Issue 368 July 26th 2023

The Headlines

Plans for Madison's Lake Monona Waterfront Get Update

The design team chosen to help the city reimagine the Lake Monona waterfront in Madison, Wisconsin has made a series of changes to a draft master plan to address concerns, make it more doable and keep it spectacular.

Sasaki of Denver’s “Voices of the Lake” design, chosen from a high-caliber field, still would dramatically transform the waterfront from Williamson Street to Olin Park. But revisions would address concerns about elements blocking views from the lower floors of residences on East Wilson Street, pedestrian and bicycle safety at crossings of John Nolen Drive, and practicality.

The changes include a phased approach to an elevated promenade, pedestrian bridge and park covering John Nolen Drive to the east of Monona Terrace, while a pedestrian and bike bridge west of the convention center is eliminated in favor of an underpass starting between North Shore Drive and South Broom Street.

But remaining are many of the plan’s big features, including new lake access, safer pedestrian and bike paths, wetlands and water quality improvements, a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired boat house and community center to the east of Monona Terrace and much more.

“We’re incredibly excited about the direction the plans are headed,” said Zachary Chrisco, a principal at Sasaki. “The vision remains bold and will be one that the Madison community will be proud of for generations. In addition, the community feedback and additional studies performed by our team have begun to ground the plan to one that is implementable, yet forward-looking.”

Former Arch Obler Property For Sale

The sole Frank Lloyd Wright-designed residence to have ever existed in Malibu, California burned down in 2018 during the grizzly Woolsey fires — but it has a new chapter in sight.

For the first time in 25 years and since the tragedy, the two parcels on which the property sat have listed for $7.45 million.

Once known as The Arch Oboler Complex, Wright was commissioned by Arch and Eleanor Oboler to design their Malibu residence.

Only the gate house and the complex — pegged as “Eleanor’s Retreat” — were completed between 1940 and 1941.

Named Eaglefeather, the main house was to be designed to embrace the land featuring the use of wood and Wright’s signature desert stone rubble masonry. The design included the incomplete main house, a pool, a film studio, stables, a paddock and a children’s wing. The properties were restored and rehabilitated in 2013 – five years before the fires tore through.

“The materials are stone, fashioned in the same manner as Taliesin West, and wood siding,” Bruce Brooks Pfieffer wrote in volume 2 of “Frank Lloyd Wright: The Complete Works.”

The gate house, originally made of two sections, consisted of a living room, a workspace, a bedroom, a bathroom, carports, and stalls for horses. Later, the Obolers made this space their full-time residence, and additions — unsupervised by Wright — were built.

The other building on the complex, known as “Eleanor’s Retreat,” is a small, square cottage, with detailing resembling the touches planned for Eaglefeather.

Situated on a high plateau in the Santa Monica Mountains, the two parcels comprise more than 100 acres.

“A place of natural beauty with endless vistas in all directions, sunrises and sunsets that defy the imagination, and a serenity unto its own,” the listing says.

“The opportunity now exists to rebuild the 4,000-square-foot gatehouse/compound or begin anew.”

Lloyd Wright’s Second Commissioned Home Seeks $3.2M In L.A.

After collaborating on Frank Lloyd Wright’s seminal Hollyhock House, Wright’s son, Lloyd Wright, and his top surrogate in Los Angeles, R.M. Schindler, both struck out on their own. Schindler built his pioneering home and studio on Kings Road; Wright built the Henry O. Bollman Residence. Just his second independent commission, it translated the lessons Wright had learned working alongside the finest designers of his day — his father, Schindler, Olmsted & Olmsted, Irving Gill, and Norman Bel Geddes— into a harmonious and distinctive whole. Today, Wright’s vision remains entirely intact, with only the most sensitive updates for 21st-century living. Four light-filled bedrooms, two vintage-inspired bathrooms, an airy, contemporary kitchen and a verdant private patio amid 2,518 square feet of living space make the Bollman Residence one of the only properties by a giant of Los Angeles modernism currently on the market that isn’t just an architectural masterpiece, but also a fully functional, move-in-ready home.

The 2,518 square feet, four bedrooms, two baths home is listing for $3,198,000.

Don Erickson-Designed Illinois Home With A Beautiful Pagoda Roof For Sale

In a western Chicago suburb lies a four-bedroom, three-bath abode with a bit of whimsy: a pagoda roof. The design tower also crowns the two-car garage of the home, which was built in 1965. The 3,408-square-foot home, in Wood Dale, Illinois, is listed for $519,900.

The home was designed by Don Erickson, who studied under Frank Lloyd Wright. Erickson is also known for his design of the Indian Lakes Resort in nearby Bloomingdale. This unique build incorporates cypress and rough-sawn cedar beams, plus grass-cloth wallpaper with gold foiling. The home spans 1.5 stories and features a living tree. The ficus in the living room continues to grow through the roof.

Naturally, the ceiling of each room features a cathedral effect due to the pagoda roof. (The architect also built a pagoda roof on his own home in Barrington, IL.)

Two bedrooms on the lower level have walk-out access to a sunken rock garden with a patio. A wet bar is also downstairs.

"The Sacred Architecture of Irving J. Gill" Lecture and Book Signing

Unity Temple Restoration Foundation and the Irving J. Gill Foundation will host a talk and book signing by Rev. Dr. Mark Hargreaves who will speak about his new book, The Sacred Architecture of Irving J. Gill Thursday, July 27 at 6:30pm. Oak Park, Illinois historian and architect Christopher Payne will introduce the topic with insights from Joseph Lyman Silsbee’s religious works.

Gill apprenticed under Silsbee and Adler & Sullivan during the peak of the Chicago School, 1890-1893. In these heady years, Gill worked alongside Wright, Elmslie, Corwin, Maher, and other prominent early Chicago and Prairie School architects. Moving to San Diego in 1893, Gill went on to have a provocative career in Southern California.

Hargreaves’ lecture will draw on his research and writing to focus on Gill’s sacred architecture, which emerged out of the same cultural and theological milieu as Silsbee’s Unity Chapel, Spring Green, WI, and Wright’s Unity Temple, Oak Park, IL.

FREE EVENT! No registration is needed. Doors open at 6 pm, talk begins at 6:30 pm.

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