Announcements
Journal OA+D V12:N2 PRE-ORDER
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT’S MARTIN & MARTIN BUILDING: A FORGOTTEN LANDMARK REDISCOVERED
60 pages :: Essay by Gregory M. Brewer
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin & Martin Building, more commonly known as the E-Z Polish Factory, was constructed in 1905 but remained unknown until rediscovered decades later by historian Grant Carpenter Manson. Manson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock paid relatively little attention to the building in their seminal works on Wright and it has remained largely unexamined until now. The Martin & Martin Building is a forgotten and misunderstood landmark of Frank Lloyd Wright’s early career. It was Wright’s first use of reinforced concrete and likely only the second building of reinforced concrete to be built in Chicago. What little has been written about the building has often been incorrect. No floor plan or other drawing of the finished building has ever been published, although several earlier drawings of Wright’s unbuilt design for a different site continue to be misidentified as the still extant 1905 building. Although both designs were carried through to construction documents, only preliminary drawings have survived. Thanks to Gregory Brewer's scholarship, this issue presents for the first time newly prepared drawings based on extensive field measurements and close examination of Wright’s surviving drawings for both projects. With never-before-published photos and drawings, this journal provides insights that will help shed light on this important early Wright designs.
PRE-ORDERS are now open at the OA+D website here.
If you are already an active subscriber, you will receive this issue as part of your subscription.
Contact OA+D if you have questions about your subscription status or other questions at info@oadarchives.org
Click for more details: oadarchives.org
The Headlines
Givenchy Rodeo Drive Flagship Opens In Historic Frank Lloyd Wright Building
The same year that French designer Hubert de Givenchy launched his chic brand in Paris in 1952, Frank Lloyd Wright was designing the Anderton Court Shops for a local textile heiress who wanted a stylish commercial building on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.
Those shops opened in 1954. Seventy years later, GIVENCHY is occupying the entire complex for its first permanent West Coast flagship.
This three-story structure of white-painted concrete is only 50 feet wide and just 150 feet deep, but because it’s set back from the street a little more than the other storefronts around it, the building exudes a welcoming courtyard feel, standing in stark contrast to the nearly identical glass-and-steel boxes that otherwise line Rodeo Drive.
The building features a unique hexagonal floor plan and is topped with one of Wright’s trademark streamline moderne spires. Wright’s design is based on a diamond grid pattern that creates what he called an inverted “V,” allowing the shop to have significant window displays.
He initially conceived the building having four separate retail spaces and a top floor penthouse apartment for the property’s caretaker. But over time the shops were split up and there were six smaller units, three on each side of the central walkway. The units were vertically staggered a half-floor apart, which makes walking around the building’s central hexagonal light well a journey of discovery.
The complex is named after Nina Anderton, a (now deceased) wealthy Bel Air philanthropist (she gave generously to the City of Hope), who commissioned Wright to design a small complex of retail shops for a lot she owned in Beverly Hills.
The resulting structure is notable for a few reasons. It’s the only true retail structure designed by Wright during his illustrious career, and the only non-residential building the architect designed Southern California. It’s also the last building he designed in the Los Angeles area.
The Anderton Court shops opened in 1954 and, except for some relatively minor upgrades (subdividing the spaces), additions (an air conditioning unit on the roof), and cosmetic changes (the building was originally sand-colored with copper accents), still looks very much like it did 67 years ago.
Click for more details: wwd.com
8 Frank Lloyd Wright-Designed Homes In Michigan To See
Within his long career, Frank Lloyd Wright designed more than 1,000 architectural works, more than 500 of which were realized, including more than 30 in Michigan. While some of those homes have been demolished and others were purchased by private owners, there are several Wright-designed homes that you can catch a close look at in Michigan.
The Meyer S. May House at 450 Madison Ave. SE in Grand Rapids is one of the more elegant examples of Wright's Prairie School style homes. The Meyer May House offers free tours on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, although reservations must be made in significantly ahead of time because tours tend to book up more than a month in advance.
The Amberg House at 505 College Ave SE in Grand Rapids, built for David M. Amberg, is a more casual version of Wright's Prairie School architecture. The house is a private residence so it does not offer tours, although it can be rented for $209 a night on Airbnb.
The Goetsch-Winckler House at 2410 Hulett Rd. in Okemos, outside of East Lansing, was one of Wright's first usages of his Usonian architecture styles in Michigan. The Goetsch-Winckler House is a private residence, but the young owners that bought the home in 2023 are happy to give free tours of the home on Sundays and other special occasions to groups who reach out and direct message them on Instagram.
The Affleck House at 925 Bloomfield Woods in Bloomfield Hills, built for Gregor S. and Elizabeth B. Affleck, is another sleek example of Wright's Usonian homes. Now owned by Lawrence Technological University's College of Architecture and Design, the university offers public tours of the Affleck House during the summer for $40 a person, although tours for the 2024 season concluded in July.
The Smith House at 5045 Ponvalley Rd. in Bloomfield Township was another home built in Usonian style for Sara Stein Smith and Melvyn Maxwell, two educators with modest salaries. Now owned by the Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research, Cranbrook offers public weekend tours of the house May through November for $35 for adults and $20 for full-time students with ID, as well as private tours.
The William and Mary Palmer House at 227 Orchard Hills Dr. in Ann Arbor is an intriguing example of an Usonian home because of all its funky-shaped features: an equilateral triangle layout, hexagonal beds, polygonal cutouts in the exterior walls and more. The Palmer House is privately owned but listed on Airbnb and VRBO for $650 a night.
One of four Frank Lloyd Wright homes built in the "Galesburg Country Homes" neighborhood, the Curtis and Lillian Meyer House at 11108 Hawthorne Dr. in Galesburg, outside of Kalamazoo, is known for its unique and rare solar hemicycle design. The Curtis Meyer House is privately owned but can be rented on Airbnb for $550 a night.
The Dorothy H. Turkel House at 2760 West 7 Mile Road in Detroit's Palmer Woods neighborhood is one of seven Usonian automatic homes that Wright designed — and it's the only Wright-designed home in Detroit. The Turkel House is a private residence, not open to the general public, however, members of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy are welcome to schedule a visit in advance.
Click for more details: freep.com
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.
Eric, Bryan & Lisa | Wright Society Publishers