Issue 203 May 27th 2020

The Headlines

Wright's Goetsch-Winckler House For Sale

The Goetsch-Winckler Home, one of only four houses in the Lansing, Michigan area designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is on the market. Owners Audrey and Dan Seidman bought the house, built in 1940, in 2007. It sits on just under three acres.

The home's sale listing was posted on www.thegoetschwincklerhouse.com, a website that's dedicated to the home's history. "Frank Lloyd Wright’s 'favorite small house' can now be yours," it reads. It's listed at $479,000.

The one-story house, with red brick walls and brick-colored concrete floors, and textiles throughout, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.

Wright designed the home for Alma Goetsch and Katherine Winckler, art professors at what would become Michigan State University. At approximately 1,400 square feet it's an early iteration of Wright’s "Usonian" houses, designed to be affordable, livable, and simple.

Audrey Seidman said the home's previous owner had worked with the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy to preserve it. Had that not happened, there “was a good chance it would have been razed," Dan Seidman said. The Seidman's spent 13 years continuing work at the Goetsch-Winckler Home, fixing drainage issues on the property, and maintaining the historical features of the house while updating its heating and electrical systems.

Wright designed homes "in harmony" with the natural environment around them, the couple said. The Goetsch-Winckler Home, which has two bedrooms and a bathroom, features built-in furniture and natural light through ample use of glass windows. The Seidmans said the home's studio space, where they keep a Steinway piano, and its master bedroom, which features glass doors that open onto the home's lanai, have been some of their favorite areas of the house.

The decision to sell it wasn't easy, the couple said, but their work restoring it is done and they're looking at other historical properties they'd like to conserve. "It’s about the doing for us," Dan Seidman said. "We pretty much feel like we’ve done what can be done with that home and we enjoyed it. This project is done and we’d like to maybe work on another project." They are selling the Goetsch-Winckler Home themselves. More here.

Historic Farnsworth House Threatened By Floodwaters

The Farnsworth House was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, completed in 1951, and is considered one of the most significant of his works. A masterpiece of modern architecture, the home was built in a flood plain along the Fox River in Illinois, and now floodwaters are again threatening the structure.

The floodwaters have completely covered the house's lower terrace, but have begun to recede, the Trust said in a statement to the Chicago Tribune. Yet with severe storms still in the forecast "we aren't 'out of the woods' yet", the house's executive director, Scott Mehaffey, wrote in an email. More here.

Marta Wojcik Celebrates 15 Years At The Westcott House Foundation

Marta Wojcik celebrates 15 years at the Westcott House Foundation, the past 10 of them as the Frank Lloyd Wright house’s executive director. On a recent day with her husband, Kevin Rose, walking in and out of the Westcotts’ front room with their two small children, Wojcik talked about how luck, necessity, and an impractical love of architecture continue to reshape her life. Read the entire interview here.

In Memoriam: Gertrude Horowitz Shavin

Gertrude Horowitz Shavin, 99, passed away on Friday, May 15, 2020. In 1948 she had married her soulmate, Seamour, and moved to Chattanooga. The young couple sought out Frank Lloyd Wright to design a house that became a reflection of their love and life together.

The Wright-designed home on Missionary Ridge in Chattanooga was commissioned in 1949, and was completed in 1952. It is the only building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Tennessee. Both the exterior and interior of the house use primarily crab orchard stone and treated Louisiana cypress wood. The house is sited on top of a hill to take advantage of the view of the Tennessee River and Lookout Mountain. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. In this spectacular home, they raised three children and hosted the grandchildren during school breaks. The importance of family was clear in all that they did.

In addition to being a mother and wife, Gertrude supported Seamour in his business and participated with him in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. Together they were involved with Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks at Highlander Center in 1957. Bomb threats against her home and family failed to shake her determination.

Gerte lived a long life, holding steadfast to her principles. She often quoted the last two lines of Keats’ Ode on a Grecian Urn: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty — that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” More on Gertrude Horowitz Shavin here.

Celebrate Frank Lloyd Wright's Birthday Virtually

Taliesin Preservation is inviting citizens not only from Wisconsin but from around the world to help celebrate Frank Lloyd Wright’s 153rd Birthday on June 8, 2020 with its first ever virtual Birthday Celebration. The event begins at 6:00 pm CST and can be seen on Taliesin Preservation’s YouTube, Facebook, and Web page. The Birthday Celebration of Wright’s life is a long-standing tradition of the Taliesin Fellowship and School of Architecture that extends from Wright’s lifetime to present.

For the last several years, Taliesin Preservation has continued the ongoing tradition of the birthday celebration on the grounds of Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin. The event serves as a way to continue Wright’s legacy, celebrate community and advance Taliesin Preservation’s mission of preserving the natural, built and cultural environments of the Taliesin estate.

The long-standing tradition of building community is perhaps more important now than ever. As Taliesin Preservation looks to the past to guide the future, they build on the organic way of living centered around culture, architecture. nature, and agriculture.

Through videos leading up to the day, participants will be able to experience what it was like to attend one of Wright’s past celebrations and learn the Taliesin “idea” of incorporating nature and beauty into people’s everyday lives. More information here.

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