Issue 443 December 25th 2024

Announcements

Journal OA+D V12:N3 Now Available!

The newest issue of the Journal of Organic Architecture + Design, titled "In Memoriam: William Wesley Peters' Ascension Lutheran Church," has arrived from the printer and is now shipping!

In early 2024 OA+D received an unusual donor request: save what you can of Ascension Lutheran Church before demolition to make way for new luxury homes. Efforts to save or repurpose the iconic 1961 church designed by Taliesin Architect William Wesley Peters had failed and a deadline was set for demolition plans to begin. OA+D responded with a series of visits, meetings with congregation leaders, and ultimately two days worth of careful deconstruction and removal of original design elements. Although important materials from the building were saved, the loss of this unique design merits deeper discussion.

This 40 page publication is a memorial to this lost work of organic architecture: its origins, the ideas behind its design, how it ultimately came to be built, and finally destroyed. Includes vintage construction photos, drawings, plans, and photo documentation of the building's exterior and interior features prior to its demolition. A final portfolio of photos documents OA+D's efforts to preserve what was possible from the building as a way to hopefully inform and inspire others to avoid losses like this in the future.

Regular subscribers will receive their copies in mailboxes soon! If you want to order a copy, follow this link. If you'd like to become a subscriber and never miss an issue, follow the link here.

The Headlines

Wright Plus 2025 Tickets On Sale January 1

The Frank Lloyd Wright Trust announced the lineup for the spring 2025 Wright Plus Architectural Housewalk in Oak Park, IL! Four homes are making their Wright Plus debuts, including one Wright-designed home.

Wright Plus will feature the following spectacular residences designed by Frank Lloyd Wright - the Harry and Louisa Goodrich House (1896), the George W. and Lucy Smith II House - Wright (1898), and the William E. and Winifred Martin House (1903).

The lineup also includes these beautiful private homes in our historic neighborhood:

• George W. and Lucy Smith I House (1894)

• Sanford S. and Grace Vaughan House (E.E. Roberts, 1898)

• E.E. and Ina Andrews House (Charles E. White, Jr., 1905)

• John and Annie Shapcott/John and Margaret Coumbe House (E.E. Roberts, 1905)

• Vernon W. and Mary Skiff House (Nimmons & Fellowes, 1909)

Wright Plus Bonus: Admission to Unity Temple is included in the 2025 Housewalk ticket. 45-minute audio self-guided tours will be available 9 am to 11:15 am. There will be no building admittance after 12 pm.

TICKET SALES OPEN JANUARY 1, 2025 AT 9 AM CST.

ASU Gammage Theater Remains An Icon In Arizona Arts

A titan in Arizona arts turned 60 this year. Locals might know it as the "pink birthday cake," but everyone knows it as ASU Gammage. Opened in 1964, Gammage is the only public building Frank Lloyd Wright made in Arizona. In partnership with his good friend and president of Arizona State University at the time, Grady Gammage, the renowned architect took plans originally for an opera house in Baghdad to create the university's performing arts space.

Valley 101, a podcast by The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, sits down with the executive director of ASU Gammage Colleen Jennings-Roggensack to talk about the history of the theater and the magic it has kept for 60 years.

She tells Valley 101 inside stories about working with NASA engineers to innovate the theater, her admiration for Wright's dedication to the desert and how she brought Gammage into the modern day.

Listen to Valley 101 on your favorite podcast app.

Alden Dow's First Venture In Designing Church Buildings

The first church designed by Alden B. Dow was the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1941. The 275 members approached the architect with the idea that in building their place of worship one should choose the natural and the simple, while also informing him that their meager budget would compel them to do most of the actual construction themselves. As Mr. Dow recalled, “Grouped around the drafting board, the building committee and I designed the church as it is today, each member contributing his share.”

The simple brick rectangular structure is enlivened by a recessed doorway. Ornamental concrete panels that were designed and cast by members of the church are mounted on the tops of the brick insets. Above the heavy wooden door pulls are four 4-inch square windows set vertically into each door.

Along both sides of the church, crisply outlined projecting windows have mitered glass corners, providing generous views of outdoor gardens. Its pitched roof was originally covered with white asbestos shingles to reflect the heat of the summer sun. Rising prominently above the roof from the back of the building is a brick chimney and music tower. It is split near the top by a horizontal concrete slab that juts out over sheet metal louvers that cover a loudspeaker.

Simplicity continues on the inside. The auditorium or nave seats 300 and faces a raised platform or chancel. Built-in planters flank the platform and the altar on the rear wall. Lecterns are of naturally-finished light oak, as are all furnishings and wood trim. The full basement is used for study groups, recreation, dinner gatherings, musical and dramatic productions.

Plans were drawn by Mr. Dow in 1958 for a proposed addition to house new classrooms and offices. However, the configuration of the church today indicates that his plan was not built.

The building is currently owned by Christ Covenant Church in Midland, Michigan.

The City May Now Scatter

Frank Lloyd Wright’s impressive twelve-foot-by-twelve-foot model of his planning scheme Broadacre City is on display as part of The City May Now Scatter (Gallery 519), an exhibition exploring the wider sociotechnical context of Wright’s proposal. Arranged around the model are works from MoMA’s collection—ranging from Edward Hopper’s painting of a gas station to Lester Beal’s posters advocating for rural electrification—that likewise grapple with the potentials and perils of the early twentieth century’s new transportation and communication technologies.

For Wright, the “ubiquitous mobilization” brought about by the automobile and the “instantaneous communication” enabled by the telephone would eliminate the economic gains of concentrating industry and commerce within city centers. Accordingly, with Broadacre City, Wright proposed laying a grid of highways across the United States to enable the dispersal of urban populations to the countryside where they would be given an acre or more of land. No longer would production be centralized within vertically integrated corporations; instead, for Wright, the car would revive Thomas Jefferson’s dream of widespread land ownership, a political project originally advanced at a time when the right to hold property was limited to white men. Broadacre’s updating of this fantasy has newfound relevance today, as internet-enabled distribution networks again reconfigure our landscape and nostalgic visions of an earlier, supposedly more innocent, America once more hold sway.

The City May Now Scatter is organized by Carson Chan, Director, Matthew Wagstaffe, Research Assistant, Dewi Tan, former Research Assistant, and Eva Lavranou, former 12-Month Intern, Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and Natural Environment, with Rachel Remick, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Painting and Sculpture.

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