Issue 241 February 17th 2021

The Headlines

Don't Miss Out On A Special FLWF Membership Offer

The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation has an offer for subscribers to the Wright Society. The upcoming issue of the Frank Lloyd Wright Quarterly magazine explores how Frank Lloyd Wright used “The Space Within” his buildings to create an architecture for better living that creates a space that is not only beautiful, it improves the health and happiness of those who inhabit it.

The magazine is available exclusively to members of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, and they are offering a 10% discount to anyone who sees this post. Visit FrankLloydWright.org/membership to join and use the code SOCIETY to get your discount (Offer valid through Feb. 28, 2021). Your membership comes with a number of member benefits beyond the magazine, while helping to preserve an important American cultural legacy, along with Wright’s homes Taliesin and Taliesin West.

How Art Shapes Our Lives: Frank Lloyd Wright

Historians study architectural style because it closely reflects the ideals and beliefs of the builders. Distinctive and identifiable artistic form in architecture also helps us to understand the mood of an era. In a recent article from Sierra News Online, Sal Maccarone, M.A., focuses on architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

"Different from most of his contemporaries, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) embraced social and technological changes. As both an architect and interior designer he believed that a structure should be in harmony with itself, humanity, nature and especially, the environment. In other words, all aspects of a building including the materials, furnishings and landscape, should stand as a unified whole." Read the entire article here.

The Guggenheim: The History Of A New York Modern Art Museum

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a must-see for art lovers who find themselves in New York City. An abstract, modern building on Fifth Avenue north of the Metropolitan Museum, the institution contains works from legendary artists of the past century. The building—designed by Frank Lloyd Wright—was the fantastic product of over 700 sketches, six working drafts, and 13 years from commission to ribbon-cutting.

Solomon R. Guggenheim began collecting art with his wife Irene Rothschild Guggenheim in the late 19th century. After 1919, he decided to fully devote his time to the practice. Around 1928, he met Hilla Rebay, a German baroness and abstract painter who piqued Guggenheim's interest in the work of modern artists. Guggenheim sought out Frank Lloyd Wright to create a modern building worthy of his ever-growing collection. The project was commissioned in 1943, but due to wartime and other delays, the museum would not open to the public until 1959.

Wright's design features a spiral ramp with offset galleries, a large interior atrium with skylights, and an almost blinding-white color scheme in concrete. Sadly, neither architect nor original client witnessed the new museum's opening. Wright passed earlier that year, while Guggenheim died in 1949. In his honor, the museum was renamed the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Read the history of Solomon R. Guggenheim and his Museum here.

Coming Soon: The "This American House" Book

The owners and stewards of the Wright-designed Meier House in Monona, IA recently announced the forthcoming release of their new book, This American House: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Meier House and the American System-Built Homes! Published by Pomegranate and due out on July 15th, 2021 the book provides an historical overview of Wright’s overlooked American System-Built Homes project of the 1910s. Their home, the Meier House, is one of the few existing examples of this early effort of Wright’s to provide affordable but architecturally distinctive housing for the middle class. The book, This American House, chronicles the storied history of the Meier House and our efforts to steward this early 20th century architectural gem into the 21st century. Follow the link to learn more about the house and the forthcoming book.

Why Walter Burley Griffin’s Other Half Was His Equal

More than one century since Walter Burley Griffin won the prize of directing the design of Canberra, it is time to learn more about his colleague and wife, Marion Mahony Griffin, whose hand painted the first plans of the capital city.

In 1894, Marion Mahony was the second woman to graduate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with an architecture degree, and she went on to become one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s first employees. Known for her resolute determination and talent for architectural drawing, Marion was one of the first registered female architects in the world when she married Walter in 1911. And it was only at Marion’s insistence that her husband entered the Australian Commonwealth Government competition to plan the national capital, according to Australian Institute of Architects ACT president Shannon Battisson.

“Walter thought it would be too hard to do from so far away,” Ms Battisson said. “I think it’s safe to say it’s those incredible artworks that really helped win the competition for them.”

In 1914, Marion and Walter moved to Australia where they lived for over 20 years; however, Marion drew technical plans of Canberra long before she set foot on Australian soil.

“What I think is so incredible is her renderings are so accurate but she’d never seen the country,” Ms. Battisson said. “She had surveys and that’s all she had to go off – and yet they are magically like our city.”

“It’s a really monumental achievement that she got her license, and I think it goes on to explain a little bit about why we’re often quite surprised as to why she’s the lesser known — it was a husband-and-wife team that won the competition.” Ms. Battisson said it was also widely agreed that Marion chose to put herself in the background, allowing her husband to take center stage — a decision indicative of the era during which she was alive. “She was very much a woman in a man’s world.”

When Marion returned to Canberra after Walter’s death in 1937, to take one last look at the place they created together, she examined the city’s symmetry from Mount Ainslie. It’s unlikely she ever imagined that over 80 years later a bronze bust in her image would be transported up the mountain to stand before the vista she was instrumental in creating. But that’s exactly what happened ahead of what would have been her 150th birthday last Sunday, February 14th. Read the entire article here.

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