Wright Chat

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT REVIVAL INITIATIVE FORMED
NON-PROFIT TO REBUILD DEMOLISHED AND NEVER BUILT FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT DESIGNED STRUCTURES
DONATIONS CAN BE MADE AT flwrevivalinitiative.org

!n 1911-12, Frank Lloyd Wright designed a Pavilion/shelter for the Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada, a building which was demolished in 1938. The Pavilion was a beautiful example of Wright's Prairie school style of architecture.

After several years of the under the radar efforts on my part to lobby the local governments, on March 31st, 2016, the Banff town council voted to allow the Pavilion to be rebuilt as part of a redevelopment plan of the area on which the original building was sited.

To this end, I have formed a 501-3C non-profit corporation in America, and am now calling on my Facebook friends, Wright chat friends, and anyone else within the sound of my voice, to donate to this rebuilding effort. The Banff Pavilion is is only the first in what will be a series of demolished Frank Lloyd Wright structures to be rebuilt. I don't have to mention the others, you know which ones we're talking about.

Not only do I want you to donate 10.00 (or more if you can afford to do so) to this cause, I want you to get everyone you've ever met in your life to donate 10.00, and get everyone they've ever met in THEIR life to donate, and so on. After all, even a college student who has to eat Ramen soup 3 times a day can afford 10.00, and I prefer to get many small donations rather than one large donation from an entity or individual to whom I would be under obligation. We are not taking ONE PENNY of government money for this project, and that is one of the important points we are trying to make, how things can be done more successfully when the middle man is removed and the government is not involved. Therefore, it is essential that you share this posting with as many of your friends as possible. We can only succeed if the public is informed.

Once again, the website is flwrevivalinitiative.org. Remember, .org, not .com

WHAT ELSE CAN YOU DO?

I think it is also important to note that my wife and I will be taking no salary for our efforts. All of the donated money will be going towards the rebuilding effort. If you want to help, you can do so by buying the DVDs of my films Sacred Spaces, A Child of the Sun, and Romanza, watching them on pay per view, even buying a poster of one of my earlier films which played way back at the 1991 Sundance film festival. The posters and DVDs are available at designedbyfranklloydwright.com. I'm sorry to bring up this commercial angle, but it will allow us to stay focused on the primary objective of putting these works of art back on the map, literally, without worrying that our home will be foreclosed on while we are out of the country.

Also, if you can, please attend a local screening of my new film "Masterpieces", which will be playing in selected markets this Fall. The trailer for the film is up on youtube. Screening schedule will be posted on the website.

Thank you all.
Michael Miner

flwrevivalinitiative.org
designedbyfranklloydwright.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q9tGer5EOg

Considering the modifications that would be necessary to make a pre-1960 design code-legal, and the lack of restraint shown by others willing to "tweak" the unbuilt designs to meet a myriad of needs, I'm not even sure this is a good idea. But I'm willing to hold my tongue and see what others think ...

Wright designed nearly all his buildings for a particular lot, and in nearly all cases that lot is no longer available. Sometimes a property with similar topography, fauna, view and climate comes up for sale, but you can't count on this. The proposal might work for urban buildings or for generic townhouses, tracts or prefabs, but chances of doing a good job on custom designs are slim. The Friedmans in Berkeley seem to have succeeded, but has anybody else?

Money spent on this undertaking is money not spent on preserving the buildings we already have.

I would like to rebuild Northome. It would entail demolishing numerous houses built on their original expansive lot, but it would be worth it.

Actually, the Banff Pavilion is not be a bad project to undertake. It's simple in its design, it would go up near, if not on, the original site, and hopefully meet the same requirements of use. In this instance, I would say go for it.

Previous discussion:

http://savewright.org/wright_chat/viewtopic.php?t=7363


"Money spent on this undertaking is money not spent on preserving the buildings we already have." I'm not sure that is a supportable statement -- though its initial impression is persuasive.


Roderick, should the two or three rooms which have been reassembled elsewhere be returned to the site, for inclusion in the recreation of Northome ?

SDR

McCormick and the Imperial Hotel are probably out of the question, but I'd love to see Steffens.

Obviously, Larkin is the "building in the room" and would be extraordinary. The structure could be simplified and it certainly would be usable in some way (it was defiled at one time as a department store). I wonder if the original site is still a parking lot. Highly improbable, but just thought I'd throw it into the mix.

Would we accept a steel frame and panelized brick exterior ?

SDR

SDR wrote:Would we accept a steel frame and panelized brick exterior ?

SDR

I wasn't going to say it!! 3D printers might make quick work of the concrete sculptural details.

I won't bad-mouth this effort. I am confident they will get the proper legal advice to assure that 501(c)(3) funds can be used to build a government building in another nation. I would welcome the opportunity to visit a rebuilt pavilion at Banff.

I would like to see and experience the asymmetry, balance and scale of the little Herbert Angster house of the same period.

Delete

My fantasy has been that after I win one of those crazy lottery sums in the hundreds of millions, that I buy up the three existing ocean facing properties on the Monterey peninsula, level what's there now and build Nesbitt, Clark and Haldorn so that the crescent of all four Wright structures stretching from the 17 Mile Drive to the southerly hairpin turn on Scenic Drive is finally complete.

Oho. Someone's been looking closely at the map. This would be perhaps the most dramatic Wright-repro proposal yet . . .

Looking at the unique Haldorn opus we see another instance -- of only three ? -- of the outward-stepped glazing also found at the Walker residence. Clark, on the other hand, is the precursor of the Boomer plan. So, we'd have two smaller structures and two expansive ones, each of a different formal type. Imagine that house tour . . .!

SDR