Wright Chat

Frank Lloyd Wright Original Ennis House Set Of Plans And Blueprints


David

Misuse of the terms "original" and "blueprint"---par for the course ? At least they aren't claimed to be "signed."

13 sheets at $1000 per, for prints. Nope.

S

The drawing shows what a wonderful FLW design the Ennis House was compared to the Mabel-compromised built result.
But the $13,000 price tag is a bit much.

Wright's building as designed contained contradictions enough (Apparently flat roofs sheltering pitched ceilings ? Large frameless butted-corner windows juxtaposed with busily muntinned ones ?) without the ruinous alterations (Marble flooring; Precolumbian-Baroque wrought iron) introduced by the client.

S

I have no problem with the ceilings as designed. A pitched structure supporting a flat roof is perfectly reasonable and structurally economical. The boards were to end at the battered wall, the battens to continue down the battered block wall to an 8" ledge 8' above the floor, in two sizes: large battens every 4', small battens 16" apart in between. The overall effect was to integrate the ceiling with the wall.

The corner windows were to have transoms 8" apart, extensions of the window transoms at the center of the room.

It is true that FLW did not cater to views with huge slabs of glass uninterrupted by mullions and transoms. It was part of his aesthetic that is apparent in all of his work. His views of the outside of the house from the inside were always peripheral. To merge inside with outside you must pass through the wall.

Thanks for those corrections.

"House on Haunted Hill" ran again the other night, on TV. Once was enough; a little of Vincent Price goes a long way. Lawrence Olivier he's not . . .!

S

My favorite Ennis supporting role is "Female" starring Ruth Chatterton, especially the scene at the swimming pool where I always thought the car court was located.

$13K for copied copies of copied copies..pass.

I would be curious about the size of these sheets. I spent an afternoon with the originals in the 1980's (they were drawn on linen) when Bruce Pfeiffer brought them out for me to look at. I'm not sure if all of Wright's plans for the Textile Block houses were so, but these sheets were 36 X 48 inches, not the 24 X 36 that I am used to. They were works of art themselves. Roderick could probably confirm this, but I understand the Lloyd did much or all of the drawing for Ennis.

I wonder how common it was, or is, if at all, for large construction documents to be printed at reduced size ? I suppose the technology supporting this would have been relatively recent in the 180 year history of such reproduction; all pre-digital copying methods involve "contact printing" which naturally produces like-sized reproductions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueprint

Presumably, drawings made at 1 inch to the foot would be reduced to 3/4" = 1'-0" if a 48" sheet were printed at 36". Of course, the scale indication on the drawing would still read 1" = 1'-0". Today, larger drawings are often printed at reduced size on 11 x 17 inch paper---with no expectation that the resulting images conform to any architectural scale, I believe.

S