Wright Chat

Text from Monograph 7:




W A Storrer's description of the commission:

A nicely-presented story, in any event; all sides heard from, and a reasonable conclusion with no hard feelings ?

S

Again and again we see, in work by "the others," why Wright was the master. Plusses in this house (for me) include a glass backsplash/window in the kitchen, a heavy wood rail atop an all-glass balustrade, and exposed-aggregate floors. Trees enclosed by a walkway outside a bedroom seem to have plenty...

I would like that. Here are images of the property, mostly from the Artstor file except where larger scans were available from print sources. https://library.artstor.org/#/search/Wright%20Alsop;page=1;size=48 http://sdrdesign.com/AlsopLandscape.jpg http://sdrdesign.com/AlsopPlan.jpg http://sdrdesign...

That would be wonderful. Have you managed to find (or make) photographs of many of the houses ? Have you been able to visit some of them ? When a house is listed for sale, Zillow is usually good source of images. But when a house is not on the market, availability of images is usually restricted to ...

The pole fixture at the Taliesin dining table:




Richard Bowditch photo

When the center-pole light fixtures or lamps appear, these same three-sided light boxes, with projecting fingers, are arranged around a square-section pole. The fingers engage a fixed wooden square fastened to the pole; the thin secondary verticals have disappeared. Support and alignment of the boxe...

Thank you, Kevin; very helpful information. There are five drawings of related light fixtures in the files, under Hillside. All these drawings are dated 1933. The theater lights are generally as seen in photos; the light boxes project alternately in opposite directions from the vertical support, whi...

Pfeiffer is helpful in his notes about the 1952 theater, in Monograph 8; he describes the work involved with the new roof and its unique fireproofing (to which he was a hands-on witness, apparently). The Artstor file is replete with many studies of the wall-to-roof connection. There is a page prepar...

Paul's question deserves an answer in depth. I'm not aware of a comprehensive history of the Hillside Theater. If the story has been told, with illustrations, I would be interested to see it. Perhaps Keiran Murphy has written on this; perhaps someone else has assembled the material.

S

What you are showing there is a compilation of perf designs, not all to the same scale, which was assembled either by Palli Davis Holubar, whose work on the subject of the Usonian perfs led the way in this pursuit, or by our member Jay, who pursued the study in his own way, subsequently. What that i...

That all makes perfect sense to me. The remaining question would be, how many perf designs are known to be Wright's work ? Did he often, or ever, delegate that task, along with many others, to the apprentices as led by Jack Howe et al ? Roderick is one of the few who own the Monographs which contain...

My favorite perf design is the unrealized one for the Goetsch-Winckler house. On various elevation drawings can be seen three images of perfs (if you include some exceptionally messy scribbled-in placeholders), while an isolated fourth, not found on a drawing, was cut into the face of the tool locke...

Dan, I need help interpreting this sentence: "It is theorized the exhibition house perfs may have been fabricated before the exhibition house was cancelled, possibly explaining why the as designed Christie perfs were not made and installed."

S

Dan provides documentation of the perfs that were originally installed at Christie. He also found the elevation drawing of the perf design on the Christie CDs, which I missed. The perfs sketched on the elevation drawings can be seen to relate to the perf as shown on the sheet; the tilted rectangle o...