Metzger House

Meisolus · Post by **Meisolus** » Fri Jun 28, 2019 10:24 am

I've been digging through my Wright books lately, and I'm becoming extremely intrigued by the unbuilt Victor E. Metzger House of 1902. It was published in the Wasmuth, and there seem to be a number of perspectives floating around out there. To me, it appears huge, robust, and inviting. I'm rather smitten, but I don't know what all is out there. Visions of Wright has plans for the first and second (though not third) floors that look quite well worked out. Was there a full drawing set? Is there enough information to actually build the thing? It would have been a truly heroic house...

https://visionsofwright.wordpress.com/2 ... ouse-1902/

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Fri Jun 28, 2019 11:28 am

Metzger is a predecessor of DD Martin. Give Martin a 2-story living room, bays at either end of the Trinity Room, and a tower, and you have Metzger.

Meisolus · Post by **Meisolus** » Fri Jun 28, 2019 12:25 pm

Based on the plans on Visions of Wright, I didn't think the living room was 2 stories. To me the area labeled 'balcony' looks like a huge open air room that has enclosed rooms off of it. What do you think Roderick?

JimM · Post by **JimM** » Fri Jun 28, 2019 12:35 pm

Definitely a two-story living room... enlarged you can clearly see "Balcony", and also roof support posts and/or vertical design element on top of the guard rail in front of the fireplace.

Meisolus · Post by **Meisolus** » Fri Jun 28, 2019 1:02 pm

I agree with your assessment. Is that a fireplace on the balcony as well, or just a recess?

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Fri Jun 28, 2019 1:26 pm

The plan is actually a development of the LHJ "A Home in a Prairie Town," which also has a 2-story living room. See Section, plate 60 in Hitchcock.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Sat Jun 29, 2019 10:18 am

Quick photos/scans. There are also two view drawings, in Monograph 1.

Meisolus · Post by **Meisolus** » Sun Jun 30, 2019 4:35 pm

THANK YOU SDR!!!

Wow, what a beauty! And what a monster. Could you imagine being up on that third floor up on a hill overlooking Lake Michigan? Gorgeous stuff.

In my researches, I found that Paul Kruty had a model made of the house for an exhibition several years ago. The catalogue is hard to find and rather expensive for the number of pages, but I found a full scan online.

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id= ... 1up&seq=65

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Sun Jun 30, 2019 5:36 pm

Right and left arrows on the keyboard are useful in scrolling on that page.

The Wasmuth plates, 9a and 9b. Differences between the two versions of the plan are numerous...

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Sun Jun 30, 2019 7:40 pm

The third-level roof is of a slightly steeper pitch than that of the lower-level roofs. The purpose of this move is nicely demonstrated in
Wright's perspective views of the house; the designer wants both roofs to be equally visible at certain distances from the structure.

S

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Mon Jul 01, 2019 5:50 pm

Finally, for the published material, we have the two view drawings and Bruce Pfeiffer's text from Monograph 1.

0209.05

0209.04

Wasmuth

The Wasmuth drawing is a tracing of an original studio perspective published in the Monograph---with one significant change to the architecture.

In Paul Kruty's comments on the house he mentions that the angled piers to the central volume are eliminated in the Wasmuth version of the design. While this is true of the revised plan, one of the Wasmuth view drawings---the one copied from
an earlier sheet---retains this feature.

And although a fireplace at the mezzanine level is mentioned by Pfeiffer, and shown on Plate 445 (above), the section drawing from the same set eliminates that fireplace.

S

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Tue Jul 02, 2019 11:42 am

Imagine how hot sitting anywhere near the huge mezzanine fireplace would have been.
Seems like an odd thing to have included at any step of the design.

Metzger is indeed impressive, if a bit hefty and over-grand. DD Martin is a much more refined version.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Thu Jul 04, 2019 6:38 pm

"A Home in a Prairie Town" 1900

Metzger 1901

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Fri Aug 20, 2021 4:39 pm

Have not gone through this thread before now.
As many times as I've seen the LHJ drawings don't think I made a point of noticing the two story living room!
Staright line thru LHJ, Metzger, Martin - cool.

The plans are not unrelated to the 1890 plans of Wright that I put together here - tripartite front backed by a block with stairs, kitchen, halls, misc. rooms.
http://wrightchat.savewright.org/viewto ... =2&t=14728

Wondering how generic that layout was for the time.

Wright Chat

Metzger House

Metzger House

Re: Metzger House