Wright Chat

9/13/2005 10:00:00 PM



Dean Eastman reportedly buying Coonley Coach House



By BOB SKOLNIK





A white knight has apparently come to the rescue of the Coonley Coach house.



"Dean Eastman has offered to purchase the property and to offer Carolyn Howlett a life estate," said Kathryn Balgley, the attorney from the Cook County Office of the Public Guardian which represents the estate of Carolyn Howlett.



A life estate is a property right that means Carolyn Howlett, who has lived in the National Historic Landmark building for the past 54 years, will have a legally enforceable right to remain in the home during her lifetime.



Howlett

9/20/2005 10:00:00 PM



Deal allows Howlett to remain, repairs to go forward



By BOB SKOLNIK





After moving into the main residence of the Coonley Estate in 2000 Dean Eastman got to know Carolyn Howlett, who lived in the estate

Now this is really great news! This is the way preservation should work. The deal gives her what she needs: security in knowing she has a home to spend her life in and knowing the home she loves will be taken care of. I have found that to be so important to Wright home owners.



Well done and thank you!



MC

Thank you, Dean Eastman!

gwd wrote: lesser, works such as the Darwin Martin, Westcott and Robie Houses .

Architecture is subjective, as most things are. Still, I would hardly call Martin and Robie "lesser".



No argument about the proportional and interior beauty of Coonley-and perhaps in full restoration it would rank at the top as the most livable of the large homes. Other than the fantastic living room, the rest of the home is rather utilitarian on the interior and most impressive from the outside. Only The Martin House is on par with Coonley for exterior and out building/landscape relationships, and certainly the interior spatial design is more daring for being a few years older than Coonley.



I also think the Martin restoration will astound everyone, if only as the ultimate representation of the cruciform plan Wright tinkered with for a while before Martin gave him the means to execute it as he envisioned. How can that 100 foot view from the front plate glass door to the 17' Winged Vicory not be impressive? This is one of the properties judged too harshly through modern photos and it's recent condition, and the restoration will finally give it its due.

While the DDM house is a masterful design, it is a recapitulation of the unbuilt Metzger house and lacks the latter's extraordinary hilltop site and expansive 2-story living room volume. Also, there is a restrictive tightness in the design quality of the Martin house that Quinan references in his recent book. I think that as Wright started design of the Coonley residence, he was beginning to realize the full and enormous possibilities of his architecture and finally possessed a total understanding and command of his design skills and intellect. While it is also a recapitulation of an earlier project (the Elizabeth Stone cottage), the Coonley is a massive, soaring step forward. To my eyes it has a looseness and freedom, a scale and presence, a flow and integration (conceptually, programmaticly and in detail) that eclipses DDM. And, as I mentioned in the earlier post, there is a remarkable synergistic aspect at Coonley resulting from the equally remarkable landscape design of Jens Jensen in a community designed by Frederick Law Olmstead. Not to be overlooked are the pervasive interior collaborations at Coonley with George Niedecken on the furnishings and the living room murals, and the in-house design assistance of Marion Mahony and William Drummond. At the time of Coonley, Wright was driving an office and working with consultants who were arguably the finest complement of his career. And, in Queene Ferry Coonley, he had a client with an aesthetic sensitivity, social network and financial resources capable of pushing him to new heights. The result was a sophisticated comprehensive work of art, a Gesamtkunstwerk, that was the ultimate quest of architects (and composers) across the western world at that time; from Vienna to Glasgow to Pasadena. Just as previously the case of the Darwin Martin House, the Coonley project cannot be appreciated or understood in its deteriorated, segmented condition -- lacking its setting, it's furnishings and its artifacts. I remain convinced that the Coonley residence deserves an exhaustive and scholarly restoration (of the buildings and grounds and colateral objects) as one of the finest three acheivements of Wright's long career. Further, it deserves a rededication and renewal of purpose to ensure its long-term survival as one of our country's greatest assets.

Glenn: The Coonley House is indeed "superior" to DDM in many ways. If Wright was anything he was capitulative throughout his career, so that alone does not really define any particular work. It was all about an "idea", and if someone did not happen to be able to commission it at the time, well, he just worked on it some more until it fit another client. Personal preferences aside, and regardless of his constant tinkering, every built house ended up unique, and each has a fascinating story.



I prefer not to "keep score", but try to see his intent for each one as circumstances allowed (and budgets were decimated). From the wealthy to the schoolteacher, each house ended up being representative of the particular client. My primary point was that when the Martin House is fully restored, you will see it "whole" again; as it has not been in almost 100 years. The real beauty of this building was it's absolute refinement and extent of detailing. The degree to which Martin's money allowed Wright's vision to be executed can not be minimized.



The neighborhood (Parkside) was almost prairie at the turn of the century-so understanding the context of the siting is difficult today. And those horrid "white" interiors have clouded it's beauty in too many books. The entry fireplace rivaled, or superceded, the Coonley mural as a focal point. Gold leaf between brick courses, designing all furniture, clocks, grand piano, birdhouses, laundry poles, etc, were all components of a complete system, perhaps surpassing Dana in execution.



Coonley was a masterpiece; an elegant stucco and wood pavilion floating in a beautiful environment with beautiful detailing-and really one of the first in line Usonians (can't wait to hear the flack on that!).



It really is a mattter of scale and cost. Martin was a tour de force in architectural extravagance. It is obvious Wright interpreted Martin as representative of a hugely successful man with near limitless resources who was accomodating and allowed his genius to soar. Westcott was undersestimated until taken care of. I still believe Martin will astound when experienced as intended.



Coonley and Martin are as different as the clients. The important thing is that Wright, at a very early stage, was able to address each program's particular requirements with such authority and creativity.

Coonley was indeed a predecessor to the inline Usonians, and also to Taliesin. (This may be more obvious in the Elizabeth Stone Project, which is just a board and batten version of Coonley.) Coonley began a line of work that culminated decades later with the finest Usonian, *fill in the blank, your choice*... I would choose Lloyd Lewis. As formal as the house seems with its axially symmetrical living room pavilion -- for which there was a very practical reason -- it is actually a very informal, open-ended layout. Given enough land, a Coonley-Taliesin type of house could spread out across the hills and dales like kudzu. Need more room? Tack on another wing.



The same could not be said for the much more formal and contained Martin House, which was the culmination of a series that began with Hickox and included Cheney, Westcott, Stewart, many unbuilt projects modest and immodest, ending with Barndall. Even Dana is a version of the same scheme if the porches that flank the living room are read as rooms. This was a series of houses completely contained within the Prairie period; even Barnsdall can be classified as basically Prairie with elements of future trends. But after Barnsdall, from the block houses on, everything changed, and those changes were predicted by Coonley.



Martin dazzles (like Dana) with its attention to decorative detail and fine materials. Coonley's charm is more architectural. Examine the pattern of the upper exterior walls to see Wright at his best! Overall, I would have to conclude that Coonley is the superior work.

Tuesday, January 03, 2006



Major repairs planned for Coonley Coach House

As mentioned in the article, Dean Eastman has done an award-winning job on the restoration and updates to the formal wing of the Coonley estate. (I've seen them - Incredible!) While a $350k purchase price is a steal for Riverside, it's probably going to wind up costing Eastman 3 times the purchase price to restore and update the gardener's cottage to the same standards as the formal wing.

Woman at heart of roof clash dies

Artist lives out last days in Wright home



By Crystal Yednak

Tribune staff reporter

Published December 23, 2005





In the 1950s, Carolyn Howlett saved part of a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed estate from demolition. She wished to spend the rest of her days in her home on that Riverside estate.



But earlier this year, a crumbling roof forced bystanders into the difficult role of balancing the 91-year-old widow's love for the Wright residence with her own financial realities.



In the end, Howlett was able to stay in her home, where she died Saturday. She had Alzheimer's disease for several years, according to the Cook County public guardian's office.



"The good thing was that people were able to come together to allow her to remain in her home and die in her home. That's what she wanted," said Public Guardian Robert Harris. "That, to me, is remarkable in itself."



As Howlett's legal guardian, Harris' office had determined that the leaky roof needed to be fixed. But estimates to repair the clay-tile roof in an authentic way ranged from $50,000 to $250,000, and the office worried that the costs could force her into a nursing home.



Instead, the public guardian proposed a $14,000 asphalt replacement for the roof, upsetting preservationists, who scrambled to find a better solution to save the Wright design elements. The home is part of the Avery Coonley estate designed by Wright.



In September, a neighbor, Dean Eastman, stepped in to buy the house so the roof could be repaired in a historically accurate way. He also signed a life estate agreement so Howlett could live in the home as long as her health allowed.



Eastman and his wife, Ella Mae, live in a wing of the main house on the estate and have earned a conservation p award for work on their own home.



"It would have been terrible to see [the Wright house] with an asphalt roof or to be destroyed by somebody," she said. "We were happy that Carolyn got her wish that she could live there in her home as long as she wished."



Friends and acquaintances describe Howlett as "strong-willed."



"Nothing would sway her," said friend David Knoebber.



That was evident in the 1950s when she intervened to preserve buildings on the Coonley estate after hearing of a developer's plans to raze all except the main building. She rallied support, even contacting Frank Lloyd Wright himself, Knoebber said.



Howlett and her husband, James, bought a complex of buildings on the estate that included a carriage house, a chicken coop and a powerhouse for the property. They turned the buildings into a home, filling it with their art. James Howlett worked as a photographer and sketch artist, while Carolyn Howlett painted watercolors, and made collages and assemblage, friends said.



She believed every child should receive an education in the arts and that led her to take an active role in local, state and national arts education associations when she was teaching in Oak Park and Libertyville and at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Knoebber said.



"She demanded things, but you learned a great deal from her," said Knoebber who traded errands for art lessons when he was a child in Galena and the Howletts visited to paint and shoot photos.



Howlett retired in 1970, and she and her husband traveled the world.



"She was an absolutely wonderful conversationalist," said neighbor Ted Smith. "You could sit and listen to Carolyn talk for a long time."



Friends are planning a memorial service, but details have not been completed. Memorials can be made to the Illinois Art Education Association.



Chicago Tribune:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... 3827.story