EDUCATION | ADVOCACY | PRESERVATION THE MAGAZINE OF THE FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT BUILDING CONSERVANCY THE MAGAZINE OF FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT BUILDING CONSERVANCY FALL 2017 / VOLUME 8 ISSUE 2 FALL SPECIAL EDITION Taking Stock of Frank Lloyd Wright at 15O Guest Editors: Neil Levine Susan Jacobs Lockhart president’s MESSAGE an architectural awakening I am not an architect, architectural historian, critic or scholar, as are the eminent contributors to this special issue of SaveWright. Nonetheless, I would like to add my appreciation of Frank Lloyd Wright from my personal perspective as a 20-year owner of Wright’s Usonian Richardson House in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. What first impressed my husband and me when we viewed the house in February 1996 was the light, glancing off the surrounding snow and through the glass doors that comprised two sides of the triangular living room. Then we focused on the details: the fact that the house was built on a hexagonal grid with walls meeting only at 60- or 120-degree angles (the two exceptions being for bathtub corners). And then there was the living room ceiling, comprised of a reversed truss support- ing the flat roof, clad in cypress so as to create a downward-facing pyramid in the center of the living space. To my knowledge, that feature is unique among Wright-designed interiors. And in yet another architecturally significant gesture, Wright designed the three bedrooms and a bath, not in-line, as was typical of Usonian architecture of the time, but as emanating spoke-like from a central “loggia” opening into a walled garden. The careful crafting of brick and cypress to meet the demands of the house’s geometry was evident throughout. Our decision to trade Victorian for Wrightian architecture was almost instantaneous. We worried that living in a Wright-designed house would be oppressive, and that his spirit would control our every decision as we commenced a 20-year period of renovation. While preservation principles necessarily guided the work that was done, they never felt confining; particularly, I think, because the underlying plan of the house, designed in 1941, remained both modern and surprisingly flexible. Further, we grew close to the craftspeople that we hired to perform the work, all of whom appreciated the house and the skill with which it was planned and created. In sum, Wright, albeit posthumously, gifted us with an architectural awakening that would not have occurred in another environment, and with like-minded friends (including many from the Conservancy), with whom we shared our good fortune. Edith Payne President, Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy Former Owner, Richardson House CONTENTS Cover photo by Pedro E. Guerrero. Sixty Years of Living Architecture: The Work of Frank Lloyd Wright in New York, 1953. © 2017, Pedro E. Guerrero Archives. SaveWright is a biannual publication of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy. 1 Taking Stock of Frank Lloyd Wright at 15O Guest Editors: Neil Levine, Susan Jacobs Lockhart Executive Editor: Susan Jacobs Lockhart 22 Building Owner Resources: Restoring Wright-designed Managing Editor: Joel Hoglund Designers: Debbie Nemeth, Joel Hoglund (Feature) Bathrooms at Graycliff The mission of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building 25 Executive Director’s Letter: A Shared Experience Conservancy is to facilitate the preservation and maintenance of the remaining structures designed by Frank Lloyd Wright through education, advocacy and technical services. tel: 312.663.5500 email: [email protected] web: savewright.org © 2017, Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy FRAl\T'K LLOYD WRIGHT "I bequeath my soul to God.... For my name and memory, I leave it to men's charitable speeches, and to foreign nations, and the next age." -FRANCIS BACON We mourn -with you the death of in his best works and writings, and Italy's past. We loved and honored the -world's greatest architect: He. it is this side of Wright that may him. Now we feel desperate, for a who almost singlehanded, a half have the best and most enduring modern architectural culture seems century "and more ago, created an influence on the younger genera- inconceivable without him. In Ven- architecture of the twentieth cen- tions. ice University I spent an entire day tury; an American .architecture of JOSE LUIS SERT Cambruioe, Mass. with the students going over his Taking Stock of which We are all rightf~lIy proud. buildings, r-eading passages from His monument is assured in the his books, and listening to record- great buildings which outlive him. A greater influence on students, ar- _ ings of his speeches. He seemed to PHILIP JOHNSON New York City chi teets, clients, and people could be living among us as h~win for- not have been put in -one lifetime. ever. We share our American col- A. QUINCY JONES Los Angeles leagues' grief, for Wright was the Death came to Frank Lloyd Wright world's greatest architect of all on the twentieth anniversary of the times. opening of the administration cen- When history sifts down to its . BRUNO ZEVI Rome, Italy Frank Lloyd Wright at 15O ter he designed for us. It has been short list of lasting names of this said that no business building in century. Frank Lloyd Wright will this century more surely combined be on that list. Little did Pope Frank Lloyd Wright will be re- originality, beauty, and functional Julius the Second suspect that his membered as a champion of the values. This and other buildings he greatest claim to fame was his human spirit against the conformi- designed for us, including the quarrels with Michelangelo. It is ties of our era. His valiant spirit INTRODUCTION BY NEIL LEVINE Johnson Research Tower, mark the to the discredit of our business and will redeem our architecture. man himself as an authentic origi- government not to have given JOSEPH HUDNUT Dover, Mass. nal in our time. I believe the fame Wright greater opportunities, and he achieved in his long and vigor- our profession will bear the brand ous life will increase with the years of not recognizing him as "the ar- A fine and good man has passed OD. and that his influence on future chitect of the century." We are still He was a genius not only of the generations as a thinker as well as too close to him, and it is difficult building art of America but also in an architect will be profound. to distinguish between the great his life and art in general. He has H. F. JOHNSON Racine, Wis. message he, in his concept of archi- in his creations showed a passion tecture, has given us and the per- for humanity. His forms in art will sonal style which should remain surely retain their greatness more Farewell to this genius of architec- his own. As time goes by, his con- than 100 years ahead. Personally I ture. This is the great man whose tribution will ring clearer and be- have lost a real friend. Following Wright’s death in 1959, Architectural Forum essential truth is in his buildings come part of the architecture of ALVAR AALTO Helsinki, Finland and his writings. His is the great- generations to come. est influence on architecture to EERO SAARINEN Bloomfield Hills, truth and beauty: his the influence Mich. Frank Lloyd Wright was a great on man to richness and liveliness architect who early used free forms published a group of “comments” on his “life and of spirit. Farewell. which made for the interior flow ANSHEN & ALLEN San Francisco For Italian architects Wright was of space. Further he used da~light not only the greatest living genius sources as a painter does a palette but also the incarnation of ideals of colors which means that all di- I admire in Wright's work the de- which make being an architect rections and all locations in a room work” by architects, critics, historians, clients and velopment of Sullivan's principles worth-while. The antifascist fight are in repose. in new and varied forms, his per- coincided for us with a growing WILLIAM W. WURSTER Berkley, Calif. sistent spirit of revolt against the passion for Wright's architecture, dangers of a modern academicism because it stood for individual free- other professional acquaintances. To mark Wright’s and the limitations imposed by dom and democratic courage. He Frank Lloyd Wright was a distin- rigid doctrines. Above all I admire was the only creator we could com- guished architect as to form and the full enjoyment of life expressed pare with the greatest masters of shape and design, of course. But his sesquicentennial, Susan Jacobs Lockhart and I thought Architectural Forum I M~Y 1958 113 it would be interesting to revive the Forum’s idea in order to take stock of how attitudes toward Wright Philip Johnson have evolved over the past half century. We have We mourn with you the death of the world’s greatest architect. He, who perforce included only architects, historians and critics almost singlehanded, a half century and more ago, created an architecture of the 20th century; an American architecture of which we are all rightfully (and excluded those who participated in the Conser- proud. His monument is assured in the great buildings which outlive him. vancy’s symposium in New York in September 2017). Anshen & Allen Our letter requesting “a statement of anywhere from Farewell to this genius of architecture. This is the great man whose essen- 50 to 500 words or more” said that we were “looking tial truth is in his buildings and his writings. His is the greatest influence on for candid and thoughtful appraisals from those who architecture to truth and beauty; his the influence on man to richness and liveliness of spirit.