Huntington Hartford House

[Daviesguy97]

I've been researching the home proposed for Huntington Hartford in the Hollywood Hills, and I haven't found very many renders, besides a north & south elevation, and no floor plans. I love the design, as even today it looks like something out of the future. If anyone has any other pictures, I would love to see them.
Aside from that, I'm very curious as to how the dome made of glass tubing would have worked in the living room. Would it have been the same material as the tubing used in the SC Johnson buildings?

[SDR]

This should keep you busy. Images can be enlarged, first by expanding to full page (upper left), then by collapsing the title bar (bottom) and scrolling to enlarge and pan.

https://library.artstor.org/#/search/Wr ... =1;size=48

As far as I know, the ceiling of the reception area of the advertising department at Johnson Wax is the only built dome of this type in Wright's oeuvre. The challenge of producing dozens if not hundreds of concentric rows of glass tubing, each row of a different diameter, to say nothing of the job of assembling these into a dome, strikes me as an astounding challenge to the fabricator.


https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/ ... 1399395395

S

[Daviesguy97]

Thank you! Those images are above and beyond what I thought was available.

[SDR]

Wright did not employ the sphere often as an architectural form, despite its undoubted attraction to him as a prime geometric solid. A full half-sphere is almost as rare. But the broad and shallow dome appeared again and again in the latter part of his career.

The Water Dome fountain at Florida Southern College would be one candidate. In 1941 the Scott radio company gave him the job of designing a cabinet that would combine a radio, a phonograph, and record storage. Wright's solution included a spherical loudspeaker. Then came a domed building at FSC in the first design for a music department. Not long after, the Guggenheim Museum project arrived, with a domed skylight as an early and ongoing feature. One model of the building was made (photo on page 25 of Taschen III) which included a transparent sphere topping a glass elevator shaft (?).

The Johnson Wax glass-tube dome mentioned above followed. The Sports Club and Play Resort project in Hollywood, also for Huntington Hartford and concurrent with the house project (1947), includes four glass domes on its uppermost structure. No fewer than 41 white acrylic domes, inverted, make up the ceiling of the V C Morris Gift Shop. The Robert Windfohr residence (reprised in 1958 for Arthur Miller) includes a large and shallow domed skylight above its principal (circular) pavilion.

In 1953 the Science and Cosmography Building at FSC included a domed orrery. That year also, a large internally-lighted white sphere appeared in the forecourt of the Harold Price, Jr house. A domed skylight surmounts the living room of Seacliff II, a house designed for V C Morris (1955). The Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church is a broad dome with a building beneath it. An art gallery building for Baghdad is fronted by a latticed dome; the design is repeated, with the same dome, for a building at Arizona State University. The circular "hinge" element at the Marin County Civic Center is domed; a theater project for Todd A-O is another metal-domed structure. A pair of dome-fountains is found in the design of a fine-arts center at ASU. And finally, a large glass dome surmounts the house designed for Mrs Daniel Donahoe, Paradise Valley, 1959.

S

[Roderick Grant]

Well, SDR, that almost sums it up. The one left out, you could stroll to Maiden Lane and see for yourself. In addition to the inverted domes at Morris, the alcove to the left of the approach to the ramp has a domed ceiling finished in gold leaf. If seated therein, there is no problem, but standing, there is an echo-chamber effect that is rather uncomfortable for the ears.

Imagine the solar heat gain in either Donahoe or Hartford with those glass roofs. At least Donahoe planned for adjustable shades in the living room, though they would have to be constantly readjusted as the hours passed.

[SDR]

Ah, thanks---I had forgotten that domed space. I believe DRN has photographed and commented on it. Would that bring us closer to an equal count of opaque vs translucent domes, among the examples I cited ? Let's see . . .

No, even with that last entry, there are twice as many transparent or translucent domes as opaque ones---and that's including the 41 plexi domes of the Morris Shop ceiling as one instance ! I assume the water domes would count as translucent, but as they are also ephemeral I left them out of the count.

S

[Roderick Grant]

You have a lot of time on your hands, don't you?

[SDR]

Not as much as I used to. Don't you ?

S

[Roderick Grant]

no

[Rood]

Apparently we have almost forgotten one rather playful design ...

The 1957 Wedding Chapel for the Claremont Hotel ... 5709 Scheme 1: Taschen p 497

N.B. Speaking of domes ... these "domed" houses wouldn't have been made of glass, but of rubber

1956 Fiberthin Air Houses for U.S. Rubber Co ... 5725 Taschen p.448

[Roderick Grant]

Also at Baghdad are the merchant kiosks. The project for Fiberthin Air Houses (1956) would count, too. Lastly, the helicopters fluttering above Broadacre.