Wright Chat

The extent to which students progress as artists in the estimation of the teacher is apt to be a measure of how much of the teacher's own understanding of art is being successfully inculcated so that his students can emulate, if not imitate, his work. The extent to which a student actually develops ...

I have rummaged through my library, but cannot find the photos I was seeking; my International Style collection is not extensive. There are, however, possibly in Vincent Scully's book on Gropius, two photos juxtaposed of FLW's Park Inn and a building by Gropius, which I thought was Fagus, but is not...

For the early life of FLW, "The Story Of My Life" an unpublished autobiography by Elizabeth Wright Heller, FLW's older half-sister, is enlightening. It can be acquired from the State Historical Society of Iowa. Most telling is the portrait of Anna Lloyd Jones Wright, Frank's mother. More t...

If the word "organic" is linked to Leopold Eidlitz, whose work seems to be utterly lacking in charm, it proves what John Geiger has said, the word doesn't mean a thing. Was it Eidlitz who mucked up H H Richardson's New York State House? That began as a wonderful building, but was horribly ...

Of all the Richards houses built, this one seems to me the oddest design. Examine the fenestration, banding and the awkward porch with that column in the middle propping up the corner of the second floor. (peterm, the porch is part of the original design, but it was not enclosed ... at least accordi...

DRN, I am sure there is only one Sol Friedman toy maker. I haven't gone over Roland's book carefully, but from what I know from two families who were close friends of the Friedmans, Sol owned and operated a toy factory. I think FLW's assessment of the Bower plan is spot on. What Bower has done is as...

The support of that boomerang-shaped counter is hard to read. Are those reflections? When I last saw the cafeteria in 1994 it was a depressing place, like a shopping center food court on a dinky scale, but at least the porthole windows were not obscured. It's a bit cold for my taste. Any time someth...

SDR, the "Toy House" refers to the fact that the Friedmans owned a toy manufactory. A neighbor during construction of the house asked Mrs. Friedman why she and her husband were working so hard. "To pay for that damned house!" was her reply. Friedman was one of the projects, like ...

She ought to have hired a house sitter.

outside in, what college did Mies attend? I was always of the impression that he had no schooling beyond the three Rs. Same with Corbu. Eero Saarinen had the example of his gifted father at home; Eliel made an enormous leap from what he was taught to what he eventually produced. Take a close, object...

I agree, pharding. No FLW building is more site-specific than Robie. The north facade was closed to the neighbors; the south facade welcomed the light, but limited visual invasion from passersby; the car court location and design was inevitable. To take that tight, confined design and plop it on a h...

I thought you were referring to the house in Buffalo. Is there a published plan of the Graycliff cottage?

The provenance, "private collection," doesn't seem convincing. It's possible that extras were made for the house. But it's Don Hallmark who should evaluate and verify their bona fides.

Oddly, in the depths of the real Depression, this was not the case. Art Deco flourished. Wright flourished. There's more to this lowest common denominator architecture than the ups and downs of the economy.

Concerning the original subject of this thread, I looked through my books and HABS drawings for the Bach House. My initial suspicion was that the change in material from brick on the first floor to plaster on the second had something to do with switching from three windows to four. But that doesn't ...