Issue 109 August 8th 2018

The Headlines

A Look At Beth Sholom

Atlas Obscura has a piece on Frank Lloyd Wright's Beth Sholom Congregation, Wright's synagogue meant to evoke a “luminous Mount Sinai.”

"Rabbi Mortimer J. Cohen wrote a letter to Wright—a stranger—and throughout the process would guide the architect through Jewish theology, rituals, and symbols. The building was completed in 1959, five months after Wright’s death, and was named a National Historic Landmark in 2007. The American Institute of Architects also selected the synagogue as one of Wright’s 17 most significant contributions to American architecture." Read more.

Enjoy Drinks And Music In A Frank Lloyd Wright House

Three Frank Lloyd Wright Trust sites will be open in September and October for the popular After Hours, in which historic Wright-designed homes are open for guests to enjoy drinks, snacks and live music.

For the first time, Wright’s Oak Park Home and Studio, 951 Chicago Ave., will open for After Hours from 6-8 p.m., on two Thursdays, Sept. 6 and Sept. 20. Trust volunteers will be available for tours of the surrounding neighborhood, which has many significant Wright homes. Admission is $50 and $40 for Trust members. For more information, visit http://flwright.org/afterhourshs.

After Hours returns to the beautifully restored Emil Bach House, 4-7 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 13 at 7415 N. Sheridan Road, in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood. The home and Japanese-style tea house will be open. Bring a blanket and enjoy music on the lawn. Admission is $20 and $15 for Trust members.

Newly restored rooms, including the iconic living room, will be accessible during October After Hours at the Robie House, Fridays, 5-8 p.m., Oct. 5, 12, 19, and 26 at the Frederick C. Robie House, 5757 S. Woodlawn Ave. in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. Admission is $35 and $30 for Trust members. For more information, visit http://flwright.org/afterhoursrobie.

Trust volunteer interpreters will be available to answer questions during After Hours at each site. Advance registration is highly recommended as the events do sell out.

Westcott House Getaway

Win a deluxe weekend getaway for two to a Frank Lloyd Wright destination of your choice! Frank Lloyd Wright’s Westcott House paired the top five Wright sites with the best hotels, travel accommodations, restaurant gift cards, and admissions to a variety of cultural experiences. Tickets are $100, and 350 will be sold. Tickets will be sold through Sunday, September 30, 2018. Purchase tickets online, in person at the Westcott House museum store, or by calling 937-327-9291. Offered by the Westcott House Foundation. All proceeds support Westcott programming. More here.

Architectural Bliss: Visiting Frank Lloyd Wright's Only Idaho Building

Matt Guilhem of Boise State Public Radio gives us an account of his tour of Teater’s Knoll, Frank Lloyd Wright's only Idaho building. As part of a fundraiser to help the Hagerman Valley Historical Society build a new annex, Henry Whiting, the owner of this Wright home has opened it to the public for just one day. For forty minutes, visitors basically have free reign of the property. Listen to Matt's story here.

Auldbrass Is About To Get Twice As Accessible

Frank Lloyd Wright enthusiasts will soon have a chance to tour Auldbrass Plantation on an annual basis. Privately owned by Hollywood producer Joel Silver, the home was previously only open for public tours once every other year.

Built in 1939 for C. Leigh Stevens, a Michigan industrialist, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation describes the property as a “4,000-acre tract of land on the banks of the Combahee River, the plantation is one of the largest and most complex residential projects Wright ever undertook."

Tickets to visit Auldbrass Plantation in Yemassee will go on sale at 9 a.m. Aug. 9. The tour will be Nov. 10 and 11. Tickets are $175 and may be purchased online, www.eventbrite.com. Proceeds benefit the Beaufort County Open Land Trust.

Tickets are expected to quickly sell out. Read more.

Frank Lloyd Wright Trust Volunteers Share Oak Park's Story With Guests From "All Over The World"

There’s so much to learn about Frank Lloyd Wright, and for anyone who’d like to know more about the “Prairie School” architect and have a good time while doing so, enrollment for volunteer training sessions starting in September is now underway for interpreters to lead tours at the Oak Park-based Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, Wright’s design laboratory and birthplace of Wright’s Prairie style of architecture.

Wright Trust volunteers — who work at the Trust’s five tour sites in Chicago and Oak Park — present world-class historic sites and their neighborhoods to an international audience, cultivate long-lasting relationships and receive ongoing education and training on topics related to history, design and of course, Wright. Training takes place Thursday evenings and two Saturdays, Sept. 25 through Oct. 11, at the FLW Home and Studio, 951 Chicago Ave., in Oak Park. Read more.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Great-Granddaughter Talks Design

Curbed Atlanta has an interview with Melissa Galt, an Atlanta-based interior designer and great-granddaughter of world-renowned American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Galt discusses, among other topics, today’s most influential design trends, the fate of the Marcel Breuer-designed Central Atlanta Library, and her late ancestor’s influence on her craft. Read the interview here.

Voters' List of Illinois' Top Architects And Artists

The State Journal- Register states that Frank Lloyd Wright and his fellow architects dominated the list of Illinois’ top artists and architects as chosen by voters in the Illinois Top 200 project. All four nominated architects made the top 10, reflecting the state’s leading role in building design for more than 150 years.

Wright, the most famous architect in history, was joined in the top 10 by Louis Sullivan, the “father of skyscrapers”; Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, a leader in the “less is more” approach; and Bertrand Goldberg, who favored mixed-use buildings with organic shapes. Read more.

The Tea Rooms That Brought Mackintosh Back To Life

One woman has been on a mission to bring Charles Rennie Mackintosh's most famous tea rooms back to life. Many view the tea rooms as the place that defined the Mackintosh style. Glasgow businesswoman Celia Sinclair, has made it her mission to bring the tea rooms back to their former glory.

According to Sinclair, Mackintosh is to Glasgow as Gaudi is to Barcelona and Frank Lloyd Wright to Chicago. He is the designer who best sums up the architecture of the city. Celia's four-year journey to raise £10m and complete the restoration was not quite finished on time for the 150th anniversary of Mackintosh's birth on June 7th.

Parts of the building are now open and the trust is hoping to have the restoration complete by the end of August with an official opening in September. Read more.

A North Manitou Mystery

In his book “The Frank Lloyd Wright Field Guide,” architect Tom Heinz lists a cottage on North Manitou Island in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore among the legendary architect’s creations.

The listing doesn’t go into detail about the evidence that led Heinz to this conclusion. The single paragraph mentions an 1894 notice about the construction of a Frank Lloyd Wright cottage on the Lake Michigan island and includes this description: “The building was clearly designed by an architect while the others [on the island] were at best constructed by a carpenter.”

On the official National Park Service website, the cottage is also listed as a Frank Lloyd Wright design. Park historical architect Kimberly Mann believes there is a lot of evidence it is a Wright, but that the definitive proof has yet to be discovered.

There is not, however, a consensus among Wright scholars or the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation that the architect is responsible for the building. William Allin Storrer, author of the “The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright: The Complete Catalog,” is adamant that there is no good evidence to connect the architect with the work. Read more.

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