Wright Chat

Duncan is correct as the name for the Erdman Pre-fab dismantled and relocated to western Pennsylvania.



The Gordon house was the two story CMU and wood frame house in Oregon, which was relocated (except for masonry and slab) to The Oregon Garden, a botanical garden.

The house is safe.

My wife and I are purchasing it as our primary residence. The settlement date is still to be determined.

We are looking forward to the transition from being Wright fans to becoming Wright stewards.

I believe that is correct. Cheney runs East/West. The house's driveway is off a small drive or alley that runs north/south and intersects Cheney at about this address. The Pieper house is not visible from Cheney. There is a two story concrete block house with lavender trim that has been misidentifie...

I find the patterns in the crack map fascinating. Some of the larger cracks appear to correspond to the interior walls perpendicular to the outer walls, other large cracks occur at major building offsets, and the smallest and tightest of them seem to delineate the grid of the reinforcing within the ...

You are right. Patina is good and establishes what is historic and what has been reproduced. I often find myself asking questions or being distracted at a historical property trying to ascertain what is original and what is not when it has been over-restored. Reproductions are to fill in gaps, but r...

The close-up also reveals that I was mistaken about the car: it is not a Rambler, but rather a '57 Ford.

The roof in the H&H photo does not match the H&H plan either. Notice in the photo the small portion of roof that covers one as they walk from the carport to the main entrance door. That bit of roof does not show in the H&H plan but does on Storrer's and the later color photos. According ...

Pepsigns conversation with Dyson is interesting. It sounds as if the precast concrete "lace" grille on the building is not just ornamental or to provide sun shading; it is structural as well. I hadn't considered it before, but the underside of the bottom cantilevered floor presents an enor...

There are many on the Department of Interior's National Register of Historic Places as well...the Dudley Spencer house in Delaware has a plaque.

If the situation came up, I would do what I could to advocate for the building's preservation. Not because it was designed by a former associate of Wright, though that would surely come into play in a hearing, but because it is something rare in the suburban landscape: a useful and memorable landmar...

Could the conduits cause a dissimilar metals issue? The heating pipes I would guess would be steel or maybe cast iron. Most conduit of the period and since is galvanized steel: hard conduit or armorflex. The lack of encasement of the pipes in the slab and the potential for condensation cycling seems...

Not to stick my nose into another's quarrel but.... The quote RJH shared does not give enough of the context of the situations in which the steel reinforcing in the concrete has deteriorated. Corrosion or rusting is a common and potentially serious problem where the concrete coverage of the steel ha...

Probably neither are effective, but I have to ask... Could a breached pipe system be used as a conduit to run/pull pex tubing? There would be heat transfer issues, but if a larger than normal pex pipe is run such that it better fills the existing pipe diameter, would it work? I saw an episode of Thi...

Assuming that not all existing systems have been blessed with copper, are there any measures that can be taken to reduce the potential for corrosion in exisitng operable systems with steel piping? Steel embedded in concrete is typically not prone to corrosion problems. Is the issue that the pipes ar...

To touch upon Mr. Hertzberg's concern about racial and ethnic diversity in the Wright enthusiast/owner community... I share it. The answer is far beyond the scope of my meager blurb, but it may be rooted in the following: Lack of awareness, or at least importance placed upon the arts in the US in ge...