Wright Chat

Perret is a proto-modernist French architect associated with the use of concrete as a building material. But he was eight years younger than Wright, and his first concrete building is dated 1903 -- one year before Wright's Unity Temple.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_Perret

SDR

Saint Jean de Montmartre, which started construction in 1894, is at least art nouveau if not modern. It's clad in brick on the outside, but the concrete is exposed inside, with some remarkable stencil designs.

I think we see conscious imitation too often. Architects like to use new materials and technologies, so we should expect that they'll hit on the same innovations independently at around the same time.

Right. The technical and aesthetic zeitgeist operates with or without direct communication between individuals. The world of invention is rife with examples: radio was being discovered/developed simultaneously by at least two innovators, for instance.

SDR

Make no assumptions, I know concrete was in use long before FLW got around to it; it's the idea of modernist design I question. Can anyone show something that aspires to modernism of a more convincing bent than an octagonal house?

The particular nature of the Sutton House as built seems to be the result of the design beginning as a brick house, as shown in the perspective on AR, but changed to wood and stucco without much adjustment beyond the material. Compare Sutton to other stucco houses FLW was doing at the time.

Much of the saga of the Sutton commission is recounted on this page. The drawing I saw on AR is identified here as Scheme 2.

http://www.steinerag.com/flw/Artifact%2 ... RtS106.htm

A major difference between Schemes 2 and 3 is the move of the single-story extensions from the ends of the oblong to its sides. Scheme 2 is reminiscent of Boynton; perhaps readers can suggest another example of the type.

SDR

Thanks, SDR! The "elongated" drawing I saw was the initial remodeling (or "remodel" as people insist on calling it these days).

Scheme 1 is pretty clearly a gabled one-story house to which Wright has added a "hat brim." It is interesting to observe the architect applying his aesthetic to
an existing structure. He did very much the same thing, in the same way, with the Hills remodel, a couple of years before the initial Sutton commission.

SDR

Mid-day progress report from the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Sutton House in McCook Nebraska


David

Window removal and temporary fill in explanation.


David

I would say that's a well-thought-out solution to the temporary closure of the window openings---an excellent example of the type which will leave no trace when they are done with the job.

S