Top ten least favorite Wright buildings (as built...)

DavidC · Post by **DavidC** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 8:50 am

(by request - via this thread)

I'll get things going with my pick for the list:

Kansas City Community Christian Church

David

DRN · Post by **DRN** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 9:08 am

I'll add Corbin Education Center, also in Kansas.

http://www.peterbeers.net/interests/flw ... center.htm

There are literally millions of worse buildings than this, and it is not entirely without merit, but in Wright's canon, it seems to me to be one that feels like an average high school or college building of the '50's or '60's with some "paste on" ornament, and a bunch of dark recessed outdoor spaces that just catch leaves and litter. It lacks Wright's layering of the overall concept at many scales, and despite its dramatic balconies and doughnut holes, it seems almost devoid of his subtle orchestration of spaces.

Thanks to Peter Beers for the pics.

peterm · Post by **peterm** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 9:25 am

The Gammage Theater:

http://image42.webshots.com/43/5/1/38/3 ... emO_ph.jpg

DavidC · Post by **DavidC** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 12:46 pm

The link doesn't work for me, Peter.

Here is a link to a series of pictures of Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium.

David

Reidy · Post by **Reidy** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 12:50 pm

Gammage, Corbin and Kansas City were all messed with badly after they left Wright's hands. Anderton, which sometimes comes up in these conversations, is another case in point.

Ennis is one that suffered similarly yet still impresses us as a masterpiece. Does anyone know of other examples?

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 1:49 pm

Lockridge Medical Clinic is another one that was done unto by an apprentice, but built while FLW was still alive, so he gets the blame: Three roof levels, each with a different treatment. Bad!

For residential work, I would have to go with the Davis House. The whole Tahoe Project was marginal, and this built version is simply not a good design. Although the Arnold Friedman House from the same source is handsome inside, if a bit of an upside down ice cream cone on the exterior.

DavidC · Post by **DavidC** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 4:09 pm

Anderton Court Shops

Lockridge Medical Clinic

Davis House

Arnold Friedman

David

JPB_1971 · Post by **JPB_1971** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 4:28 pm

I have not thought of Davis (built originally for a staff member of the Mayo Clnic as I recall) for a while. Is it still in good shape?

JimM · Post by **JimM** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 4:28 pm

Reidy wrote: Anderton, which sometimes comes up in these

Out of curiosity... I've seen a picture of Wright and an apprentice standing across the street from Anderton, which looked well under construction if not completed. If so, wouldn't this be considered a completed building?

Paul Ringstrom · Post by **Paul Ringstrom** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 4:56 pm

My all-time least favorite:

Charles Manson House, Wausau, WI

Too dark, hallways too narrow, just plain terrible.

pharding · Post by **pharding** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 6:14 pm

The Charles Manson House is not very good.

Reidy · Post by **Reidy** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 6:15 pm

Anderton counts as a Wright-built building, but it departed from his design in various respects. Because of materials shortages at the time of the Korean war, the builders used black fiberglass instead of unfinished copper for the spire. (TnGuy's photo shows that this has been replaced or painted over, but I remember it.) At some point, at the beginning I believe, they painted the stucco white instead of leaving it unfinished. There may be more.

(In the photo you saw, was the building at the point where its spire and its stucco finish were in place?)

Wrightgeek · Post by **Wrightgeek** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 8:55 pm

I would have to nominate the Erdman Prefab Model 1 buildings as disappointing to me. While they are very nice late 50's-early 60's mid-century ranch style homes by most standards, they seem generic and do not have the Wright touch, or live up to the standards set by FLW in the previous 60 years.

Some would say that these were designed to be produced for the masses, and that their generic nature should thus be understood, but I would refer back to the ASBH program of the early 20th century, which aspired to the same goals of widespread appeal, but to my eye also had a very tangible and recognizable touch of the master.

I'm also not overly enamored by one of my home state's FLW buildings, the Meyers Medical Clinic in Dayton. While it is a fine building by most standards, it reeks to me of a previously unused residential design that was coerced into becoming a medical building, come hell or high water.

I'm also not too hip on the Lykes Residence, but that seems to be more of a BBF/TAA design than that of the master himself. And most of the stuff before 1893 is off-putting to me, as prior to Winslow Wright had yet to find his stride, and was still feeling his way along through the whole transition from the Victorian to Prairie thing was concerned.

peterm · Post by **peterm** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 9:07 pm

I think Anderton is somewhat cool. That wouldn't make my worst list...

m.perrino · Post by **m.perrino** » Thu Dec 23, 2010 11:02 pm

My two least favorites, structures I have actually been inside, are:
Kraus : The triangular module was done with a heavy hand. Very dark as well. and Harold Price ( Phoenix ) never appealed to me, except for Gene Masselink's entryway treatment. I'd also agree with the comment about some of the PreFab's.