Frank Lloyd Wright in Venice and the Masieri Memorial
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MODERNISM CONTESTED: FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT IN VENICE AND THE MASIERI MEMORIAL DEBATE by TROY MICHAEL AINSWORTH, B.A., M.A. A DISSERTATION IN LAND-USE PLANNING, MANAGEMENT, AND DESIGN Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved Michael Anthony Jones Co-Chairperson of the Committee Bryce Conrad Co-Chairperson of the Committee Hendrika Buelinckx Paul Carlson Accepted John Borrelli Dean of the Graduate School May, 2005 © 2005, Troy Michael Ainsworth ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The task of writing a dissertation is realized through the work of an individual supported by many others. My journey reflects this notion. My thanks and appreciation are extended to those who participated in the realization of this project. I am grateful to Dr. Michael Anthony Jones, now retired from the College of Architecture, who directed and guided my research, offered support and suggestions, and urged me forward from the beginning. Despite his retirement, Dr. Jones’ unfaltering guidance throughout the project serves as a testament to his dedication to the advancement of knowledge. The efforts and guidance of Dr. Hendrika Buelinckx, College of Architecture, Dr. Paul Carlson, Department of History, and Dr. Bryce Conrad, Department of English, ensured the successful completion of this project, and I thank them profusely for their untiring assistance, constructive criticism, and support. I am especially grateful to James Roth of the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, Massachusetts, for his assistance, and I thank the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation for awarding me a research grant. Likewise, I extend my thanks to the Ernest Hemingway Foundation and Society for awarding me its Paul Smith-Michael Reynolds Founders Fellowship to enable my research. I also thank the College of Architecture at Texas Tech University for providing a grant for translation services. My sincere appreciation is extended to Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer and Margo Stipe of the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives in Scottsdale, Arizona, for their permission to include various photographs and drawings in the dissertation. Ted Walbye of the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles was instrumental in providing the numerous copies of Wright’s ii correspondence. I thank Neil Levine of the Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard University for his research suggestions to ensure the greatest use of time while mining the city archives in Venice. Monica Donaglio and the staff at the Archivio Storico del Comune di Venezia were very helpful with their assistance. Likewise, Anna Tonicello of the IUAV Archivio Progetti and Andrea Turato of the IUAV Studi e Progetti provided their time and assistance with my research questions and permission to photograph the interior of the former Casa Masieri. The interlibrary loan staff of the Texas Tech University Library deserves special mention for their assistance. I especially thank Robin Bray, Donell Callender, and Sylvia Acosta for their unflagging attempts to fulfill my many requests for obscure articles from long out-of-print publications. I am very grateful to Josephine Jardine for translating many Italian-language articles into English. To Gregg Holt, as well as Denny Mingus of the College of Architecture, I extend my thanks for their frequent assistance with technical support and explanations. I am especially grateful to Eric Mitchell of the College of Architecture at Texas Tech University for his enthusiasm and creativity in preparing computer-generated images for my doctoral defense. A special thanks goes to Professor Stefano D’Amico of the Department of History for his input and advice. To my family, friends, and supporters who believed in me all along, especially the late Georgia Mae Smith Ericson, I thank you profusely. To Texas Tech University, I owe much for my advancement as a student. To Lee Ann Alford and her family, I could not have done it alone. I thank you all; without everyone’s belief in me, this project would not have realized. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................................................ ii ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... viii CHRONOLOGY OF THE MASIERI MEMORIAL POLEMIC........................................x CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION: THE MASIERI MEMORIAL DEBATE..................1 Thesis Statement ..............................................................................1 Outline of the Masieri Memorial Debate.........................................3 Interest Groups of the Masieri Memorial Debate ..........................11 Specific Protagonists in the Masieri Memorial Debate .................28 Relevancy of the Masieri Memorial Debate ..................................37 II. ANGELO MASIERI: HIS LIFE AND WORK ......................................39 Introduction to Angelo Masieri......................................................39 Architect Angelo Masieri...............................................................44 Masieri’s Education and Career.....................................................48 Meetings with Frank Lloyd Wright ...............................................55 Travel and Death Following a Wrightian Dream ..........................58 III. THE MASIERI MEMORIAL COMMISSION ......................................63 Development of Savina Masieri’s Idea..........................................63 Wright’s Development of the Idea.................................................67 Site Analysis of the Masieri Memorial ..........................................74 iv Relevance of Wright as Architect................................................103 IV. THE MASIERI MEMORIAL IN THE PRESS AND THE PUBLIC’S RESPONSE...............................................................114 Publication of the Masieri Memorial Perspective........................114 Public Responses to the Proposed Masieri Memorial..................120 V. REPRESENTATIVE FIGURES AT THE FOREFRONT OF THE DEBATE AND THEIR ARGUMENTS.............................160 Innovators or Modernists: Supporters of Wright.........................163 Traditionalists: Wright’s Opponents............................................181 Moderates: Intellectual Arguments about Wright’s Project ........190 VI. THE VALIDITY OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST THE PROJECT ARCHITECTURALLY, POLITICALLY, AND PERSONALLY..................................................................202 Italian Society and Architecture, 1918-45 ...................................203 Convulsive Unrest after 1945 in Italian Architectural Culture....208 Italy’s Need to Court American Rehabilitation Funding.............216 Italian Need for National Identity................................................220 Antagonism Arising from United States Cultural Imperialism ...224 Architecture as American Cultural Imperialism..........................230 Italian and American Malice Toward the Project........................243 VII. THE COMUNE DI VENEZIA’S DECISION TO REJECT WRIGHT’S PROJECT ................................................................254 VIII. CONCLUSIONS...................................................................................284 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................305 APPENDIX......................................................................................................................323 v ABSTRACT Frank Lloyd Wright was commissioned to design a residence in Venice, Italy, in 1951 by Angelo and Savina Masieri. Angelo, a young Italian architect from Udine, admired Wright’s work, and he asked the American architect to design a house for himself and his wife in place of a vernacular house they owned along the Grand Canal. In the summer of 1952, the Masieris traveled to the United States to discuss the project with Wright. During the trip, however, they were involved in an automobile accident, and Angelo was killed. Upon her return to Italy, Savina Masieri wrote Wright with the news and asked that he continue with the project under different circumstances. Wright designed a four-story residence and library for architecture students at the Istituto Universario di Architettura di Venezia (IUAV) according to Savina Masieri’s wishes. The building was to serve a social purpose as well as function as the seat of a foundation in Angelo’s honor, the Fondazione Masieri. Wright exhibited the design in New York City in May 1953 prior to receiving building permission in Venice. His misstep precipitated an international controversy that lasted into 1955. Traditionalists and modernists argued whether contemporary architecture was appropriate for the historic waterway through Venice. City officials in Venice ultimately rejected the project on the grounds that Wright’s design was aesthetically incompatible with the surrounding architectural environment. The debate surrounding the Masieri Memorial ostensibly may have focused on Wright’s project, but in the larger view it addressed the issue of preserving and maintaining historic urban environments. Although several contemporary buildings had vi been constructed in Venice prior to the Masieri Memorial debate, traditionalists were able to prevent many new constructions in the main urban