Spaulding Print Room
The fireplace is from the Oak Park house. The studio was remodeled into a living room for Catherine when Wright remodeled the house for rental income to her. The fireplace was returned to the original during the restoration. His office became a dining room, the passage way between the house and studio a kitchen, and bedrooms were added above the studio.
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Roderick Grant
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- Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 7:48 am
The OP Studio fireplace originally had a Roman arch opening, as it does now. See vintage photo in "Building A Legacy," page 119, and a restored image page 130. When FLW remodeled the house in 1911, the studio became the living room for the unit occupied by Catherine and the younger children, the balcony became bedrooms for the 4 Wright children still living at home, and the fireplace was remodeled to reflect the new use and space of the room. An early photo of the '11 fireplace is on page 120 of the same book, and a 1982 photo on page 121. When the original design was discovered intact behind a wall of Roman brick from the 1911 remodeling, the 'new' brick was removed, and the old face exposed. The Roman brick that was removed was used to restore the fireplace in the DeRhodes House, which was actively undergoing restoration at the same time as the Home & Studio.
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Roderick Grant
- Posts: 10573
- Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 7:48 am
Yes, that front hall could only be the entrance to the Studio, I figured. So, a temporary Wright fireplace is no more. And since it dates from 1911, not so far removed from the 1913 Little fireplace.
I'm still waiting for that fireplace coffee table book. Maybe I should take a page from Kramer's notebook and make a coffee table Furnitecture piece which looks like, or doubles as, or is made from a fireplace.
Here's a possible material: Fon-E-Brik® siding. I'm hoping the owner, two doors up, will tear this off and discard it. 32 years and counting . . .
I'm still waiting for that fireplace coffee table book. Maybe I should take a page from Kramer's notebook and make a coffee table Furnitecture piece which looks like, or doubles as, or is made from a fireplace.
Here's a possible material: Fon-E-Brik® siding. I'm hoping the owner, two doors up, will tear this off and discard it. 32 years and counting . . .
Thank you for all the feedback everyone! Let me see how much of it I can address.
SDR:
I completely agree with you about adding my own little touches, even if they seem Wrightian to me. My rule has always been if you don't know, make it as simple as possible. Fortunately there is a lot less guess work on this than the model of Midway Gardens I've been working on for an eternity.
I will try and do a window with a very narrow wood molding as you suggest, for the narrow side lites. Thanks for the advice about the thickness of the window trims. I'll keep them as is.
I also think I'm going to leave the placement of the trims as is for now. Everything terminates in a logical manner, at least to my eye.
Thank you also for all the staircase photos. I'll try and scale back what I've got, though I think the general idea is the right one. I'll also fatten up the thickness of the stairs, just to be accurate.
Roderick Grant:
You mention that there is wood framing on the plan that isn't in the elevation. What are you referring to? I'm not seeing it.
I took the vases to be one single element that went through the overhang above the door. That's why they're metal all the way through. Do you think this is feasible? If you look at the torn color elevation, they are the same color both above and below and don't appear to have been rendered in wood. Thoughts?
I'm going to make some modifications this weekend and I'll try and post more early in the week. Still got some questions, but this has been really helpful.
Thank you all!
SDR:
I completely agree with you about adding my own little touches, even if they seem Wrightian to me. My rule has always been if you don't know, make it as simple as possible. Fortunately there is a lot less guess work on this than the model of Midway Gardens I've been working on for an eternity.
I will try and do a window with a very narrow wood molding as you suggest, for the narrow side lites. Thanks for the advice about the thickness of the window trims. I'll keep them as is.
I also think I'm going to leave the placement of the trims as is for now. Everything terminates in a logical manner, at least to my eye.
Thank you also for all the staircase photos. I'll try and scale back what I've got, though I think the general idea is the right one. I'll also fatten up the thickness of the stairs, just to be accurate.
Roderick Grant:
You mention that there is wood framing on the plan that isn't in the elevation. What are you referring to? I'm not seeing it.
I took the vases to be one single element that went through the overhang above the door. That's why they're metal all the way through. Do you think this is feasible? If you look at the torn color elevation, they are the same color both above and below and don't appear to have been rendered in wood. Thoughts?
I'm going to make some modifications this weekend and I'll try and post more early in the week. Still got some questions, but this has been really helpful.
Thank you all!
Meisolus, I think Roderick was referring to this horizontal window section; note that all sash, main and side, have equal stile members. Thus, the narrow side lite, which we originally thought might be tile decoration, is (in the plan section drawing, anyway) a very narrow sash. (I'm not sure the elevation drawing reflects this; Wright was known to modify elements as he developed a design, and we don't always have drawings which match each other perfectly.)
So, according to this section drawing, anyway, you have one answer to the question of how the architect would handle those narrow side windows. I assume those are not operating sash, by the way.
As for the stair baseboard, the three examples we have of a stepped base all are composed of a plain board topped by a molding, matching the room base. I suppose, since the drawings we have of this project don't appear to show a base composed of board plus molding, you would be correct in omitting the molding on your stair base. Yet there's no evidence that Wright intended a stepped stair base for this project; given the relatively plain molding details, maybe the plainer design -- a straight baseboard to the stair -- would be the right assumption ? Perhaps we'll continue to look for examples from this period in Wright's work.
SDR
So, according to this section drawing, anyway, you have one answer to the question of how the architect would handle those narrow side windows. I assume those are not operating sash, by the way.
As for the stair baseboard, the three examples we have of a stepped base all are composed of a plain board topped by a molding, matching the room base. I suppose, since the drawings we have of this project don't appear to show a base composed of board plus molding, you would be correct in omitting the molding on your stair base. Yet there's no evidence that Wright intended a stepped stair base for this project; given the relatively plain molding details, maybe the plainer design -- a straight baseboard to the stair -- would be the right assumption ? Perhaps we'll continue to look for examples from this period in Wright's work.
SDR
SDR,
I'll follow the plan and add the windows, with wooden surround, soon. I've worked on a few projects like this before, and for all of them, nothing matched 100%. You're correct that Wright would change his mind, though sometimes I think it's just a mistake on the part of the draftsman.
My thought is that as long as you are following a drawing, it's at least legitimate. But you need to pick and choose judiciously.
I'm going to experiment with the baseboards some more, but I think the staircase trim is going to remain stepped. Wright really seemed to hate diagonals at this point in his career. With so many examples of stepped trims, and no examples of a diagonal, I think that's how it will have to be.
I'll follow the plan and add the windows, with wooden surround, soon. I've worked on a few projects like this before, and for all of them, nothing matched 100%. You're correct that Wright would change his mind, though sometimes I think it's just a mistake on the part of the draftsman.
My thought is that as long as you are following a drawing, it's at least legitimate. But you need to pick and choose judiciously.
I'm going to experiment with the baseboards some more, but I think the staircase trim is going to remain stepped. Wright really seemed to hate diagonals at this point in his career. With so many examples of stepped trims, and no examples of a diagonal, I think that's how it will have to be.
Sounds good to me.
"My thought is that as long as you are following a drawing, it's at least legitimate." Certainly. It's also true that the scale of a drawing necessarily determines the amount and degree of detail which can be depicted. Every drafter -- until the modern era, that is, when all drawings are made at full scale -- knows that he has choices to make from the first stroke.
If Wright made these drawings himself, for this fledgling project from the the slow days of 1919, I wouldn't expect "drafter error" to be a factor. (Was Wright in Tokyo throughout 1919 ? Would he have made these sheets there ?)
Have we already noted that this project doesn't appear in Taschen -- despite its inclusion in the far more selective "Treasures of Taliesin" ?
SDR
"My thought is that as long as you are following a drawing, it's at least legitimate." Certainly. It's also true that the scale of a drawing necessarily determines the amount and degree of detail which can be depicted. Every drafter -- until the modern era, that is, when all drawings are made at full scale -- knows that he has choices to make from the first stroke.
If Wright made these drawings himself, for this fledgling project from the the slow days of 1919, I wouldn't expect "drafter error" to be a factor. (Was Wright in Tokyo throughout 1919 ? Would he have made these sheets there ?)
Have we already noted that this project doesn't appear in Taschen -- despite its inclusion in the far more selective "Treasures of Taliesin" ?
SDR
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Roderick Grant
- Posts: 10573
- Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 7:48 am
Well, it took a lot longer than I ever wanted, but here is finally an update. Having Photobucket change their rules really messed up everything for me, and it's taken me a while to get all my photos back both here and on other forums.
I'd love to hear everyone's feedback on the following images, based on the earlier comments.
First, here is a view showing the trim along the staircase. I think it's more reasonable than what I had before. Though it is thick, I think it's comparable to what was shown in the images others have posted in this thread
Next, I'm quite happy with how the thin windows to either side of the main ones turned out. I realized that (a) I had the little subdivided squares in the main window facing the wrong way, and (b) that the cames on the adjacent windows lined up with the horizontal lines in the subdivided squares. Pretty cool!
Last, what do you all think of the radiator on the stair landing? Originally, I had planned on taking the baseboard from the second level and bringing it around to create the ledge at the window, but when I did that the radiator cover was impossibly short. By taking the trim from the edge of the wall cap around, the cover is almost exactly the same size as the cover in the entrance room. My only concern is that the window above it becomes rather squat (hence why I haven’t put glass in it) but that may not be a big deal. Really none of the windows in this space are the same size, but the pattern unites them all.
All thoughts and comments are welcome. I’m hoping for the next round to put some prints in place.
I'd love to hear everyone's feedback on the following images, based on the earlier comments.
First, here is a view showing the trim along the staircase. I think it's more reasonable than what I had before. Though it is thick, I think it's comparable to what was shown in the images others have posted in this thread
Next, I'm quite happy with how the thin windows to either side of the main ones turned out. I realized that (a) I had the little subdivided squares in the main window facing the wrong way, and (b) that the cames on the adjacent windows lined up with the horizontal lines in the subdivided squares. Pretty cool!
Last, what do you all think of the radiator on the stair landing? Originally, I had planned on taking the baseboard from the second level and bringing it around to create the ledge at the window, but when I did that the radiator cover was impossibly short. By taking the trim from the edge of the wall cap around, the cover is almost exactly the same size as the cover in the entrance room. My only concern is that the window above it becomes rather squat (hence why I haven’t put glass in it) but that may not be a big deal. Really none of the windows in this space are the same size, but the pattern unites them all.
All thoughts and comments are welcome. I’m hoping for the next round to put some prints in place.