Issue 90 March 28th 2018

The Headlines

Gorton Center Celebrates Jens Jensen

Though he isn't quite as famous as his contemporary, friend, and colleague Frank Lloyd Wright, Jens Jensen was a visionary landscape architect whose work had a profound impact on the Midwest. In addition to creating the Prairie School of landscape architecture, Jensen was also a pioneering conservationist who helped launch a six-decade-long struggle that initially saved the Indiana Dunes from becoming the world's largest steel mill.

Both of those facets of Jensen's career, plus his dramatic life story, are the subject of the award-winning documentary "Jens Jensen: The Living Green," which will be screened twice April 20, at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m, at the Gorton Community Center at 400 E. Illinois Road, Lake Forest. Tickets are $10; $6 for children, students and seniors. A panel discussion with Jensen experts will follow the screening. Read more.

Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation CEO On Wright's Continued Relevance

Two years ago, Stuart Graff took over as CEO of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. Among his missions were clarifying Wright’s continued relevance and helping younger generations understand it. The Show's Steve Goldstein of KJZZ met Graff recently at Taliesin West in Scottsdale, AZ to discuss Wright's legacy. Listen to the audio here.

Architect of an Image

Jack Quinan is a Frank Lloyd Wright historian, co-founder of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, and Senior Curator and member of the Board of Directors of Wright’s Darwin D. Martin House in Buffalo, New York. Having written three books on aspects of Wright work in Buffalo and with another book on Wright in the works, Quinan informs us in an article in The Whirling Arrow about the architect's ability to enhance his personal image to always be in a position of control of how he would be seen and perceived. Read more.

Wright's Four Seasons in Four Verses

Just in time for Spring! The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation's Whirling Arrow has reprinted an excerpt titled “The Four Seasons in Four Verses,” taken from Wright’s “An Autobiography.” See it here.

Common Pattern: 2018 House Concert Series

The School of Architecture at Taliesin will be hosting a special house concert series featuring some of the most exquisite Frank Lloyd Wright homes in the Chicagoland area starting in April. Funds raised from the concert series will help to provide annual scholarships to current and incoming students that are merit and need based with additional specific focus on individuals who excel in the interdisciplinary principles at Taliesin. Follow the link to learn all of the locations, dates, and get your tickets. Read more.

Fourth Wright House in Laurel Highlands Region Set to Open in Summer

For fans of Frank Lloyd Wright, there will soon be another Wright-designed home in the Laurel Highlands, Pennsylvania region to visit. Along with such masterpieces as Fallingwater, Kentuck Knob, and Duncan House, Wright's Lindholm House is set to open this summer.

Following careful dismantling, the Lindholm House, aka Mäntylä, was shipped from Cloquet, MN, to Mt. Pleasant Township in 2016. Polymath Park owners Thomas and Heather Papinchak are rebuilding the home, constructed by Wright in 1953 for original owners Ray and Emma Lindholm.

Their architectural resort in Acme currently offers overnight lodging at Wright's Duncan House, which was relocated from Lisle, IL, and rebuilt on the site in 2007, as well as two homes designed by Wright apprentice Peter Berndston, the Balter and Blum homes. Read more.

Decision Delayed on Future of Saint Michael’s Episcopal Church

Gainesville residents are challenging the plan to tear down Saint Michael’s Episcopal Church, Gainesville, Florida's only structure that architect Nils Schweizer designed. Schweizer trained with Frank Lloyd Wright in the Taliesin Fellowship. The building has been in the diocese since 1958.

Noting the building’s historic architectural significance is worth preserving, representatives from Gainesville Vineyard Church and other local churches showed up to a Gainesville city plan board meeting Thursday night saying they want to move into the building to keep it from being demolished. Read more.

Danielle Segura Named Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Vice President and Chief Development Officer

The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation has named Danielle Segura its new vice president and chief development officer. Segura most recently served as the executive director of the Mojave Desert Land Trust (MDLT), and brings an extensive background in land conservation, strategic planning and development. She will oversee strategy to build deeper community engagement and support for the Foundation and its mission: to preserve Wright’s two homes, Taliesin and Taliesin West, for future generations and inspire society through an understanding and experience of Frank Lloyd Wright’s ideas, architecture, and design. Read more.

Unearthing World's Fair Artifacts

Archeologists involved with the federal review of the proposed Obama Presidential Center have unearthed artifacts from the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. The proposed presidential library is located atop the former fair grounds in Chicago’s Jackson Park. The Chicago Tribune reports that the artifacts range from pieces of fair buildings such as Louis Sullivan’s Transportation Building, to waste associated with services from the Fair. Read more.

New Billboard Protests the Demolition of a Frank Lloyd Wright Building

Architectural Digest reports on the interesting billboard response to the destruction of the Wright-designed Lockridge Medical Clinic that once stood in Whitefish, Montana. The billboard calls-out the developer that ordered the demolition and issues a public call to arms to current and future residents of Whitefish and its surrounding communities to boycott the future structure. "THIS MADNESS MUST STOP NOW!!!" it reads in large, block print. The article states "Text at the bottom of the billboard states that the sign was paid for a nonprofit organization called the Frank Lloyd Wright Coalition, though the group remains untraceable. Both the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy and the Montana Preservation Alliance, two groups that actively fought to save the structure, told AD PRO that they have no affiliation with the group and declined to comment on the billboard." Read more.

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