Issue 307 May 25th 2022

The Headlines

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Meier House: Passing The Torch

Have you ever gazed at the walls of your home and wondered what lives they’ve beheld? Jason Loper and Michael Schreiber have. When they bought an old house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, one of his American System-Built Homes, an early 20th century pre-fab project, and their curiosity got the best of them. As it turns out, those walls can talk. And they've been listening.

"When we bought our American System Built-Home in 2013, we entered into a relationship not only with the house but its former inhabitants as well. At the time, there was scant information about Frank Lloyd Wright and Arthur Richards’ early-20th century ready-made housing plan. To learn about American System Built-Homes, we went to official sources – like the Avery Library, where all 900+ original ASB drawings are cataloged. But to learn about our house, a Model M202 known as the Delbert and Grace Meier House, we turned to local experts – the people who used to call it home. Collecting former homeowner stories and learning the history of Wright’s ready-built home scheme may have eventually led to our upcoming book, but we didn’t start out with such grand ambitions."

"We’re coming up on our ninth anniversary as stewards of the Meier House. Nine years of long drives and long projects. Although we’re loathe to admit that aging is slowing us down, there’s no denying that we’re not as energetic as we used to be. That’s why we’ve made the difficult decision to sell the Meier House. "

"We know that to do right by the house, we need to pass it along to the next stewards. We’re not here as often as we’d like and that’s keeping us from projects that would further improve the house. This is a house to be lived in, to be enjoyed. So, with lumps in our throats and tears in our eyes, we’ve placed a For Sale sign on the front lawn. We’re proud of what we have been able to accomplish in our time here – the work we’ve done, the people we’ve met, the book we published. "

To get the full story of this marvelous old house, order a copy of their book: This American House: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Meier House and The American System-Built Homes on Amazon or at your local book seller. More here.

Midland Center For The Arts Launches $47M Capital Campaign, With $34M Already Committed

The Midland Center for the Arts announced a $47 million capital campaign, “Center of Possibility,” to reimagine the way art and science intersect in Michigan.

Already, $34 million, or about 72% of the goal, is committed to the project from regional foundations and individual donors.

The capital campaign monies will go toward a transformative restoration and renovation of the Center for the Arts itself. The process is intended to preserve the building’s architecture and keep in line with Alden B. Dow’s original intentions when the Center for the Arts was constructed. The renovations will also provide opportunities for connection for years to come.

The renovations will include flood mitigation measures in the lower level, redesigned classroom spaces, and better accessibility to theaters, restrooms and the building’s entrances. The board wanted to make sure that the physical space of the Center for the Arts is not a limiting factor to visitors, Ungerleider explained.

In addition, the building’s heating and cooling units will be replaced with mechanisms that are more energy-efficient.

“Our goal is to become as energy-efficient as humanly possible in this day and age,” Loos said.

The main goal of the capital improvement project is to maximize the Center’s impact on the community, thus helping the organization to create and build for the next 50 years and to attract interest and tourism for the region. More here.

Frank Lloyd Wright 3D Boynton House Tour | THEatre ACCELERATOR 2022

Kim Bixler sends word that she got accepted into an intensive musical theater development program featuring AR/VR and created a music video tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright house she grew up in in Rochester, NY—the Edward E. Boynton House (1908). She teamed up with architect, animator, and Bangladesh native Razin Kahn to create a video demonstrating the potential of AR/VR. While he was in architecture school he was assigned Frank Lloyd Wright as a subject. He did his first rendering and was hooked! He’s created scores of renderings, and several 3D animations of Wright structures since he graduated.

Check out the video here. There is a mini-contest to see who can get the most views in the before May 27th, so any Wright/architecture/design enthusiasts who watch it will help push Bixler and Kahn to victory!

Petra Bachmaier And Sean Gallero Find Joy In Playing With The Materiality Of Buildings

In this article, Vladimir Belogolovsky talks to artists Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero of Luftwerk who treat light as a material and make us see it in ways that are new and magical.

Chicago-based couple duo, Petra Bachmaier (b. 1974, Munich, Germany) and Sean Gallero (b. 1973, The Bronx, New York), founded their practice Luftwerk in 2007 to create immersive ephemeral installations using interactions of light, colour, sound, video projection, and space design to manipulate, trick, play, and enrich our sensory perception and spatial experience. Bachmaier received her Master of Fine Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg, Germany. Gallero studied installation-based, multi-disciplinary performance art at the City University of New York. They met in 1999 while studying at the Performance Art department at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The artists initiated their collaboration on all sorts of new media-based installations, while still being students, years before forming their professional practice.

Their installations often engage with architecture, as they see buildings and interiors as their potential canvases. The artists’ most representative works include the dual presentation Geometry of Light at the Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois, and at the German Pavilion in Barcelona, both designed by Mies van der Rohe; Fallingwater: Art in Nature, an animated performance projected over Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater; and Luminous Field at the Millennium Park in the heart of Chicago. Read the entire article here.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Birthday Picnic

Join Woodlawn & Pope-Leighey House staff to celebrate the birthday of the amazing architect, Frank Lloyd Wright on Jun. 05, 2022, 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Enjoy an open house tour of Pope-Leighey House and learn about the history of the house and its designer. In the yard, enjoy games and music that inspired the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, or take a selfie with Flat Frank! Stay a little, or all afternoon to enjoy the festivities! Keep an eye out for our celebratory cupcakes, included in the price of your ticket! More info here.

Wright Art Glass Lamp Coming To Kirkland

The Kirkland Museum, 1201 Bannock St., Denver, announces the gift of a lamp, constructed from two pieces of Frank Lloyd Wright art glass (1903-1904), which will be featured in the show, “Frank Lloyd Wright Inside the Walls,” opening June 17. In 1964, art collector Bertie Slutzky purchased two pieces at a Chicago antique store, recognizing them as Frank Lloyd Wright glass. A local metalsmith joined the pieces to make a table lamp, which she presented to her son, Louis Newman, as a graduation gift. Mr. Newman and his husband, Justin Ferate, donated the lamp to the museum in 2018. More here.

Wayfarers Chapel On Its Way To Becoming A National Historic Landmark

Wayfarers Chapel, a 70-year-old wood and glass church designed by Lloyd Wright, may soon find itself in the company of other Southern California greats, such as the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and the Rose Bowl. The Rancho Palos Verdes church was nominated as a National Historic Landmark by a unanimous vote of the National Park System Advisory Board’s National Historic Landmarks Committee earlier this month. The nomination was the first of a three-step process in gaining the designation, which would make the chapel eligible for federal preservation grants and investment tax credits. It will now go to the full National Park System Advisory Board, which would then recommend landmark designation to the secretary of the Department of the Interior. The Interior secretary has final approval. More here.

About

This weekly Wright Society update is brought to you by Eric O'Malley with Bryan and Lisa Kelly. If you enjoy these free, curated updates—please forward our sign-up page and/or share on Social Media.

If you’d like to submit content to be featured here, please reach out by emailing us at mail[at]wrightsociety.com.