Issue 84 February 14th 2018

The Headlines

How Wright Could Solve The Urban Design Challenges Of Today

Wendy Gilmartin of Good has an article stating, "revisiting architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s solutions-based-design thinking could inspire fixes for the most confounding of current housing crises, urban design challenges, and forthcoming climate change problems."

"He was a relentless experimentalist," says Stuart Graff, president and CEO of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, "I think of him as the first sustainable architect." Read more.

This Year Marks 80 Years Of Frank Lloyd Wright In Arizona

AZBIGMEDIA spotlights the fact that it's been 80 years since Frank Lloyd Wright staked his claim in the desert foothills of the McDowell Mountains and began building his winter home and studio, Taliesin West, and beginning his Arizona legacy.

As stated in the article: "Wright first arrived in Arizona in 1928 to consult on the Arizona Biltmore resort. The following year, he worked on the promising San Marcos-In-The-Desert project in Chandler that was squashed by The Great Depression. Yet, Wright felt so drawn to the desert, he returned a decade later to build Taliesin West. His experience in building Taliesin West changed him personally and heavily influenced almost all of his work that followed, using canvas roofs and building for the climate, not just the surroundings."

“I was struck by the beauty of the desert, by the dry, clear sun-drenched air, by the stark geometry of the mountains; the entire region was an inspiration,” Wright said of his first visit to the state. Adding that, “Arizona character seems to cry out for a space-loving architecture of its own,” he said in his 1932 An Autobiography. Read more.

Column: Oak Park Housewalk Provides Opportunity to "Turn New People on to Frank Lloyd Wright"

Oak Park resident Linda Piccinini has been involved in the volunteer efforts for the annual Wright Plus Architectural Housewalk before, but this year, Piccinini will be involved again on a whole other level. She and her husband, Peter Varga, are opening up their historic, landmarked Frank Lloyd Wright home, the cottage-style Charles E. Roberts Stable, to the public for the first time saying, "We've done a lot of things to restore it and maintain its original character."

The Roberts Stable is one of several Wright properties available for viewing at the 44th annual Wright Plus 2018 Architectural Housewalk, taking place May 19. Ticket sales are underway, and anyone interested in going should purchase them now, as the event usually sells out. Proceeds support the education and preservation programs of the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust.

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.

Polymath Park Adds New House

Curbed informs us that a new home is almost finished being added to Polymath Park in Acme, PA, where visitors can not only see and tour Frank Lloyd Wright's work, but spend a night in one of four homes either designed by the him or influenced by his work. It’s a bit of a Wrightian theme park, and according to the owners, a way for visitors to reconnect with nature as the architect intended.

“For me, it was never about financial gain,” says Thomas Papinchak, who owns and runs the park with his wife, Heather. “This was about keeping it for future generations. We saw a way for the public to experience architecture in a different way.”

The 125-acre resort, once meant to be a community of Usonian homes, now contains two designs by Wright apprentice Peter Berndtson, as well as two relocated Wright homes, the Duncan House (originally from Lisle, Illinois) and the Lindholm house, which, after being disassembled in Minnesota and moved halfway across the country, is nearly finished with reconstruction and expected to open for guests later this year. Read more.

Frank Lloyd Wright Lecture at Tulane University

Gunny Harboe Presents "The Restoration of Unity Temple" Thursday, February 22, 2018 6 p.m. 8 p.m. Freeman Auditorium, in the Newcomb Art Museum building at Tulane University with reception following.

Acclaimed preservation, and lead architect of the restoration of Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois, will present the transformative restoration that has returned this internationally significant work of architecture to its original appearance while giving it new life for its congregation and for the thousands of Frank Lloyd Wright enthusiasts who come to see it from all over the world.

The event is free, but RSVP is required because space is limited. Read more.

Kalo Foundation To Celebrate Alfonso Iannelli At 130

Alfonso Iannelli — artist, sculptor, designer, and a Park Ridge, IL resident for nearly five decades — would have turned 130 this year. Iannelli made his mark on the American Modernism scene by collaborating with architects like Barry Byrne and Frank Lloyd Wright, creating several church interiors, a slew of industrial designs, and much more. The Iannelli Studios also had a significant amount of work at the 1933-34 Century of Progress World’s Fair in Chicago.

The Kalo Foundation, which owns and is headquartered in the former Park Ridge Iannelli Home and Studio, is celebrating his birthday from 1 to 3:30 pm Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018 with an exhibit of Iannelli originals, a birthday cake, and pizza! Read more.

That Far Corner: Frank Lloyd Wright In Los Angeles

KCETLink Media Group, a leading national independent nonprofit public broadcast and digital network, has announced the return of Emmy® award-winning arts and culture series ARTBOUND. The series examines the lives, works and creative processes of arts and culture innovators making an impact in Southern California and beyond. Of particular interest to us is the episode “That Far Corner: Frank Lloyd Wright in Los Angeles”, airing Tues., Mar. 6 at 9 p.m. at kcet.org/artbound and linktv.org/artbound, also streaming on YouTube, Amazon, Roku, and Apple TV. Read more.

The Wright Collaboration In LA?

Award-winning writer Stephen Rebello has put his Los Angeles home, believed to be a collaboration between Frank Lloyd Wright and his son Lloyd Wright, on the market for $1.35 million. Prairie style architecture is very rare in Southern California. While renovating the house, Mr. Rebello researched and discussed with experts the possibility that the residence was actually designed in 1921 by the elder Wright, with construction overseen by his son Lloyd Wright. Sitting on 0.29 acres, the 1,859-square-foot home has three bedrooms, a living room and dining room, as well as an in-law suite converted from the original garage. The well-kept original details showcasing Prairie School architectural concepts include lots of wood trim, art glass banded windows, and many built-ins. Read more.

In Memoriam: Wilbert Hasbrouck

Wilbert R. Hasbrouck, a pioneering Chicago preservation architect, publisher, and co-owner of the iconic Prairie Avenue Bookshop, died Saturday February 10, 2018 at the age of 86.

Blair Kamin writes: "During a career of more than 40 years, Wilbert Hasbrouck renovated or restored such buildings as Frank Lloyd Wright’s Dana-Thomas House in Springfield, one of the architect’s most opulent commissions; the Manhattan Building, a muscular 1891 skyscraper by William Le Baron Jenney; and the jewel-like Peoples Savings Bank in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, by Louis Sullivan. But his influence extended beyond bricks and mortar. He and his wife of nearly 60 years, Marilyn Whittlesey Hasbrouck, co-edited and co-published an architectural magazine, the Prairie School Review, that championed Wright and other Midwestern architects long before their work became popular. To help support the magazine, Marilyn Hasbrouck opened what became the Prairie Avenue Bookshop, which the Financial Times once called “the best architectural bookshop in the world.” Read more of the Chicago Tribune article here.

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