Wright Chat

In the kitchen of the New York Exhibition House of 1953, there was an edge trim piece at the top of the backsplash. Does anyone know if this was a chrome/aluminum/stainless steel piece, or a wood trim piece? I have black and white photos in numerous books and a magazine, but I can't tell what the material is...

Anyone?

Where are the color photos we saw a little while ago ? Are any of them helpful ?


S

Of the kitchen? I don't remember seeing those...

Hmm. Maybe they were only of the big space. I couldn't find them, anyway.

Where are the best pics of the kitchen ?

S

There are some nice photos in "50 Favorite Rooms by Frank Lloyd Wright" by Dianne Maddex, and some others in Pfeiffer's "Wright 1943-1959" (Taschen). I also have some from the House Beautiful issue, 1955.

Well, you're ahead of the game. How many Usonian kitchens have metal-trimmed laminate or linoleum ? Maybe where you have a wood-edged counter, and wood panel behind the stove, etc, a wood-edged backsplash would be appropriate ? Or are you going with full-height splash ?

SDR

The splash will only be four or five inches in height, which is a little less than what is shown on the drawings, due to the location of the electrical outlets. It does say "chrome edge" in one spot on the drawing, but I am also looking for precedents by examining other kitchens.

I can't find our trove of kitchen photos. Anybody remember which thread we posted them on ? I recall photos of Walker, Stevens, and several others . . .


SDR

They were all on the Surf-Glo Red thread:

To answer your previous question, SDR, I think some of the counters had wood and others metal fascias, but for the top of the backsplash, it seems that at least before the late fifties, almost all of them had the chrome top edge and a chrome cove piece where the horizontal laminate meets the vertical backsplash. I can't recall seeing any with a wood top edge...

The New York Exhibition House had a chrome fascia, no cove piece, and the mystery top edge which I am trying to identify. Walter and David Wright both have the top metal edge, Walter with a wood fascia.

Of all of these workspaces, I think only Walter (Cedar Rock), Hanna, and David Wright, (possibly Pope...) are shown here with their original countertops.

What I want to avoid is the condition which we see in the Peterson cottage photos: a wood fascia, but the backsplash with the sides and top made from the same laminate material. It just looks wrong to my eyes...

Various Usonian kitchen photos:


1 Stevens (Auldbrass)


2 Walter (Cedar Rock)


3 Walter (Cedar Rock)


4 Pope


5 Peterson Cottage


6 Peterson Cottage


7 Schwartz


8 Walter (Cedar Rock)


9 Rosenbaum


10 Gordon


11 Hanna


12


13 David Wright

That's a difficult call. I would guess it's not metal. Check "The Natural House," page 124. The cook-top is metal, and the back-splash above it converts to metal from the counter top material on the rest of it, but the back-splash trim seems to end at the cook-top. My bet is wood, since it continues across the wood-framed windows at sill height.