Issue 51 June 28th 2017

The Headlines

Digging Into Frank Lloyd Wright's Archives

WNYC's Leonard Lopate hosts a conversation with Barry Bergdoll, Curator of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art, and Jennifer Gray, the museum's Project Research Assistant at the Department of Architecture and Design, discussing "Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive." The exhibit celebrates the esteemed architect's 150th birthday by featuring nearly 400 works made from the 1890s through the 1950s, including models, building fragments, and films. The exhibit runs through October 1, 2017. Read more.

Wright-Inspired Mural Dedicated in Downtown Springfield

Artist Troy Freeman has designed a mural titled “PrairieSumac” which is based on eight distinct windows at the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Dana-Thomas House. Regina Albanese, executive director of the Dana-Thomas House, called “PrairieSumac” a wonderful depiction and added that the Dana-Thomas House, which was completed in 1904, is also a real icon for Springfield. Freeman worked with the Dana-Thomas House and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation in Arizona while doing the mural project. Read more.

Celebrating John Lloyd Wright In The Valley

The Valley Center History Museum in Escondido, CA recently posted a display noting works in the town by John Lloyd Wright (son of Frank Lloyd Wright). John was commissioned in 1949 to design an office for United Nations Ambassador Irving Salomon in Valley Center and in 1959, he was hired to design a home on a 10.5-acre bluff that echoes architectural concepts established by his famous father. Read more.

Wright's Lasting Mark On Phoenix Architectural Designs

Frank Lloyd Wright was drawn to Arizona's unique desert environment. From Arizona State University’s Gammage Auditorium, to his iconic circular house for his son, to the First Christian Church with its 77-foot spire, Wright gave Phoenix its own architectural inspiration that continues to influence and impress. Read more.

How Frank Lloyd Wright Helped Los Altos

In a little-known tale, Frank Lloyd Wright paid a visit to Los Altos, CA in 1954 and helped city officials pick the site for the civic center. Wishing perhaps that Frank Lloyd Wright would design the new Los Altos City Hall, the reality was the city treasury was so bare that officials had to pay for their own postage. Wright still took time during a busy trip to Stanford University to stop in Los Altos and help leaders of a brand-new city make a big decision, and "that was quite a gift." Read more.

Crystal Bridges Museum Won't Take Fire Damaged E. Fay Jones House

We reported last week on the burned-out house designed by noted architect E. Fay Jones. We learn this week that there was discussion of reconstructing the house on the grounds of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, but unfortunately that won't happen. With 60 percent of the home destroyed, the museum doesn't think they'll be able to reconstruct it due to the fact that there's just not much of it left. Read more.

Kaneji Domoto At Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonia

The exhibit, "Kaneji Domoto at Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonia," just opened at the Center for Architecture in New York. Kaneji Domoto (1912-2002) was the only Japanese-American architect to design homes in Frank Lloyd Wright’s modernist "Usonia" community. A student of the Taliesin school of architecture in 1939, Domoto was forced to leave when his family was forcibly interned at one of the camps the U.S. operated during World War II (though Wright rallied for their release.) Domoto's story is on display, from the internment in Colorado that disrupted his architectural education to his relationship with Wright himself. The exhibit will be open June 22 to August 26, 2017 at 536 LaGuardia Place, New York. Read more.

Stunning Austin Home By Taliesin Apprentice Asks $1.2M

Curbed Austin reports on an unique home designed by Taliesin apprentice John Covert Watson. Watson studied under American’s favorite modernist architect while the Guggenheim was being built. With a unique Organic style, Watson's groundbreaking formal and structural techniques are combined with the funky, natural approach endemic to Austin and other places in the Southwest in the 1960s and 1970s. Read more.

Tom Monaghan's Frank Lloyd Wright Collection at Domino's Farms

A vast amount of Frank Lloyd Wright material is now on display at Domino's Farms in Ann Arbor Township, Michigan. All of it was collected decades ago by Tom Monaghan, the founder of the Domino’s pizza company. Drawings, models, windows, doors, photos, correspondence, and much more from Wright’s legendary career are on display. Only recently has much of the material been opened for public viewing. Read more.

Frank Lloyd Wright: Urban Visionary

Frank Lloyd Wright once said, “Noble life demands a noble architecture for noble uses of noble men." At a time when public space is being crowded out by corporate space, and everywhere looks like nowhere in particular, author Darran Anderson notes, "Wright’s sense of belonging to the local and having boundless curiosity towards the global might well appear radical once more." Read more.

Tours of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple Start July 1, 2017

Unity Temple, one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s greatest public buildings, resumes tours on July 1, 2017 which showcases the extensive restoration of this groundbreaking architectural landmark.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Trust provides tours year-round, Monday through Saturday at Unity Temple, 875 Lake St., Oak Park. Wright designed the building in 1905 for his own Unitarian congregation and completed construction in 1908. Unity Temple continues to serve a Unitarian Universalist Congregation.

The only remaining public building from Wright’s Prairie years in the early 1900s, Unity Temple’s bold design and unconventional concrete construction prompted Wright to characterize the building as his contribution to modern architecture. Inside is a magnificent sanctuary noted for its high skylights of amber-tinted leaded glass, which have been meticulously restored. Layers of paint in both the sanctuary and Unity House, the secular side of the building, were peeled back and walls were restored to their original colors, as were all woodwork, lighting and ornamental fixtures.

“Even if you have already visited Unity Temple, you will be stunned by the brilliant use of light and space in this magnificent building,” said Celeste Adams, president and CEO of the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust, which runs tours at Unity Temple and four other Wright sites in Oak Park and Chicago.

Guided interior tours take place 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Fridays and 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturdays. Tours last 45-60 minutes. Admission is $18 for adults, $15 for students, seniors 65 and older and military. Children 3 and under are free. Self-guided audio tours are also available for $10 and $8 for students, seniors 65 and older and military.

The Unity Temple In-depth Tour is offered 9 a.m. Saturdays beginning August 5. This tour led by trained interpreters examines the processes and rationale behind the restoration and explores spaces in the building not typically open to the public, including areas in Unity House.

Unity Temple and the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio – located at 951 Chicago Ave., a short walk from Unity Temple – are both open on July 4. Read more.

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