Wright Chat

Well done. There's always a way. Crosswise slots on the back of a board are the most effective way to relieve a bow, of course, but when the edge(s) must be kept intact this isn't so easy. I once tried what I hoped would be a useful alternative in this situation, length-wise slots. While the board p...

At least this carpenter has a sense of humor, of the Wright thing to do (when permitted) and is a top-notch woodworker, too, from what I can see ! Better to do it yourself, than refuse and let a butcher have the job. But if he was the designer of his alterations, he needs some help, perhaps. I certa...

Thanks for the good pics. The ceiling prompts me to ask: is this the only one of these steep-shed-roof designs where the ceiling boards are mitered into the corner like this ? In the photo it lends an interesting complexity to the (apparent) geometry of the ceiling.

SDR

http://sdrdesign.com/BerlinChairPhoto.jpg Berlin Chair, 1923 http://sdrdesign.com/Rietveld1919.jpg Highback Chair, 1919 It's hard to find an close relative among Rietveld's chairs, but there is certainly a Constructivist flavor to the Wright chairs we're looking at above. There are almost as many v...

The Frank S Sander residence, "Springbough" (Stamford, 1952) is given the number S.354 by William Allin Storrer and appears in his "Frank Lloyd Wright Companion" (University of Chicago Press, 1993) on p 376. The John L Rayward (Rayward-Shepherd) residence, "Tirranna" (N...

From the archpaper article:

"Originally under private ownership, the house was donated to the public in 1980 by its eighth owner, Gus Brown. . ."

This is incorrect, then ?

SDR

Why would the seller (unidentified ?) not picture the second chair, which is said to have arms ?

The provenance is not fully visible, apparently ?

SDR

Lovely blog. Andrew Raimist's work on behalf of Harris Armstrong earns him a place at the table of architectural journalism. Mr Raimist is himself an architect, if I am not mistaken, and a creative photographer.

SDR

Although my dictionary says a stile is a "vertical piece in a panel or frame, as of a door or window," I would (and do) stretch its use to include a wider variety of vertical members. As you suggest, Mr Heinz may have confused stile and rail; I remind myself of the correct term by equating...

Thanks. I think you must have it right. I've found a number of less noticeable errors in the technical portions of the otherwise excellent and irreplaceable writings of Esther McCoy, who chronicled vital portions of American West Coast modernism, as it was unfolding. As a drafter for Schindler and l...

My grand unified theory: Everything is Somewhere.

This sentence has no recognizable meaning -- to me:

"The angle of the top rail is set at an angle which supports the back on a flat level."



SDR

In this situation I have found that you need to bend the steel in the opposite direction (up) until it pulls the wood up. (Makes sense, doesn't it -- you can't ask one piece of material to do all the bending while the other does none.) Alternately, you (he) might be able to shim the ends of the angl...

I guess I'm wondering why we *need* to have any particular building belong to one architect or another. . .

Perhaps it's the 'gems' that will always be fought over, while the 'dogs' can fend for themselves ?

SDR

I'd love to see color photos of Upton. Julius Shulman's sharp-as-a-tack black-and-whites will have to do, unless someone finds an old magazine (thanks for the tip). They are also the only illustrations (besides original drawings) in Cory Buckner's chunky 272 page book on Jones (Phaidon, 2002). Quite...