Wright Chat

[Roderick Grant]

Lowes was to be a frame structure. The client eventually turned to Rudolph Schindler for a rather strange but beautiful house, which was demolished many years ago to make way for a freeway. FLW was not satisfied with Storer, and probably would have preferred that Lowes had followed through with their version.

[SDR]

Thanks, UOHG, and welcome at last to the forum !

And, this example shows that we needn't be speaking only of the Usonian era, in this discussion.

S

[UpOnGoblinHill]

Thank you Roderick! Thank you SDR!

I had also wondered if it was going to be the same frame and stucco methods used at Hollyhock house. The limited details in the Lowes drawing implies broad stucco sides and repetitive ornament. [The overhanging fascia and in the base of that large raised planter I think?]

[SDR]

David Gebhard, "Schindler," 1980, pp 42-4:

[DRN]

The Goetsch-Winckler house in MI (1939) and the Brandes house in WA (1952) share a similar plan. Brandes is a mirror image of G-W but with a drive through carport and a workshop.

In the early part of the century, Wright used a floor plan with relatively minor alterations for the Walser, Horner, Barton, and DeRhodes houses.

In the 1950’s Wright proposed a nearly identical plan for 3 clients: Clifton, Gross, and Jankowski. Sadly, none were built...this was one of the very few repeated plan types that was not built for any of the clients for which it was proposed.

[SDR]

Excellent.

http://wrightchat.savewright.org/viewtopic.php?t=6992



G-W and Brandes:






Clifton:

[Roderick Grant]

While Barton, DeRhodes, Horner and Walser were all built variations of the same type (plus an unbuilt version for Sutton), Baker was a recycled unbuilt design first proposed for Guthrie.
This was possibly the first such instance of a design that passed from one client to another virtually unaltered.

In 1907, an unbuilt cottage at Lake Delevan was designed for an unnamed client (Mono 3/44; Tasch 1/294) and resubmitted to Clarence Converse in 1916 (Mono 4/136; Tasch 1/518).
The earlier design was among the first flat-roofed residences, and had hints of a more modern, abstract type than most of FLW's work had shown before.

A 1906 unbuilt scheme for Joseph Seidenbecher (Mono 2/250; Tasch 1/273) was also passed around a few times.
But the most famous built house with an unbuilt predecessor is Coonley, which was originally designed at a more modest scale of b&b for Elizabeth Stone in 1906 (Mono 2/248; Tasch 1/278).
Imagine if Stone had built her version, we would never have got Coonley!

[SDR]

An interesting point, that last: how many instances are there in Wright's career of the repeat of the successful exploit of an architectural idea, once built; how many are there of an idea dropped, once demonstrated on the ground ?

S