Wright Chat

I don't see this house discussed much. Generally, how is it viewed (favorable, unfavorable)?

Its nature as a reworking and expansion of an existing structure sets it apart, like a couple of other early Wright commissions, from his other and unconstrained designs; the assumed compromises may have affected its standing among connoisseurs. It is also unique in its rich and varied series of spaces; one thinks of the unbuilt Sherman Booth residence. For me, the pre-1900 houses will not equal in interest the work which followed. But I haven't seen Dana so cannot opine further.

S

Is it (Dana Thomas house) one of two FLW structures with a barrel vaulted room?

If you examine the plans of Dana carefully, you will find that the footprint of the original house is outlined and takes up a small fraction of the of the finished house confined to the north. It is so small that to call the house FLW built a remodel is laughable. The largest room in the old house was the Parlor between FLW's Living Room and Dining Room which Dana kept in its original condition in memory of her father. By no means did it put any real constraint on FLW. Any nineteenth century attributes in the finished house are confined to that Parlor.

Tim is right - Dana is not discussed. Certainly a house that I have paid scant attention to. Maybe it's because it seems as though the direction taken at Dana appears to have been 'discontinued' - the road not taken.

In any case a brief glance at the archive shows a major program of ornamental pattern.
I know nothing about this house.
Let's discuss:

https://library.artstor.org/#/search/ar ... e=1;sort=1

Ha - I've got Hoffman's book on Dana on my shelves - unread.

Dana incorporates curves that don't again appear until the late 50's. For example the shallow arc of the long beam in the Dana Studio. Where is that seen again in Wright's work until say ... Marin Courthouse?

From time to time a writer includes the ellipse as one of the geometric shapes employed by Wright in his work. It probably seems natural to include it in the list that begins, "Square, circle, triangle . . ." Even Eric Lloyd Wright is on record as having mentioned the ellipse as one of his grandfather's primal forms.

I challenge anyone to find an ellipse of any proportion on a Wright drawing. The natural exception will be a circle or arc viewed in perspective or at an angle. But there is not a design in which an ellipse has been laid down as a form.

The circle and arc were good enough for Wright. For good measure, every zero or fifteenth letter of the alphabet inscribed on a Wright-studio drawing is a circle.

S

I've been many times, and had the opportunity to take some photos inside. The amount of original art glass/stained glass is mind boggling. There are hanging panels of glass, and glass chandeliers. The design is quite complex and is a large residence. The state of Illinois owns it, and the last time I was there, looked like they needed to address some maintenance issues. But it is not to be missed and is highly impressive.

The interior balconies at Marin might count as ellipses and the parapet in Fallingwater's living room as a half-ellipse. These are actually rectangles with semicircular ends, which you might not want to include.

https://secretsanfrancisco.com/marin-co ... francisco/

One must always take into account FLW's clients when evaluating the work. Dana, for instance, was a very rich woman who wanted a huge house that incorporated a roomy, but not huge, old house at the northern edge of the property. Given the complex program and the limitations of the property, FLW did an extraordinary job. The lot was the major problem; as spacious as it was, it called for a much more modest sized house. There is hardly any outdoor usable space except for the west lawn by the railroad tracks and barn. Had there been the acreage the plan called for, the house would have spread out like the Metzger Project instead of coiled up snake-like ready to strike.

As to the ellipse being more or less absent in FLW's work, the nature of the form is fluid, dependent on the distance of the paired center points and the length of the vertex. The ellipse can be plump or skinny, but a square is a square no matter what size. Hexagons, triangles and circles - even rectangles - likewise. Wright was a geometer and its regularity, while there is a 'rebelliousness' to the ellipse. While there is a prescribed method to create an ellipse, there is no regular ellipse. It would also take some doing to determine if the curve in the Dana library is actually a true partial ellipse or just a free-hand curve.

I see no reason to take these arcs as anything other than that: sections of a circle.

https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/284 ... 2853059492

In a photograph the low arches might appear a little lumpy, but I would have to ascribe that to imperfect carpentry. There are numerous arcs of various radii at Dana:

https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/284 ... 2853059492

The interior balconies at MCCC are "racetrack shaped"---I do not know of a single term that denotes that shape (two semicircles connected by parallel straight lines)---or as Reidy says, a rectangle with semicircular ends. The parapet that contains the descending stair at Fallingwater has a semicircular, not an elliptical, termination.

A pseudo-ellipse can be contrived of two pairs of arcs of differing radii, connected alternately. A carpenter could be excused for making such a form, as the arcs are easily swung via a pivoted stick or board holding a pencil or a router. The two pairs of arcs are created separately and then joined to make the finished shape.

A more elaborate mechanism is necessary to control a router on a truly elliptical course.

https://www.google.com/search?client=op ... AFlBI,st:0

https://microfence.com/product/standard ... e-package/

Mr Wright would not, and did not, draw an ellipse. For one thing, his drafting equipment did not readily provide for the operation, but more importantly he likely associated the shape with the sort of building and decoration he was determined to supplant. (Yes, there are ellipse templates---but not an infinite variety of them. They are designed to aid the drafting of arcs viewed at various angles.) His avoidance of the form was both practical and ideological.

There were no ellipses in the Froebel "kit":

https://mandala-montessori.eu/en/froebe ... g-set.html

S

Looks like I've stumbled upon the needle in a haystack, although to be sure, Wright didn't draw this.

https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/285 ... 3106135024