Larkin Administration Building visuals

[David]

Ladies and gentlemen:

I am pleased to introduce you a visual reconstruction of the Larkin Administration Building by Frank Lloyd Wright.

[David]

The set of images is here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/143771393 ... 3116725982

And the explanation of the project here:

http://www.hookedonthepast.com/

Comments or improvement proposals are more than welcome.

[JimM]

Can't get much better than this.... beautiful. Even though not an animation, it would be icing on the cake to see water flowing from the fountain at the entrance.

[pmahoney]

These are the best images I have seen. One refinement would be to the exterior stone trim. The color of that stone is a pale red. It still exists on the piers that flank the remaining site, https://www.buffalorising.com/wp-conten ... G_7675.jpg On the Seneca Street side the base / trim was entirely stone (front), on the Swan Street side (rear) part of the lower part of the base is tinted concrete.
A second refinement would be to the scale. If you look closely at the fence pier you can see that it is considerably smaller than what was designed and built. The fence duplicated the fenestration pattern on the first floor as well as aligned with it. The series of twelve foot openings and four foot wide piers formed the colonnade that edged the site.

[SDR]

Impressive. The color of the stone is a most important element, as mentioned by Pat; so is the correct scale of fence elements.

The use of constricted depth-of-field in one image is a bit overdone; this interesting gimmick is often used to suggest that the viewer is looking at a physical model. This one is good enough to be regarded as reality -- skipping the "model" phase completely ?

A late-'twenties touring car is a nice addition, suggesting the scale if not the period. The dropped bumpers do suggest a lower profile to the body -- but it's not an historically correct detail, if that's important to the maker.

SDR

[JChoate]

Well done.

[Tom]

Wow.
Never knew before now that the interior brick was a different color.
Always thought it was same inside and out.
Makes a world of difference.
Great work here.
thank you

[David]

PAT: that's a good point!, photos from that pier are usually so poor that the color of the stone is not obvious.

SDR: About the scale of the fence, you are right! According to this drawing:

http://www.ad.ntust.edu.tw/grad/think/9 ... ges/18.jpg

"my" fence is about 50cm too short:

Thank you very much for all your comments, as a result the project will be more close to the original.

[pmahoney]

We excavated a section of the front stair tower (8' x20' x 9' deep) this past December and have recovered over three hundred bricks from the interior (Chestnut Ridge White Brick). We also found that the ground floor walls are intact five inches below the pavement there today, although the cream colored mortar is soft from years below grade.

Pat Mahoney

[Roderick Grant]

"Centimeters"? Beware, David, FLW was American. The English system of measurement was a very important part of his work. A 3-foot square grid and a 1-meter square grid are two different things. Translating into metric could cause error.

[JimM]

Pat...This is nothing new to you, but Quinan's book and the many photos available show the "basement" above grade accessed by the arched opening.

Are you referencing this as the "ground" floor level, with the top of the walls 5 inches below the pavement? Am I not seeing something, or would that mean there has been significant fill around the building since the demolition?

David...may not make a difference in this type of model (and Pat could confirm), but the interior bricks supposedly were glazed.

[SDR]

For the record, it was Pat who discovered scale issues with the fence.

I wonder if, with this kind of modeling software, it is possible to edit portions of the textures once they have been chosen and applied. I ask because, while the interior and exterior brickwork is extremely impressive in this model, places where brick planes meet at a corner are sometimes marred by having vertical joints appear only an inch or two away from the arris, leaving the impression of face brick.

Maybe such modifications require Photoshop work ?


I'm surprised and pleased to hear of site research being conducted today. Keep up the good work !

SDR

[DavidC]

We excavated a section of the front stair tower (8' x20' x 9' deep) this past December and have recovered over three hundred bricks from the interior (Chestnut Ridge White Brick).

Pat:

It's great that you were able to do some excavation/exploration at the Larkin site. Who owns the property these days? Did they give permission to remove any items from the site? If so, where will you store/show any recovered pieces? Any future 'digs' in the plans?


David:

Thanks for making and sharing your wonderful model. It's a revelation to "see" so much of what the Larkin Building must have been in it's heyday!


David

[JChoate]

David,
I'm slow on the uptake. I assumed you were just forwarding a link -- I didn't realize that it was you who actually created these images. They are so masterfully done. Congratulations.

Any chance that Midway Gardens might be on your To Do list? That would be an amazing companion to your Larkin opus.

[SDR]

David and David C -- we'll have to listen for the difference in voice, to tell them apart ?

Keep up the good work. That sculpture must have taken a while . . . ! I hope it will be relatively easy to change the color of the stone ? I can't wait to see that. We've had only black-and-white images of the building, all these years until now.

SDR