Issue 134 January 30th 2019

The Headlines

100 Things To Do In Tulsa That You Can't Do Anywhere Else

Among the long list of things to do in Tulsa is #64: "Find the Frank Lloyd Wright House." Officially called "Westhope," but better known these days as "The Frank Lloyd Wright House," the dwelling at 3701 S. Birmingham Ave. was designed by the famous architect for his cousin, Tulsa Tribune founder Richard Lloyd Jones. When the flat roof leaked, Jones' wife famously quipped, "Well, this is what we get for leaving a work of art out in the rain." Wright's only realized skyscraper, the 19-story Price Tower, is just 45 minutes north of Tulsa in downtown Bartlesville. See the list here.

A Look At Wright's "Child of the Sun"

"Child of the Sun" is the name of the group of structures that make up the Frank Lloyd Wright architecture at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida. Wright believed in innovative architectural creations that harmonized with their surroundings. The private institution of Florida Southern College is no exception, which is now on the National Register of Historic Places. See the story from FOX 13 here.

Visting Taliesin - Willey House Stories Part 10: Lo on the Horizon

Every house has stories to tell, particularly if the house was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Some stories are familiar. Some are even true. Some, true or not, have been lost to time, while others are yet to be told. In The Whirling Arrow, Steve Sikora, co-owner of the Malcom Willey House, continues his exploration of the home and its influence on architecture and society. Read his story here.

Travel In Style With This Tiny House

CNN's travel section asks, "Want a tiny house? A home inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright? A state-of-the-art RV you can tow to your Grand Canyon or Maine vacation?"

If your answer is "yes," that hybrid travel dream may be being assembled in a Quonset-hut-and-machine-shed compound on the outskirts of the small town of Rice Lake, Wisconsin.

It is where Escape builds luxury tiny houses on wheels. Owner Dan Dobrowolski — a former Chicago TV meteorologist and computer entrepreneur — is also a devotee of Frank Lloyd Wright, and his models are inspired by the iconic American architect.

The tiny/hybrid/Wright model — the Vista — starts in the upper $40,000s. A reviewer in Forbes magazine called it "the world's most beautiful tiny house." See the intriguing travel home here.

Reasons To Visit Pennsylvania's Laurel Highlands In 2019

The Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau gives many reasons to plan a getaway to the region. Noting that sixty years after the death of America’s most prominent architect, Frank Lloyd Wright’s legacy lives on in this area, not only at his landmarks like Fallingwater and Taliesen West, but also with Tom and Heather Papinchak, owners of Polymath Park, an architectural park tucked away in the Laurel Highlands. Here Wright fans can tour and stay overnight in two of his designs, including the newly-rebuilt Mäntylä house, and two homes designed by his apprentice, Peter Berndtson.

Built for the Lindholm family in Cloquet, MN, Mäntylä had been on the market for many years and was in danger of demolition due to encroaching development. The property owners donated the home and all of its original furnishings to the Usonian Preservation Inc., a non-profit associated with Polymath Park, in hopes that Mäntylä would find a new life. Thanks to the Papinchaks, it did. The L-shaped home with a distinct prow is now tucked away under the towering trees of Polymath Park and will open to visitors for tours and overnight lodging in May 2019.

Just a short scenic drive from Polymath Park are Wright’s masterpiece, Fallingwater, and his grand Usonian, Kentuck Knob, making the Laurel Highlands a must-visit for architecture fans. More here.

FLLW’S Burnham Block Group Purchases ASBH In Milwaukee

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Burnham Block, Inc. is pleased to announce the purchase of the Frank Lloyd Wright designed two-family home at 2728-30 West Burnham Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The home, known as a “Two Flat, Model C” is part of Wright’s American System-Built Homes series. It was built in 1916.

“The purchase of this building continues our commitment to The Burnham Block historic site in Milwaukee. The building has fallen into significant disrepair. It needs an immediate overhaul of its mechanical systems including frozen plumbing. There is a long list of deferred maintenance needs.” said Mike Lilek, President of the Frank Lloyd Wright’s Burnham Block, Inc. “We will begin the urgent repairs immediately. A long-term restoration plan will be announced at a later date. With this purchase, all six Wright buildings on the Burnham Block are now in good hands and will be well cared for. Three of the six buildings are already restored. We are committed to restoring the rest to their 1916 appearance.

The Burnham Block represents Mr. Wright’s broad vision to shelter everyone in a work of art. The homes are pure expressions of Mr. Wright’s genius in merging engineering and technology with art and design to create living spaces filled with natural light, harmony, and comfort. Mr. Wright wanted the homes to connect their occupants with nature, to provide gathering spaces for the family and to be a quiet and serene space to return to at the end of a busy day. The homes are on the National and Wisconsin Register of Historic Places and are part of a historic district in the City of Milwaukee.

The Burnham Block welcomes about 5,000 visitors annually to the restored Model B1 at 2714 West Burnham. A visitor center with educational programming for all age groups is planned. Lilek added, “The structural stuff is amazing, but the buildings come alive when docents share their story with guests or when school groups spend the afternoon sketching and experiencing spaces designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.” Read more here.

Five Prairie Schools Homes On The Market Around Chicago

Chicago magazine features five Prairie School homes that are on the market. It should come as no surprise that Chicago, as the Prairie School’s birthplace, has a rich inventory of the era’s buildings. Many key Prairie School architects worked under the tutelage of the early Chicago School influencers, helping to set a new precedent for design in American architecture. Frank Lloyd Wright is the best remembered name from the era, but many others, including George W. Maher, William Drummond, and John Van Bergen, left their marks throughout the Chicago area. See these gems here.

Blockbuster Buildings: Architecture In The National Park System

In addition to significant natural and cultural features, our National Parks preserve some surprising and important works of architecture. The type of architecture most frequently associated with the parks is the naturalistic style seen in many early 20th-century park buildings, a design commonly referred to as “parkitecture.” Structures of heavy timber and stone took their cues from their surroundings, offering a rugged and romantic feel for park visitors.

By mid-century, however, "parkitecture" had fallen out of favor, as park managers sought updated, forward-thinking designs that were better able to serve growing numbers of park visitors. The National Park Service’s famous Mission 66 program, conceived to coincide with the Park Service’s 50th anniversary in 1966 and to welcome vacationing Baby Boomers into the parks, ushered in a decade-long building boom that produced a new wave of park buildings designed in a modernist style, with contributions from such architectural heavyweights as Richard Neutra and the Taliesin Associated Architects.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s apprentices created the successor firm to develop projects that follow the principles of organic architecture after his death in 1959. One of the firm’s first and most indelible projects was the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center at Rocky Mountain National Park. Opened in 1967, the building features horizontal rooflines and earthy materials such as native sandstone. And yet, befitting its status as a modern Mission 66 project, the building also features a repeating triangular motif that abstractly references the surrounding mountains, and Cor-Ten steel beams that provide contrast to the stone and surrounding pine forest. The building, as Ethan Carr wrote in his book Mission 66: Modernism and the National Park Dilemma, “proved that great design could find appropriate uses and expression in a national park.” The building was designated as a national historic landmark in 2001. More here.

Bruce Goff: A Rare Look At A Generous Genius

In this PaperCity exclusive, architect Robert Morris writes about his mentor, the late organic visionary American architect Bruce Goff. The conversation that began their friendship took place in Tyler, Texas, one spring weekend 39 years ago. The talent who brought them together was another architect of note: It all started with Frank Lloyd Wright.

At the age of 22, Mr. Goff designed one of his masterpieces, the Art Deco-style Boston Avenue United Methodist Church, while working with the respected Tulsa architectural firm Rush Endacott Rush. When he was 25, he became a partner in Rush, Endacott & Goff, which closed during the Great Depression.

After serving with the Navy Seabees during World War II, with only a high school diploma, he took a teaching position with the College of Architecture at the University of Oklahoma in 1947. After one semester, he was made the dean of the architecture college, a position he held until 1955.

During his tenure, the architecture program became very well known and garnered students from all over the world. Two of his closest friends were Chicago architect Louis Sullivan and Sullivan’s protégé, Frank Lloyd Wright.

It was following this period that he created some of his most extraordinary work in the modern vernacular he was famed for. Goff defined an approach and style that came to be called, in the post-war period, "organic architecture" and often included unexpected and novel materials honed from nature or industry that he placed within each structure to lend an air of humanity and root it to place.

The architect was a master also at painting and the applied arts, often including his own canvases, sculpture, and glass or mirror mosaic elements in the interiors of the buildings he designed. Read more here.

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