Wright Chat

Unique Lighting at the Laurent House - (3:22)


David

Nice and neat. We need a similar video for all the other Wright houses---or at least the ones with significant lighting installations and fixtures,

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the Taliesin Tree Lamps (have they always been called that ?) here is that all three are built in, not free-standing. I wonder how many of these installations there are, altogether; I know that there are others. Could there be more of them than free-standing ones ? Do any or all of the Laurent Tree Lamps date from the earliest years of the home's existence ?

These video tours, apparently inspired by the pandemic, are a great idea. Good things can come from adversity . . .

S

I purchased The Stuart Richardson House last August, which is completely built on the rarer FLLW hexagonal motif with only 60/120 angles throughout the house. I had wanted a pair of tall floor lamps for the main living area, and was keen to purchase Taliesin tree lamps - but I was only able to see the classic 90 degree version. As The Richardson House has no 90 degree angle anywhere, it seemed aesthetically out of place from a design perspective, even though I loved the lamp's form. It wasn't until I saw images of The Laurent House, with its exterior 180 degree Taliesin Tree lamp, that I knew such a variant existed! Based on that, I commissioned two 180 degree Taliesin tree lamps custom built out of old growth cypress to match the house interior/exterior, and they came out terrifically, I think. I also had never seen the 270 degree variant until this video - so thank you!

You are very welcome, Todd. And, congratulations on owning the Richardson House. It's one of Wright's most unique Usonian designs - and such a fantastic home. My wife and I had the pleasure of visiting a few years back and greatly enjoyed our time there.

It's wonderful that you'd gone ahead and commissioned the lamps to be made for the home. If you would like - and are able - I'm certain all here would enjoy seeing how beautiful they look in their setting!


David

"Tree" lamp? Has anyone ever read where Wright referred it as that? The pendant version was referred to as the "stalact-light" at least by some apprentices..an abstraction of the ice formations that hang from caves. So, would the floor version be the "stalag-light"..

David: I don't know how to directly attach a jpg image here (if anyone does know, please advise as to how to do so for my future reference) but here are a few links (hope they work...). Best, Todd

https://www.instagram.com/p/B6f5lOVFHJX/

https://www.instagram.com/p/B_ceppDlKK8/

Whoohoo!
Thanks for joining us here Todd. Yes, Congratulations. Incredible house.
I've got to ask - do you have drawings?
If so , is possible to post some here?
No worries if not.
Hope you hang around.
Again - incredible house - you are fortunate.

Thank you, Todd, for posting the photos. The lamps fit perfectly in Richardson and look terrific. They make a wonderful addition to a beautiful home!


David

Hi Tom: If you search in the discussion posts under 'Richardson' there are earlier threads on the home, and within those threads I believe there are drawings attached to some of the responses as the house is discussed... Very best, Todd

Good job, Todd Levin. Those look great. It really is up to individual initiative, the task of saving and shepherding a Wright property, isn't it. Thanks for giving your house what it deserves . . .

I believe that Dan C, owner of the Dobkins Usonian, saw to the construction of a 60º version of your fixtures, for his house (Technically, a "lamp" is a light bulb.) Very nice.

Kevin, I was looking at the 1933 Hillside Theater at Taliesin, built in the stone-and-wood barn that was the gymnasium of the 1902 Hillside Home School. Few photos apparently exist of this theater; none are reproduced in the Monographs nor in Taschen. But a broad interior perspective (drawn by whom, and when ?) found on page 137 of Monograph 5 (Pl 229) has sketchy versions of the fixture in question, desdending in this case (the first sighting of the form ?) from the ceiling.

S

toddlevin wrote: ↑Wed Apr 29, 2020 10:25 am Hi Tom: If you search in the discussion posts under 'Richardson' there are earlier threads on the home, and within those threads I believe there are drawings attached to some of the responses as the house is discussed... Very best, Todd

Thank you.
I'm looking for the roof framing plan in particular.
These are notoriously hard to come by!

Here's a variation:

https://www.daniellaondesign.com/upload ... 4_orig.jpg

Kraus house pole lamp, not freestanding, no 90 degree angles in the lamp itself.

Thanks Wrighter; that one could be called a 120º model. One designed to go into a corner of a triangular space call for a 60º layout, I guess. I could even imagine a three-pointed star plan, also for houses with that triangular geometry. Mr Wright begat the formula, to be adapted to each particular plan condition.

I chuckle when I read that a house with complex geometry "doesn't have a single right angle anywhere." I don't see that as an especially winning attribute, though the speaker no doubt has the best of intentions. For one thing, the statement can't be true---unless the quote includes the words " in plan," meaning "as seen from above"--- because of course walls and door and window openings are (usually) plumb, or at right angles to the floor. And, one finds several right-angle walls within the house, often where they aren't easily seen, as in closet partitions, for instance, or walls accommodating appliances.

The beds are usually rectangular in plan, too, to suit off-the-shelf mattressess. That said, Mr Wright drew parallelogram-shaped beds in a number of angular Usonians, though in many cases that isn't what the client ended up using. Look closely at this plan of the Kraus residence, for instance. Someone will have to report whether the house actually contains these unusual beds:

Indeed they do!

https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnew ... 1200%2C826

Palmer house as well.

https://i.huffpost.com/gen/1464676/thum ... -570.jpg?6

I saw the beds on a tour at Kraus and thought that they would feel small because of the angles. Later slept on similar examples at Palmer, and they didn't feel small. Though I imagine replacing the mattresses must have been an adventure.

Right---and extra-long sheets ? The studio/bedroom at Kraus even shows a pointed head and angled foot to the bed. I find it hard to believe that a rectangular bed couldn't be made to work there . . . but, with Wright, "in for a penny, in for a pound . . ." I guess !

S