Last night we watched the movie Jewel in the Woods and left us wondering about two things:
1) We were surprised to see that at one point an addition was being proposed to be added which included a pool. Does anyone have pictures of the floor plan for the extra part?
2) The movie didn't mention anything about the furniture that I remember (it mentioned the cabinetry, though). Was wondering if that was built according to the original plans or somehow recovered (since the intermediary owners after Seth had it decorated completely different).
Seth Peterson Cottage/Jewel in the Woods
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Roderick Grant
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"Frank Lloyd Wright's Seth Peterson Cottage, Rescuing A Lost Masterpiece," by John Eifler and Kristen Visser, Prairie Oak Press, 1997
Pp 10-11:
"After Peterson's death, the cottage sat empty until April 1962, when it was purchased for $15,000 by Lillian Pritchard, a Milwaukee widow, as a residence for her son Owen. He moved in, erected a six-foot-high chain link fence around the property, and added several outbuildings, including a storage shed/guest cabin, and kennels for his pet Afghan hounds. He also toyed with the idea of enlarging the cottage and commissioned the Taliesin Fellowship to design a large bedroom/studio addition which would have extended behind the existing bedroom. The Taliesin proposal included a greatly enlarged terrace and a swimming pool. Pritchard was unable to finance the addition, however, and dropped the plans.
"The cottage was offered for sale by the Pritchards a few years later, but no buyers surfaced. In September 1966 the state purchased the cottage from Lillian Pritchard for $38,400 for inclusion in the newly created Mirror Lake State Park."
No photos from the Pritchard era are included in the book, nor any TAA plans for the enlargement, but there are some nice elevations and a clear plan at a good scale. On pages 61, 62 are measured drawings of furniture Eifler designed that are in keeping with the (lost?) original pieces.
Pp 10-11:
"After Peterson's death, the cottage sat empty until April 1962, when it was purchased for $15,000 by Lillian Pritchard, a Milwaukee widow, as a residence for her son Owen. He moved in, erected a six-foot-high chain link fence around the property, and added several outbuildings, including a storage shed/guest cabin, and kennels for his pet Afghan hounds. He also toyed with the idea of enlarging the cottage and commissioned the Taliesin Fellowship to design a large bedroom/studio addition which would have extended behind the existing bedroom. The Taliesin proposal included a greatly enlarged terrace and a swimming pool. Pritchard was unable to finance the addition, however, and dropped the plans.
"The cottage was offered for sale by the Pritchards a few years later, but no buyers surfaced. In September 1966 the state purchased the cottage from Lillian Pritchard for $38,400 for inclusion in the newly created Mirror Lake State Park."
No photos from the Pritchard era are included in the book, nor any TAA plans for the enlargement, but there are some nice elevations and a clear plan at a good scale. On pages 61, 62 are measured drawings of furniture Eifler designed that are in keeping with the (lost?) original pieces.
A set of prints of the presentation plans for the TAA designed addition was rolled up in a set of John Eifler's restoration drawings when I first stayed in the cottage in 2002. The roll was in the storage loft above the bathroom accessed by a ladder from the heater closet off the kitchen. The drawings made for some good "archigeek" reading one rainy afternoon.
If I remember correctly, the TAA plan converted the cottage into an in-line Usonian plan by extending a wing behind the living room with a single loaded gallery that entered the cottage about where the entrance to the present bedroom is located. If smartphones existed at the time, I would have photographed the plan.
If I remember correctly, the TAA plan converted the cottage into an in-line Usonian plan by extending a wing behind the living room with a single loaded gallery that entered the cottage about where the entrance to the present bedroom is located. If smartphones existed at the time, I would have photographed the plan.
Glad to know I'm not the only one who explored that loft ...DRN wrote:The roll was in the storage loft above the bathroom accessed by a ladder from the heater closet off the kitchen. The drawings made for some good "archigeek" reading one rainy afternoon..
Docent, Hollyhock House - Hollywood, CA
Humble student of the Master
"Youth is a circumstance you can't do anything about. The trick is to grow up without getting old." - Frank Lloyd Wright
Humble student of the Master
"Youth is a circumstance you can't do anything about. The trick is to grow up without getting old." - Frank Lloyd Wright
Thanks, shuamort. Wow -- that's quite the addition ! There's much more stonework than in the original "cabin," isn't there, necessitated in part by the irregular site contours. The studio bridging a depressed terrace (?) is particularly intriguing, as is the studio's section.
Any chance of a second screen shot of the left side of this drawing -- assuming it shows up clearly at all in the film ?
This is a TAA design ? I'm impressed . . .
SDR
Any chance of a second screen shot of the left side of this drawing -- assuming it shows up clearly at all in the film ?
This is a TAA design ? I'm impressed . . .
SDR
Thanks. I'd love a good shot of that section drawing at the upper left of your first image. There appears to be a good-sized clerestory to the right, with view
windows opposite, overlooking the pool terrace -- a lovely spacial composition overall. I'm not sure I can think of another room of Wright's in which the
elevated space is supported on a chimney/pier in just this way. And there's even a "bird walk" projecting from the studio's elevated balcony.
Should we regret that this wasn't built ? It wouldn't have impacted negatively the charms of the original structure, it seems to me . . .
SDR
windows opposite, overlooking the pool terrace -- a lovely spacial composition overall. I'm not sure I can think of another room of Wright's in which the
elevated space is supported on a chimney/pier in just this way. And there's even a "bird walk" projecting from the studio's elevated balcony.
Should we regret that this wasn't built ? It wouldn't have impacted negatively the charms of the original structure, it seems to me . . .
SDR
Thanks for posting the screenshot of the TAA scheme shuamort. In and of itself it is a neat design, which takes advantage of the topography of the site. It would appear that TAA may have prepared two versions, or revised one of them. The scheme I saw on the prints at the cottage looked very much like the one in the screenshot, however the wing dramatically projecting downslope toward the lake and the lower pool and its terrace were not part of the design. Possibly, a revised scheme with the in-line bedroom wing only was proposed to reduce cost?
The Peterson cottage is interesting in that its original client had very little money with which to build, yet Wright chose a material palette that was quite expensive, seeming to reduce cost by limiting size of all but the living room. One wonders if Wright saw the site as too dramatic for a "budget" house, and chose to give the bachelor a nucleus from which a house commensurate with the site would grow as need required and means allowed. TAA's design seems to take great advantage of the site and the original grammar. I agree with SDR that the experience in the original cottage and its views would have changed little with the addition.
The Peterson cottage is interesting in that its original client had very little money with which to build, yet Wright chose a material palette that was quite expensive, seeming to reduce cost by limiting size of all but the living room. One wonders if Wright saw the site as too dramatic for a "budget" house, and chose to give the bachelor a nucleus from which a house commensurate with the site would grow as need required and means allowed. TAA's design seems to take great advantage of the site and the original grammar. I agree with SDR that the experience in the original cottage and its views would have changed little with the addition.
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Roderick Grant
- Posts: 11815
- Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 7:48 am
While the addition is complimentary in style to the cottage, it makes the original structure under-scaled, so it would be necessary, for the whole thing to make sense, to demolish the cottage and build something more in keeping with the scale of the addition, defeating the purpose of the whole enterprise.
that's a funny photo -- all those kids in line watching that lone snow shoveler. Not very helpful, are they?
That TAA design is handsome, but I agree it's scale is overpowering to the original. I would've opted for a delicately linked satellite building, as was done masterfully at Fallingwater.
The perspective drawing showing the swimming pool features railing-less stairs leading to the guardrail-less pool deck, offering multiple opportunities to plunge to one's death (or at least injury). Rather than that, however, my attention is caught by the scale figure on the balcony arranging the vertical fabric draping over the rail. I've seen that drawing detail in other places. I wonder if that is some intentional design element (as opposed to just a dirty rug or wet towel). Is this just a rendering device, or are there cases where actual decorative draping elements have been employed in actual FLW buildings?
That TAA design is handsome, but I agree it's scale is overpowering to the original. I would've opted for a delicately linked satellite building, as was done masterfully at Fallingwater.
The perspective drawing showing the swimming pool features railing-less stairs leading to the guardrail-less pool deck, offering multiple opportunities to plunge to one's death (or at least injury). Rather than that, however, my attention is caught by the scale figure on the balcony arranging the vertical fabric draping over the rail. I've seen that drawing detail in other places. I wonder if that is some intentional design element (as opposed to just a dirty rug or wet towel). Is this just a rendering device, or are there cases where actual decorative draping elements have been employed in actual FLW buildings?
Not every client would be willing to walk (or run) through rain or darkness to reach their study, game, or guest rooms . . .
Rendering "entourage," I'd say; these fabrics show up again and again in the drawings, though I don't think I've seen one in any Wright photograph.
Presumably, one airs one's rugs and other household effects in that way ?
Comparables would be birds in skies, blowing curtains at windows, and of course the endless foliage dripping over practically any horizontal ledge . . . as
well as the quite rare human figure, like the two in the Fallingwater view ?
The line of figures waiting for their tour, in my spoof, are there for scale, of course -- though they largely fail because the foreground people are so large
that they tend to defeat the illusion.
SDR
Rendering "entourage," I'd say; these fabrics show up again and again in the drawings, though I don't think I've seen one in any Wright photograph.
Presumably, one airs one's rugs and other household effects in that way ?
Comparables would be birds in skies, blowing curtains at windows, and of course the endless foliage dripping over practically any horizontal ledge . . . as
well as the quite rare human figure, like the two in the Fallingwater view ?
The line of figures waiting for their tour, in my spoof, are there for scale, of course -- though they largely fail because the foreground people are so large
that they tend to defeat the illusion.
SDR