Wright Chat

The rendered view drawings which were produced to illustrate the American System-Built Houses product are of interest to Wrightians, to students of the ASBH program, to architectural (and other) delineators and to graphic artists and designers---or should be. More needs to be learned about these works: who made them, what media were used, how were they reproduced and where would the public have seen them ?

In the meantime, sixteen or so of these illustrations---not the full complement of them by any means, and including preliminary studies---are among the 989 drawings found when searching the Artstor files using "Wright Richards" as the query:

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

Here are most of the perspective views collected---or rather, randomly dispersed---there:





























© The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York)

Do all of the above drawings actually depict ASBH designs ? The labeling---and therefore the appearance in a particular search---of items in the Artstor files have been seen to contain errors. Could drawings belonging to other projects have been erroneously labeled as ASBH material and thus show up in a search for ASBH items ?

Here are three drawings I found when making my search using "Wright Richards" as the subject line. The first drawing appears in two versions in the file:





But this is not a Frank Lloyd Wright design; it was produced by Lloyd Wright, as early as 1907 in one reference and in 1910 in another. Here is the drawing as found in Brian Spencer's 1979 "The Prairie School Tradition." According to Spencer's caption the drawing was provided to him by the younger Wright himself.





Next comes a drawing, again in two versions in the Artstor file, which we assume to be Wright's work; he included it in his 1957 publication "A Testament," where he captioned it 1912. PROJECT: SMALL TOWN HOUSE. The Artstor images first:





The "Testament" image:




Finally, another drawing in the Artstor file, this time a plan drawing. The sheet is not labeled as ASBH, but the title block includes the phrase PATENT APPLIED FOR, which may have led an archivist to conclude that the drawing belonged to the ASBH program.




But the plan is a near-duplicate of one made in the same year as the ASBH work, for client Ernest Vosburgh; here is the plan drawing found in "In the Nature of Materials." The differences between the two plans are worth noting:



Original drawings © The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York)

In re this subject, Eric O'Malley kindly provided a link. Readers will judge for themselves the utility of this addition to the literature . . .

http://garyarseneau.blogspot.com/2017/0 ... losed.html

S

SDR wrote: ↑Mon Oct 18, 2021 5:42 pm The rendered view drawings which were produced to illustrate the American System-Built Houses product are of interest to Wrightians, to students of the ASBH program, to architectural (and other) delineators and to graphic artists and designers---or should be. More needs to be learned about these works: who made them, what media were used, how were they reproduced and where would the public have seen them ?

In the meantime, sixteen or so of these illustrations---not the full complement of them by any means, and including preliminary studies---are among the 989 drawings found when searching the Artstor files using "Wright Richards" as the query:



© The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York)

This image is one of three or four in the collection containing comments in the margin written by Arthur Richards describing the expected ASBH exterior surface (often called pebble dash stucco.) Here, he says "Use Three Stipples, light grey, medium and dark grey." I would suggest this is evidence that Richards preferred the treatment and may have driven it, perhaps because he had purchased the stone materials in bulk for the Burnham prototypes, needed to ensure that his inventory was spent, was able to promise a paint-free final finish to his builders, and was "selling" the concept in planning sessions (thus the notes.) I have not seen any reference by Wright to pebble dash or stippling - only that the homes be clad in "stucco." Incidentally, similar "stippling" comments from Richards appear on 1506.132 and 1506.105, as I describe in my book. All comments like these appear on "studies", which I expect were used as marketing tools in client conversations to attempt to close projects.

This drawing has a very similar look to how how Schindler drew - maybe it was drawn by him?

I'd be interested to know what specifically about this drawing evokes Schindler for you. Elements to look at, for comparison to other drawings, would be the double horizontal lines bracketing the lettering of the title; the lettering itself; the door swings showing doors opened to 45º with the arc extending almost to 90. Perhaps the poché of the chimney mass, or the numbering of stair treads, could be associated with a particular architect or drafter.

Someone---most likely Wright---has written and sketched on the finished drawing, adding a bathtub to the maid's bath and a closet to that bedroom, and moving the other bath from a central and more exposed location to one between the two bedrooms. A suggestion is made to expand the dining alcove by 1 1/2 bays. If nothing else, these notes might suggest that the author of the drawing was not Wright himself ?

"Patent applied for" is a very unusual qualifier for a Wright building plan; one associates that with the ASBH program.

Here is the file for Ernest Vosburgh: https://library.artstor.org/#/search/Wr ... =1;size=24 The house as built conforms most closely to the plan published in "In the Nature of Materials," according to Storrer (1993).

S

It looks vaguely like the pinwheel plan of Schindler's own house, and the lettering is similar. Was that a standard lettering style in those days?

Scroll down.

Oh; I assumed you were not questioning the authorship of the plan, only of the drawing. Very interesting. Wright used a version of the lettering we see on that plan from 1890 through at least 1915. The R is particularly consistent, with minor variation.

S

Nice collection of drawings. Several I'd never seen before.
Great sleuth work. Thank you.

Forgotten how to do this, but I've been looking through your search for the plans of the very first perspective posted.
Found what looks like a possible match but no exact correspondence:

Possible Section:
https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/285 ... 6178488952

Possible Plan:
https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/285 ... 6178873525

Elevation:
https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/285 ... 6179407992

Section w/ similar elements:
https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/285 ... 6179829291

Tom, that is indeed the same design. There are always slight differences in FLW's drawings.