Wright Done Wrong

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 6:12 pm

From the two pictures I've seen so far, the Charch house looks just dandy. The exterior may have something in common with the Upton house by Paul Schweikher, another Wright-influenced Midwestern architect:

tarad · Post by **tarad** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 6:47 pm

SDR wrote:From the two pictures I've seen so far, the Charch house looks just dandy. The exterior may have something in common with the Upton house by Paul Schweikher, another Wright-influenced Midwestern architect:

This looks nothing like the Charch house..I think you may have it confused..I don't think cactus would survive outside in this climate either.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Thu Jan 27, 2011 7:04 pm

I feel badly that we've offended a new member. I do look forward to seeing your photos of the house, and I'm very glad to hear that Mr Dow had such a positive influence on your life -- that's the goal of every architect, and I'm sure he would be glad to know of it too.

What I saw in the one exterior photo of the Charch residence was a very long multi-board fascia at the top of the ground level, and some nice looking rough-textured masonry, including a broad and tall chimney mass crossing the principal axis of the structure. Those are the elements that reminded me of the Upton house; granted there are many differences, including a much more refined interior in your house. Of course the environment is different as well.

S D R

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 3:07 pm

The site on peterm's post, "Triangle Monernist Houses," does have a single view of Charch (dining room), but the other view identified as Charch (living room) is actually, according to "Other States," the Charles Reed residence in Houston, Texas. Reed is brick; Charch is stone.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 4:00 pm

The site AGG linked http://www.abdow.org/index.php/projects/out-of-michigan shows two photos of the Charch residence -- the same dining room as on Peter's link and this exterior:

DRN · Post by **DRN** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 11:28 am

tarad:
Welcome to Wright Chat, and I hope you will let me clarify what seems to be a misunderstanding of my comments in an earlier post.

I toured the the Charch house in late July 1987 prior to the house's purchase (presumably by your parents). The house at that time was empty, and was in need of a lot of TLC. My comments relative to the interior are based on that visit alone. I was in college at that time and had recently studied the work of Alden Dow...the Charch house was a beautiful house, with interesting spaces, and dramatically sited, but it lacked much of the interior finish detail (trim, built-in furniture) common to houses by Dow in which he had a more day to day presence during construction. My comment was not a judgement on the quality of the subsequent work your parents put into the property, rather it was noting a visible difference in the Charch house's design and detailing (as seen in 1987) vs. the other works of Dow, mostly located in his Michigan hometown, with which I (and much of the Chat group) are familiar.

It must have been wonderful to live in the Charch house...the views are spectacular and Dow's architecture takes the best advantage of them.

Roderick:
The pic of the dining area is from the Charch house....the furniture was not there when I saw the house, but as you can see the view is great. I liked the way the mirror on the wall enabled those seated at the table looking away from the view to still capture some glimpses.

egads · Post by **egads** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 11:59 am

I would like to reiterate that the discussion of Charch here is off topic to Wright done wrong.
Charch strikes me as more "Neutra done organic."
It's really silly that the abdow.org site does not identify the photos it shows. I do hope for more photos.

If we had a real moderator, I would suggest separating these threads. One for discussion of this and other works by Dow. And this one could go on with it's real subject. Having to refer someone to the Wright done wrong thread for photos of Dow's work is just wrong.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 1:33 pm

On my computer (?) when I hold the cursor over a photo on the Dow site, the photo is identified. I assume that the photo I posted above, from that site, is correctly identified as the Charch residence. . . ?

We can open a Dow thread without the aid of an administrator. Shall I do so ? I would copy the Charch-related posts there, and discussion could continue on that topic . . .

S D R

DRN · Post by **DRN** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 2:38 pm

Relocating to a Dow thread make sense....let me know if you need me to help, or when to delete my Charch/Dow posts here.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 3:27 pm

I have begun a new thread devoted to Alden B Dow. I wouldn't think it necessary to delete posts from this thread. Peter ? Others ?

S

peterm · Post by **peterm** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 4:12 pm

Let's leave history alone... My vote is to leave it as is.

But maybe in the future this thread should only be for the bad and ugly.

DavidC · Post by **DavidC** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 9:34 am

Another 'undiscovered' Wright home - [0:33] ................ (and an "Art Deco" one to boot!)

Excuse me whilst I call Storrer and the Foundation .... PRONTO!!!

David

Wrighter · Post by **Wrighter** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:06 am

Wow. They didn't even obfuscate, or say, "possibly designed by." Just went ahead and attributed it as fact.

m.perrino · Post by **m.perrino** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 5:13 pm

SDR: Three books that I know of about Dow : 1. Composed Order ( The Architecture of Alden B. Dow ) - a booklet publ by the Dow Center & Archives. 2. The Architecture of Alden B. Dow by Sidney K Robinson 1983 publ by Wayne State Univ and 3. Alden B Dow : Midwestern Modern by Diane Maddex, Publ by W W Norton & Co/ Alden B Dow Home and Studio - don't know the date, maybe mid '90s.

Palli Davis Holubar · Post by **Palli Davis Holubar** » Fri Apr 29, 2011 6:42 pm

But that "...Frank Lloyd Wright SLASH... was meaningful!