Issue 448  January 29th 2025

TAWANI Donates Emil Bach House To Loyola University

TAWANI Property Management, the community investment branch of TAWANI Enterprises, Inc., is proud to announce the donation of its Rogers Park homes, Lang House Chicago and Emil Bach House, to Loyola University Chicago. In addition, TAWANI Foundation will contribute $1 million to Loyola University to help cover the operating and management expenses associated with these properties.

“Emil Bach House and Lang House Chicago have a long-standing connection with TAWANI Property Management,” said TAWANI Property Management Founder, Colonel (IL) Jennifer N. Pritzker, IL ARNG (Retired). “This donation is intended to further Loyola University’s mission, enhance its campus infrastructure, and underscore TAWANI’s enduring commitment to supporting the community and fostering educational growth.”

For eight years, TAWANI Property Management managed both Lang House Chicago and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Emil Bach House in Rogers Park. In December 2023, TAWANI Property Management officially closed its Hospitality Division. During its tenure, these historic homes welcomed guests from around the world, including families, couples, and business and leisure travelers, offering them a unique experience in the heart of the Midwest.

“We take great pride in having brought countless families and loved ones together through our homes,” said TAWANI Property Management Chief Operating Officer of Real Estate Kimberlee Carr. “While these homes were truly iconic, it is an even greater honor to donate them to a local institute that deeply understands the value of preservation and meaningful purpose. We are excited to see how Loyola will carry forward and honor these legacies.”

Click for more details: tawanipropertymanagement.com  

"Janna Ireland: Even By Proxy" Opens At Hollyhock House

Frank Lloyd Wright’s lauded Hollyhock House turned 100 years old last year. To celebrate the centennial affair, artist Janna Ireland was invited to display 21 photographs of the Los Angeles abode, the city’s sole World Heritage Site.

The photographs by Ireland now on view at Hollyhock House zoom in on some of its most intimate details, which took cues from a bevy of influences, Wright himself said, including the Prairie Style, but also Mayan, Aztec, Asian, and Egyptian architecture. Wright called Hollyhock House a “California Romanza.”

Janna Ireland: Even by Proxy is very much rooted in the present: The artist focused on Hollyhock House’s subtle details, she said, in an attempt to make visible the “care and conservation” that sustains it over time. It’s an intimate portrait of a renowned building at 100 years old that doesn’t shy away from its blemishes.

“Even by proxy” is a phrase Wright often used to describe the fraught relationship between architect and client, an antagonism that famously plated out at Hollyhock House. “I regard the story of Hollyhock House, and how it came to be in spite of the often contentious relationship between heiress Aline Barnsdall and architect Frank Lloyd Wright, as one of the great L.A. stories,” Ireland said in an artist statement. is very much rooted in the present: The artist focused on Hollyhock House’s subtle details, she said, in an attempt to make visible the “care and conservation” that sustains it over time. It’s an intimate portrait of a renowned building at 100 years old that doesn’t shy away from its blemishes.

The photographs detail cracks in the glass windows, the craftsmanship of the custom wood furnishings, and the aging (and repair) of the hollow clay and stucco used to build the residence.

“It is a tale of ego and conflicting ambitions, as so many of the best stories are,” Ireland continued. “My photographs are about light and shadow, wood and concrete, and the labor involved in preserving Wright and Barnsdall’s complicated project for future generations.”

Abbey Chamberlain Brach, Hollyhock House director and curator, contextualized Ireland’s show with past photographers who shot the house.

“At the site’s centennial, Janna Ireland beautifully documents the landmark structure, showing signs of life, scars, and activity along with striking interplay of light and shadow,” Brach said. “This commission builds a rich photographic legacy for Hollyhock House, including work by Margrethe Mather, Edmund Teske, and Julius Shulman, and here Ireland reframes the storied site, capturing its continued resonances into the 21st century.”

Janna Ireland: Even by Proxy was scheduled to open on January 16, but its debut was pushed back to January 26 because of the California wildfires. The house regularly plays host to art exhibitions, last spring floral arrangements from Ravi GuneWardena were installed throughout the home.

The exhibition is open through September 27.

Click for more details: archpaper.com  

A Visit To Frank Lloyd Wright's Office

It was an emotional day for the son of a noted architect who took a walk down memory lane. Frank Green visited the Hagen History Center in Erie, Pennsylvania, and toured their "Frank Lloyd Wright office" exhibit. Green’s father Aaron worked closely with Frank Lloyd and the history center debuted this exhibit in 2021.

Caleb Pifer, the history center’s executive director, said they are preparing a massive transformation for this section of the museum soon.

“Tourists are coming in from all over the country and even around the world, but we’re trying to provide more context because people have heard of Frank Lloyd Wright but we’re not trying to assume that people know anything. That’s what we’re going to do a better job of so someone can walk away and say, ‘I get it, I see why this is one of the most celebrated architects in the whole world,'” said Pifer.

The plan is to have the expansion completed this summer.

Click for more details: yourerie.com  

$2.5M Midcentury By Frank Lloyd Wright Apprentice

The Clark Residence, located in San Diego, California, listed for $2,500,000 by Sotheby’s, is available for the first time on the market since it was built in 1959. The original home was designed by Fredrick Liebhardt, with an addition by Homer Delawie.

Liebhardt, architect and an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright, designed this home in the style of Usonian architecture for Jim and Amelia Clark. Jim was an artist/professor, and they raised their family here. Set on a private, extensive lot (0.28 acres) in San Diego’s Mission Hills neighborhood, this midcentury-modern gem is in original, vintage condition, perfect for the architecture enthusiast.

The 4-bedroom residence features iconic post-and-beam redwood construction, with clerestory windows and unparalleled craftsmanship and attention to detail displayed in every room, including custom built-ins that are signature designs of Liebhardt. Much of the home is set on a single story at street level, but up a short flight of stairs, you’ll find one of the bedrooms which was originally designed as an artist studio and added on by Delawie in the mid 1960s. Other notable features include a cozy woodburning fireplace, an open-air atrium in the center of the home, an heirloom Edranol avocado tree, and an attached two-car garage with driveway parking.

Click for more details: dwell.com  

Roland Reisley Grant Pilot Program

The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy announces the Roland Reisley Grant Pilot Program, which funds projects related to the sensory and experiential aspects of buildings or structures designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

This grant is named in honor of Roland Reisley, a founding Board member of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy. Born in 1924, Roland has remained living in his Wright-designed house since it was completed in 1952. Roland felt that Frank Lloyd Wright had the intuitive genius to enable him to visualize and design spaces that moved people.

This award seeks to support efforts whose objective is to examine the intangible power of Wright’s architecture on mood, feelings and inspiration. Successful applicants will produce work or research examining or interpreting what it means to have a deeply personal experience in Wright-designed spaces. Be it music, painting or a more scientifically based product, projects will be expected to speak to the way Wright may have shaped spaces for more than just utility, but the very conditions by which we can live happy and fulfilling lives.

Costs associated with, but not limited to, activities such as:

• Primary research • Travel • Creation of works of art (including a variety of disciplines such as visual arts, media arts, music, literature, dance, design, etc.) • Data gathering and compilation • Public programming or exhibition development • Workshops, trainings, symposia/conferences • Tour development or training • Residencies

Applications must be submitted by May 15, 2025.

As part of our grant announcement, The FLWBC is also hosting an online event, A Conversation with Roland Reisley: The Intangible Power of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Work, taking place on Tuesday, February 11, 2025, from 4:00–5:00pm CST. More details HERE.

Click for more details: savewright.org