Upstairs Downstairs with Wright

[Mark Hertzberg]

New on www.wrightinracine.com
"I may have stumbled on one of the only aspects of Frank Lloyd Wright's work that has not been mulled over (and over and over) when I was editing pictures I had taken in October during the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy Conference in Chicago. Taking pictures in the lobby of The Rookery Building on LaSalle Street was a bit like the proverbial "shooting fish in a barrel." You couldn't miss. I started digging in my files to see what other photos I had that show how Wright moved people up and down in his buildings…"

Mark Hertzberg

[SDR]

Thanks for that, Mark. Among your photographs are several showing the stairways at the Hardy house, with their unusual zig-zag (or stair-step ?) baseboards. Other photos on recent additions to your blog show the same detail at three other Prairie-period residential stairs. To those I could add the Gridley and Robie houses---and I'm sure there are others.

A later example of a Wright stair with no diagonal lines is this one: https://www.flickr.com/photos/army_arch/331253595

Regular readers will recall my observation of Mr Wright's apparent aversion to the installation of handrails to his stairs (your blog shows a few, in fact, at Johnson Wax, at Wingspread and at the Greek Orthodox Church, most of them spiral flights). I do not find handrails in Studio and Taliesin drawings, and none at all among the many drawings of stairs at Fallingwater.

Did he dislike diagonal lines in elevation ? If so, would that inhibition extend to the typical handling of the baseboard that often accompanies a flight of stairs---a diagonal run of board and trim following the pitch of the steps. Would that explain the repetition of this handsome if amusing zig-zag trim---as well as the unique exterior stair at the western terrace at Bear Run ?

S

[Mark Hertzberg]

Thank you for the reminder about Fallingwater...I have added my photos to the blog piece. I regrettably don't know enough to answer your questions.

[Roderick Grant]

FLW's aversion to stair rails or any oblique lines dates back to the beginning of his career. The first run of the stairs at Charnley is between two solid walls, no rail. The second run behind a full height of spindles with the steps contained in boxes. It's a stretch, but it could be argued that Charnley presaged Fallingwater in that detail.

[Mark Hertzberg]

Charnley...another one I had forgotten...I've added photos. Thanks, Roderick.

[Roderick Grant]

That is a fabulous work of art. Proof that I was correct all along about Wright's authorship of Charnley. Sullivan would never have done such a piece of work.

[SDR]

At least we have another "data point" in the ongoing quest to prove Wright's substantial authorship of Charnley---for those still in doubt. Gracias.

S

[Mark Hertzberg]

I don't mean to claim to definitively state he is the author. I was going with a general feeling that he may have done at least the interior. I do not claim to be an expert on this. Outside In can tell us more.

[SDR]

Oh, sorry--I wasn't thinking of anyone in particular in my comment. I get the feeling that the arc of opinion on the matter is bending toward justice for Wright, as the principal or sole designer of Charnley; hold-outs seem thin on the ground these days. I am not one of those, myself. Maybe we could take a poll . . .

S