Wright Chat

Frank Lloyd Wright's Graycliff estate sets sights on new $5M visitor center


David

One doesn't get much for five million these days, does one? I cannot say that I am fond of the building itself, but it certainly isn't the affront the Oak Park building would have been to its neighborhood.

Why does a building that intends to have exhibits that might profit from solid walls need to be glass all around?

If the trees arranged in an unnatural square grid, so popular with modern architects, is a recreation of the orchard, that would make sense. The structure should not be visible from the house, however.

Not reconstructing the ugly stairway to the beach is a good decision. It would not be used anyway, considering safety issues. But I hope they fix the lake side end of the esplanade, perhaps even have it cantilevered close to, if not entirely, as far as it once was. As it is (or was last I saw it) one cannot get very close to the end for fear of dropping into Lake Erie.

more drawings regarding the proposed Visitor Center
https://situ.nyc/studio/projects/graycl ... -expansion

It appears they are renovating the existing gym built by the friars (now used as the current visitors' center) and adding on to it with the new glass structure. If so, they don't have much choose as to placement. I agree that so much glass isn't the best idea for a lakeside house in Buffalo but it will be nice to be sheltered in a heated and enclosed space while viewing the exterior of the house in its entirety.

Why curved corners to the roof, when no other such arcs are found on buildings elsewhere on site ? Is someone fearful that a visitor might mistake the new structure for an historic one ?

It appears that the convergence of the parallel sticks of the soffits, at those radiused corners, may not have been well studied; poorly-resolved details if they occur can detract from the performance as a whole. Lesson to be learned by the budding designer: if a feature cannot be resolved gracefully in every circumstance that will arise from its use, discard it and start again !

S

Amen!
As FLW said, the best tools the architect has are an eraser in the studio and a crowbar onsite.

Roderick Grant wrote: ↑Thu Dec 19, 2019 1:08 pm If the trees arranged in an unnatural square grid, so popular with modern architects, is a recreation of the orchard, that would make sense. The structure should not be visible from the house, however.

True Story: At the Price House in Buffalo Wright directed the landscaper to arrive with a bucket of golf balls which Wright took and turned around and threw them back over his head and then instructed the landscaper to plant trees where the balls landed.

I don't know if Wright did this at other locations, but it seems like Jens Jensen would have approved.