Best Wright Brickwork Opinions

[goffmachine]

I would like to throw this into the ring.
What is your opinion regarding the best example of masonry work on a Wright design? (I am emphasizing Brickwork not Block or Desert Masonry wall)
Which home has the best brickwork Craftmanship and Detail?
And Why you believe so.
Have you seen it personally?... and can you please share examples or photos.

[pharding]

I would like to throw this into the ring.
What is your opinion regarding the best example of masonry work on a Wright design? (I am emphasizing Brickwork not Block or Masonry wall)
Which home has the best brickwork Craftmanship and Detail?
And Why you believe so.
Have you seen it personally?... and can you please share examples or photos.

The brick veneer on the Heurtley House is quite beautiful. I have seen it. It has been published extensively.

[peterm]

I do not think that this example is "the best", or necessarily reveals the highest level of craftsmanship, but it does show a clever and innovative use of the common material.

Later Wright abandoned this idea in favor of custom fired bricks to use for the corners. The Hanna house brickwork navigating corners of 30 60 120 degrees:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_XseMJejpzz0/S ... iarty).jpg

[goffmachine]

The images of the Heurtley House are great.
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/tags/h ... teresting/

[JimM]

I believe Wright himself thought Johnson Wax and Wingspread had the finest brickwork he'd ever seen.


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[peterm]

Can't argue with that...

[goffmachine]

Last image reminds me to share this:


Other interesting FLLW patents at Google patents:
http://www.google.com/patents?id=nQByA ... CgQ6AEwAA
http://www.google.com/patents?id=bEoCA ... CoQ6AEwAQ
http://www.google.com/patents?id=nAByA ... CwQ6AEwAg

[Tom]

Goffmachine:
The patent drawing of the Johnson Wax glass reminds me of the following. About twenty years ago now I was touring the Point Bonita lighthouse off the coast of San Francisco. You get really close to the lantern there and it occurred to me that it bore a very close resemblance to Johnson Wax. Since then I've always thought of lighthouse lanterns as being Wright's empirical inspiration for this detail even though nothing I've read or heard comes anywhere near confirming it.

[DavidC]

Fresnel lens


David

[Tom]

DavidC
Obviously I've missed the discussion of the Fresnal Lens in the literature on Wright. Feeling a little stupid right now. Do you know a place where this is discussed?

[DavidC]

Tom:

No need to feel stupid at all. I had merely linked to the Wikipedia Fresnel lens page since you referenced the lighthouse. I know of no connection (though, perhaps there is) between the Fresnel lens and Wright's patented structural glass.


David

[Tom]

Wow. There's got to be a connection. Got to be.
SDR? You know anything about this?

[Roderick Grant]

I doubt a connection. When looking at the Johnson design, the shape of the cross-section seems inevitable; how else would he have made that transition? I also doubt his decision to use Pyrex tubing had anything to do with the lens. Part of the decision for the Johnson fenestration had to do with the ragtag quality of the neighborhood (at the time). FLW wanted to block out views of what he considered an ugly environment and focus employees' views inward.

[jim]

Wright's Luxfer prism glass blocks are well published and a most interesting subject.

[SDR]

I expect that he wanted a visually seamless way to wrap glazing around his radiused corners. The fact that he got himself into a doozy of a pickle, with all those seams and joints, wasn't apparently enough to turn him from this "solution" -- as wacky as it must have seemed to everyone involved or onlooking (like, the rest of the architectural profession). The man simply lived by his wits, and on his impressive willpower and strength of conviction.

SDR