Wright Chat

Yeah, I meant that and at the same time I was not aware of this building.
Thanks for the article.
Do you know if Brigham Young saw this in a dream?
Reminds me a little bit of the First round of Steiners work in Dornach

Guaranty Building by Louis Sullivan - (4:19)


David

I would like to see photos of the interior spaces on the top floor with the circular windows.

Roderick Grant wrote: ↑Mon Jun 24, 2024 1:30 pm I would like to see photos of the interior spaces on the top floor with the circular windows.

Here's a link prepared by the law firm that saved, restored, and renovated the building. The entire site is informative, but to your comment, scroll down on the left side of the screen to the video. A before restoration view of the top floor is at 05:36. The likely later pipes aside, the window treatments may indicate these spaces were used, if only for utilitarian purposes. Post restoration can be seen at 09:02-09:04. Not surprisingly, one might assume executives of the firm footing the $16M restoration staked out the top floor for their own offices.

https://www.hodgsonruss.com/Louis-Sulli ... y-Building

As a teen, my home town library had a paltry architectural section. Almost every Saturday I'd take the bus to the main library in downtown Buffalo. The Guaranty was only a block or so away. Needless to say, coming upon it for the first time was quite a revelation prior to an awareness of Sullivan, and barely of Wright. By the way, except for the cornice with circular windows, the exterior terra cota designs were by George Grant Elmslie. A block in another direction I "discovered" Burnham's 1893 Ellicott Square Building, quite Rookery-like (post Wright remodeling)

Treasures are to be found throughout the city, considering its comparative mid-size status. As the one time primary commercial link between Chicago/midwest and the east coast, during the Gilded Age many "Darwin Martins" lined the streets radiating out from the city with mansions; M, M & W, H.H Richardson, et al. Of note is Olmsted's expansive Delaware Park, where the zoo is near enough to Martin for parking use, rather than in the neighborhood. Barton, Heath, and Davidson are all in this same general area, and there are seven other Wright related structures in the city and environs. A rare collaboration of E & E Saarinen is Kleinhans Music Hall of 1938, still in use after a recent complete restoration. Elbert Hubbards Roycroft Inn & Campus is a 30 minute drive SE of downtown.

Chicago's White City predated the 1901 Pan American Exposition at Buffalo, unfortunately remembered more for the assassination of our 25th president, rather than the major cultural event it was. As in Chicago, some of the more substantial buildings remain as world class art, science, and history museums. Along with a main pavilion, the Japanese exhibit ("Fare Japan") also included a complete walled village with homes, shops, and gardens. Also of interest was the Larkin Company Building, in all its domed Italian Renaissance glory less than three years before Wright's commission.

As rare as multi-Wright offerings are, the whole of the architectural and cultural history of this somewhat "forgotten" city is quite significant.