Issue 79 January 10th 2018

The Headlines

Historic Wright Building May be Headed Toward Demolition

A small building tucked away in Whitefish, Montana designed by Frank Lloyd Wright as a medical clinic is in danger of being demolished very soon. Wright died in 1959 before the 5,000-square-foot Lockridge Medical Clinic was completed, but it’s one of only three of his buildings left in Montana. The city does not require a demolition permit and has no regulations to prohibit a historic building from being removed. The Whitefish Frank Lloyd Wright Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.

The clinic became First State Bank in 1964 and was divided into professional offices when the bank moved in 1980. John Waters, preservation program manager for the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, said if demolition is planned, it is heart-breaking for the Conservancy, which serves as a first line of defense against demolition or neglect of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings.

“This would be the first time in over 40 years that a viable building [would be] torn down,” Waters said. “It’s a big deal. The last one, in terms of a viable, perfectly usable building [to be demolished] was in 1972. Read more.

Chicago’s Last Manual Elevator

Chicago Magazine informs us that the elevator in the Fine Arts building at 410 S Michigan Ave in Chicago is not your usual elevator. For one, instead of the usual tense silence of elevators, people are calling out their floor numbers. There are no buttons to press. Instead, an elevator operator sits on a small stool and uses a lever to shift the metal box up and down. It’s a manually operated elevator, among the last of its kind in Chicago.

The stately structure was built in 1885 as a carriage assembly plant for the Studebaker company. Then in 1895, it was remodeled to be a home to working artists, according to the building’s website. It’s housed the studio of Frank Lloyd Wright, the birth of Poetry magazine, and Chicago Little Theatre. Read more.

Frank Lloyd Wright Trust Expands Its Footprint with New House

The Frank Lloyd Wright Trust, which owns the legendary architect’s Home and Studio in Oak Park, Illinois and also operates at four additional Chicago-area Wright sites, last month paid $340,000 to buy a house adjoining the Home and Studio site.

The Italianate-style house, at 925 Chicago Ave., had not been publicly for sale, and has no historical ties to Wright. The trust’s president and CEO, Celeste Adams emailed, "An opportunity arose for the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust to purchase the adjacent property to Wright’s Home and Studio. The Trust board of directors considers this property a long-term investment in the future of the Home and Studio and has no immediate plans for the property.” Read more.

Marin Civic Center Roof Replacement Begins

The Marin County Civic Center Board of Supervisors hired Arntz Builders of Novato to replace the roof of the 470,168-square-foot building in Northern California — the largest public project by renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The structure is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The center’s 220,000-square-foot roof underwent major repairs in 1999 and 2000, with several smaller leak repairs required since then. In 2015 it was determined that repairs were no longer a solution and that the roof needed to be replaced to preserve the building. Roof replacement will require removal of all old material and application of a new polyurethane membrane. It will be resistant to fire and high winds, will be easy to maintain, and comes with a 20-year warranty, according to the county. Read more.

Atlanta Magazine's HOME Winter 2017

Atlanta Magazine's HOME features an article on former Wright apprentice Robert Green. The article shows four of the homes designed by Robert. Many years ago, Robert Green, who had already studied architecture at Georgia Tech, met with Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin West and was immediately accepted for advanced study directly under Mr. Wright's tutelage. After Mr. Wright's death, Green returned to Atlanta, and for many years designed beautiful and fascinating buildings in the Wright style. Mr. Green's works included many custom homes, office buildings, apartments and condos, churches, warehouses and other commercial buildings. Following principles of "Organic Architecture" formulated by Frank Lloyd Wright, Robert Green also created much fine furniture which complemented the buildings - much of it built-in. Like Mr. Wright, his work was superior throughout. Read more.

Stunning Cars And The Wright Filling Station in Pierce-Arrow Museum

Many Frank Lloyd Wright fans make pilgrimages to the Buffalo Transportation Pierce-Arrow Museum in Buffalo, New York to gaze on the filling station built from Wright's plans. It stands in a building custom-designed for it, with 60-foot ceilings. Glittering with copper, the gas station even features a Wright-designed advertising sign. You have to work to read it, but it says "Tydol," a brand of gasoline. Read more.

Louis Sullivan Cornice Nobody’s Seen in 45 Years

Since the end of October, workers at City Museum downtown St. Louis, Missouri, have assembled almost 200 pieces of a massive terra-cotta cornice that once topped the old 13-story Chicago Stock Exchange building. The section of cornice now sits in the Louis Sullivan room on City Museum’s fourth floor. It’s 9 feet tall, 27 feet long on one side, and turns a corner for 13 more feet. City Museum’s Sullivan room has attracted some curious visitors, but the cornice, which sat in storage for 45 years, gets gawkers.

Construction of the Chicago Stock Exchange building, designed by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan, was completed in 1894. It was demolished in 1972. City Museum has always had a special interest in Sullivan, and over the years, the institution has collected quite a few pieces of Sullivan’s work, including parts of an iron stairwell, an elevator frame, and terra-cotta banding, all from the Chicago Stock Exchange.

Tim Samuelson, cultural historian for the city of Chicago, knew the section of cornice needed a home. The Chicago Botanic Garden had bought this particular section but decided against doing anything with it, he said. He had worked with City Museum before and helped with a Sullivan show. He told museum director Rick Erwin about the unused cornice. Samuelson had been familiar with the cornice for years: He was a 20-year-old student standing on a scaffold when he watched salvagers take it and other sections down. Now, thankfully, it has a new home where we can all appreciate its artistry. Read more.

Why I Fell in Love With Wright’s Masterpiece Fallingwater

Rebecca Allen, an editor for 18 years at the Orange County Register, writes that as a self-descibed "desert rat", she marveled at the sandstone building that unites art and nature. Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater is where water runs through your days and into your dreams.

"The house that Wright designed for the Kaufmann department store family as a “weekend home” is a mansion to most of us. It has stone floors, wooden cabinets, glass panes looking over trees, stone fireplaces. It is as natural as Wright could make it.

The house is anchored to a boulder, and the house fits between the boulder and the family’s favorite trees. They wanted their sylvan setting to remain. They didn’t move a tree or boulder or streamlet to build this perfect house. The house embraces nature.

The furniture is low and compact, so your eye goes to the trees outside. Wright wanted you to see — not the trunks or the crowns of the trees — but the leaves, the gently moving green verdant, alive part of the trees." Read more.

Two Frank Lloyd Wright Homes Available to Rent in Michigan

The newly restored Frank Lloyd Wright designed Eppstein House was built in 1949 and is now available for overnight stay on Airbnb. It is situated on a private acre within "The Acres" development in Galesburg, Michigan, a few miles east of Kalamazoo. The area hosts a number of Frank Lloyd Wright homes. For $340 a night, the home can house up to six guests with three beds, two baths.

The Palmer House, built for Bill and Mary Palmer in Ann Arbor in 1950, is one of Wright's late residential masterpieces. The 2,000 square-foot home is a multilevel brick and red cypress structure and the design is based on the equilateral triangle. It has a hipped roof with deep overhangs and the listing says the cantilever extending over the terrace is the most dramatic feature of the house.The open interior is fitted with Wright-designed furniture and built-in cabinetry. Along with the main house, there is a tea house located on the two acres of woodlands surrounding the home. The tea house has a small kitchen and a bathroom with a shower-over-the-toilet. Keep in mind the tea house is closed during the winter. The Palmer House sits on 227 Orchard Hills Drive in Ann Arbor and can be rented on HomeAway for $350 a night with a minimum of a two-night stay. Read more.

Walk Wright In to Wright Plus 2018

From Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie style to a stately mansion inspired by European design, 20th century elegance assumes a variety of architectural forms vividly present on the Wright Plus 2018 Architectural Housewalk in Oak Park, Illinois. Public ticket sales are now underway for the annual Housewalk, all day on Saturday, May 19, 2018.

Tickets to the Wright Plus 2018 Housewalk are available at $90 each through Feb. 28. Trust members can purchase up to four tickets at $80 each during this time. Ticket prices will then increase by $5 to $10 monthly on a tiered pricing schedule. Read more.

A deluxe experience for architecture and design enthusiasts, the Ultimate Plus Weekend Package, May 17-20, provides four days of exclusive tours and activities. They include a gourmet dinner at a private Frank Lloyd Wright home, Fast Pass access to the Wright Plus Housewalk, a hotel stay and more. The all-access Ultimate Plus Weekend Package is $2,650 and $2,500 for Trust members. Read more.

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