Wright Chat

I am a young structural engineer in graduate school for Preservation. I am wanting to write my thesis on the stabilization of FLLW's houses, but I need a case study or two with particular issue that can be formulated into a thesis discussion.



I was really interested in writing on the Ennis Brown House, and the necessary seismic retrofit it needs, but my professors are weary of that particular house for some reason and are encouraging me to find another case study.



It could be a design issue, a particular material, or even good examples of some of Wrights structural "mistakes" that need stabilization.



Could those of you who are a bit more FLLW savvy than me give me a bit of guidance as to a good direction I can take?



THANKS!

I am sure there are others, but the one that comes to mind is the post tensioning of the cantilevered main floor beams at Fallingwater. If I recall correctly, an engineering firm from London designed the repair. It was covered in an issue of Scientific American in '99, '00, or '01. The repair involved the installation of tensioned steel tendons to the sides of the beams to stop their increasing deflection/progressive failure.



An architect by the name of John Eifler in Chicago (Eifler & Assocites) has done restoration work on several Wright buildings, and may have suggestions as well.

Coonley has undergone major structural upgrades in the last several years. Tomek added steel to its cantilever in 1992 and thus was able to remove the unsightly pillars on the porch. These are private homes, and information / access may be hard to get. John Thorpe of Oak Park was the architect for the Tomek job. The inadequate orignial structure connects Tomek to Fallingwater, and Franklin Toker notes this in his book (though he apparently doesn't know that the pillars are gone).



Hollyhock House in LA has had major quake-proofing since 2000. They sell a video on the restoration that would be a good place to start. www.hollyhockhouse.net.





Peter

I just returned from the FLWBC Conference in LA, and there was an extensive presentation made on the final day (Sat.) by a panel of preservation and restoration experts discussing the challenges presented by the block houses of southern California.



In particular response to your question, a structural engineer by the name of Jeff Guh gave a very good presention outlining the structural modifications that have been made by the USC School of Architecture to the Freeman House to stabilize the building, and to dramatically improve it's ability to withstand seismic events.



There is a company that films all of the Conference sessions, and offers them for sale on DVD on this website. You might want to investigate whether or not this would be an applicable research tool for you.



In addition, I know that the 1908 Burton J. Westcott House in Springfield, Ohio has gone through significant structural improvements in the past several years in the process of it's spectactural renovation. Visit the website at www.westcotthouse.org for details.



Last but not least, I believe that the Hanna House in Palo Alto, California, owned by Stanford University, underwent structural and seismic improvements during it's renovation after suffering significant damage caused by the 1989 San Francisco earthquake.



Hope that some or all of this info is helpful, and best of luck with your thesis.

A wonderful house that has not had a lot of exposure has had problems caused by environmental conditions unique in FLW's catalogue. The Jackson House "Fountainhead" is built on land with a high clay content that has caused major problems with the poured concrete structure. An article in Fine Homebuilding published years ago detailed how the owner, an architect, corrected the problem.