** Lloj :> rhf , Floi Lda

-ear ra 1 1 1 i i

'-; - you ' wLTto ;" ilpture. V this

r r. '

' :) v . t . : ,

r e J

Paul r M If t • M En?

V

HHH

bulletin

Official Publication of Now York Society of Architocts

Founded 1905

101 Port Avt.nu., N«w Yort, N. Y. 10017 • T.l.phon. 683-2244

Bumper Attendance Applauds Tafel/Frank L. Wright

The remarkable slides and lucid descriptions of Architect-Taliesin Fellow brought The Old Master right back into the present at our first meeting in the delightful atmosphere of the City University of N.Y. in September. The audience consisting of a 50/50 mix of New York Society members and younger modern day Architectural Students and Graduates was literally held spell- bound. The lecture time passed so quickly, we were almost disappointed that it had to end. Hardly a soul moved from the room of over 125 rapt listeners. Mr. Tafel you must come back again and show us the other racks of slides!! BRAVO, WELL DONE, and many, many thanks. Sorry that some of you had to miss such a fine program. We try to keep telKng you to "Come on Over" so, don't miss the next one.

NEW YORK CHAPTER

THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS. \ 20 WEST40TH STREET, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10018,(212) 5651866 NOTICE *-- --.-* WRIGHT REVISITED — 'A FASCINATING INSIGHT

NYCAIA member Edgar A. Tafel worked with Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Fellowship from 1932 to 1941 and his reminiscences, lively with wit and humor, make for fascinating listening. Out of nine years of the closest association with one of the most colorful, innovative and controversial architects to emerge in the 20th Century, Tafel has accumulated a fund of anecdotes and observations about a man who made lasting impression on public and profession alike. From Spring Green, Wis., to Scottsdale, Ariz., and from Prairie Houses to the Imperial Hotel, The Taliesins, the Johnson Wax Building and the Martin House, here' 8 an insight into a man whose work continues to have an unusual impact on the shelters we develop today. o < m E3

THE LATE Frank Lloyd Wright's small brick igloo in Maiden Lane is no longer empty. The Mon- tessori Schools people have taken it over to sell fund-raising artifacts during the holiday season hence the store's name: Just For Christmas . . .

Sf. Air.**)*- H«>'1V 1 1 t IB 1 I 1 w 1

1 1 >' I Sp ** 4 j H .-.'.; **

>-.*l». M^MNM^^^H •*" 7 &- »».

o O 1 ts 73

.

New auditorium in Marin For the past three years regular travelers on U.S. Highway 101 north of San Ra- fael. California, have seen a new build- ing rise out of the marshy land north of the Marin County Civic Center. The SWt^et Marin Veterans' Memorial Building was THE MAGAZINE OF WESTERN LIVING recently completed. Designed by Taliesin Associated Archi- December 1971 tects of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foun- dation, the building is a part of Wright's master plan for the complex. Its appear- ance is sure to sustain the same kind of interest and esthetic debate caused by its sister building up the hill.

The color is the same: an earth-tone pink. In the rear it has a 60-foot-high contoured wall that from a distance might resemble several silos. From the front you get a full view of the roof, a bright blue concrete dome, similar in design to the civic center's dome.

Inside, the building is comfortable and SUNSET

-a

NORMAN A. PLATE

Building's curving rear wall houses stage and acts as an acoustical shell

large. Its most singular and spectacular taking place there: Marin Festival of feature is the main hall's massive rear Trees, December 3 and 4; the play, "Play

wall, which is movable. Attached to it it Again, Sam," December 10, 11, and are 1,188 collapsible theater seats. When 12; a concert with Nina Simone and Les it's moved, the seating structure tele- McCann. December 16, 17, and 18; and scopes—creating a full 2,088-seat audi- The Nutcracker, by the Marin Civic Bal-

torium, or an intimate 900-seat theater. let, December 19,20, and 2 1

December's a good month to visit the For information call the Marin Memo- building and attend one of the events rial Box Office,, 472-3500.

• 9fIO 9>{fi}

Ma£ I \T't V

I

VD

:

Stanford Book Store Stanford University Stanford, California 94305

Gentlemen

Will you please obtain for me one copy of Brooks ' The published by the University of Toronto Press, 1972.

When the book comes in, please send me a card and I will pick it up.

Sincerely,

'i-. •'

2/6/72- A Wright House Changed the Life Of Ohio Couple

Having a Home Built By Frank Lloyd Wright Changed Couple's Life

By ROSALIE ROBBINS TONKENS While studying the drawings of our American Red Cross. I sent the letter, Renting a house, or living in an beautiful-house-to-be-built, we felt airmail, to Spring Green, Wis., where apartment, had always satisfied me. there was something wrong with the Wright lived at Taliesin, his home Never had I felt the need of owning a gallery. If a person were to walk with the Welsh name that meant of own. But husband home my my along it, looking inside the house "shining brow." kept insisting that we must "establish from the outside, he would appear to Two day later, Gene Massalink, roots." For $6,000, in 1954, we be walking below ground level. The Wright's secretary, telephoned to bought two and three-quarters acres designer assured us that this type of invite us to Taliesin. in a residential area where one acre fenestration was sound. The follow- "What a Man Does, That He Has" usually costs $25,000. ing night, he came over with an issue was carved over the entrance to the Why the difference in price? This of "Architectural Forum," a magazine drafting room, at "Hillside," where was a "problem lot," on the most had never we before read. we were to meet Wright. He walked desirable street in Amberley Village, Riffling through the pages, we in. He was beautifully dressed, wear- an exclusive suburb of Cincinnati. No noticed a photograph of "our" semi- ing the flat pork-pie hat we were to architect had been able to engineer circular house. Someone else had built come to know so well. His hair was a driveway. and was living in our dream house, silver blue, and he appeared taller This was the era of the ranch -style but who was he? We read the caption than he actually was. He was small house, with the picture window and under the picture: "Herbert Jacobs in stature but his voice was strong lamp gazing out onto the front drive- House, Middleton, near Madison, Wis- and youthful. He was then in his way. What good were the lamp and consin, designed by Frank Lloyd seventies. the picture window without a drive- Wright." As we were being introduced, my way? And so the beautiful land had Immediately we paid the designe- husband remarked that this was the slumbered. The property rose abruptly greatest day of his life. If he were from the road, and $600 for the preliminary drawings rested there look- meeting the Queen of England, he and ing like what it canceled our agreement. Now we was—a grassy hill said, he could not be more impressed. wildly scattered owned a problem lot and a set of with field flowers. "I know the Queen of England," We needed an architect, worthless drawings. and we said Wright, "and she's not so won- One dreary found one—a disciple of Frank Lloyd Sunday, Alistair Cooke derful." Wright, who said he was on television, interviewing Frank would do an When he saw the drawing his Lloyd Wright for- "original" house for us. waited to for the program "Omni- We mer disciple had done for us, he see his first drawings. bus." They were discussing the Price swung his cane, slashing away at the Tower, in Bartletsville, Okla., Wright's Never had we seen a house such plans, saying: "Dead, dead, dead! newest building. as the one he drew for us. It was Obsolete before it's even built." "Do Then semicircular. you think Wright would design All the rooms were he chucked the plans into the fire- a house for us?" my husband pie-shaped, and radiated out from a asked place. glass-enclosed me when the program ended. That gallery. We thought it He wanted us to talk aboul night was a beauty, J wrote a letter to Wright, tell- and surely there was ourselves — how we lived, how we nothing ing him that we could afford a $25,000 like it anywhere in the world. entertained, whether we played any At this house, that my husband was a self- point, neither my husband musical instruments. We talked out nor I knew very made man, and that we had been much about architec- our two young daughters, ourselves ture, married in England during World but we knew that a ranch house War and our life in Cincinnati. with a Florida II when he was a B-17 bombardier Room was not for us. We had brought some photographs and I was a Clubmobile girl with the A UV.^W Hotut. (CavffA

of our problem lot, and we made from freshly picked "There's no trick in getting Fourteen months handed them to Wright, who wild grapes, chockecherries, me to design a house for later, when we moved into quickly arranged them into blackberries and elderberries; you," Wright said after lunch. the flowers to house, the total cost was a composite of the building hay to be mown, "The trick is in getting it twice cared for, and the original figure the site. My husband volunteered be planted and built. Everyone will tell you later on tables, contractor had set. There is to have some aerial shots arranged that it can't be done. It can a almost inaccesible price for everything, and one taken. "I don't have to drink niches and be built, and it will be identi- blos- must be willing to pay to get the entire bottle of ink," said places indoors. Beauty cal to the elevation that I what he wants. Wright, "to know the color somed and bloomed, indoors will send so that you can see We wanted this house. We felt that of the dye." and out. All the daily routine how the building will look on here happiness was to be Many months later, ex- of living on a farm was part completion. Somehow, after found. of Taliesin. That's just what Okakura Kakuzo, the Japa- plaining the difficulty of put- the client comes to me and I nese writer, in his ting in our driveway because Taliesin was, a self-sustain- design the house, a triangle little vol- ume, "The Book the lot was so hilly, Wright ing farm, on which most of usually develops between the of Tea," writes: "The reality said, "They built the Suez the food was raised for those architect, client and contrac- of a lived there. room was to be found in Canal, didn't they? We'll cut who worked and tor. For some strange reason, the spaced right through the middle." enclosed by the roof chores the client allies himself with Indoor household and walls, not in And that's the way the drive- the contractor against me, the roof were part of an apprentice's and walls themselves." way was built, straight the architect." Our day as well. Cooking a few house through the middle of the was oriented to the We promised that this days each week for some, sun at hill. a 40 to 60 degree setting the tables and ar- would never happen, and said angle. At this point Wright agreed The towering ten-feet ranging fresh flowers for six-inch glass doors faced to do a house for us, and some- that if he would design the' others, and serving food at the thing wonderful happened. east. The cool morning mealtimes occupied their house for us, we would see sun streamed into the living- We became friends as well as that it was built with nothing time. All these duties were dining clients. When he asked us to area. There was a learning. changed. in addition to sense of the outdoors. stay for lunch that day he in- Months passed, and the In the All the wooden furniture late afternoon, when the troduced us to his wife. plans didn't arrive. I wrote in the dining hall and western sky was ablaze, the Meeting Olgivanna Wright letter after letter to Taliesin, throughout Tailesin had been was part of our introduction asking when we could expect designed by Wright and built red of the sinking sun could to a new world. Her serene them. There was never any by the apprentices. The bales be seen through the narrow beauty was legendary. Al- answer. Finally, one day the and benches were low, and band of windows, set high in though her long black hair, postman threw a long, thin seemed to hug the floor. The the wall. The hot rays were knotted into a bun low at the tube on the porch. The un- lighting fixtures were geomet- kept out by the solid wall of back of her neck, was rolled drawings spread out to rically arranged wooden gray, concrete block. streaked with gray, she was over 80 inches in width. The boxed enclosing light-bulbs— The entire house was a much younger than Wright, colored pencil elevation of simple in design, and beauti- shell, inside and out, of con- who had been in his fifties how the building was to look, ful in composition. Shadows crete block. Each block was when they were married. when completed, was drawn played through varying ceil- cast in a module two feet (He had been previously freehand by Wright himself. ing heights that allowed the long by one foot high. The married, and had six children A beautiful house! sunlight to angle in as the concrete was mixed with by his first wife.) The soft- afternoon wore on. A contractor, who used hadite, for insulation. There ness of her voice, the assured union labor, was awarded were 14 different block forms. manner in which she spoke, How simple the food was! the contract to build the Solid concrete blocks Were attested to the fact that she Wright believed in "organic house. He submitted a fixed used for the walls. Perforated was a woman truly loved, by architecture," treating mate- bid of $59,000. Although our blocks were patterned for her husband and by all who rials as they were in their original plan had been to decoration by inserting quar- knew her. Montenegrin-born, natural state, and the same spend $25,000, the price of ter-inch ordinary plate glass softly feminine, she was principle was applied to food steel and all building mater- into the openings. These were dressed that day in silk, and served at Taliesin. Un- ials had risen during the used as screens of steel, glass carried a large leghorn straw bleached flour was used to time the plans were bid on, and concrete. All the corner hat that trailed fluttering produce the rough-textured, and the date construction windows had mitered glass silken ribbons. home-baked bread. Sugar was started. It was worth the ex- where the joined ends were It was she who helped in- brown, and coarse. Honey tra expense, we felt. It was beveled at equal angles. Cor- troduce the apprenticeship came from Taliesin beehives. a Frank Lloyd Wright house, ner blocks were made by program to Wright's opera- Milk was raw, and was never and we were going to live pouring concrete into metal tions. In the beginning, 23 pasturized. (Wright main- there as long as we lived. wraparound forms. Mono- student apprentices paid $650 tained that since his cows Wright's 10 per cent fee, lithic corner blocks were used a year for the privilege of were healthy and had been the legal rate set Wiscon- at all corners of the house. being associated with Wright inoculated, there was no need by sin for an architect's fee, in- and studying with him at to process the milk to kill Ceiling blocks were cof- cluded the building plans, the Taliesin in Wisconsin, and germs that weren't there in fered, two feet square and furniture to be designed by Taliesin West, near Scotts- the first place. Although formed the roof as well. The him, plus the fabrics and up- dale, Ariz. Tuition was raised Wisconsin is called the structure could be likened to holstery that were to be de- to $1,100 in October, 1933, "Dairy State," and prides it- an inverted wire basket, each signed and woven for us. He the Fellowship's second year. self on its milk production, space of which was filled in had done the same thing in At lunch we sat at a table Wright defied the authorities with a concrete block. It was designing the Imperial Hotel apart from the apprentice and always served raw milk. a mesh of steel. The interior in Tokyo. were really architects who were then at In all the years we were to We of the house was paneled in saving money, since the price Taliesin. Although each ap- be a part of Taliesin, we a natural Philippine mahog- bid the contractor includ- prentice was studying archi- never heard of one person by any, satinlaced, and waxed, all the built-in furniture. tecture under Wright's guid- getting sick from drinking ed rather than stained to pre- ance, he had to work on the the milk.) serve its original golden farms that comprised an in- color. tegral part of the school. There were cows to be milked, pigs to be fed, vegetables to be planted, weeded, picked and processed, wine to be ilea) yo^VL * < vjdw^u Ho^ e (;coh+^

This was "Organic Archi- Our house was, indeed, cause our the When the house house did not con- tecture." Materials were used custom-made was com- form prototype of pleted on to their mores. in their natural state. things an October day in This A "Nat- to come. The pre-cast was when we ural House" 1957, everything had were able to by Frank Lloyd blocks were laid one been row at built exactly separate the sheep from Wright. Wood was used a time. to Wright's the as Steel rods were laid goats," to specifications. It quote Wright. wood, stone as stone. There in the horizontal was perfec- grooves tion, They were few was no paint along and reflected our and far be- or plaster any- the top of the devo- tween, blocks tion to an ideal. those who understood where, inside or out. Copper and set A terracotta vertically between ceramic and appreciated downspouts, tile with Wright's our house' rather than gut- the blocks. As each in- Strangely row of itials and enough, it ters that blocks the date, 1954 when was the would rust and leak was laid to European the re- the plans were visitors, who had in time, carried the water quired distance, first begun is according to cemented understood and from the above the acclaimed roof when it rained Plan, a liquid grout front Wright one part door bell, long before the or snowed. it attests to the Amer- Icicles formed in cement and two parts icans, sharp fact that who marveled at the the winter and hung white sand, Wright approved from was poured along the wonder of the each construction. house. "I know downspout, making the the top of I the blocks. The After could never afford house unbelievably grout we moved into the this" beautiful. flowed down and house, one of our friends whenever anyone would remarked The concrete around the steel rods, 'but I'm block was binding telephone he would glad to know that left them and the ask, in its natural gray state blocks at the How's such a thing exists." the house?" I It was unpainted— joints, into a solid would an — and the wood mass. answer, "Fine emotional experience "To me it was would age naturally and grow When the mahogany a being in that ply- beautiful living thing. house, and I darker as the wood paneling pitied years passed. was nailed to The interior those people who came the space gave one The floors were red con- furring on the walls, a into the quiet, the feeling of security. The living room, crete slab, hand-scored into specifications caHed house looked around, for the was scaled to the and said, "it's blocks two nail holes aver- very feet square, to be filled with age human cute." Or, "it's very figure, five feet in- matching the module of pure beeswax. From eight teresting." the the start and a half inches. ceiling of the Most block. The building construction, the con- people At first whoever who visited felt safe rang the stretched horizontally for tractor had wanted and bell and 113 to revise comfortable. They knew wanted to see the feet. We never knew room Wright's plans. We had house—friend let- the^nest feeling of being and stranger sizes or square footage. ters from him saying alike—was that the taken through. I "Room size never ceiling would very determined fall, since it Wright once nearly ran regular con- function," wryly re- Wright replied was a 113 feet marked, ducted tours, cantilever "A doctor can bury opening closets, when asked how without a drawers, many square single interior his mistakes, but pointing out the bearing an archi- feet wall. tect has to continuous hinges there were in any of his plant ivy to hide on the We had ms. doors that buildings. battled him on Cincinnati is an iw- prevented sag- every ging point, never allowing covered city! and sticking, and dis- The interior space deter- And it has a him to change any new breed cussing Wright's mined the exterior specifica- of vigilantes who philosophy of the tion. that Now he objected protect it was so apparent building. Our 13-foot to the from bad architec- through- 6-inch use of out beeswax as a filler ture -The the house. glass-towered entrance hall for Neighborhood and the Building As the years passed kitchen rose above the nail holes. Putty, Committee." This the he in- group of number of 7-foot 6-inch sisted, was "experts" visitors increased. bedroom wing superior to bees- appears wax, just before you It was rather disconcerting, elevation and the 10-foot 6- i said, "Beeswax." He are ready to inch " sitting in the living living-dining P tty fereak room on area. " Fina11 J ground a "ah'All u * «£ with the Sunday afternoon, to Wright had right use putty, an look wanted "U.S." but if nouncement thai- th~ up anything and see groups of people, in a name for his concrete happens to the block mahogany houses. Rather than paneling you're some with cameras, going standing name them to remove it outside of United Statesers and start the glass living all over he called them the again." room doors, on "Usonian the , lanaiT Houses." Our "Don't worry," Peering m. was an "Uson- was his an- There really was ian Automatic House," P Va Ever in- y - y°ne felt digenous that?h° f v u to America. d0esn,t know if he had heard whatwS?^"?? of The he's doing." Wright, he was construction was sim- entitled to At the see the house. ple, and foretold the far end of rjinally In most peo- mode of the thffi^S* ple construction Se ne to w s minds, we lived in the future. ' « our bedroom, 601 the in the Swas a small values huild public domain. "The in""? "S artist is always 50 study. This was e nei where the AriyArfv g*borhood years ahead of the contractor newL house? It was a joy, times" was had to cost . however, giv- Wright going to show more than ing often said. "Building that he knew $18,000. a party in our house more than they vC, materials will be the architect heard that Karely did anyone pre-cut, and watched T Wright hS refuse our pre-cast in him as he ^signed this invitation. factories. Window filled in latest house "Rosalie doesn't sizes every nail hole that was need will be standardized. with the to be buili- tv, • a magenta He wall in her Light fixtures will be finisi the hving room," installed room,£2' , ^ entire Wright once as one complete and promised he'd said. Famous unit, with a be people from all screwdriver. becanse^'f over Plumbing will be y fO,,0Wing* the world were m"rnin 5£ fg»9 our pre-packaged and ready r ^ guests—The Shah for I of Iraq installation, was there earlier Myrna pipes and all than he Loy, scores of was the leaders Buildings will be next morning. The ai0£ in the arts, assembled walls *go—thepic- education and on the of the study tur*» urinw industry. site. All the electrical looked as '?„"'ndow radiant . heatL and though they had °" e n telephone wiring will be developed °°r Most people chicken-pox b ; An without a we knew never conduit under during the really the ground. night. i ived in their The oil from homes Skilled labor will be the putty had They were elimi- 3 "* C°Ples; saving the furni- nated." 3 flowed out ™ fe originS." ture ^f ^, ^ of the and the carpeting nail holes into the for paneling. some day that The paneling never seemed was removed, to arrive. Their furniture Ced a d the was nail h <>les covered with filledfnS withVu 1 plastic covers beeswax. «** «t and their thVelST rugs and carpeting , SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 6. 1972

The house designed for the Tonkens family, who became "the people who live in the Frank Lloyd Wright house

lay Hidden under more car- Wright predicted that the peting, or plastic runners. house would stand 300 years, We lived in our house. Con- and perhaps it will. But after versation flowed easily, be- 11 short years, I had cause one knew he was wel- to say good-bye to it. had estab- come, and the house seemed We lished roots, but they had to put him at ease. grown strange in unexpected Most people in Cincinnati ways. My husband and I entertained either in their were no longer the same two "family room" on the first people. The house had floor, or in a paneled base- changed us. We were two ment well below ground level. strangers, who had built a Rarely did I ever sit in any- monument to a great love, one's living room. A visitor Beauty. In a way, I suppose, would always get a glimpse of we had sacrificed each other, the stiffly furnished "period" to build a house. living room as he hung his coat in the guest closet adja- cent to the front entrance door. This was before he was led to the stairs into the basement "family room." Wright always said, "Moles were meant to live under- ground, not people. Don't waste your money building a basement. It's too damp. Most of the things you store down there have to be thrown out, anyway. You had no need for them when you stored them, so why save them until they become mildewed?" People have asked us, "Didn't you have any dis- satisfaction with the house?" Of course we did. The pyra- miding building costs, and tne iacK of pnvacy. iook tnelr toll. We lost, In a way, our individual identity and became part of the building. I no longer was Jane and Nancy Laurie Tonkens's "mother," or even just Rosa- lie Tonkens. We became "the people who live in the Frank Lloyd Wright House." . ,

February 10, 1972

Mrs. Lawrence M. Kasdon Apt. 7-G-S, 13 West 13th Street New York, New York 10011

Dear Nora and Larry:

We had not seen the Sunday Times con- taining the article concerning Wright. We are most grateful to you for it. It is a very important addition to our collection on Wright.

Jean and I send you and Larry our best regards

Cordially

Paul R. Hanna

PRH:bl

_ -"-

il

.a:

. --iL J'y z FU.U selves. - My life seems to be operated on slogans fundamen- slogans which I strive to believe are \ tal and back to which humanity must eventually / There's a revert no matter how far astray we are led by fresh new page light-headed and often hypocritical thinkers. before you the basic slogans which should And through Certainly govern all humanity irrespective of their reli- every future year gions and even if they are pagans with no re- Bit by bit those given to Moses on Mount Sin- the story ligion are he led the Jews within sight of the Of your lifetime ai after promised land. Within the Ten Commandments will appear. contained all the pre- Write with strength and the golden rule are guide one through and courage cepts which are needed to and happy existence if only one Write with skill a successful of character and care has the willingness and strength And many to abide by them. Within the confines of those ten slogans are will find hope I ab- and help the three characteristics which consider out In What solutely essential if one is to get the most three you've written of this life. They are best described by - - By there. words. WORK THRIFT INTEGRITY. applying these three words to the life of normal Jean Kyler McManus adults one can pretty well ascertain the reason / for whatever status they occupy. \ Over a period of quite some few years a lettings friend and I attended numerous contract in this section of the country. We became February 15, 1972 acquainted with many of the architects, con- tractors, sub-contractors and material men in the states of Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas. Dear Everybody: To while away long hours while driving we used to analyze our fellows in the construction world

As another birthday approaches I stop to re- in an effort to determine what made them tick. view my life by taking a backward look, an We did this by applying the test of WORK analysis of my present status and ponder a bit - THRIFT - INTEGRITY to those we knew well on the future. In doing this I fully realize I enough. Not in a single case did we discover am what one of my critics call "repetitious;" one man past the age of forty who was not ex-

I repeat statements I have often and possibly actly where he deserved to be because of his too often have included in these letters in the own efforts or lack of effort. We adopted a past. phrase to differentiate between the up and com-

I have not kept a complete file of these ing and the laggards. The up and coming we letters since I began writing them forty-six described as having been "bitten." We coined years ago. I do have a file of all since 1943. this expression to describe Warren Bellows of

But it is a cinch I am not going to wade thro- Houston after viewing "Bellows Comer;" the ugh them to discover what I thought and wrote street intersection in his home city on which in the past to avoid repetition. These letters was simultaneously erecting four highrise struc- are in the main an effort to correlate my think- tures. ing of the present. far I - - So as am concerned I began my WORK THRIFT INTEGRITY my letters of the past fit the inscription carved philosophy back inl 922 when I analyzed three on the frdnt of the massive Archives Building young men of approximately my age. I pre- in our nation's capital "The past is prologue." dicted they would rank among the wealthiest One of my basic concerns is that my think- in Enid when they reached the age of 75 (so ing has changed so little over the years. So far as I can recall retirement at 65 was unheard little that I fear I have been accused of being of in 1922). Two of them have fully fulfilled

opinionated, a charge to which I might be vul- my expectations. The third was well on his nerable. Opinionated people generally are way when a heart attack took him from us. the last to recognize this characteristic in them- As the boys began coming back at the close of world War II I selected a trio of young his prestige a great portion of the art world

men whom I felt would fit the same category followed nis example. Artists and patrons flock- fifty years hence. After twenty-five years two ed like sheep in splashing and buying these of them are well on the way. The third was meaningless colors and even more meaningless going great guns when he suffered some sort of creations such as adorns the entrance to the a nervous or mental breakdown which removed Dallas Public Library and the facade of the him from the business world. Chicago Art Museum. Certainly all six have fulfilled my ideas of Worst of all is the poetry. Gone is the day

work and thrift and so far as I have knowledge, when school children memorized beautiful rhy- integrity. At least none have ever been in- mes such as are the works of Longfellow and

dicted for wrong doing or been in jail. Whittier and Tennyson and Wordsworth. I chal- Unfortunately Americans are being led in a lenge anyone to memorize the illogical blank retreat from fundamentals by a varying group verse of the present. If there were any ques- of egoists who are endeavoring to demonstrate tion in my mind of its worthlessness it is dis- their smartness by taking them down strange pelled when one studies the life of Ezra Pound and unmarked paths. The number one was that the poet, if he can be called such, who is silly Lord Keynes who came over from England given credit for the present vogue which pas- and talked Franklin Roosevelt into abandoning ses for poetry. He spent much of his life in the wonderful first 100 days of his administra- a lunatic asylum. tion to adopt the folly of deficit spending. Ranking right along with art and poetry in The shallowness of his thinking was fully ex- their flight from reality is architecture. And posed on an occasion when he was asked what just as a supreme egoist can be ascribed this would be the eventual result of his reckless modernistic or whatever should be called the spending program. He exposed his utter irre- present trend in architecture. Frank Lloyd sponsibility by snapping, Wright was just as balmy as Picasso and Pound.

"Eventually we will all be dead." Lord To him I owe the slogan I have adopted as my Keynes has been gathered to his fathers but in guide in city planning, the words of Shakespeare's Mark Antony, "The American city is doomed. It is going "The evil that men do lives after them." to be succeeded by vast stretches of suburbia." The United States and England are in great And yet so illogical was the man who uttered danger of losing their vaunted liberties as a that realistic statement which is becoming more result of that swell head's thinking. evident by the day at the time of his death Largely based on the Englishman's mental he was demonstrating his complete inconsistency processes our government has adopted policies by endeavoring to promote a mile high build- which have made a great percentage of our ing. citizens mendicants and wards of the govern- And our engineers seem to be rushing pell ment. More and more Americans are ceasing me 1 1 to follow painters, poets and architects to struggle for an existence. We do not even in their headlong flight from fundamentals. It try. After all, the paternalistic bureaucrats seems more and more I hear of designs created will look after us. The only time we need be- by engineers seeking to demonstrate their ori- stir ourselves is to troop to the polls at elec- ginality collapsing around the world. The brid- tion time and vote for the demagogue who ge in Sydney, Australia harbor, a ten-story promises us the most. apartment building in Fort Worth, the Union And I am not at all certain but that our Equity wheat elevator in Enid, the high school banks in their eagerness to obtain more busi- gymnasium near Richmond, Virginia. And the ness are hasting still more irresponsibility by distressing angle to these collapses is the know- forcing credit cards upon us. It is so easy to ledge that other structures of like design are flash a credit card for unnecessary expenditures in use around the world which could easily that we hopefully will be able to pay for some collapse without warning. time in the future. One of the most unfortunate examples of all And what all this is doing to our culture. this rush for originality is Oklahoma City's The fad of this modern painting seems to have magnificent $25,000,000.00, 15,000 seating started one day when renowned artist Picasso capacity auditorium. The roof trusses are of sat idly one afternoon splashing various colors such unusual design I have never seen the like on a canvas. A chance visitor offered such a and up to now I have /er heard of any sim- large bid for the meaningless colors Picasso ilar. I have no reason for doubting their worth- decided he could make real money with such whileness, but all the controversial publicity formless and effortless endeavors. So great is they are receiving is bound to make that won-

-2- for a long time. derful structure suspect inals. I think every first degree murderer and Much of the unruliness of the oncoming rapist should be promptly executed. Along generation can be directly traced to another with them should be eliminated as quickly as character fleeing from reality. Dr. Spock's justice permits every person who uses a gun or widely read book has given millions of parents knife in committing a robbery along with every sparing the an excuse for their own ineptness by kidnaper. I think every rioter in prison or jail rod their children to reach adult- and allowing should be shot at the first outbreak. And I am hood without having any knowledge of the not certain that every habitual criminal after meaning and practice of discipline. his fourth conviction should not be put out of

One of the most asinine discourses I ever his misery by summary execution. And the heard was given in Bohemian Grove by one of crews of hijacked airplanes should be accorded these so-colled modern thinkers, the president the right to immediately shoot every hijacker of a great American corporation, on the harm- so soon as they are identified and apprehended.

iessness of smoking marijuana. Did I enjoy the All this sounds harsh. But I would like to rebuttal by a professor from the University of point out that the horrible eposide at Kent California who had spent years researching the University which resulted in the death of four subject. He quickly caused that outspoken bus- students effectually put a stop to practically inessman to wish he had kept his mouth shut all campus rioting. The sacrifice of those four in the first place. students have saved the lives of many of their Now we come to the man who with one ex- fellow college mates who were certain to have ception has done more than any American to eventually died in uncontrolled campusi turmoil,

damage our life. I think American way of I suggest all who insist fear of punishment Earl Warren's actions on the Supreme Court does not deter crime follow a highway patrol were motivated by bitterness. Bitterness brought car down a highway. It is perfectly amazing about by his failure to achieve the Presidency how drivers, including me, and those who of the United States. Under his leadership were voughsafe fear of punishment does not deter rendered the decisions which has created the crime slow down when we sight a patrol car present turmoil in our schools and allowed crim- ambling along or parked by the side of the inals such freedom from punishment we are ap- road. We do it for only one reason. We fear proaching anarchy. the $25 fine we will pay if caught speeding. Any question concerning our retired Chief Fear of punishment would have the same effect Justice's sincerity was dispelled when in Bo- on all other criminals except the insane and hemian Grove I heard him make a talk which the drunkards. Insane and drunken criminals he ended by declaring, "No American Presi- should be executed more surely than others. dent has ever been soft on Communism." I They are totally irresponsible and should be el- can quote him plenty of instances. The col- iminated after commission of their first serious ossal increase of unpunished crime since the crime. Warren Court began its mollycoddling of crim- I note with much interest the formation of inals is positively unbelievable. Within recent a society called the John Howard Association days three Enid men have been murdered in To Aid The Families of Criminals. I think that what were uncalled for instances. The two is just splendid. But I think each person de- unrepentant murderers in the unrelated crimes voted to such worthwhile work should devote are now being examined in asylums. They will an equal amount of time to caring for the fam- be given sentences based on insanity and in a iliesofthe victims of the criminals. That way few months will be released to continue prey- they would get both sides of the picture. ing on their fellow man. My experience with families of criminals has Since the Warren Court started Its meddling, led me to another very firm conviction. The the percentage of murders of the total in the families of the criminals would be the biggest U.S. committed by negroes has increased from gainers in the prompt execution of their crim- 6% Yet none are inal relatives. They could then proceed to lead tl n t° ? * ever Punished. The Black police chief in Gary, Indiana which normal lives without living out the balance of has a Black mayor displayed a chart showing their existence in misery trying to get their the increase of arrests of Blacks and the few loved ones out of prison and after they do, resultant convictions. And he added, worrying about what crimes they will commit. "You can't put a black burglar in jail in And spending their hard earned assets in pre- Lake County and that makes it impossible to venting their punishment and getting them out protect the Black community here." of jail. I have decided views on punishment of crim- It is normal and should be so for relatives

-3- to stand by their loved ones no matter what sidies and easily looked after beef cattle . Our sort of trouble they are in. But society should tenants eventually became sufficiently prosper- relieve the overburdened relatives of their load ous they built a nice house down the road a by promptly executing their criminal relatives. piece and abandoned the chicken houses, or- Americans of today are enjoying the most chard and garden and in the process accumu- affluent society that has ever existed. But lated wheat farms of their own. never has there existed such an idiosyncrasy. The farm itself is now in the city limits. Millions are running around whooping off dol- Growth of the city has reached it. Actually lars they hardly know what to do with while Enid has built up to it and is spreading along at the other end of the line we have more both it's north and south borders. The house people on relief being supported by the Gov- became so dilapidated we recently persuaded

ernment than any society has ever known . And the Enid Fire Department to burn it down. But both ends of the enigma are being operated on we discovered the chicken houses were in such borrowed money which no one knows how will sturdy condition they could be put to other ever be repaid. uses. One of them has been renovated for a The peak of this affluent era must have been storage place for the considerable accumulation reached recently in a Thanksgiving Methodist of correspondence, magazines, books and what

Circle meeting in Dallas. The ladies set forth have you I have accumulated over the years. what they had to be thankful for. One of Much of this material has been saved with them declared she was so thankful for the beau- the hazy idea of putting some of it in scrap- tiful new home into which they just moved books to give me something to do in retirement

and for the $50,000 box in the new Dallas days, I will never get but a fraction of this

Cowboys' football stadium they had just pur- material in scrapbooks. But I highly recommend chased. the keeping of scrapbooks to anyone finding It is all a far cry from the time of the tak- time hanging heavy on their hands. ing of the first census in 1790 which revealed And the scrapbooks bring me up to the sub- 96% of the people of the U.S. lived on farms. ject of retirement; a matter constantly brought It took the arduous labor of that many to fe- to my attention as the years roll onward. It ed and clothe themselves and create enough sur- is my firm conviction most retired people do plus to support the 4% who lived in town per- not know what to do with their retirement time. forming much needed services. And today any This is well borne out by the ever increasing family could be self providing if they were number of letters written to Ann Landers and willing to expend sufficient elbow grease as other keepers of "advice to the love lorn" col- did their ancestors. But they are not about umns in newspapers and magazines. Wives are to do it. They choose to flock to the cities constantly asking as to how to get their retired and to idly live off the efforts of their fellow husbands from underfoot. man. Everyone of us needs some sort of an objec*

Thirty years ago I was so naive as to be- tive to pull us out of bed in the morning and lieve there still existed people who hold to some sort of activity to keep us out of our making their own living beliefs. I purchased wives and everybody else's hair and to efcape a wheat farm and sought to make it a general utter boredom. And now approaches the four purpose I farm, renovated and modernized the day week. I think the work week should be aging house in which the tenants who came lengthened instead of shortened. Few of us, with the farm lived. We constructed two brick even those who are still working know what chicken houses, dug a six foot in diameter wa- to do with the leisure time we already have ter well, properly equiped hog pens, and plan- on our hands. ted a hundred lr*s orchard, I did all this I feel it is each persons prerogative to re- with the idea if another depression overtook tire and do as they please with their leisure us, Bertie and I could take refuge there and time . I am critical of no one so far as retire- raise enough for our own existence. And I was ment is concerned except those who are attemp- about to start on an expensive modernization ting to live off my work. As for me, with of the dairy bam when I caught myself just each passing year I am more certain I made in time. the correct decision when on my 65th birthday Our farm family was in process of forsaking I walked into my banker's office and declared, the milking of cows, slopping of hogs, feeding "I have decided I am going to live forever. of chickens and looking after garden and or- And I shall continue working on that hypothe- chard. They had discovered they could make sis." And I have the satisfaction of knowing a good living off the wheat crop, Federal sub- I have accomplished more in the years that the Viet Nam war which his brother started and they already get. How on earth County Com- abetted, he wants to vastly complicate our missioners ornve at where they spend the road

troubles by butting into the murderous orgy in money already so freely doled out to them is Ireland. The Irish have feuded with each other beyond me.

and the English since the dawn of history. In- Anyway, I am firmly convinced every Okla- stead of worrying about Ireland some one should homan who has the best interests of his state make Mother Kennedy cough up with the at heart will go Jo the polls and cast a resound-

$3,6000,000 indebtedness which I have read ing NO to the scheme of saddling us with a is the amount son Bobby socked the Democratic quarter of a billion dollar unnecessary indebt- party with during his 1968 Presidential cam- edness. paign. Her remark to a newspaper man who questioned her son's gargantuan expenditures still rankles, "It is nobodies business how much my son spends. It is his money." GUU- With such an array of opponents to choose Henry B(jBass

from I cannot see how anyone who has the wel- fare of our country at stake can do anything but gulp and then vote for Richard Nixon. It is a cinch the Democratic party is not going to preserve our way of life.

At the same time I have a lot of sympathy and admiration for Congressman John Ashbrook in his protest of many of Mr, Nixon's actions.

Certainly if I were a voter in New Hampshire

I would vote for him. It is in men such as Mr. Ashbrook we must find for a rallying point when the day comes when we must choose be- tween a dictatorship of the right or one of the left. If these Federal deficits continue it is only a matter of time until such a choice must be made. ***************

Oklahoma is faced with what I would call a real crisis. That is Governor Hall's $250 million dollar road bond issue. Our Governor appears to be determined to put us in the same shape as the states of New York, Illinois and California. Those states have borrowed and spent until their finances are almost hopeless. By comparison, Oklahoma is a financial para- dise with comparatively little indebtedness. I would not vote a $250 million dollar in- debtedness on this state for any purpose. And I trust the majority of my fellow Okies see it in the same light.

From a purely selfish point of view I cannot see how Enid, Garfield County and northwes- tern Oklahoma will get any more roads under the Governor's plan in the next five years than we already have scheduled for that period. And that is not overly much. If there were any question that politics is not at the bottom of this $250 million dollar spending orgy it is dispelled by the allocation of part of it to give the County Commissioners

15% more to do with as they please. If I had

my way, I would take 15% away from what g n

— AIA JOURNAL

MARCH 1972

Why did we apprentices Genius and the Mobocracy. Frank Lloyd In only eight years, the Taliesin Fellow- work so hard, fact. "Falling- helping him in his work Wright. New York: Horizon Press, 1971. ship became an accomplished and becoming part water," the Johnson building in Racine, the of his cause? It was history too for us each 247 pp. $20. "" and many other projects day, making it, being it, living it. It was not It was in 1931 that Frank Lloyd Wright house the boards all unusual to be awakened at 5 a.m. and completed his autobiography. Because of it, were being built or were on — asked hand to pull out a drawing. many of us joined the master in 1932 to done, incidentally, in FLLW's own There might have been a problem, and help form and live in the Taliesin Fellow- without any foundation or university fund- FLLW had awakened little build- us with the solution. To him each ship. At that time, for us at New York Uni- ing during a time when there was day was him, fellowship alive, a new creation, the versity's School of Architecture, FLLW was ing for anyone. For the was day when the ut- most might happen did. acceptable only during the first year; there- a day-to-day occupation seven days a week, —and often During trying endlessly there, this and that, all that time, he was proceeding after, Paul Cret's sandpapered classicism here and with his writing. would get us through. Schools of architec- publishing papers, being interviewed, lectur- ing in far-off starting a desert I think that his trip to ture were fairly bankrupt, most architects be- places, camp, Russia during this period also ing unemployed anyway. For Wright, unem- keeping us apprentices mobile, interested, had deep roots in the formation creative. of the book. Wright had studied ployment was a creative force; it meant time single tax told and other solutions, to write, lecture and even start a "school." Through all this period, he often us and the Russian way was write definitive a new form in the Wright's life was an intertwining of archi- that one day he would the economics of the world. It was a tecture, nature and literature. We at Taliesen book on Louis Sullivan: He had a debt to country without banks, insurance com- soon became accustomed to his writing a pay. And hadn't Sullivan come to Taliesin panies, money manipulation, bonds, stocks, good share of his time and then reading to and given him the marvelous drawings? They debentures, interest, investments, real estate sharks, us from his manuscripts or from Whitman, would be the backbone of the book. And he speculators, etc. But Wright was also disappointed Blake or, especially at that low period in the would also tell us of Adler—what a man! with Russia, for he saw it as an economy, from some new economist who and of his great power which made Sullivan example of mob rule, with little intellect or promulgated a new way of life for America. possible. I always felt that FLLW had just higher moral direction: a mobocracy. Wright's best tools as a window to the as great a debt to Dankmar Adler. The motto Horizon Press has devoted years of effort world, besides his architecture, were litera- we had up in Taliesin's kitchen was: "We to the publishing of some 15 books by FLLW. ture and the press, radio and later television. have poetry like that because of prose like This new edition of Genius and the Moboc- When he got the fellowship to the point of this." Adler was the prose that made Sulli- racy is a landmark. In addition to the first 39 practicing real architecture, he granted Ar- van's poetry possible. Sullivan drawings, there are 20 more mag- chitectural Forum an issue in 1938. Editors Wright thought about the book for many nificent drawings never published before and Paul Grotz and George Nelson came to years, but the actual writing of Genius and 55 new photographs by Richard Nickel,

Taliesin to collect material. But I will leave the Mobocracy was started about 1940. Long Aaron Siskind and others of the ornament in in it all the it to them to describe their introduction to coming, was revised, changed, enlarged major Sullivan buildings, from the architecture via FLLW's eyes—and they will and revised again. It was not a book on Sul- Chicago Auditorium to his very last building.

never forget it. livan per se. Read The Autobiography of an The whole format is generous, almost opu- After that, Henry-Russell Hitchcock came Idea, or Morrison or Connely for that. But lent, and ends with Sullivan's tribute to to gather the work for what was to become FLLW could no more write a single-minded Wright's Imperial Hotel. In the Nature of Materials; later there were book on another person than Leonardo da No architect's library should be without more books. We apprentices would hear them Vinci could fly. He could render the facts as this book. I say this with complete partisan- he them, bring his philosophy ship. But in bits and parts—at picnics, in the morning saw forth own then what is architecture without and in the evening. With a burst of laughter, and relate history as he viewed it. His history being partisan? We are all open books: Our Wright would often read something he had was alive—today, everyday and not just a plans, elevations, buildings are real and there to just written, adding, "And that'll tell them." recital of yesterdays. see. And so is this book. To him, much of the world was hostile; the Edgar Tafel, AIA "architectural establishment" was dividing up

the architectural spoils, as if all were a politi- cal election or war: Winner take all. After all, he was hardly considered for any gov- ernment project or even large-scale private

work. How it must have hurt to see the lesser ones obtaining the commissions and design- ing in a "foreign" style!

for In the Nature ol Materials; FLLW and From left to right: FLLW and Henry-Russell Hitchcock in 1939 at the Taliesin Fellowship, preparing copy reviewer at the drafting boards. apprentice Robert K. Mosher, who now practices in Marabella, Spain; FLLW and Hitchcock; FLLW; and the

THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 1972

1 n . The Tight Desert of Taliesin

By Henry Allen past students' tents. Stones them, never stacked, be- creak together under your cause that's the way they do Frank Lloyd Wright enshrined: TALIESIN WEST, Ariz.— footsteps. Lizards flash the fireplaces at Taliesin. through the mesquite and It's a litany that This is desert country, weird They're odd ornaments tends cactus. country, cult country, like for a complex that quiver suddenly on has to run on everywhere at Taliesin." all deserts, with its shrill Or one of the fireplaces of Tal- caught fire four times since noons, and a shimmering si- the outbuildings, lence. Dust devils spook iesin or Wright, his wife Olgivanna fireplaces swept ashlessly and 20 apprentices arrived immaculate, and built on in 1937 in a fleet of cars (all corners in the Frank Lloyd painted Taliesin red, an in- Wright "destroy the square" dustrial primer color that mode, with logs of ponde- coats almost everything rosa pine leaning inside paintable here—floors, beams, desks, lamps) to prove architecture in the de- sert the way Taliesin East

IC) k D

Svetlana Peters and child at the baby's baptism: "Last December, Svetlana Wright: left both Peters and Taliesin and paid Taliesin West, as drawn by \000 to get herself and baby Olga "A sense of perfection as conspicuous

back into the great plastic monster as an awkward silence, as tight as students, architects, of the world out there." the band of 60-odd

Associated Press friends and relatives.' a THE WASHINGTON POST "> .'>

,. ! j PEOPLE- Thunday.March30.m2 TJ 5 The Tight Desert of Taliesin-The Legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright cept that melded Indoors in American architecture. there, most of it working TALIESIN. FYofci DI nished house in a guard-pa- side. She had a way of stop- and outdoors has had to be construction and wiring rich man's enclave ping the conversation in a "Making people appren- trolled wasn't proved it in the hills of choked with modern com- for eight years is buildings, because he had called Mountain Shadows, whole room." tices not Wisconsin. promises such as the plexig- the way to teach architec- Interested in learning the nine miles away. Amin just finished his lass celings that replacei ture in the 20th century," details of architecting. Where there had been two house which, like Reporters started climb- $55,000 Wright's canvas, and the air glut more holocausts, as it hap- says Vincent Scully, archi- There are the usual the walls. Svetlana every other structure on the ing over conditioning that makes it tecture critic and professor of specific grievances that pened, one set by a servant 1,250 acres, them it was "group or foundation's be who butchered Wright's mis- told necessary to keep all the of art history at Yale. "Ant! confuse any separation (both it tent, house or stone shel- communal living" at Talie- doors and windows shut, stuff they're turn- Peters and Svetlana say no tress and her two children Taliesin, this new "authoritarian com- ter, is a pocket the steel as they fled the flames. sin, with and beams replac- ing out looks like imitations divorce is planned.) She fol- with its "desert masonry" mands which I could not ing the wood because of the of old Frank Lloyd Wright says, for instance, that he Except tor the memory of walls of tan rocks suspended fires, there's low without compromising fire hazard—wood being a by people who just saw the made "less than a weekly those a sense in dry-mix concrete, and the fought free- risky building material in a of perfection here as con- ray . . . hard movie of 'The unemployment c h e c k," studio couches, shag rugs, " desert anyhow, it would Fountainhead.' Montooth says senior spicuous as an awkward si- dom" tiger skin, corner fireplace. while seem. a lence, as tight as the band At the alarmed Taliesin, The communal style of liv- architects make $30,000 According to a Taliesin the of 60-odd students, archi- whose matriarch, Mrs. But then, an organic rela- ing is barely that. They year, if you include "all booklet, "Students are given tects, friends and relatives, Wright, had only months tionship between humans claim they all take turns as benefits, the housing and sites in the desert where shepherded by the stern, ago been called "guardian of and deserts would seem to cooks, waiters, maintenance food and so on." they may build cottages of imid-70s Otgivanna. They a great legacy" by Life mag- be a contradiction in terms, men and so on. But, "We try But maybe the final blow their own design." carry on the work of the azine, Peters claimed that a luxurious paradox that to use the girls as servers as was struck last summer, Mrs. ap- master, who died just before Svetlana had been "condi- But Wright must only an aristocrat, financial much as we can," saya archi- when Svetlana got the idea on April 9, 1959, prove all the designs, as Taliesin be- dawn tioned by years of Commu- or spiritual, would conceive. tect Charles Montooth. that everyone at Perfection. Except for the well as everything else at organic plotting the nist training" to reject "the Or a paradox of the Only students wait on lieved she was fires, and the 18-cable pow- Taliesin, and they end up philosophy such as picking a Ultimate Taliesin Horror. real principles of democracy Mrs. Wright. Peters rarely looking like little Taliesins. site where you have to drill She'd suspected they were in action." cooks or waits. But nobody And all of them, no matter 500 feet for water, and then jealous of the publicity she [An odd sort of democ- seems to object. "Wright'a build- what they cost, become the hiding the water tank in a and Peters were getting, but racy, as Taliesin might be "There is a discipline property of the Frank Lloyd tower. here, a sort of invisible dis- it was going too far, she re- ings arc like the first to admit. For one Wright Foundation, one of per- cipline." Mrs. Wright hns members, especially when thing, nobody but Mrs. Sometimes, at night, the communal aspects en- illusion said. you see the met- the two doctors organized a shrines to some Wright votes on anything of haps to enhace the "Here forced by Mrs. Wright, that here in the great tle, the flexibility, the chat with her at Taliesin any importance.) of an oasis primeval earth Svetlana objected to. desert, Wright strength, the weaknesses of East, where the group sum- So 20 months after that American Charles Schiffner, one of would spill bushels of grape- people. Not very many peo- mers, so they could report Quaker wedding in the god." the 18 students who pay fruit into random corners ple can sustain it. We have to Mrs. Wright that Svet- midst of the desert's explo- $2,500 a year to bask in the for disciples to find nnd dropouts scattered all over lana was no real threat. sion of spring flowers, in the erline the government scaf- afterglow of Wright's eccen- gather on their way to the world." Strange that Svetlana midst of all that talk about William Wesley Peters, director of Taliesin folded across their sunset, tric but energetic concepts breakfast. That discipline is totally would home in on that one love and mystical coinci- West and Svetlana's husband. and the motels and shopping of apprenticeship ( appren- There are no more grape- invisible when it comes to phobia but it only seemed dence, Svetlana's name mails and housing projects tices built and are still fruit, and no more cars the eight-year academic cur- natural to West Whitney, a to evoke winces of creeping out from Phoenix, began building Taliesin West for buildings in the foothills of ing, paradoxes of some per- painted red. They still have riculum. No courses are re- 19-year-old student working patience at Taliesin, through Scottsdale now a tired him) blames the Svetlana the MacDowell Range, ma- ception so basic that the the formal Saturday nights, quired, except morning con- in the kitchen last summer, had to keep two liles and Taliesin hassle on the fact that "she sonry topped with huge red- houses themselves are the however, and there's no sign struction labor, the Satur- that Mrs. Wright looked dutiful explan- neon metastasis of old folks churning out had troule understanding wood beams, a building that final statements of what of drug use, and little of day party and the Sunday "very, very disturbed," one "Mrs. Wright " prowling around in rent-a- ations that Ihe c lity was "of the land, not on it." they are. untenable frag- haphazard sexuality. (Most lecture. There is no library. day when she stalked into cars, and rich folks dressed went way out of her way for as Wright would preach in ments of a unique aware- of the disciples are single, Field trips lake students to the kitchen in an amaze- like they just played golf Svetlana," as the popular his evangelism for "organic ness. separated or divorced, which buildings designed by no ment of fear and indigna- with Bob Hope, and the sort phrase still has it. They architecture." The architects at Taliesin may account for the oppres- one but Frank Lloyd tion, and informed the of air-conditioned hopeful," they help, in a stunning Mexican were all "so Wright's buildings, when may be doing "ten times as sive sense of monastic isola- Wright. kitchen restaurants where just hid foreshortening of her impe- people say. "But Svetlana "Here you see the they justify the fame their much business as we did tion). "You can see other peo- are always singing after the distance, that Svetlana "Happy in her apartment designer gained, are like during Mr. Wright's life- But not many people take ples' buildings everywhere," rious Birthday," and Svellana. mettle, the flexi- told her, just now, that first month or two." shrines to some primeval time," as one of them, John either the school or the Tal- says Bob Cooperider, who had Especially Svetlana, con- to place ought to It's a litany that tends earth god, frighteningly Rattenbury, claimed. But iesin work very seriously left Taliesin in December "this whole sidering the wild enthusi- Talie- bility, the strength, the run on everywhere at stark but lavishly envelop- the original organic con- anymore as a major direction after spending five years be burned to ground." asm she aroused in them be- living sm—in the famous the weaknesses of fore _shc even arrn ed In with the two busts of room n ""March. 1970 as SVeUann aT Wright or the 96-foot draft- people. liluycva. daughter of Stalin, in? room overseen by a and darling of American in- giant photograph of Wright, the students, has spent over telligentsia since her defec- or at the 7 a.m. choral prac- three years here. He enunci- tion from Russia in J9G7— tice he instituted or the ates softly, slowly, perfectly. and wilder excitement, after dance to music Mrs. Wright He appears to focus his doey she married Taliesin's chief composes, sometimes by record- green eyes somewhere in architect, William Wesley crooning into a tape sleep the middle of your skull. Peters, 22 days later, on er when she can't • back there in her sanctuary "There are some who April 7—a perfect match, it with her huge, black, bejew- come and don't understand. seemed, in the way thins? elled Great Dane, Fiera. But then, no one can know are perfect only at Taliesin. the mini-Taliesins what it is. After she left She was named Svetlana. Or at smattered across the desert Mrs. Wright told us in -me for one thing, the name of with their corner fireplaces of her Sunday talks (like the Wright daughter who and leaning logs, and the Wright, she lectures every had widowed Peters i.i < perfect little collections of Sunday morning) that Svet- crash, and Mrs. 194H car Taliesin chachka, the animal lana can't help herself." Wright gave the final bless^* skins and chambered nauti- Svetlana doesn't remem- in», as far as Taliesm was luses and Bodhisattvas— ber being puzzled as much concerned when she said: style right out of intellec- as bored and exasperated. is not a physical resembl- like their i "It tual 1959, just Like the first time .she to our daughter, but ance turned out for one of Talie- fills image to perfec- she the sin's picnics in the sort of " "But then, an or- tion La Costc or Peck &, Peck If she was small and suburban matron's dress she was tall ganic relationship sturdy while Peters favors, and somebody asked he 57, and rangy, she 44. between humans her: "Don't you want to look they shared a thoughtful a little more picturesque?" shyness, and lifetimes spent atttl deserts would Which is what the Talie- whose powers had with men sin style is all about pictur- Khrushchev said seem to be a contra- — inspired, as csqueness, a grand style in personal- of Stalin, "cults of the tradition of one of Wright diction in terms.*" is" il'eters calls America's last truly grand architect "the pre-eminent artists—that early-century cocktail parties every Satur- in history.") Paris style of Wyndham day night, as if someone had She deals with the world Lewis, say, with his broad- lifted a summer theater with Russian facility for brimmed hats and huge, a workshop from Martha's flashing from glee to grim- floppy neckties. Or the pur- Yin ard nade reli- mo- ple tuxedos or white plastic ness and back again in a [ iplete with the ' and nerv- boots one of the men might ment- He is grave gentle young men loping wear at the ritual Saturday ous, with bottom teeth that tensely under the bougain- night dinners, and Mrs. are beveled down from villea in Bermuda shorts Wright making one her years of wary pondering, and sandals. of famous entrances with perhaps. He is loyal and "She'd (Svellana) get this all the glaring gravity of her friendly. When he smiles, he look on her face as if she Balkan heritage as daughter looks as it he's not quite weren't even there," says of the chief justice of Mon- sure if he should. Kamal Amin, an Egyptian tenegro. Entering an hour They had a child. Olga architect who joined Talie- late at a Phoenix parly, for and the bliss of a hermitage sin in 1952. instance, trailing five or six idyll, outsiders assumed. "I Ihink she was uncom- of her young male students, (They call the rest of the fortable when she wasn't in charge. She lost interest according to one Phoenix so- world "outsiders" at Talie- when Ihe conversation had ciety figure. nothing to do with her. She Picturesque. Before the Last December. Svetlana would come out with these government strung that left both Peters and Taliesin sure-fire answers, just say power line, and progress get her- and paid $50,000 to "No, it isn't so,' or something rimmed the valley with sch and baby Olga back into like that. Inside she's very smog, Taliesin provided one i he ^rcai plastic monster of tough, you know. Very lyri- splendid view after another the world out there, a fur- cal, sometimes, but tough in- from its graceful recline of *w

\i->

rc

>

I

THE REPUBLICANS are in trouble, alright, especially in the Sonoma town of Cotati, where the poor devils even trail the Peace & Freedom Party! Latest registration figures: Demos 566, P&F.204, GOP 194—and yes, the fact that Sonoma State College is located there does have a lot to do with

it . . . Frank Llovd Wright's brick 'igloo" in Maid- en Lane, built tor the late V. C. Morris' glassware anci later an art gallery, transmogrifies on Mav 22 into Helga Howie's. Helga, owner of the celebrated

rptiUllaUe lor 1 POlltiqn^ on Haeitif will usTThe

Wright gem as h er "shownlace-showcase" . . . Urban renewal: City Planner Allan Jacobs has lost 10 pounds (doctor's orders) and is trying for 20

more (wife's) . . . Small town news: The city has ordered Lew Bennett to remove the thriving zuc- chini plant from the front of his Nob Hill digs as "dangerous to passersby" — like, the plant was snapping at 'em? Lew's neighbors, given to steal- ing the zucchini for their salads, are desolate. —

Wright's coffin was an unfinished pine box. A terra- cotta velvet curtain was draped over the sides. Until that afternoon, the velvet drape had hung with its mate, in Wright's Taliesin Playhouse, adjacent to the living room, where his students—the Fellowship held their Sunday Evening Musical Occasions. Hundreds of petunia plants in small red-clay pots were scattered throughout the room. Blue, pink and delicate purple flowers were everywhere. Wright had loved flowers in every room. The people came to say good-by to Wright, their world-famous neighbor. One of the Spring Green women was explaining to her friend, who had never

been inside the house: "When I, dust those high windows I always stand on a small ladder. You know, Mr. Wright invented the clerestory and the picture windows." She was one of the local women, who Htdrfch-Bltsslna helped with the household chores when Taliesin was Tallesten, Fhmk Lloyd Wrlght'i horn* in Wisconsin reopened after the long, bitter Wisconsin winter. In previous years, the students and the Wrights returned home from Taliesin West, in the Arizona desert, in Wright's Funeral: May. The state police had closed all the roads leading into Taliesin. There were many sightseers, but the police barriers kept them out of the "Valley," which A Remembrance now appeared to be deserted. How still it was as we waited at the small family By ROSALIE ROBBINS TONKENS chapel. Wright's great-uncles had built the chapel in the early eighteen-fifties. The land belonged to Thirteen years ago, on April 9, 1959, Frank Lloyd had Lloyd-Jones's, Wright's mother's family. The chapel Wright died in Phoenix, Ariz. His home, Taliesin, in the stood at the edge of the family burial grounds where the state where he was born, Wisconsin, was 2,000 "girls" planted Balm-of-Gilead miles away. A panel truck transported the body across years ago, the had trees, and Lombardy Poplars. Wright's mother, her the United States back home for the funeral on April 13. parents, her sisters, brothers and their children were buried in the family plot. Mrs. Wright had requested that only the students Taliesin—the word is Welsh and it means "shining from Taliesin — it was also Wright's school — and brow"—was high up from the valley where we stood the residents of Spring. Green attend the funeral. Continued on Page Col. Spring Green, in Sauk County, Wis., had a population 11, 8 of 1,146 in 1959. Mrs. Lloyd Lewis, the widow of the newspaper publisher in Libertyville, 111., and I were the only "outsiders" in the tiny chapel. Wright had designed and built a home for each of us. At each anniversary of the funeral I recall the events of the day as vividly as I recall that vivid person himself. The coffin was placed in front of the natural stone fireplace in his Taliesin living room outside Spring Green. His long silver-blue hair was brushed back from his forehead and he was dressed in a raw-silk, beige suit. 11

Wright's Funeral

Continued from Pctg« I waiting. At 5 o'clock, tun- down, the bell in the weaii. ered gray chapel belfry began tolling. The man who was Wright's son-in-law, Wil- pulling on the heavy rope, liam Wesley Peters, and his tolling the bell, stood next to secretary, Gene Massalink, me on the chapel lawn. He were driving the wagon and looked familiar. holding the leather reins. "I seem to remember you Mrs. Wright and their daugh- from somewhere," I said. ter, Iovanna, walked directly "Of course you know me," behind the farm wagon. Then he answered, "I'm the bar- came the students. tender at the hotel in Spring Sadly, we waited for the Green, the Dutch Cupboard." horse-drawn bier to reach the "Why are you ringing the chapel grounds. Wright, the bell for Mr. Wright?" I asked. farm boy who had designed "I'm the town undertaker, homes and buildings that too," he replied. dignified man as an individ- While the bell was tolling ual, was coming to his final and echoing throughout the home. hills and valleys, the funeral The open grave was lined procession started from the with soft green pine boughs. main house and moved slow- As Wright's body was being ly down into the valley. Two lowered into the ground, work horses that had pulled Gene Massalink read Wright's the plows for the spring poem, "Work Song." planting that morning were The Unitarian service was pulling the flat, rough- over. The sun had set and planked grain wagon on evening came quickly. We which Wright's coffin rested. who had loved Wright turned Dark green fir boughs, cut away after we had said that morning, were strewn good-by. around the coffin. The terra- cotta velvet curtain lay softly Mrs. Tonkens, who now re- above the myriad boughs. sides here, has lived in One young green pine spray a home designed by Frank was laid on the top of the Lloyd Wright in Cincinnati. coffin.

iViW tfo'fc \ ityi>£.

J Since fatal shootout

Heavy security at Marin Courthouse

By ROBERT I. PACK become front page news Haley's courtroom, as he did ble to enter the buildings SAN -Unlike the around the world after she an- without going through the RAFAEL on Aug. 7, 1970, he would find Texas School Book Depository nounced that she was a these changes have been metal detector and the search in Dallas, where markers member of the Communist made since then: by deputies of clothing and point out the spot where Pres- party and the University of packages. —Everyone entering the ident John F. Kennedy was California Board of Regents Hall of Justice and the County And Frank Lloyd Wright assassinated nearly nine years decided not to renew her con- Administration Building must might be surprised to learn of ago, there is nothing around tract as an instructor of philos- pass through a metal detector the heavy security measures the Marin County Civic Center ophy at UCLA. and the events of Aug. 7, 1970, i n the presence of two here to indicate that a county Miss Davis is currently led sheriff's deputies. Jonathan which to them, in quiet, judge was slain here in being tried in San Jose on Jackson, who was killed that peaceful, "Marvelous Marin." August 1970. kidnap charges of murder, day, never would have made Judge Harold J. Haley of and conspiracy in the wake of it past the door of the Hall of Marin here. She was County Superior Court the shootout Justice with the guns he was four was one of men killed in originally to have been tried carrying. a hail of gunfire at the Civic here, but her case was trans- —The Civic Center is heavi- Center on Aug. 7, 1970, after ferred to Santa Clara County ly patrolled by armed depu- four gunmen tried to abduct after she requested a change ties. At least 12 were visible Haley and four other hostages. of venue. on the second level of the Hall The other three dead men Residents of Santa Clara of Justice, which houses the had kidnaped Haley, Assistant and San Mateo counties would county's courtrooms. Dist. Atty. Gary Thomas and differences notice two major —The elevator which the three women jurors from between the Marin County four kidnapers used to herd Haley's courtroom. Thomas is Civic Center and their own their five hostages from the confined to a wheelchair for county administration build- courtroom level to the ground life as result a a of bullet ings: floor below no longer runs to which severed his spine that —Marin's Civic Center was -the ground floor. And the day. designed by famed architect lobby where the party The fourth kidnaper, Ru- Frank Lloyd Wright. emerged from the elevator chell Magee, a San Quentin in- before walking through the mate who was to have tes- —Elaborate security precau- parking lot to the van rented tified in the case Haley was tions have been put into effect by Jonathan Jackson is sealed hearing Aug. 7, was wounded at the Marin County office off. but survived. He will go on buildings here since the trial here next month on murder of Judge Haley. —Iron bars have been erect- charges of murder, kidnap, If Jonathan Jackson, the 17- ed over a plate glass window conspiracy and assault. y e a r - o 1 d brother of Miss and doors which give access The shootout became an Davis's alleged "lover by from the courtroom level to a event of worldwide magnitude, mail,'' Soledad Brother hill which climbs all the way however, because black mili- George Jackson, were still up to that level at one point. tant Angela Davis was linked alive and were to try to smug- The sum of the new security

with it. She had already gle three guns into Judge measures is that it is impossi- I

Scene of the shootout The Marin County Civic Center, notorious as the site of the shootout in which four persons were killed, is shown in this view from the west side of the Hall of Justice, showing the hall, the South Arch and the County Administration Building.

J

2 pa I

' * I

HH JQrVV* I

May 23, 1972

Mr. David S. Jacobson 388 Lathrop Building 770 Welch Road Palo Alto, California 9^304

Dear Dave:

Thanks for the clipping on the

Wright house. It was kind of you to think of us in this connection.

Jean and I send you our best regards.

Cordially,

Paul R. Hanna

PRH:bl s

-son

402

May 23, 1972

Mr. George L. Peterson Staff Editor Experience, Inc. 1930 Dain Tower Minneapolis, Minnesota 55^02

Dear George:

Thank you very much for your thoughtfulness in sending me the news item concerning one of Wright* s houses. It has added to our extensive library of Wright materials.

I am delighted with your observations of the Hamline Library. I am sure that it will be a true learning center for the University and Hamline* wider community.

It was good of you to express the hope that Jean and I might be back at Hamline soon. We are definitely planning to return for the 50th anniversary, but may not get back much before that time.

Jean and I send you our warmest regards.

Cordially,

Paul R. Hanna

PRH:bl BJfjiJLL

1

^m

...... Mg |

i., June 16, 1,972 THE MINNEAPOLIS STAR

I

Institute

will get I Wright hallway

This hallway (above) in Frank Lloyd Wright's Francis W. Little house in Wayzata will be disassem- bled in a few weeks, stored and reassembled in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in late 1973, mu- seum officials announced today. The house was bought several months ago by the Metropolitan French doors. It is "much representative of Museum of Art in New more Wright than some of the York to keep it from be- ing destroyed. The Metro- larger rooms," said the in- stitute's associate direc- politan will install the liv- Mandle. ing room (right) of the tor, Roger house in its expanded 5 American Wing and is of- ~". fering other rooms to mu- seums at cost. The hall- - way, about 18 feet long, P contains 10 windows, a window seat and two I f3->*i>ok* n/?> /£*?/>/ e ^cAW

J7rr>v& (f-r :

Nm ^UJ T^r,^sTT^-H^ ^ ,'fy t f^J^MJd^ "h 4A U Wry® *»£e^^

V : y v~^

June 20, 1972

New York Times 229 West 43 Street New York City, New York

Gentlemen

Would you please send me, with a bill, the New York Times for May 15, 1972.

Sincerely,

Paul R. Hanna PRH:ae ,

/

i June 21, 1972

Mr. Tom McClain 1119 Overlook Road Marion, Indiana 46952

Dear Mr. McClain:

Recently we noticed an advertisement in the Playboy Club magazine concerning the sale of Frank Lloyd Wright's "Woodside". Inasmuch as we built and live in "Honeycomb", designed for I

us by Wright on the Stanford Campus , we are much interested in keeping track on any of the Wright buildings. Do you have any information that you could spare by way of newspaper clippings, bulletins, etc., that we could add to our library?

Sincerely yours I

Paul R. Hanna PRH:ae . —

Why Were Bankers Warned That This "New Book Could Upset the Savings Applecart"* How to Make Up to 13 Vi % or More on Your Savings AH Fully Insured

There are many things banks don't like to talk about. They don't like to talk about the fact that they do, indeed, pay interest rates of 8%, 10%, 13Vz%, and often more, to a select group of knowledgeable depositors!

What's the difference between these men and women and you? Simply this that they know About the Authors certain "inside" techniques of depositing and Martin J. Meyer is president of the Na- withdrawing their savings (all perfectly legal, in- tional Depositors Cooperative Association. cidentally) that you don't! And—therefore they He also serves as Vice President and Sec- earn two to three times as much interest on those retary of Intercept Tele-Communications, savings as you do! Like this . . Inc., a new international cable and tele- graphic interception and forwarding orga- nization. Mr. Meyer has written numerous Would It Be Worth An Extra Ten Minutes magazine articles on banking, thrift, and A Month To You—To Bring Home Two Or inflation.

Three Times As Many Dollars From Your Dr. Joseph M. McDaniel, Jr., recently Savings As You're Getting Today? elected President of the World Health Organization, was Secretary of the Ford until retirement The procedure is simple. But to put it to work Foundation from 1953 his for you, tomorrow, you have to know these few in 1967 and Dean of the School of Com- "smart-money" facts: merce at Northwestern University. His distinguished career includes government 1. Most thrifty people in this country today are service with the Economic Cooperative actually losing money on their savings. The inter- Association. est they get from a regular bank account is actu- ally far less than the lost purchasing power that Special Warning Section: inflation cuts right out of their savings. Two common mis- takes, that unknowingly trap thousands of deposi- is our This one of the great social tragedies of tors every that 3. It is based on one simple fact: That most year, could completely destroy time. It means that if you are thrifty and prudent your savings! in this country today, you are penalized. Either depositors are completely passive about where and they save their the And how to defer income tax on the interest you are driven to speculate in the stock market. how money! They never take one or two hours that are necessary to learn the you get. Two plans that offer marvelous tax-shel- men H

>-> K

"Architectural Shrines Are Expensive Homes

BY WILLIAM STEPHENS The first time it rained, Brown "I even offered to give it to the Times Staff Writer found out his roof leaked. city, provided I could live here until

Gus Brown stared at his huge, "Wright was notorious for bad I died," he said. "But they would

empty living room. roofs," he said. "The original owner only do it if 1 moved out."

"You want to know what it's like called Wright to complain that the Brown said that after he pays his

living in an architectural shrine?" roof leaked on his bed. Wright told property tax, there is not much left. he asked. "It's expensive." him to move his bed." Consequently, he and his wife live The 61-year-old insurance man Brown spent $15,000 just to re- rather humbly in their famous

and his wife live in the Frank Lloyd waterproof the house. home. There is little furniture. Wright- designed Ennis House, Brown said he wants to restore the But Brown insisted, "1 won't sell

which sits like a fortress in the hills 48-year-old, Mayan-inspired house the house. I only want to see it fall above the Los Feliz district. as authentically as possible. He into good hands. "I was already building another wrote Wright's widow in Arizona He said some of his friends do not house in Beverly Hills when I saw for the original plans and called in care for the place.

this place," Brown said. "I fell in their son, Lloyd, as a consultant. "I'll admit the exterior is forbid- love with it." But many of the original fixtures ding," Brown said. "But once they difficult to replace. The 4-year love affair has been a have been The get inside, most of them like it." front wrought iron gate alone would rocky one. Actually, the interior is cheerful. cost $15,000 to repair. "The previous owner let Holly- rooms are drenched with light "Owning this house is like owning The wood film 'The House on Haunted any other work of art," Brown said. during the day and large picture Hill' here," Brown said. "The place "I feel responsible for it and enjoy windows offer spectacular views of has been a target for vandals ever restoring it even though it's more of both the Los Angeles Basin and since." a project than I figured." Griffith Park. The House was built for Los An- geles shoe manufacturer Charles Ennis at a cost of $300,000. /#*>£ "It's one of the original concrete block houses," Brown said. The house has its good features. House Shudders Slightly During last year's earthquake, Brown said, his massive house shud- dered slightly. "But there wasn't a single crack or bit of damage. Wright was also famous for building disaster-proof buildings." Although the house has 5,000 square feet of floor space, there are only two bedrooms. Each room in the house has a fireplace. The four bathrooms have sunken bathtubs. There is a billiard room, a study and a servant's house. Despite the expense of living in an architectural monument, Brown doubts he will move. He has invited architecture classes from USC to hold seminars in his house, and he lets architecture buffs tour the place if they write him for permission. "I just had some people out here from Taliesin West, the Frank Lloyd Wright colony in Arizona," Brown said. "I was showing them some of the restoration I've been doing. "I guess I'm like most home- owners. I enjoy showing people around my house."

i THE BR IGHT INLXERIORINJERJilOR — Brown chats with DennisDean is Tuberty,Tuberty. a studentstuck at Wright's architecture^school fit>Sx mid&r *» - urnff 0*r*Jj 3

I

3

-a o

c o

I E o

c o o

c o

CD

o to c o m i O H X ui z a o CD Otc X I- ,

September 7, 1972

Mr. L. S. Shoen c/o Amerco 2721 North Central Phoenix, Arizona 85036

Dear Sam:

An event just passed and one upcoming tomorrow generates this letter.

I recently met Joe Price in the Clipper Club room at the San Francisco Airport. If I understand him correctly, you have purchased the Price house done by Frank Lloyd Wright in Phoenix. Mr. Wright and Mrs. Price took us through this house soon after it was built. It has been one of our most admired Wright residences. If it is correct that you now own it, I congratulate you and also say how fortu- nate that another of Wright's residences is in the hands of someone who will live in it properly and maintain it in mint condition.

The about- to-iiappen event is that I go for my second confrontation with the monster at the AML tomorrow. I recall with pleasure my encounter a year ago in July.

The next time you come to the Bay Area, let us know and we'll try to get together.

Cordially yours

Paul R. Hanna

PHH : ae o H o w

22 CHICAGO DAILY NEWS, Thursday, Oct. 5, 1972 Wright's studio up for sale By Robert Signer the grass and nestled gently NOW WRIGHT'S original amid trees When Frank Lloyd Wright and foliage. house and studio, at 951 Chi- was a young man, he dreamed Still in his 20s, he built a cago Av. in the near west sub- abut a new architecture that house and studio for himself urb, are up for sale. The ask- he hoped to bring to America, out in Oak Park, where today ihg price is in the area of an architecture as | native to there are 25 Wright homes. $400,000, according to agents i this country as temples to Each is an important part of for the Avenue Realty and Greece and pyramids of the famed Prairie School of Mortgage Co. of Oak Park. . Architecture that Wright and The unsettled, and potential- He envisioned light, open his comtempories founded and ly worrisome, question is: houses slung low over the land- nurtured in Carl Sandburg's What happens to the historic scape, hugging the earth and brash city by the lake. work after it is sold?

Mrs. Clyde Warren Nooker, the owner and, with her fami- I

I ly, resident for more than 25 years, is very much concerned about the building's fate. She believes a purchaser's pri- mary obligations are restor- ing the 25-room house and keeping it accessible to the public.

"IT IS ONE of the most im- portant architectural struc- tures in the country," she said. "We feel it should be a mu- seum to Frank Lloyd Wright's work. It should be furnished throughout with his original furniture and should have his works here available for view- Frank Lloyd Wright's home ing." at 951 Chicago Av., Oak Park. (Daily News Photo/Bill Luga) De- There are no firm legal pro- tections under either state law Council. "Any purchaser could But beyond that, the or village ordinance, however. com- they would continue to use it do what he wishes with the in- mission An Oak Park ordinance lists has no control. "We've as (Mrs. Nooker^ has." terior or the exterior." 50 works designed by Wright been in existence now for MRS. PEG HARVEY, a or his contemporaries as salesperson for Avenue Realty, being ROBERT BELL, a member about seven or eight months, of the "first significance" said a number of private indi- in of the Oak Park and we've had no requests for the Landmark viduals Prairie School. But the list- and some foundations Commission, said the commis- permits referred to us for rec- ing gives no real have shown inrerest protection. sion can in pur- review requests for ommendations," he said. "Neither that chasing the house. house nor any permits to demolish or to However, he stressed that "We are very others of Wright are pro- concerned to make major alterations in a there is "no particular tected," threat preserve the historical value of said Richard A. Mil- building and make recommen- to the building now that we are this ler, president of the property," she said. She Chicago dations to the village's board aware of. If a private party said a completed contract Landmarks Preservation of trustees. is buys it, I would imagine that not imminent. (Qtttaso {Tribune

Thursday, October 5, 1972

Frank Lloyd Wright's former home at 951 Chicago Av. in Oak Park up for sale. Wright Landmark for Sale

BY ALVJN NAGELBERG Wright raised six children in the rooms. The house and studio designed the house. It has seven bedrooms and by Frank Lloyd Wright and in "It's a wonderful place to seven Ibathrooms. The lot which he lived and worked in live in," Mrs. Nooker said. "It measures 90 by 205 feet. as archi- The house is one of 57 prime for 20 years is up for sale. is functional as well examples of the Prairie School The 25-room home at 951 tecturally wonderful." price tag on of Architecture in the historic Chicago Av., Oak Park, is be- She hasn't put a listing thru landmark district established ing sold by Mrs. Clyde Warren the property. The Mortgage Park last year. Nooker, who has lived in the Avenue Realty and by Oak "open Robert Bell, chairman of the residence for more than 25 Co. said the price was put t'ne Oak Park Landmarks Com- years. to offer." Mrs. Nooker because her mission, said he hopes that a Since 1966, she and her late house up for sale body, such as the vil- husband have had the house husband, a consulting engi- public year. lage or the park district, buys owen for public tours. "It was neer, died earlier this house combines most of the property and opens at

the Great Easterns t Decline of v\ c \i c q Sooo -Vra cxasy\"\\ v>>t-V- Memory Is a Grand Hotel

By T. D. Allman V'V;^''^^ conditioner and let the cool desert air, Manchester Guardian scented by the river, flow in from the balcony. I saw a woman, in cloche nom Penh hat, a trench coat hugged around her, THEY LINGER on like dispos- alight from a black car and race into sessed grand-nieces of Queen Vic- the lobby, rouse the night porter in a toria, shockingly aged, barely keeping low voice, and disappear down one of up pretenses, waiting to die, their for- the endless corridors on some errand mer glamor turned to mold behind of the night. cobwebs the servants no longer Who was to prove that it was not bother to brush away. Greta Garbo? And the year 1935, at were born in an age that had They another Grand Hotel, in Shanghai, high ceilings and French windows in- not Khartoum? stead of rattling air-conditioners, ele- I have written about the Strand gant suites on stately ocean liners in- Hotel in Rangoon before. But only stead of cramped three-abreast seats recently in Australia I met a on jet airbuses. They reached full man who had read that article. He said: bloom when men still dressed in "It reminded me of the time years black ties every night for dinner, and ago I was sitting in the lobby of the traveling ladies habitually engaged Strand Hotel with a friend. said, two first-class railway compartments He 'All we need to it complete — one for themselves, the other for make now is Somerset sitting their maids and wardrobes of dresses. Maugham over in that corner.' A few minutes later, to They were already old by the time our astonishment, Somerset Maugh- propeller planes could carry Roose- am did walk in, and sit in that corner. velt, Churchill or Stalin to Tehran, It was his last trip to the Far East." Casablanca or Yalta. They are the grand hotels of the East. HE DAY OF the great eastern Now they are very old, senile in T,hotel is finished. There is an Inter- fact, and have a tendency to die off Tokyo's Imperial Hotel, now demolished continental across the street from the suddenly, intestate, without mourn- Palace in Karachi now, an Oberoi in ers. They burn down, like Shepherd's Katmandu, a Hilton in Madagascar. in , or are torn down, like the Great Eastern was littered with Karachi which has twin cupolas said One can fly from country to country, Imperial in Tokyo. hordes of imaginatively maimed and to have been inspired by the breasts from hotel to hotel, never experienc- leprous beggars, orphaned and un- of the indiscreet wife of a very dis- ing a single fluctuation in the tem- * * # * washed shoeshine boys, braying rick- creet British governor. perature of the room or the shape of T THINK OF them as "great east- shaw drivers, columns of superfluous the ice cubes ordered by dialing the J- ern hotels," after the first of their I have watched history being emaciated and useless coolies who, same code on the bedside telephone. sorority to made from the balcony of the Hotel whom I was presented, the falling over themselves and each oth- Great Eastern Hotel in Le Royal in Phnom Penh, which has Calcutta. er, took longer to carry one's suit- Surely the loveliest bougainvilleas, the sur- no building in that entire city cases into the lobby than one would so liest waiters, the best crepes de epi- personifies Calcutta's magnificent have oneself. tawdriness, its examplars of every ds and the smelliest lift in Asia. human form stripped to its essence, as the Great Eastern Hotel does. in Knartoum, nexi io tne urand Hotel is a new thing called the Hotel Sudan where the rooms are cooler, the service quicker, the food of inter- Inside, in the moist twilight of the national standard. But I for one pre-

1 In Khartoum, the Sudanese ver- '''by, a desk clerk with while teeth, fer to sit out with the mosquitoes and sion of the great eastern hotel is shiny suit and greased hair, filled out the sounds of the night, drinking called the Grand Hotel. It overlooks I first saw the" Great Eastern Ho- a Dickensian ledger, flourished tar- warm beer beside the Blue Nile. the blue Nile. Not far from its ter- tel at dawn, with the sheeted dead, as nished room keys and dog-eared tour- There is too little romance left in races, the Blue Nile joins the White Kipling called the street sleepers of ist brochures and offered to change the world and too much standardiza- Nile to form the River of the Phar- Calcutta, just beginning to rouse my dollars on the black market. tion. And if we manage, somehow, to aohs. themselves to life. wind up napalmed, we surely will Since then I have ridden ' out a find in plastic. The pavement in front of the dust-storm in the Palace Hotel in At night I used to shul off the air- ourselves embalmed

/ S.F. Sunday Examiner & Chronicle, Sunday Punch, October 8, 1972

/* JSSS&V""* (6S6V r>

•(oioqd aoeiiBM u°a) {§S6l 192V) 1H0IUM 0X011 NNVdd--}' saivis aaiiNn rfc^ GENERAL APPRAISAL COMPANY 111 Pine Street San Francisco, California 94111 (415)781-3137

October 24, 1972

Mr. Darrell Pearson General Secretary Encina Ball, Room 301 Stanford, California 94305

Tie: Paul R. Hanna Residence

Dear Sir: %0% The General Appraisal Company estimates that the^f% Life Interest of the Fair Market Value of the Property Improvements as located at 737 Frenchmans Road, Stanford, California, as of the date of our appraisal September 25, 1972, is as follows:

Fair Market Value determined $254,119.00

£6% of Fair Market Value #0rsseroo

7 i / *e, it is our opinion that remainder, interest as of September 25, 1972, it

Respectfully submitted,

GENERAL APPRAISAL COMPANY

R/ H. Sites Area Manager

RES:ct

C. h. Prior, ASA Appraiser

An American Appraisal Associates Company «Jh a o

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHTU JmtfwSiO WRIGHT FRANK UOYD WRIGHT FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT mm.

FRANK LLOTO WRIGHT FRANK ~ LLOYD WRIGHT FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT FRANKJJ.OXD.WIUI

/??* frtmm •••••5

• li mil ,5 I

T A L I E S I N Si season's SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA Professor & Mrs. Paul Hanna 737 Frenchman's Road ** amino- Stanford, California 94305 \)( C ember ^12.

Hive yourself tl\e

m. JMH mm

PJaVft •ma Eur The prow-shaped, glass end of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation's mobile home

minum in earth-tone colors, and the Taliesin in the avoidance of unnecessary trim contrib- Trailer Park ute to a fully integrated design. The Despite the late Frank Lloyd Wright's emphasis on the horizontal "earth line" legacy of personal shrines for wealthy is reminiscent of Wright's "prairie clients, he was always interested in houses." low-cost housing. That dream is now The second feature that makes Swa- being realized by the organization that back's project unique grew out of the he founded. The Frank Lloyd Wright realization that mobile homes are on Foundation at Taliesin West, near the road less than 1 per cent of the Scottsdale, Arizona, is not only a school time. Most are moved only once—from for young architects but also an ener- the factory to their destination. They getic architectural firm. Run by are purchased not because they are Wright's widow, Olgivanna, the office mobile but because they are inexpen- is home for thirty-five of the master's sive. Once the buyers of a home are disciples. One of them, Vernon D. established in a mobile park, they us- Swaback, has designed a mobile home ually personalize their dwelling by pur- that will soon be marketed for less than chasing "add-on" components. Until

$6,000 and is true to the Wright es- now such components have not been thetic of "organic architecture"—the available from the manufacturer but harmonious blending of structures with only from suppliers dealing solely in their natural settings. the "add-on" business. The integrity of

Swaback 's basic design, being manu- Swaback's design can be maintained factured by National Mobile Homes, a because the manufacturer will also pro- division of National Homes Corpora- duce patios, trellises, screens, fences, tion, incorporates a pair of novel con- cupolas, and planting boxes. These are cepts. The first is a break with the treated not just as cosmetic elements traditional "trailer" look. One end of but as integral parts of the design. the structure has floor-to-ceiling win- Swaback says that the trend is now dows and is shaped like the prow of a toward selling mobile park space, al- ship. If two of the homes are placed though most parks are still run on a together in the increasingly popular rental basis. His hope is that pride of "doublewide" manner, the "box-with- land and home ownership may result wheels" stigma completely disappears. in a demand for better design. Swa- Nor does Swaback's mobile home try back and the Frank Lloyd Wright to resemble an English coach, a Swiss Foundation have models on the draw- chalet, or an Early American colonial. ing boards; other designers could take a Strong, horizontal lines, textured alu- cue from the people at Taliesin West.

1--ci( U i e >v j: S^f f\& w e v / r* ftl POPULAR MECHANICS

Frank Lloyd Wright magic for mobile homes

That aluminum shoe-box look for the house that arrives on wheels may be replaced by something better. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Taliesin West, Scottsdale, Ariz., has designed the smartly styled 12x71- footer (left) plus plans for fitting out up to 50 variations of three basic single and double-width models into a "harmonious community develop- ment." National Homes, Lafayette, Ind., is building the mobile homes. The first, on display at Arizona Mo- bile Home Industries in Phoenix, is priced under $10,000, has floor-to- ceiling picture windows with wood- type trim, interior decor and furniture and outdoor landscaping. JULY 1973 113 SoCt, R&\)\ ±ud «*L «il/i ecus ^73 ' CO H

Pel

leaded glass windows in the eight .separate sashes on the west front of the house. But Little argued that this would cut out the light and interfere with the view of the lake at the foot of the slope on which the house was situated. After much ar argument, Wright settled for mainly plate-glass windows, decorated around the edges with a geometric design of pieces of coloured glass held together by leaded mull ions. THE ARCHITECTURAL The whole effect was of a long REVIEW decorated picture window which SEPTEMBER 1973 made the most of the view, instead VOLUME CLIV of competing with it. NUMBER 919 In 1971. Edgar Tafel, who winked with 50p Wright in the '30s and Don Loveness. a former client of Wright's, heard that the present WRIGHT INSIDE owners of Northome were about to Northome House, the last great demolish it. It was impossible to statement of Frank Lloyd Wright's move the house elsewhere and Prairie School style, was the second preserve it in its entirety, so they house he built for Francis Little and brought it to the attention of his wife. The Littles were active architect Arthur Rosenblatt of the founding members of the Art Metropolitan Museum of Art in Institute of Chicago and it was New York who negotiated to buy probably there that they first met the house for the Museum. In Frank Lloyd Wright. They were March 1972 the contract was inventive, creative people with a signed, and the house dismantled. strong interest in music—the living The living room will be re-erected room of Northome was conceived as in the addition to the American a recital room. They were also wing which is being built to cele- determined people and the building brate the bicentennial of the of Northome was fraught with American Revolution in 1976. Other arguments between them and the rooms have been sold to museums architect. A letter dated 6 February around the country— the library 1912 says: T would prefer to have went to the Allentown Art Museum. you rather than anyone design our Pennsylvania and is to be exhibited made a in an extension designed by Edgar house . . . (but) you have very strong but unsuccessful effort Tafel. The bedroom hallway has to persuade us to like and accept gone to the Minneapolis Institute something we don't like and don't of Fine Art. The furniture, leaded want'. glass, original drawings, correspond- The beauty of the design of the ence between the architect and his client and windows is largely due to this photographs of the house continual refusal on the part of the and its first owners is at present being client to be content with second exhibited at the Metropolitan best. Wright wanted to use ornate Museum of Art in New York.

Mrs Francis II'. Little at the front dour of Northome

the lirinq room at Northome; tin- windows are leaded in intricate patterns. lit the flat part uf the cored ceiling are tier stained-glass skylights. See 'Wright Inside'.

,

*

574 Calendar

ARCHITECTURE OF FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT IN JAPAN

\NK D WRIGHT ASSOCIATION (JAPAN) 107, SETAGAYA158, TOKYO (TEL709 -T305) W ga —

COAK KTW^

fljx.vxl a c\ UJV^

WE

nifficisjcTnrin&n The Wright Place to Live For an Architect's Son

WRIGHT, From Ml

tearing down and rebuilding Taliesin. "I don't think he really built for pos- terity. I think he thought everything would be rebuilt, better, by him." Today, Robert Wright worries about the fungus and the carpenter bees at- tacking the Philippine mahogany bent to girdle his house. "I would hate to have to find some- body today who would understand how to wet and bend the boards like these," he said. The house is shaped almost like an almond, opposing the hill's slope. The same curve, the house's basic mod- ule, is scored into the red concrete which forms the floor of the first story. Stools and a table in the living room all echo the house's shape. "It's funny how people are still afraid of anything unusual," Robert says. "I couldn't get an upholsterer to put new fabric on that stool. So I did it myself. That was why my father al- ways had to send an apprentice to act as contractor—the workmen didn't know how to build bis way. They al- ways said those glass corners couldn't be done." (Most Wright corners are made of two pieces of glass butted against each other.) The apprentice cut the block him- self in the fireplace wall to let heat from the chimney into the room. "It's strange now to remember that when we built this house in 1956, we couldn't get a bank loan on the de- sign. We had put off having my father do us a house for years, because back then he insisted that we have at least an acre of land, and we couldn't af- ford it. "Finally, we took his advice and bought a two-acre lot the builders didn't want. It was his sort of site, on a slope with lots of natural planting. "We borrowed from a friend to get the house constructed. Then we had a time finding an appraiser who would The Wrights and "the fireplace as the focal point: say it was worth half what it cost. It cost $40,000 and we wanted a $20,000 mortgage. Well, it's all paid for now, doesn't come in at all. It certainly The house has double decks. One ex» anyway. The appraisers didn't like the saves on both heating and air con- tends the living room on the first site or the slag block, but they just ditioning. floor, with a lily pool sunk into the weren't used to anything different." "We put in an attic fan, though my center of the curve. On the second The only things the Wrights regret father said we wouldn't need it, and floor, the balcony curves off the mas- now are the places where the design we didn't for cooling. We put the air ter bedroom and the Wrights' daugh- had to be scaled down to fit the bud- conditioning in because of the humid- ter's room. (The three children are get. ity." now grown and away from home.) "The dining area, for instance. When Besides the light patterns, caused The deck springs a bit as you walk he came to stay with us, after the by the deep windows with their pro- on it. "A friend of mine used to tease house was built, he thought it looked truding mullions (framing pieces), the me and say, 'If you jump up and down - too cramped, so he put in wall-to-wall house has another Wright character- on it, you'll tip the house over'." mirror to reflect the outside. istic—the sand-colored, textured plas- Robert, as did his father, enjoys "I think that the play of light and ter ceilings Robert remembers from repartee but though he jokes about shadow was his greatest thing. He his childhood in the house in Oak the house, he's very serious about his really understood it. It's a practical Park, 111. pleasure in it. thing, too. The house is oriented south The fireplace, just the height of "It is nice having a house my father by southwest. In the winter, the living Mrs. Wright, is another Wright char- designed for us. Most fathers leave room and the three bedrooms upstairs acteristic — the fireplace as the focal are flooded with light. In the sum- point. The Wrights admit this one their children money. I'd rather have mer, because of the overhang, the sun sometimes bumps heads. this house." " "

Photos by Larry Morris—Tl

The living room of the Robert Llewellyn Wright house. Working With Frank Lloyd Wright

FORM, From Ml • Last year, the AIA's 25-year award Tafel supervised construction 02 went to Taliesin West, the architect's FLLW's "Falling Water," the Johnsor "Wright wanted the United States to home built in 1938 and now the site of Wax Building and the S. C. Johnsor have an indigenous architecture, which his architectural school and firm, at home, "Wingspread." He has been in grew out of our land," Tafel said, over Scottsdale, Ariz. strumental in saving four Wrighl Tafel, at work on a book about structures, including the music room oi coffee and Wright photographs the now his memories of Wright, says there is the Francis Little house in Deephaven other day. "As he put it, an organic great interest in Wright today. "The Minn., Which will soon become a part architecture." AIH's theme this year, 'a humane ar- of New York's Metropolitan Museum There are indications that now, 15 chitecture,' showed we are swinging of Art. (In his own work, Tafel has years after his death, Americans are away from the 'machine for living' con- designed a number of buildings noted beginning to deify the architect they cept of construction. for.among other gentilties, their "po- older, neighborhood struc- defied for so many years. "But I think young people today see liteness" to John's • In Los Angeles, this week has been in Wright one of the pioneers of to- tures, among them the new St. an declared Frank Lloyd Wright week. day's lifestyles. He was a romantic, and Episcopal Church in New York and near Cen- Events include house tours of his work a rebel, even when he died in his 90th addition to Walden School, in that area, to 'benefit architectural year. tral Park.) scholarship funds. Among the sponsors "Though I remember when I first "Sending an apprentice out on his are the Association of Architectural decided to study with him, after read- own to work by himself was typical of Secretaries. Two of Wright's sons, Rob- ing his autobiography, I thought I'd Wright's approach. The Bauhaus school ert A. Wright, a Washington lawyer. better hurry because he was old—65. believed in team teaching, creativity, and Lloyd Wright, also a well-known After I saw his brochure with the tui- cooperation. Wright believed in the in- architect, are on the program. tion of $650 a term (board included) I dividual all the way. And he believed • On May 20, the American Institute was upset because I couldn't afford it. in doing everything different every of Architects, meeting at Constitution He answered my letter with a wire, time. Our side says Mies van der Rohe Hall here, gave the 1974 award for 'Come when you can. Pay what you designed one chair, one house, one 'architectural design of enduring sig- can.' building. But Wright was always chang- (1932- architect who nificance . . . (for) structures at least The apprentices of Tafel's day ing. Philip Johnson (the 25 years old" to a Wright structure, the 41, both at Spring Green, Wis., and was a collaborator with Mies) once S. C. Johnson & Son Inc. (makers of Scottsdale, Ariz.) did everything — said, as a joke, he would have 'copied .lohnson Wax) administration building brought sand up from the river bot- Wright but he was too complicated.' in Racine, Wis. The building was toms, cut trees to burn in the fire- opened in 1939. places (the only available heat). —Sarah Booth Conroy Preservation News January 1974 «*

Hedrich-Blessing

Taliesin West, the Frank Lloyd Wright studio in Scottsdale, Ariz., begun in 1938. It was designed to echo the landscape.

There are several ways of looking at this report, Is Less none of them particularly encouraging. Perhaps a More nation that seems determined to defile itself deserves

its future. That, we think, Mr. Wright might have The following article by Peter Blake, editor-in-chief of suggested — only in more saucy terms. . . Architecture Plus, appeared in the August, 1973, issue of Meanwhile, up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, the that magazine and is reprinted by permission. local Art Museum has announced that (thanks to the When you drive through the desert and up into the devoted work of Wright's ex-apprentice, Edgar Tafel) mountains from Scottsdale, Arizona, you have to pass it has been able to acquire the entire library (wood- a high voltage transmission line before you reach the work, paneling, and leaded glass windows) of Wright's gates to Taliesin West. That transmission line is such Francis E. Little House (1912) near Minneapolis. Most an eyesore that Taliesin's builder, Frank Lloyd Wright, of the house has been transferred to 's seriously thought of abandoning his place after those Metropolitan Museum, but odds and ends were left high voltage wires were strung. He died before making over, and the Allentown Art Museum acquired one up his mind. of those. Three months ago, the American Institute of Archi- This, like almost everything about preservation, tects announced that Taliesin West was the best U.S. moves us deeply. And we would like to suggest that building of the past 25 years— a generous thought, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation might now like to especially since Taliesin West had been (substantially) distribute pieces of Taliesin West to the National built in the 1930s. Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum, and to the One But while the AIA was honoring Taliesin West, the Nation Under God exhibit at Disney World, Florida. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (reclamation of what, On some future occasion, stanchions from that high precisely?) announced that it was about to construct voltage transmission line could, of course, be peddled an earthen and stone dike, 37 ft. high, 200 ft. wide, and on Portobello Road, in London— suitably dissected 13 miles long to protect (from rain waters) the main and antiqued. Central Arizona Project canal which the Bureau plans Finally, we have a report from an unimpeachable to construct between the Colorado River and Phoenix. source in Barcelona, to the effect that Gaud is best This proposed canal will cut a 300-ft.-wide swath buildings are either being torn down or defiled. The

through the mesa that surrounds Taliesin West. Casa Mila—one of Gaudi's two or three best jobs — is So far, so bad — but you haven't heard anything yet: being cut up into "studio apartments, " and additional There will not only be that 13-mile-long dike, and that "studios" are being built on the roof among Gaudi's canal, but also a six-lane superhighway on the canal's wonderfully sculptural constructions. Good-bye Bar- right-of-way, to serve the City of Scottsdale. After celona; good-bye Minneapolis, good-bye Arizona; which, we suspect, Taliesin West may have to be good-bye Paris and London and Milan and Rome;

turned into a service station to supply aid and comfort good-bye to whatever it is that gives us strength out to the Bureau's latest project. In any event, a Chicago of our past—good-bye unless we make preservation entrepreneur is currently planning a 124-unit housing the issue it deserves to be. development at Taliesin's doorstep. © 1973, Informat Publishing Corporation

!K9QI

m _» IB I

I9n mass

7AYH?«I'

. m^m

I

-1

I

1 m-u). g/ /?./^ ' u> flu. o\ *

9

5> . X7- i

H

I

a BHHi i.feA'-- ''i-^^ '/<<;"V

6 Preservation News April 1974

Structures desrgned tor beauty and long life as well as lor oractrcahty Mans greatest archrtecural actLe- -nents are those that etther blend m perfectly JST the natural environment, o, somehow create an ' he 0W Th6y become °,' " " " P«™nen, asTrr'as their naiural surroundings AtlanticRtchfieldCompany o

re P»nted here courtesy of the company and its advertingSltrt"- agency, Needham, Harper & Steers. * a h°U! e des,'g n«d ^ 1936 by Frank Llovd Wr£k!7f r Edgar£!T' \ J- KaWma at ? . " Bear Run,Pa., ESSPittsburgh, south of ,s a property of the Western Pennsylvania servancy 5 Con and is open to the public ££68-ZZC (9lf) 3NOHd goefre vmaoinvo •aaojNVJ.s avou s.NVWHONBaj lzl vnnvh d nnvd m

" ^^|u»v^U fttT SUNDAY, JUNE 2, 1974 Ml

Photo, by Larr» Morris—Tt The Robert Llewellyn Wrights' suburban-Maryland house, with Wright and his in the living room. wife Below, Frank Lloyd Wright's son on a balcony ud the architect's "FLLW" signature.

Living in a Frank Lloyd Wright House.. .

Booth By Sarvh Conroy wall, with a tower-like protuberance for "But I'm glad we did," interrupted Mrs. the kitchen. Wright. Robert Llewellyn Wright, a Washington

lawyer, remembers a particular night his Greeting visitors, a constant occurrence "We found him very accommodating," father, Frank Lloyd Wright, spent with his for the owner of any Wright house, is Rob- his son said, "though everybody's heard

family. ert, the youngest of the architect's children stories about how he treated his clients. by his first "Early in the morning, my wife and I wife. The son now is in his But then, if you just wanted somebody to heard someone sawing. We quickly came early 70s. draw up your plans, you shouldn't pay the down the stairs to see my father, sawing off He pointed to the curve of the kitchen. money to hire Frank Lloyd Wright. My the back legs of a chair he'd designed and "That was the biggest change wife sister, Katherine, for instance, built four given us years ago. '1 thought about that my and houses, none of them designed by chair for 20 years,' he said. 'And this morn- I made in my father's plan. He had in- my fa- ther, but then I think ing I realized why it isn't comfortable. The tended the kitchen to be two stories, but she always thought back she liked her legs need to be shortened.' And he we felt we needed a second bathroom be- own way better. was right." cause the three children were home then. "My brother David, who lived near my There should have been a tall, thin window father in Arizona, not far from Driving down the suburban Maryland Taliesin, going up two stories to light the kitchen." used road, the only evidence of a house designed to have a bit of trouble with him. by the best-known American architect of You could see that, after the years, the Dave's wife was a meticulous housekeeper.

I change still he last 100 years is a mailbox set into an worried the son. But my father would turn up at the house FLLW rut) square (FLLW sras Wright's sig- without notice "The Taliesin apprentice (Robert Behar. and rearrange the furniture. nature on his structures). The house itself I think he always did ka, now of Los Banos, Calif.) super- indeed feel that any is set below the hill's summit, snuggled into who vised house he had designed still belonged to the slope. Visitors drive into an "arrival our house was shocked that my father him. He liked change. court" covered with gravel. From there, would let us make such a major change in He was always the guest sees the curve of the slag block the plan." See WRIGHT, M3, Col. 4

... And Working With Wright

Edgar Tafel Jr., a New York architect who see themselves become a legend. With his lectures all over the work! about his experi- Buster Brown bat, -his cape and his cane, he strode ences as one of the first apprentices at Frank through American architecture from one century to the next. Lloyd Wright's Taliesin architectural school, FLLW, as he signed the "red square" set remembers when he moved a ditcli from into all of his buildings, was, in many ways, where Wright had planned it to go. his own greatest design. It is as though he "When he got back from Europe and saw decided not only to design every facet of his what I had done, he was furious. I was so houses—furniture, lighting fixtures—but also upset, 1 stepped back and fell into the ditch. to design himself to match his architecture. I still remember him standing the bank on In the early years, Wright's arch enemy was above me, waving his cane and shouting, "If the Beaux Arts architect, the eclectic practi- you'd put the ditch where I told you to, you tioner who copied historical styles of architec- wouldn't have fallen in it.' ture imported from England, the European continent, Greece and Rome. Later, he was Wright was born June 8, 1869—almost 106 aligned against the International School of years ago. He died April 9/1959, full of years Architecture, another European import, this and honors. time based on the Bauhaus. By Lurjy Morris- He was one of those few people who live to See FORM, M3, Col 1 By Larry Morn Open House

There are four Washington-area houses designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The only one open to tourists is the Pope-Leighey House, right, at Woodlawn Plantation, a property of the National Trust for Historic Preser- vation.

The other three are privately owned. The Pope-Leighey House, inside Wood- lawn, on Route 1, Mt. Vernon, is open from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Satur- days and Sundays,

The curator of the Pope-Leighev is Marjorie Leighey. who with bj husband, Itnbert A. Leiehey, boucht the house from the original owners

Mr. and Mrs. Loren B. Popt i, Leighey donated the house except for tier lifetime tenancy to the Trust when it was moved from the proposed path of Route 66. So far the highway has not been built, but the house now stands secure, in the shelter of Wood- lawn and the Trust.

At far right, the Johnson's Wax ad- ministration building in Racine Wis winner of the American Institute of Architects' 25-Year Award for 1974 What Makes a Good Show?

By Bob Galano

Magazine covers, posters, advertising illustrations, photography and Just about every other form of commu- nication design are all on exhibit at the 25th Anniver- sary Exhibition of the Art Directors Club of Metropoli- tan Washington. About 200 area designers, art directors, typographers, copyw rlters, illustrators, printers, editors, publishers, photographers and scores of other persons from fields related to the communica- tions industry gathered at the American Institute of Aj-chltects last week when Pedro S. Gonzalez' illustration from his a the exhibit opened. ' inntn pamphlet design for the Internal Re ;jq; truth, some came for Service. the raw oysters, the roast beef and the fresh straw- berries with chantilly creme. (there were some clinkers happy designers would have But" most everybody wan- among the 158 selections), included Ed Gold ("Best of dered through the exhibit at but the show is a good one Show" and a gold medal), least once to make their own — clean and organized and, Marlise Mason Brennan, appraisal of the 158 graphic If not terrific, good enough Pedro S. Gonzalez, Stephep designs chosen for excel- to warrant a bit of congratu- Kraft, David Ashton, Claude lence from 1,480 entries. latory back-slapping, Saunders, Charles Ford, The selection was made in "What makes a good Robert Altemus, K. F. Tan- March by an Independent show?" asked Art Directors abe, Terry Dale, Jack Lef- (non-Washington) jury of Club president Peter Mas- kowitz, Bill Caldwell and graphic artists who also ters during the informal David Moore. named one entry "Best in awards presentation. "A The show will be open for Show" and awarded five good show is a show in public viewing at the Ameri- A new natural maple modular storage system for living, gold medals and two merit which I have something can Institute of Architects, dining, sleeping areas by Founders. citations. hanging," he continued. 1735 New York Ave. NW, 9 Not everyone was in agree- "This show is not bad," a.m. to 5 p.m. through Fri- ment with the jury's choices Using Masters' logic, other day. Put things in their place beautifully and functionally. Stack and " store your sound system, books, accessories on the 15'/2 deep • Organize the reading clutter adjustable shelves, re-arrange them as your space requirements in your bedroom with change without tools or hardware. Ten available cabinets, chests "My girlfriend rived heie.ro I "1 )ust always have Bred her*. STOWAWAYS modular and bookcases, six are used here, in two heights and widths with Jus! moved down here when we audi guess I just always will* headboards. Single, queen, king smart chrome-plated hardware. All stacking units come with got mauled. But K you ask me; an $119 to $195. easily 2" we tie too close to hermother. removed plinth base and have an easy/care Not at Georgetown. 1 wbh she would move.* protective coated finish.

See STOWAWAYS in stunning

new room settings by the A $95 C $163 E $225 G $163 I $95 SCAN design staff at all six 20WX26H 40Wx52H 40Wx52H 40WX52H 20WX26H stores. &&-' B $117 d $139 F $139 H $139 J $117 jj 20WX52H 40WX26H 40Wx26H 40WX26H 20WX52H Convenient two to four weeks delivery. As shown 160x1514x781-1

Shop 10 until 9 .weekdays Saturdays to 6 Columbia to 9:30 daily GEORGETOWN Canal Square Largest direct-importer fine Scandinavian furnishings & accessories in the U.S. VAN NESS CENTRE 4301 Connecticut TAKOMA PARK 6871 New Hampshire FALLS CHURCH Loehmann's Plaza Tiro pages from Ed GoUTs "Best o\ Show" booklet, published in cooperation COLUMBIA Mall with the Society jor the Preservation Federal Hill, Montgomery Street and of BALTIMORE 404 Reisterstown Road Fells Point. fcl^

WE'RE CELEBRATING OUR SEMI-ANNUAL LINGERIE EVENT! 8.99

(l) You'll love being wrapped in print . . . especially this

print. A wrap coat of printed acetate slips around a while nylon tricot gown with matching print at neckline TRDDKLC^D and PURCHASE! hem. Your choice of gold or pink, sizes S, M, L.

Lingerie. Mail and phone orders filled. fronhiin Simon Extra long 98-inch loose pillowback sofas Lush, striped velvet, your choice: Rich bronze gold, Soft antique gold, Palest champagni :

uoux orde>r £roo* .GaeD^scJ^ •. 6 — L qaxjCcsmM^ ouOaUctbte., tut a- ru^uJ

6dtuH6n * du£> aJbou.T CkYi^Hv\a^ ^%i-2.^. Please, reorder a*-

^^o^^L^

— 1

FM+*¥\

•»*

3 (J \ TANFORD BOOKSTORE Stewart and Betty Roberts are /^!/)c/t^ed Sp/ri^ looking for someone to live in—and love—their home, without making any changes.

unappre- massive fireplace, and thought it would maka in, they have been unnoticed and In a marvelous master bedroom," Roberts said. ciated. But if someone liked the blues a would that destroy a beautiful Picasso painting, would he want to cut out "Not only it leaves the question of what to do You can't sell a house and save only the blue forms rather than room, but massive master bedroom, dressing have the entire original painting? with the room and bathroom suite that's on the main Roberts asked, "Would you let some- Or, as floor." one buy a million-dollar Picasso and change One potential buyer told them how she Frank Lloyd Wright the color or shape of the forms in that paint- by tear out everything in one bathroom ing?" would and put a washer and dryer in. Previous families had changed the "forms" "I asked her why she would want to do that in this structure at 520 N. East in the western when you have a 15-by-15-foot laundry roora suburb, and the Robertses have worked end- with tubs downstairs," Mrs. Roberts said. to just anybody the home to its original state. lessly to restore Such work, combined with their love for the "When they said that," Roberts interjected, as a work of art and a great place to made a mental note not to sell the home the warm and comfortable house "we Jerry De Muth would undermine By live, have made them feel like protective to them." character of this classic house. guardians who must find new foster parents. Stewart and Betty Roberts o( Oak Park The Robertses are looking for someone who The most usual change proposed is la- I worked a total have a painstakingly restored 11-room Frank would love and live in this architectural art- "After a professional and stalling air conditioning. the Lloyd Wright house for sale, and almost any- work without making any changes. of 60 days taking five coats of enamel off "But the house is designed so that air con- it its origi- one with $99,000 can have It. But only If the wood In one bedroom to return to Roberts and his wife sat In the living room ditioning is superfluous," Roberts said. "It buyer promises not to make any changes. nal condition, a woman looked at it and said, of the house they are sadly leaving for the has natural air conditioning designed Into It. with a couple of everyone Wright and of 'This room would be fine Certainly knows of rustic woodland of New Brunswick, Canada. The family who owned the house before us " Roberts exclaimed as beauty of the prairie homes he coats of paint,' Mrs. the elegant They nodded past the leaded glass windows installed a unit in one bedroom, and we used across the room, where the designed. Anyone can view the outside of a her eyes drifted and wall lamps and other decorative items, it only twice all last summer." natural wood trim and these including this one, dark warmth of the dozen of homes — all of which are treasured and sought as iso- beams contrasted beautifully with the rich What the Robertses fear even more is the the Cheney house built in 1904—on the regu- lated individual items by an antique-crazy walls. changes other people might make but don't larly scheduled walking tours of Oak Park white plaster public. mention. "People are generally fairly dis- every Sunday afternoon. "After all that work—and it still isn't com- creet talking about what they would do 'We could probably get more money if we attitude you when surprising then the that pleted _ you can imagine the It's to Robertses with the house," Mrs. Roberts said. ripped out things like that and sold them sep- wants to come in and many potential buyers not only don't appre- take when someone arately," Roberts said in his big, deep voice. it's tell they walk in the paint on it again," Roberts "But easy to when ciate a Wright house but also would want to start slopping door whether they respond to the esthetics of rip out rooms, paint the natural wood trim As part of a complete work of art, a work added. the house or see it purely as shelter. If they and beams and make other changes that that can be comfortably and enjoyably lived The Robertses tell of their growing fond- see it only as shelter, we immediately count ness for the house, how they restored rooms them out as buyers. But people with that turn to their original convenient design and of how of mind won't like it anyway." Wright's son, on a visit, was pleased with what had been done. Friends who have sat in The Robertses, who raised four children In the living room before the wide fireplace, or the 11-room, four-bedroom home, and used It gathered around the piano or wooden dining for many meetings and social gatherings, table at either side of the living room, also also don't want to see the home become a have come to love the home for its warmth, museum. comfort and relaxing atmosphere. The atti- "We wouldn't sell it to a couple who tudes of many prospective purchasers then planned on running it as a monument," Mrs. comes as a shock. Roberts said. "Part of its beauty is that it's a "One couple saw the recreation, or bil- living, functional house." liards, room in the English basement, with its "The house was relatively unknown when we bought it," Roberts said. "Wright never wrote anything about it, and he didn't visit It until two months before he died, so it was lost in the literature. "We've been involved in its renaissance, The Robertses primarily through the architectural school at . Now it has attained Its painstakingly restored rightful recognition, for which we take pride. this living room We don't want to see it changed into some- to its original design. thing else again and forgotten." CHICAGO SUNTIIWS, San., June 23, 1974

Countess, a star dog model, was found wandering the streets of syching a pooch New York as a stray. She has had numerous A personality test you can give credits from ballet, stage and television. Dawn your mixed-breed pet that can be of Animal Agency Pholo) real help in training him better

feet away from By Jane Gregory food and put it about five him, holding him close to you with the leash. Now that I'm OK and you're OK, how about The instant he goes for the food use the cor- the dog? Can we get inside his head and rective jerk and say, "No," in a firm voice. check out his mental health? Does he keep going for the food no matter many times you jerk him? An important Group awareness seems impractical. The how Praise him every time you jerk. neighbors might complain. A psychiatrist un- note: doubtedly would be fascinated with your sug- (5) Does he usually want the praise you gestion of analysis sessions with a patient give but refuse to work for it?

that barks at one end and wags at the other. You guessed it. "Yes" means a stubborn The question is who would end up on the one. couch. As for those multisheeted motivation tests psychologists like to give, we all know III. First cousin to a shrinking violet?

what any dog would do with them. (1) Put some pennies In a can and shake it Does the Matthew Margolis, a New York trainer who Just hard enough to make a noise. run or hide? has been called the "Dr. Spock" for dogs, has dog away the answer. It's a personality test he invented (2) Use a high tone of voice as though for his new book, "Underdog: Training the speaking to an infant to call the dog to you. Mutt, Mongrel and Mixed Breed at Home" Give him an excessive amount of praise. (Stein and Day, $7.95). His' idea is to give Does he refuse to come to you? leash. he still stay in place? Training does not change a dog s person- readers a means to psych out their dogs so (3) Have people he doesn't know come to drop the Does they will be able to train them better. ality according to Margolis. li can. however, the house. Does he run away . . . back up (5) Allow him to get involved in any simple modify behavior. . . activity. Say, in very firm tone. "Mixed breeds are second-class citizens," and bark . hide between your legs or un- "No," a his is such thing as a dumb dog. It Bays Margolis. "My principal reason for der a table and bark? Does he stop what he is doing, prick up "There no ears and look at you? a dog acts dumb it is because he has been doing the book was to show people that the (4) Try Question 2, Part I. Does he refuse "Yes" to these means you have a respon- abused or ignored or badly [rained. Person- mutt is just as lovable, just as smart, just as to move . . . entwinet he leash around your most receptive to ally, I think the loving approach is by far the worthy as a purebred. Every year 10 million legs ... act as though all he wants is to climb sive dog, the easiest and I'm the last one to advocate the Hein- mutts are destroyed. They're abandoned and up in your arms? train. Margolis maintains the majority of best. mutts are in this category. rich Himmler handbook style. left to starve or turned onto the streets to be (5) Raise your voice to him without sound- hit by cars. ing hysterical: Do his ears go back . does The personality or temperament test Is he lie down on his back? equally applicable to pedigreed and mongrel, "Yes" indicates lie's shy even i/ he neighs ho explains. The only difference Is that hu- SO pounds or so. mans already know a great deal about the dominant characteristics of purebreds. The IV. Mucho machismo? Remount personality traits of mutt, particularly an a (1) When you use the corrective jerk does adult, are harder to predict without testing. he jump and growl at you . . . tear at the Margolis divides canine temperaments Into leash? your Jewels of the past six general categories. Combinations of the (2) When you jerk is it necessary to do it are common, he stresses. various types more than two or three times . . does he continue snapping? present If you'd like to know what your dog is all for a glorious about check out the questions taken from the (3) Try Question 4, Part II. Does he growl. complete "Underdog" tests. curl his lip, snarl, go after you? Does he continue the behavior even though you give him repeated jerks? I. This is a watchdog? (4) Use Question 2, Part II. Does the dog (1) Pick up the dog. Does he yelp and bark and jump, even after receiving a correc- scream as though he's being hurt even though tive jerk. Does he obey your command he isn't . . . squirm in a sudden panic? reluctantly if at all? (2) Take the dog outside and walk him In (5) Test him with other dogs. Does he pick the heeling position. If he runs ahead, try fights? Is his attitude clearly seriously hos- what Margolis calls the corrective jerk. Snap tile raiher than playful with other~animals? the leash quickly and firmly and say "No." Does he pull harder and start yelping? 1/ you answered "Yes" to these, your dog is aggressive. If his reactions are intense, (3) When he's outdoors is he always looking handle with care. At the other extreme, he's around as if in danger? probably just a bit of a bully. (4) When you're walking him is it hard to keep him at your side? V. Up, boy, up! (5) Is he a chewer? (1) Use Question 2, Part I. Does he hang 1/ you answer "yes" to the above, t/ie back, not resisting, just going slow? Margolis text says you have a nervous dog. (2) Is he very large? Let Kopp's expert diamond stylist help you to reset your preciousdiamonds into new nioc (3) Does he sleep a great deal of ihe time? or bring your II. A shaggy mule? mountings. Choose from Chicagoland's largest selection of mountings, (4) Does he seldom bark or jerk? - ideas with your old diamonds. Work together with our Does he stand his ground in face of pun- J (1) Call him to you after placing in (5) him the stylists to create your own special and beautiful diamond I ishment, threats, pleadings and all manner of sit position. Does he lope up at a slow pace? piece. persuasion? "Yes" on this set indicates your dog is If he tends to jump up on people, put on (2) sedate — easygoing but lethargic. Available in ht-kt. white or yetlou gold. his collar and leash and have someone walk Also available in platinum. in the door. If he jumps, give a corrective VI. Bingo! He's a winner! jerk. Does it lake a number of jerks to stop (1) Make your voice like a whining puppy. him? Does he try to stop the jerks? Does he stop what he is doing to listen? for OPEN TODAY, SUNDAY (3) Follow directions Question 2, Part I. (2) Drop your keys near him. Does he sTand If the 12 to 5 he runs to end of the leash, turn to the his ground even if the sound startles him? right and walk in the opposite direction. Does FORD CITY SHOPPING CENTER (3) Use Question 4, Part II. Does he look 7601 S. CICERO

he give you a struggle . . . bite at the leash, at you and wait to be told to go for the food? Phone 767-7975

put rus it . . . in watt paws on jump the air? (4) Place him in sit position with his collar Budget Account* Inrited Kings fitted while you Card* have our own ihop (4) Try him with some of his favorite food, and leash on. Hold the leash straight up over We Accept BankAmericard Bank We on premise* preferably with a strong aroma. Put on his his head and walk completely around him. collar and leash, let him have a taste and Walk in larger circles, going farther away. Store Hour*: Mon. thru Fri, 10:00 to 9:30; Sal. 9:30 to 5:30, Sun. 12 to then tell him to sit. lake some of the same Does he remain sitting? If he hasn't moved,

miimim minim n &-,. iiiiiiiiihiiii iiiminiiiMiii iiiiim i 8-D THE MIAMI HERALD Mon., June 24, 1974 Group Fighting to Preserve Wright -Designed Building

Ey STEVE STRASSER Herald Staff Writers In 1913, prosperous Chi- cago photographer William Louis Koehne had an archi- tect in a neighboring office design a Palm Beach villa for his wife. In the sneceed- inq 60 years, Villa Zila has been sold twice and chis- eled into a motel. Now they're going to tear it down and, put up an

apartment house. , Nobody got excited about any of this until about a week ago. That's when a horrified 22-year-old college student set out to save the gutted house by moving it

instead of demolishing it. —Miami Herald"/ "c. J. WALKER So far she's enlisted a judge, a millionaire devel- Shorwinds Hotel in; Palm Beach Once Was Home oper, the state historic pres- . . . designed in 1913, it's scheduled for demolition ervationist and even the building's owner into her motion is a disjointed-look- trademarks of one of when the villa was turned cause. ing white stucco building, Wright's revolutionary into a motel. That neighboring Chicago its 50 feet fronting the "prairie" homes: long and Comparing before and architect was Frank Lloyd ocean pockmarked by air low, flat roof, horizontal after pictures shows that Wright, one of the most re- conditioning units and lines and projecting eaves. upper story French win- spected in the world. small square windows. dows were shortened and The vacant Shorwinds Frank Lloyd Wright ORIGINAL builder lower level windows turned Motor Hotel at 364 South probably wouldn't mind Koehne moved out shortly into doors. After a garage Ocean Eoulevard is the ear- tearing it down himself, for after his wife Zila died in and rear additions had liest of only three Wright all it resembles what his 1932, according to Ms. Gal- ' wiped out (he U-shaped projects in Florida. firm designed. icki's reconstruction, and garden, and the studio and In 1913, Villa Zila was the home was bought in living room with its double THE HOME survived two the only Palrn Beach ocean- 1945 by New York busi- fireplace had been divided 1920s hurricanes, and 60 front home south of the nessman Philip H. Reid. into pine-paneled guest years of facelifts. Now Flor- Breakers Hotel. It was an In 1947 the facelifting rooms, the 16-unit Shor- ida State University art his- L-shaped structure with 10 began in earnest, according winds Motor Hotel tory student Marta McBride spacious rooms and all the to Reid's son, Philip Junior, emerged. Galicki hopes it survives progress. State historic preserva- tionist Rod Little, whp works in the State Archives Division, says the home "would come near the top" of a list of homes eligible for federal restoration money, if the developers

leave anything to restore. . Palm Beach builder Mi- chael Burrows, one of the men who quietly bought the oceanfront property late last month, says he would be happy to stay Villa Zila's execution if it's going to cause a lot of commotion. The building had been scheduled for demolition within two weeks. The object of all te com- MHH HH ' . S*» m *» »—•>- % 2 : H -

MIAMI HERALD 7-P Mon., June 24.1974 THE

W THEY CAN.

r Fine Quality Foods PRIMS! FOOD ,T RBASOHABLI GREEN STAMPS! KLUESI..PLUS MERCHANTS

cO a. FAIR ®

BEEP CHUCK U S. CHOICE-WESTERN $ «| 49 Steak Boneless lb I SUPERMARKETS Shoulder JUNE 30th PRICES EFFECTIVE THRU SUN., CHOICE-WESTERN $-|09 U.S. FOOD FAIR STORES Chuck «• AT ALL Ground Beef KOSHER MARKETS o EXCLUDING FOOD FAIR CHOICE-WESTERN _ $179 U S. GREEN STAMPS LB. I SAVE MERCHANTS Beef Steaks FOR Cubed J Merchant* YOURS WITH EVERY PURCHASE OR HOBBYl JUSDA? g^b^ BEAUTIFUL GIFTS FOR HOME VROCIHD W,

GRADE *A FLA. OR SHIPPED FRUITS & VEGETABLES NEED FOR YOUR COMPLETf 7) BUY JUST WHAT YOU VARIETY I rRYCRQTRS. SATISFACTION FROM OUR BIG FRESH LEG OR BREAST C SWEET ICED QUARTERS LB. PEACHES QUICK FROZEN GRADE A' JUICY Turkey Drumsticks .LB. „39e

to as — fj»* o~vrr- 10 r. 59°

CO CU IN A OQo CO 6 o" 2 5? oo -w - 00 O o Sec cm*5 k< C c "OS CD O CO FOR J9 CO .3 s 18 S CD — J5 __ ** CJ o o o 5-S'.5 "-§ C CO >, 4> * 2 co ^ 3 I = l. o 3 03 "° « CI) cu . *J « o § a — o< c ~* [it 3 FOR W -S s §2 co > CO 1 M 9 7 '" t4 cu 3 T3 :> I oo <- 2 S ij c c CL> ^NCY RED 5 CO o U a: o '3 3 CU CO 3 0) § o CU cu. «_ to «£• •° CO S E « *. 3 , co — £ m .52 oo c (0 c >>"0 -a u o ,5PS E CO CU •i to • _. c - P c 15 o^o ** CO ? a « 2? 15 © co ex <-> CU S %%* 3 J3 •o fe >- v> >> CU 4) >. «> cu O "O o 00 O X) i- CO p 2o-oz^O0S PALO ALTO TIMES, PALO ALTO, CALIF., MONDAY, JUNE 24, 1974 — 3

^^^S^^^WSWWCrewcaKSj- Student's hunt saves landmark PALM BEACH, Fla. A (AP) — 60-year-old villa de- signed by Frank Lloyd Wright was headed for the wrecker's ball until a col- lege art student investi- gated and saved the build- ing from destruction - at least temporarily. Villa Zila, planned by the famous architect in 1913 for phtographer William Louis Koehne, was scheduled for demolition next month But Marta Galicki, 22 a student working on a sum mer job for the state histor- ical sites unit, followed up on leads from state m officials Tallahassee and found ne building with the help of local residents. Officials nadn t done any serious looking previously because of limited funds. Complicating the task was the fact that the villa nad been converted to a motel in 1947.

"We ! suspected that a Wnght building existed : Palm in Beach, but we didn't know f quite where," said Mary K. Evans, state his toncal j sites specialist. "One of our summer research staff members (Miss Ga 1'ck.) learned about it last week." Paul R. Hanna

737 Frenchman's Road, Stanford, California 94305 Phone (415) 322-8977 June 28, 1974

Mr. William Allin Storrer 143 South Aurora Street Ithaca, New York 14850

Dear Bill:

I'm sure that you have seen the press re- leases concerning a house in Palm Beach which is supposed to have been designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1913. I never heard of the house and certainly it is not listed in your catalog. It could be that it is a phony. On the other hand, it might be one that Mrs. Wright and the Fellowship have lost track of. Anyway, I thought I'd send this photostat along so that you might investigate its authenticity for inclusion in your revision.

Cordially yours,

Paul R. Hanna PRH:ae June 28, 1974

Ms. Susan Page Customer Service Stanford Book Store Stanford, California 94035

Dear Ms. Page:

Thank you for notifying me that the book Frank Lloyd Wright by Bardeschi is currently out of print. Will you please now enter my order for this publication when it is off the press about Christmas time. I definitely want a copy.

Cordially yours,

Paul R. Hanna PRHrae > c TO C cn it

'

August 30, 1974

Mr. James C. Massey, Director Historic Properties l a TruSt for His i toric PropertiesF«^ies 740i^ TJackson Place, N.w. Washington, D.c. 20004 Dear Mr. Massey:

When I last visited you, one of vnnr c**.*** der on the St*f gave a "Pope-Leighey" ifoiwr* t La ? ** f°l- pamphlet before, *? 3&en this Particular but have nevtr^LCead Xt during the last week ^.f ^ carefully as I have your Attention to two °therS have c2led errors^n ^TrSt2*sent ticular brochure. The b££h,™ ^ ence of this par- ent: . Frank L?oyd Weight Allowing state- architect, the PSSS?comment~J\2j20th-century never received k ™L American government; S -°n 2 the Unite thlre are no Wnght-designedwriSST^ f ™ * States nation's capital?- structures in the

Place J^ltTtTit rlcllTe^ ?° IT**: In *• ^-t States governLnt^iryorwi?rioonn S fr0in the United (entitled, t^??-118 Storrer's -The Architecture of Prl ?, ^J ? book in 1974 by yd Wri ^ht " Published the m.i7t. Press? 1 ^h — P° » the Suntop 248 you wil1 Homes of Ot^MaUerv ' s*e in Ardmore, Tf^L^rodd Company built Pennsylvania You wi?f , in 1938 Homes Project too ori in was commissioned hJ Jhfr £2 3 ^ Suntop but never completed d StateS GoVQ^nient ^r Sove^SV^aus Plces The commission from the Suited ?H£2T - original Wright for Pittsfilld \?°VerniQent was designed by m^J^h tts Ina change in ggovernment oersonnf?^ !u - ^uch as there was a eventually PPed and the^omSL^on was givenen to£o° ^° pleted in Ardmore. g local^V**architects and com-

9 the abo^e EXhibit "°- 415 *« ^? £ErEr^lS^\i°*U Wl11?f See text) of a second united tt^l a Picture (with Frank Lloyd" government commission to Wright Sat wfa actually? County Civic Center built at the liarin r< UV^'

September 23, 1974

Mr. Tony Puttnam Tal1es1n Associated Architects Tal1es1n West Scottsdale, Arizona 85252

Dear Tony:

Subject: nanna House Remodeling (792)

The following are comments and questions that we have regarding the plan dated August 1974, and the accompanying estimate.

1. The attached plan shows Professor Hanna's suggestion of a closet at the entry to separate the powder room from the living area.

L. The bedroom and entry must be separated by a door. Professor Hanna suggests a folding door at the top of the stairs. He also asks 1f you might reconsider his original suggestion of a circular stair now that the options for locations of a run of stairs have been studied.

3. The washer/dryer will be Included 1n the project. A good location appears to be 1n the breezeway opposite the bedroom.

4. We do not think the change from a gas to an electric water heater is justified.

5. ivhat type of furnace is proposed?

6. It 1s not clear how you propose finishing walls and parti tions— >-oth new and existing.

7. Are all ceilings and soffits painted sheetrock?

Your estimate 1s unbelievably low. Many of the unit prices you used appear to be lower than we are experiencing on other Stanford projects. I have discussed this with Bill Schwarz and he has advised us that the estimate will need to be Increased.

We will take your recommendation that the work be done on a time and material basis under advisement. University policy requires competi- tive bidding on all projects, negotiating a cost plus agreement with '

6ffl .-...

I

I

. §

Sa.HurAflL4 Wt/ituJ- \JJt^\^ nYu/i+

Italian Government Travel Office

Bernini's square at St. Peter's in Rome— "Architecture not merely to observe but . to experience as a theatrical event.'

dures; he does not merely inhale exalta- Beyond Function and Form tion. If Borobudur is an equivalent of Budd- by Katharine Kuh sky, uncluttered, clairvoyant, supernat- hism, then Frank Lloyd Wright's Penn- ural. Gone are the moralistic tales of sylvania house, Falling Water, is a per- have always thought of architecture Buddhism. Free of realistic earthly re- sonification of nature. With the advent

I worth its name as a sympathetic strictions, one looks out on 72 hieratic- of steel construction in our century, it has interplay of aesthetics and pragmatism. ally spaced, bell-shaped stupas surround- been popular to believe that, by open-

Recently, however, I discovered that ing a larger final one, each designed to ing walls and including acres of glass, the certain structures can transcend both art evoke, but never to compete with, a near- outside is welcomed inside despite the and function to become valid philo- by volcanic mountain that dominates the danger of excessive light. Yet this idea is sophic experiences on their own terms. landscape. In this temple one labors basically anti-naturalistic, because na- Two years ago in central Java at the tem- through the tangible to find the abstract. ture, when benevolent, provides a more ple of Borobudur, I was converted to this Were the architecture less demanding, balanced diet. Some years ago at an offi- idea, for there in an exotic landscape and less insistent on forcing the visitor to cial dinner in Chicago, Walter Gropius, under an unbearable sun I encountered move through it from lowest terrace to turning to Mies van der Rohe, asked a Buddhist sanctuary, which, because of sublime apex, its full meaning might be him plaintively, "What do we have to deliberate challenges and elaborate sym- lost, for Borobudur is, indeed, the physi- show for it all but the picture window?"— bolism, acted as a revelatory event. cal, apocalyptic embodiment of Budd- thus implying that their revolutionary To pursue miles of narrative bas- hism. Representing a magic replica of the struggle to establish a functionally valid reliefs describing the vicissitudes and universe, it celebrates the end of the modern architecture had ended in little triumphs of Prince Siddhartha, to be as- search, the terminal peace that replaces more than a visual cliche. saulted by innumerable repetitions of his all reincarnations. Wright's celebrated house, Falling image as Buddha, to traverse tier after At times, Gothic cathedrals with their Water, is a direct denial of the picture tier of a prodigious complex, is at times to vertical upward sweep are looked on as window. He did not try to bring the out- feel trapped, incarcerated, a virtual pris- parallel expressions of another religious side in but instead set about implement- oner. There seems no end to the long faith, for as these structures reach toward ing the dictates of nature while never travail. When almost suffocated by the heaven, they also provide interior sanctu- duplicating them. With him, architecture facts of Buddhism, the visitor is suddenly aries of awesome dimensions, where man became an extension of the environment liberated. The whole meaning of Nirvana is totally dwarfed. Yet there is a differ- it occupied. Falling Water is not only a becomes clear as, exhausted, he reaches ence. In the medieval church man is the gracious house cantilevered over a water- the temple's climax, the ultimate ascent audience; at Borobudur he is an active fall; it is the epitome of that waterfall. at last completed. Now all is open to the participant. He himself climbs and en- The entire building is oriented to the Mur^^vie.uoA.OaAl^ (CcvcO "/'^

Illinois Institute of Technology Crown Hall by Mies van der Rohe, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago- "Expresses his genius for fluent space.'

sound and rhythm of water. One does important than the heady sense of free- petitive, non-idiosyncratic about the self- more than see the falls; one hears them, dom they create, all the more remarkable contained unity of this echoing architec- feels their beat, senses their power, and in light of this architect's insistence on ture. As a form of civic planning, it misses them when they occasionally dry rigid discipline. In fact, he refused to live offers the ultimate in compact urbanity. to a trickle. in one of his own apartment houses be- Perhaps the most determinedly philo-

Crown Hall at the Illinois Institute of cause he dreaded possible complaints sophic architecture is the Japanese tem- Technology in Chicago is, to my mind, from tenants who might lean more ple, which incorporates nature for the Mies van der Rohe's finest building, toward practicality than philosophy. For sole purpose of encouraging meditation. though neither his largest nor most im- him, the overall conception, the idealism As a rule, these modest wooden struc- posing. Yet it is his purest and the one implicit in unfettered surroundings, took tures are highly sophisticated in their that best expresses his genius for fluent precedence over such mundane consider- deceptive simplicity and are so closely re- space. With him, glass walls were never ations as garbage-disposal units and lated to symbolic landscapes, represented a means to indiscriminate "picture-win- kitchen pantries. in miniature by fastidiously arranged dow views" but to an uninterrupted flow It is not unrestricted space but repeti- rocks, raked sand, plants, and trees, that of space, a space regulated by meticulous tive form that gives a sense of security buildings and surroundings become one. refinements. To approach Crown Hall to certain renowned Georgian streets in The juxtaposition of horizontal temple from the street and participate in its lucid Dublin. Individual dwellings coalesce and understated environment provides a interior even before entering is to real- into a single structural personality. Dis- curiously abstract experience. Though ize the meaning of its transparent shell. creet and austere, these houses were per- the architecture was intended as a back- Finite boundaries evaporate; outside and mitted only minor variations as they drop for solitude and contemplation, inside are palpably connected. Again we joined ranks to present clearly defined these days its meaning has been sadly become more than observers; we move perspectives. Here it is not space but dis- subverted by formidable invasions, often through this space to share in its liberat- tance that counts. The insistent recur- of Japanese schoolchildren. There is no ing life. We feel it as a force and are rence of related component units tends to silence, no peace, no possibility of medi- activated by it. pull one toward a nonexistent vanishing tation. Now the wooden structures trem- History has known earlier, breath- point. The streets, or at least those that ble under a steady assault, and to make taking enclosed areas, probably the have still escaped the bulldozer, multiply matters worse, loudspeakers belch out greatest of which was Hagia Sofia in Is- in orderly progression and provide Dub- electronic information. The architecture tanbul, but these interiors were com- lin with a strong structural continuity. is, to be sure, still intact, yet without its monly circumscribed by supporting walls They are not only the core; they are the former significance. The intimate bal- that acted as both psychological and phy- meaning of the city, at once directing and ance between natural and man-made sical limitations. The functional aspects reflecting the lives of its inhabitants. forms has been destroyed, and, though of Mies van der Rohe's buildings are less There is something curiously non-com- the original designs are clearly visible, 3

they no longer provide sanctuaries for If buildings as such seldom go beyond reverie or spiritual exploration. The pri- function and form, those that do are of- vacy for which the buildings were in- ten more expressive than volumes of tended has been violated. print or yards of painted canvas. After

Precisely the opposite is true of Ber- all, how can words adequately describe nini's great square leading to St. Peter's such ephemeral elements as space or in Rome, where the entire architec- speeding water? Mies van der Rohe and, tural conception was planned for public before him, Bernini were both involved participation on a vast scale. To under- with space. They did not paraphrase it; stand this magnificent space is to ex- they animated it on new multidimen- perience it during an important religious sional levels. One man created heroic en- festival, when thousands upon thousands closed space, the other a space without of human beings bring it to life. Proces- boundaries, but what made history was sions, pageantry, holy music (here, suc- their understanding of its value as a cessfully amplified electronically) all liberating force. contribute. Rising above the embrac- Painters have explored the sea, rivers, ing colonnades are larger-than-life-size ponds, waterfalls, and rain. The best of sculptures of saints and apostles gestur- them have created poetic equivalents, but ing in Baroque splendor and imperiously few pictures can capture the volatility of orchestrating the activity below. Again, water with the same impact that Frank here is an architecture not merely to ob- Lloyd Wright's house does, for there, serve but in this case to experience as a a fugitive phenomenon is intensified by theatrical event. It provides a gathering its illuminating surroundings. place that has not dated, for present-day Take a different example—the Taj throngs energize it no less than did those Mahal— which, despite all the ballyhoo, of the past. When St. Peter's ceases to is a monument of superlative beauty. operate as a vital center of worship, its This Moslem tomb has occasioned such piazza will lapse into dead but nonethe- a torrent of maudlin delight as to suggest less consummate archaeology. The very the building is itself an exponent of un- tumult that undermines Japanese archi- bridled emotions. Nothing could be fur- tecture invigorates Baroque monuments. ther from the truth, for it has been con- ceived in the most chaste geometric

terms. Everything is cool, remote, and mathematical. A rigid symmetry recalls the precision of a super-sensitive com-

puter. If Borobudur is the physical es-

sence of Buddhism, the Taj is the incar- nation of Allah's teaching. Inspirational words have been written about both re- ligions; yet direct contact by means of architecture can be more enlightening than the most expressive literature.

What I am trying to say is that certain rare structures become non-verbal am- plifications of momentous movements

and ideas. But this is not to say that an airport terminal which resembles an air-

plane is eligible, nor even memories of medieval strongholds which Louis Sulli- van incorporated in a small (and, let me add, beautiful) Iowa bank. The latter could be considered more sculpture than

architecture, what with its monolithic

form and rich surface decoration. I am thinking instead of designs that neither borrow from the past nor mirror the present but concentrate on universal ideas in architectural terms. Because architecture, unlike painting and sculp- ture, goes beyond the visual to involve

us in physical realities, it demands both psychological projection and kinetic participation. Mt THE MIAMI HERALD Sun., Nov. 17, 1974 Wright Design Cost $4,000 in 1939

9 'Grotesque Little Boxes Are Now Collectors 9 Items

By BOB SCHWABACH KnlfM Ntwtpiptrt Wrltwr PHILADELPHIA — The four small houses at the end of Sutton Road In Ardmore art probably the cheapest Frank Lloyd Wright homes ever built

It Is a tribute to how good an architect he really was to say that now, 35 years later, they are still the most modern looking buildings in the area. When they went up the local residents were scared. The cluster of four houses,

Joined together as a whole . sharing a common center point, were to be the first of a set of 16 such clusters, the whole development to be called "SunTop." There were protest meet- tegs and angry letters to the papers about what these grotesque little boxes would - LINK / Knight N«wipap«n Phot* do the property values In JAMES the area. The rest of the Frank Lloyd Wright Design Looks Very Modern Today neighborhood homes are in . . . soaring verticals, broad horizontals ar* typical Wright a style that should be called of neo-colonlal. Is to hide TO REALLY appreciate reason they are THE CEILINGS are cheap Of course the homes the imperfect have to be a the mistakes, pine decking, uncovered. were cheap; they cost only tile houses you Joining of sills, lintels, buff. The secret of Wright is The ground floor Is plain 14,000 to build in 1939. Two door was a Jambs, sashes, etc. The concrete, dyed a terra cotta years ago, in the detailing. He when the one be- does not have to fit perfect- man constantly concerned red and sectioned off into longing to landscape archi- the jamb because with what other men would ly against squares, the finishing being tect Derik Sutphin burned, moulding strip will consider trivial details. He the so nearly perfect as to look the cost of repair and recon- most car- would have agreed com- cover that — so like tile. struction alone was penters and builders work pletely with Michelangelo's The external walls of the $33,000. The selling price approximations. In a that "perfection is a to house are plain brick, inside today would likely remark be about Wright house the door fits matter of trifles •— and per- anfl out. The interior walls $50,000. against the jamb. trifle." exactly are Philippine mahogany in These are collectors' fection Is no There are practically no But exactly. Sutphin's reconstructed houses. There are people for Sutphln's house, moldings In Wright hous- Derik whom living in a Frank Ard- like the others, is a place of Lloyd es, and none In these at house, western cedar in the Wright designed things, made so This may seem insig- simple house carries all more. others. The wood has only the satis- cleanly and exactly that nificant to the ordinary an oil finish. The closet faction of the most ardent In but to they seem marvelous collector of antiques buyer or homeowner doors are hung with piano finally their simplicity. •architects and builders it acquiring a block front hinges, running the full Or- chest says almost everything. length of the door. houses are filled All four of these Ardmore dinary with supposedly decorative houses are owned by archi- strips the real tects. molding and - touch, i As another little children.) Hies with Ave the wood strips which sepa- Sutphin finds the door- rate the doors are continued a wavs too low for comfort, right up to the celling, mak- other criticism leveled at ing the doors an Integral Wright houses, but since part ot the wall design. acknowl- Sutphin Is 6-8 he THIS KIND of sensitive edges he might have t treatment of basic materi- als, unadorned, Is a virtual hallmark of Wright build- problem anywhere. walls ings and would make them The glass curtain days noteworthy if for nothing create a draft on cold the air in else. But beyond that the by rapidly chilling and Sutphin house has some In- the large living room over novative design characteris- drifting it down and tics that would look well In the floor. any house today. Most noteworthy Is hav- And there is one flaw that ing the kitchen on a canti- perhaps the builders never levered balcony extending envisioned at all: On almost out over the living room at every weekend day one or a second floor level. This more strangers will come to double level space Is the the door and want to be main living area of the shown through the house. j house and Is opened up completely by two-story glass curtain walls on two sides. Every room has win- dows and light access from other rooms often through the kind of eyelid windows 'that Wright favored In many buildings. The building Is three sto- ries high and every level has a balcony or a terrace. At the bottom floor there is perhaps a quarter-inch dif- ference between the ground levels inside and outside the house — no steps. The cur- tain windows join the bot- tom of the house with noth- ing more than a two-by- four for a sill. Wright abhored base- ments (excavation is expen- sive and he could see no point to it) and this house has only enough of one for the heating plant — basical- ly a hole in the ground to hold the furnace.

The construction Is sim- plicity itself and so visible that walking through the Sutphin house is its own brief course in how to build a house.

THERE ARE FAULTS, of course, but Sutphin, who lives with them, considers them minor. The house Is small, four rooms and only Living Room's Glass Curtain Walls 1,000 square feet, and so • . . framing in of 2 x 4#, floor is concrete there is no wasted space — no hallways and very little closet room. (Despite its small size Wright envi-

sioned it as a home for fam- 3

Cantilevered Balcony Over Living Room

'* • . . it actually a kitchen Wright home U. S. foundation to buy held in a to the house is now temporary trust. By Paul Gapp The foundation is counting Architecture Critic Metro on raising much of the money tickets to a May FOLLOWING IN the foot- by selling $25 Reports on the Chi- 10 Wright buildings Park's continued 24 tour of steps of Oak Forest. metropolitan in Oak Park and River commitment to its architectur- cago National Trust region — its people al legacy, the IF IT MEETS the June 30 Preservation is issues. for Historic and its deadline and qualifies for the to purchase Frank expected lease agreement, the founda- Wright's original home respon- Lloyd tion will still have full price ap- and studio for a restoring the world- For the Oak Park founda- sibility for $200,000. proaching will re- house where Wright tion, the lease-back . famous char- family and did his The National Trust, move the pressure of having raised his based work. After 10 tered by Congress and meet a long-term mortgage early design to option then lease it will have the In Washington, will obligation. years, is 428 Forest buying the house, which back the house, at work, of To make the plan public un- the suburb, to the already open to the Av., in foundation must and however, the foundation's manage- Frank Lloyd Wright Home Frank Lloyd Wright der the raise $106,500 in matching Foundation for $10 a ment. Studio money by June 30 to help pay token fee to meet a may ultimately year, a volunteers, village govern- the home Restoration for the purchase of The legal formality. local financial an cost as much as $500,000. ment, and the and attendant costs under This foundation has pledged to arrangement is the first and business community. made earlier The arrangement too. the in our decid- raise money for that, history of factor Title | of its kind in the was a key with the National Trust. with the lease- National Trust, the country's ing to go ahead most prestigious non-profit or- back." saving 13 ganization devoted to The National Trust owns and the structures of architectural historic properties around the historic merit. country and administers majority which are open to the IS AN experiment, as "THIS public. It receives federal might call it a calcu- and and you well as private funds said Thomas lated risk," wields great influence in many architectural historian Slade, other preservation activities. for the National Trust. experi- that IF THE Oak Park "All we can do is hope said, it foundation] ment succeeds, Slade they [the Oak Park National Trust Slade said. wffl give the never go under," and however, that new operational flexibility He emphasized, program little fear broaden Us his organization has help increasing overhead happening. without of that run- costs of maintaining and "Oak Park has gone ahead ning buildings. landmark preservation with on intent is to participate -foresight, care, "Our intelligence, ownership in virtu- said. "Its in property and concern," Slade union," ally every state of the program has received extraor- citi2 he said. dinary support from H Bex

J

nmsiHg

H «HI

'A A

f, } I. If* r I mmnHHH

^r

I ^H / H Hi

« QBHHn!£&#&

HbK «**jVSV/W PAH- 'A;,<,r P.-.' M Hull '/A

/ M\.v

''•i: ^Hnn1 1 / 7^w \A. 6 Vi ' n smwmmWiAmmi'iiMrif iir i /)': Kit ' m j;$'Mm§&8&

.1 i .1 ^^msm

/ r

v\.// r i HB v:fc

r l ' ''• • /,*/ it.'Ay ,/ ' ,• • ir, V v/i »» HI B

)/, inn