Issue 58 August 16th 2017

The Headlines

Falling in Love with Buffalo, All Over Again

Anulfo Baez has given a first person account of an architectural trip to Buffalo, New York. "With a roster of distinguished architects like Henry Hobson Richardson, Louis Sullivan, Frederick Law Olmsted, Frank Lloyd Wright, Eero and Eliel Saarinen, Gordon Bunshaft, Minoru Yamasaki, and Daniel H. Burnham (among many, many others) it’s easy to see why Buffalo is considered an architecture paradise. It’s like opening a chapter in an American architecture history textbook, but instead of flipping through pages, all one has to do is walk the city." Read more.

Alden B. Dow: Designer of the Midwest’s Most Modern Town

Curbed continues their month long focus on postwar architecture with Alden B. Dow, whose favorite maxim was "gardens never end and buildings never begin." He spent a summer as a Taliesin apprentice with Frank Lloyd Wright in Wisconsin and went on to be known for his angular, organic architecture. Dow completed more than 100 buildings in Midland, Michigan, including churches, schools, civic centers, and homes. In 1943, he’d even move to Texas to oversee the creation of an entire Dow Chemical company town, Lake Jackson. The year before Dow's death, Olgivanna Lloyd Wright handed him the first "Frank Lloyd Wright Creativity Award", telling him he was her husband’s “spiritual son.” Read more.

Celebrate 150 Years of Wright at the Imperial Hotel

In Japan, Frank Lloyd Wright is legendary for his creation of the iconic Imperial Hotel, a magnificent design that has been described as the last great handmade building of the 20th Century. Although it survived the 1923 Great Kantō Earthquake and the American bombing of Tokyo during World War II, the original building was demolished in 1968.

Becca Hensley of the Robb Report informs us that this year, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Wright’s birth, the hotel that now stands in place of Wright's has unveiled a series of exhibitions and experiences that reflect its creator’s style and spirit. The Imperial unveiled a remastered lobby lounge, designed by the Japanese architect Takemi Nishimoto, that acts as a living museum of Wright’s original designs and details. The re-imagined space is filled with restored elements from the elaborate original, from terra-cotta tiles, China, and glassware to surprisingly-still-intact relics like matchboxes and soap that date to the hotel’s former iteration.

For a limited time, the Imperial will offer choice guests the opportunity to spend one night in the Wright Foundation–supported Frank Lloyd Wright Suite, which features such museum-quality Wright creations as stained-glass windows, volcanic stone reliefs, and distinctive light fixtures. Read more.

Seeing Sullivan in Cedar Rapids

In what’s become a summertime tradition, Tim Samuelson, Chicago's Cultural Historian; John Vinci, architect; and Chris Ware, award-winning graphic novelist, set out from their Chicago homes to visit the work of architects they admire. In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, that meant visits to two buildings designed by Louis H. Sullivan: St. Paul’s Church, built in 1914, and the 1910 former Peoples Savings Bank, now home to Popoli Ristorante and Sullivan’s Bar. Read more.

Frank Lloyd Wright Mural Planned For Mason City

In what seems to be a recent trend, the Mason City Chamber of Commerce and a downtown business plan to add a new Frank Lloyd Wright-themed mural to the back of the Brick Furniture building in downtown Mason City, Iowa. Chamber President Robin Anderson said in a news release that citizens and visitors who approach Mason City’s downtown from virtually any direction are "greeted" by the unsightly backs of buildings. "As one of 'The World’s 20 Best Cities for Architecture,' we didn’t feel we were necessarily putting our best foot forward," she said. Read more.

Take a Virtual Tour of the Massaro House

The DailyMail.com has a video tour of the Massaro House, inspired by a never-constructed Frank Lloyd Wright design from the 1950s. The controversial home, described by supporters as "a wonder of modern architecture" and detractors as "not Wright", is located on its own tiny, heart-shaped island in Lake Mahopac, New York. View here.

Paintings Uncovered in Wright's Lovness House Now on Display

After the Wright-designed Lovness House sold in 2013, the home’s new owner got in touch with the Lovness family to report that there were still paintings by Virginia Lovness in the home, tucked away in obscure corners. Now, a series of Lovness’s paintings from throughout her life is on display in the gallery on the third floor of the Stillwater Public Library in Stillwater, Minnesota. through August. Read more.

Lloyd's De Jonghe Residence Sells for $2.4 Million

A 1949 home that Frank Lloyd Wright, Jr. designed for actor Daniel De Jonghe in the Hollywood Hills West has sold for $2.375 million. Said to be modeled after his father's Arizona home and studio, Taliesin West, the two-bedroom home mixes stone, wood, and glass into the ridge’s rocky landscape. Read more.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Penfield House Back on the Market for $1.3M

Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1955 Louis Penfield House in Willoughby Hills, Ohio is back on the market with a significant price drop since it listed back in 2014. The 30-acre property comes with original Wright-designed furniture, and the original 1959 plans (and site) for what is considered Wright’s final residential design: the "Riverrock House", which was also commissioned by the Penfield's.

Wright designed the original Penfield residence to accommodate Louis’s 6-foot-8-inch frame, incorporating high ceilings, a narrow floating staircase, and thin ribbon windows. Read more.

Wright's E.P. Irving House For Sale

The 1910 Edward P. Irving house at 2 Millikin Place in Decatur, Illinois is up for sale. Frank Lloyd Wright did the early preliminary sketches, but the final designs were finished by architect, Marion Mahony. The two story house is on the National Register of Historic Places, is about 5,500 square feet with six bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms, includes the original glass windows and blueprints. Read more.

"Sand Dollar" House in Texas Celebrates Organic Architecture

A house influenced by sand dollars and sea shells on Lake Travis in Austin, Texas, was designed in 1979 by John Covert Watson, an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright. Listing agency Estately describes the house as a "living sculpture – a view sanctuary for those seeking solitude and beauty". Read more.

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