Never-built Wright design on display in Racine, WI
Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 1:57 pm
Never-built Wright design on display
Chicago Tribune (IL)
March 5, 2006
Author: Mark Hertzberg, The Journal Times
Estimated printed pages: 3
America was filled with postwar optimism in 1946 when Racine's YWCA bought land for a new building at 740 College Ave., across from the 14-story Racine County Courthouse.
H.F. Johnson Jr. retained Frank Lloyd Wright to design the new building in May 1949, but two other architects also competed for the commission. John Batten, another Racine business leader, preferred local architect Frank Hoffman. Fitzhugh Scott Jr., who had designed the Milwaukee YWCA, submitted plans, and was ultimately hired.
Scott's building, which opened in 1953, is streamlined, with a round corner and a circular, glass-lined stair tower at the southeast end. Visitors find themselves in a typical lobby and reception area. A variety of doors lead to the pool, locker rooms, a meeting room, and the stairs. It has served the community well for 50 years, but it is not the bold, and exciting building Wright had proposed.
"Right for Racine but Wright Wrong for Racine's YWCA" is the catchy, alliterative title for a new exhibit at the Racine Heritage Museum, 701 Main St. Museum director Christopher Paulson says there are two key themes to the exhibit, which will be on display for the next two years.
"There is the perseverance they went through to acquire a new building, and within that story, working with Frank Lloyd Wright, and the rapid deterioration of their relationship when he discovered that the Y board was doing their due diligence when they requested proposals from other architects," he said.
Wright's plans for the Y, like many of his public buildings, brought in natural light to celebrate the interior. There were few holes punched into the sides of the building to serve as traditional windows. Instead, there were clerestory windows, which Wright often used, and a dramatic glass canopy over the entrance, a glass waterfall cascading down from a glass roof. They illuminated the open lobby and a rooftop swimming pool. The roof was, literally, the crowning touch.
Visitors would have entered a large open reception area. There were no walls, furniture or low ceiling to compress space. Wright's lobby was an atrium which flowed up into the glass roof, allowing the whole building to breathe. His lobby led to three floors connected by ramps, with tropical plants, under the skylight roof. Plans included an activity room for teens, music and crafts rooms, bowling alleys and a gymnasium.
Wright drew two sets of plans for the project; the first in 1949, and the second in 1950. The builder would have been Ben Wiltscheck, who had worked with Wright on the Johnson Administration Building and Research Tower at Racine Street and 21st Street, and on Wingspread, the conference center in Wind Point. Two letters from Wright to the Y explain why his building was not built.
On Jan. 30, 1950, Wright sent a pleasant letter to Barbara Sargent, secretary for the YWCA Building Committee.
He wrote that his revised plans included "all the changes except the solid roof." He explained the kind of roof he wanted, "I had hoped for a translucent overhead, sloped so that it would require cleaning but twice a year--no danger of leaks in this over-lapping form of glass-slab technique."
Then he addressed the cost of the building. "I have had as my goal in this case a straight-forward building costing within $500,000 and believe it can be built for that sum without difficulty." Furniture, except for built-in furnishings, was not included in the estimate.
He chided her not to be guided by the "wholly irresponsible" cost estimates from "so-called outside experts" who wouldn't be familiar with his building techniques. Perhaps he hoped that committee members didn't know his reputation for going over budget, assuring her, "In the light of my previous experience--it is considerable--I think you have no reason to fear much, if any, increase over the half-million as mentioned."
All that was needed, Wright concluded, was a note from the board to Johnson, approving the plans and a request for him to make presumably more detailed plans, "a tedious clerical business requiring some time." It would be worth it. "I think we are going to have a remarkably fine and useful structure; one to be proud of and one the Y.W.C.A. does need as a sign of cultural vitality no matter how self-satisfied it may be."
Wright resigned the commission six weeks later, in a terse note, on March 17, "My dear Ladies: Concerning the work I have done in your behalf by generosity of Mr. Herbert Johnson, there seems to be some mistake. Mr. Wiltscheck . . . tells me you have been deliberating between these drawings submitted by me and those of other architects. This deliberation places me in a position I have never accepted knowingly and never shall. I do not compete for work."
Five decades later, Johnson's son, Sam Johnson, recalled the project. "He [H.F. Johnson Jr.] was really irritated that they didn't think twice about having Wright do the building."
Wright scholar Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer saw the Y proposal as "a remarkably detailed and thought-out scheme that could serve as a community center for any smaller American city."
When the museum was looking at designs for a new building in 2003, the board asked to see if Wright's YWCA plan could be adapted. The cost was prohibitive.
Racine is rich in Wright buildings, although this one was not built. His built and unbuilt work in Racine ranges from 1901-1954 and represents almost every significant stage of his career after 1900.
Chicago Tribune (IL)
March 5, 2006
Author: Mark Hertzberg, The Journal Times
Estimated printed pages: 3
America was filled with postwar optimism in 1946 when Racine's YWCA bought land for a new building at 740 College Ave., across from the 14-story Racine County Courthouse.
H.F. Johnson Jr. retained Frank Lloyd Wright to design the new building in May 1949, but two other architects also competed for the commission. John Batten, another Racine business leader, preferred local architect Frank Hoffman. Fitzhugh Scott Jr., who had designed the Milwaukee YWCA, submitted plans, and was ultimately hired.
Scott's building, which opened in 1953, is streamlined, with a round corner and a circular, glass-lined stair tower at the southeast end. Visitors find themselves in a typical lobby and reception area. A variety of doors lead to the pool, locker rooms, a meeting room, and the stairs. It has served the community well for 50 years, but it is not the bold, and exciting building Wright had proposed.
"Right for Racine but Wright Wrong for Racine's YWCA" is the catchy, alliterative title for a new exhibit at the Racine Heritage Museum, 701 Main St. Museum director Christopher Paulson says there are two key themes to the exhibit, which will be on display for the next two years.
"There is the perseverance they went through to acquire a new building, and within that story, working with Frank Lloyd Wright, and the rapid deterioration of their relationship when he discovered that the Y board was doing their due diligence when they requested proposals from other architects," he said.
Wright's plans for the Y, like many of his public buildings, brought in natural light to celebrate the interior. There were few holes punched into the sides of the building to serve as traditional windows. Instead, there were clerestory windows, which Wright often used, and a dramatic glass canopy over the entrance, a glass waterfall cascading down from a glass roof. They illuminated the open lobby and a rooftop swimming pool. The roof was, literally, the crowning touch.
Visitors would have entered a large open reception area. There were no walls, furniture or low ceiling to compress space. Wright's lobby was an atrium which flowed up into the glass roof, allowing the whole building to breathe. His lobby led to three floors connected by ramps, with tropical plants, under the skylight roof. Plans included an activity room for teens, music and crafts rooms, bowling alleys and a gymnasium.
Wright drew two sets of plans for the project; the first in 1949, and the second in 1950. The builder would have been Ben Wiltscheck, who had worked with Wright on the Johnson Administration Building and Research Tower at Racine Street and 21st Street, and on Wingspread, the conference center in Wind Point. Two letters from Wright to the Y explain why his building was not built.
On Jan. 30, 1950, Wright sent a pleasant letter to Barbara Sargent, secretary for the YWCA Building Committee.
He wrote that his revised plans included "all the changes except the solid roof." He explained the kind of roof he wanted, "I had hoped for a translucent overhead, sloped so that it would require cleaning but twice a year--no danger of leaks in this over-lapping form of glass-slab technique."
Then he addressed the cost of the building. "I have had as my goal in this case a straight-forward building costing within $500,000 and believe it can be built for that sum without difficulty." Furniture, except for built-in furnishings, was not included in the estimate.
He chided her not to be guided by the "wholly irresponsible" cost estimates from "so-called outside experts" who wouldn't be familiar with his building techniques. Perhaps he hoped that committee members didn't know his reputation for going over budget, assuring her, "In the light of my previous experience--it is considerable--I think you have no reason to fear much, if any, increase over the half-million as mentioned."
All that was needed, Wright concluded, was a note from the board to Johnson, approving the plans and a request for him to make presumably more detailed plans, "a tedious clerical business requiring some time." It would be worth it. "I think we are going to have a remarkably fine and useful structure; one to be proud of and one the Y.W.C.A. does need as a sign of cultural vitality no matter how self-satisfied it may be."
Wright resigned the commission six weeks later, in a terse note, on March 17, "My dear Ladies: Concerning the work I have done in your behalf by generosity of Mr. Herbert Johnson, there seems to be some mistake. Mr. Wiltscheck . . . tells me you have been deliberating between these drawings submitted by me and those of other architects. This deliberation places me in a position I have never accepted knowingly and never shall. I do not compete for work."
Five decades later, Johnson's son, Sam Johnson, recalled the project. "He [H.F. Johnson Jr.] was really irritated that they didn't think twice about having Wright do the building."
Wright scholar Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer saw the Y proposal as "a remarkably detailed and thought-out scheme that could serve as a community center for any smaller American city."
When the museum was looking at designs for a new building in 2003, the board asked to see if Wright's YWCA plan could be adapted. The cost was prohibitive.
Racine is rich in Wright buildings, although this one was not built. His built and unbuilt work in Racine ranges from 1901-1954 and represents almost every significant stage of his career after 1900.
