LA fires: Arch Obler, etc.

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Fri Nov 01, 2019 12:23 pm

The drawing is of a blocky addition (unbuilt, of course) west of the gate house. Oboler "Continuation." Tasch 3/375 shows both images plus a site plan. The drawing with the pool is looking west from the gatehouse. The other is looking toward the SSW with the gatehouse in the distance.

Matt2 · Post by **Matt2** » Fri Nov 01, 2019 1:49 pm

Who drew those more colorful eaglefeather renderings? They don't look like Howe drawings.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Fri Nov 01, 2019 8:00 pm

I wish I knew. Howe organized the drawing file (rolled drawings laid and stored flat) and Pfeiffer took on the archive when he got
there after the war. But in work published both before and after Mrs Wright's death Pfeiffer makes little mention of the authorship
of the drawings, naming no names as far as I can recall. These bright gouache renderings are most unusual.

Thanks, Roderick. Here is what Taschen (2008) has to show of the Continuation project. The paintings, clearly made on colored
paper, are shown one above the other...the color of the first one differs markedly from another published image, appearing here
in a much pinker (salmon ?) tonality compared to what I found previously. Which one is more nearly correct ?

Earlier publication:

Taschen:

The plan drawing contains a bonus: elevation drawings, on the reverse of the sheet---or photographed accidentally to give that impression: the sheet translucent enough to show the elevation sheet lying beneath ?

Here's the above plan rotated to match a Taliesin plan of the Gatehouse:

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Sat Nov 02, 2019 11:25 am

Four drawings, elevation, plan, section, in Mono 8/149, reveal the theater on the lower level and the bedrooms above.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Sat Nov 02, 2019 1:00 pm

Oho. Some of these projects hide within our texts; if you don't know the name of the project, and/or its approximate date, you may never find it. The
Monographs would have benefitted greatly from the inclusion of a proper index, in place of (or in addition to) the chronological listing at the front of each volume.

S

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Sat Nov 02, 2019 2:18 pm

From Monograph 8:

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Sun Nov 03, 2019 10:02 am

An alteration to the plan, made after the colored drawings and before the black-and-white set, above, is the removal of the chimney and fireplace from the south end of the structure to the north---the approach side of the property, aligning with the pergola.

In the earlier (colored) version, the four steps down to the fireplace are missing from the plan. Also, the ramp at the south end is elongated. Are there other differences between the two versions ?

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Sun Nov 03, 2019 2:01 pm

"Continuation" might have cost more than "Eaglefeather."

It's an interesting building in its own right, but it isn't a match for the structures that were actually built.
They are (were) a rough and tumble collection, while Continuation is much more formal and refined. I prefer the first-built.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Sun Nov 03, 2019 5:26 pm

Eleanor's Retreat had just been restored; now it's gone (but for, I assume, the masonry base). Wonder if it will be rebuilt a second time . . .

http://pcad.lib.washington.edu/building/6793/

S

Matt2 · Post by **Matt2** » Sun Nov 03, 2019 5:33 pm

Yes, the massing of the continuation is rather bunker-like. There's none of Wright's usual grace and delicacy. Maybe I'm missing something in these drawings that a model would reveal.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Sun Nov 03, 2019 6:14 pm

The relocation of the chimney seems counterproductive; wouldn't one want to reach the fire as the culmination of the procession, rather than "tripping over it" at the elbow of the plan ?

S

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Sun Nov 03, 2019 8:56 pm

The West elevation seems particularly depressing to me.
SDR - like the way you described the relocation of the fireplace.
wonder if this is one of the ones that slipped through without the benefit of clergy.

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Sun Nov 03, 2019 9:01 pm

relocating the fire to "the elbow" does open up the culmination of "the procession" to an open vista ... yet the glass on the southern elevation is small.

In some sense maybe one is intended to "discover" the fire after one has arrived at the vista and turned around.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Sun Nov 03, 2019 9:04 pm

Sure---that works. Maybe he wanted to drop the floor in front of the fireplace, and couldn't do that at the south end because of the theater below . . . assuming he didn't want to reverse that too ?

S

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Mon Nov 04, 2019 8:09 am

Interesting, another difference - in the color plans of the livingroom block the masonry piers on the east side align with the vertical slit windows on the west wall - atypical construction.

Whereas in the B&W Monograph plans those piers align with the masonry on the west wall - as one would expect in standard construction.