THE WEEKLY WRIGHT-UP

Another Benchmark

2012-02-10T08:42:00.000-08:00

by EJF with Steve Oubre

The latest addition to the tout ensemble - the suite of furnishings that Frank Lloyd Wright designed for the Darwin D. Martin House - is a custom oak piano bench to complement the Martin's oak-veneered Steinway in the living room.


Dorothy and "Aunt Polly" at the piano, 1912.

The original bench appears in only one historic photo of the Martin House interior - a photosecession-esque image of Dorothy Martin playing the family piano in 1912. The intentionally murky photo reveals some detail of the piece - a probably Wright design - but many details and proportions were unknown. Enter Jamie Robideau of Hamilton Houston Lownie Architects, who produced a sketch of the bench based on the photo, known details from other Wright-designed pieces in the house, and some well-educated guesses. Armed with this drawing, John McCampbell, Martin House volunteer and design student at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) took-on the challenge of fabricating the bench for the Martin House.

John utilized the facilities at RISD as well as Master Cabinetmaker Steve Oubre's shop to create the bench, under the supervision of both. Steve explains the process thus:

John and I met to go over general construction methods and consider the nuts and bolts of it. John then returned to RISD and, armed with HHL’s CAD file, he generated new working drawings for my review. After a few minor revisions he was ready to start fabrication. On a holiday break, he came to my shop where we selected the stock to be used and he collected some of the standard ogee shoe moulding to be used on the bench as well. At RISD, he utilized shop lab time to build the inner structures of the legs and the stretcher system. On subsequent trips home John utilized my shop to fabricate the seat, legs, run the shoe moulding and ultimately assemble and sand the piece. Finishing was performed by Hulley Woodworking, who has finished all the trim and reproduction furniture in the house.

The results of this collaboration are impressive: the bench's construction, geometry, proportions and attention to detail complement the other Wright-designed pieces in the house beautifully. Our thanks to John, Steve and Jamie for their talented contributions and teamwork on this project.

Clusters' Last Stand

2012-02-03T11:33:00.000-08:00

Fuermann & Sons photo of pier cluster "B," 1907.

Work on the many built-in bookcases that occupy the pier clusters in the Martin House - those groups of four brick piers that Frank Lloyd Wright designed to support the structure and define the "tartan grid" of the plan - continues apace. Steve Oubre, master cabinetmaker for the Martin House Restoration Corporation, is the craftsman-in-residence at the house, working on completing built-in cabinetry in pier clusters B, D, E and F. The installation of Oubre's reproduction cabinetry requires precision, sensitivity to the historic context, and not a little patience. Fortunately, Steve has all these qualities to spare.

Whereas all indications are that the pier cluster storage held the Martins' extensive collection of books a century ago, today, some of them incorporate communications and security equipment, audio-visual equipment (including two flat-screen monitors for interpretive video programs) and storage for collections-related supplies such as the piano cover. When complete, a few strategic locations will be shown with books on display, to demonstrate the original function of the units and restore the bookish ambiance of the house, circa 1907.

Mr. Oubre, demonstrating some of his handiwork.

2012-02-02T12:09:00.000-08:00


A young visitor to the Martin House Complex made good use of a recent snowfall by building a "Wright" snowman outside the Greatbatch Pavilion. Photo: Janet Akcakal.

A Reproduction by Any Other Name

2012-01-27T17:20:00.000-08:00

Last night's panel presentation, "Keeping it Real," raised some complex questions concerning the intersection of the conservation, curatorial and interpretive spheres. Perhaps the most philosophically challenging was the matter of the distinction between a replica and a reproduction. New York State Bureau of Historic Sites paper conservator Michele Phillips has been promoting a working definition of these two terms as they apply to the use of interpretive, "prop" objects in a historic house context.

Simply put, a reproduction is an copy made using the design, materials and production techniques of the original (historic) object - as closely as possible, given inevitable changes in materials and technology over time. A replica, on the other hand, is a copy produced utilizing designs, materials or techniques that diverge significantly from those of the original object.

"Huh," you say?

What's perplexing about this distinction is that such copies, if successfully executed, serve the same purpose: to stand-in for original objects that are either lost or not suitable for display due to their condition or environmental factors (such as light levels). Thus, for the observer, successful replicas and reproductions are essentially the same: they are facsimiles that serve to enhance a context, enrich an experience, or tell a story. For that matter, they are distinct from the more infamous term forgery - a copy that is made to be passed- off as the original for nefarious purposes.

The Martin House library: a reproduction table and, in the background, a replica print.

In furnishing the Martin House, the curator / conservators team has utilized both replicas and reproductions. The prime examples are: 1) replica Japanese ukiyo-e prints, and 2) reproduction dining and library tables. The tables are clearly in the realm of reproductions: they closely follow Frank Lloyd Wright's original designs, executed using the original materials and techniques. They function as the Martins' original tables did. On the other hand, the "Japanese prints" that now grace the walls and piers of the house are clearly replicas - color ("giclee") prints on Japanese paper, produced by sophisticated 21st century digital imaging and printing methods, rather than by 18th century woodblocks and vegetable-based inks. Why not show the original Japanese prints from the Martin collection? Because they are already badly faded, and highly susceptible to further deterioration from light exposure. Without scrutiny by the highly-trained eye, the replica prints are indiscernible from the originals, and serve the altruistic purpose of protecting the originals by allowing them to stay in storage.

Webster is of little assistance in keeping these terms straight; definitions of both replica and reproduction indicate an exact copy of an original. However, reproduction does carry the denotation of something produced again. Insert a hyphen - re-production - and it's even more clear: an object was produced at a point in time and now, it's re-produced from the same design, using the same materials and production methods (at least in Michele's definition).

If museum terminology could be copyrighted, Michele would have introduced a hot commodity. Barring that, I guess we can feel free to reproduce her definitions...or replicate them, as the case may be.

A Correction

2012-01-27T11:39:00.000-08:00

Following up on my post about our fragments of the Imperial Hotel, a reader noted that the interior of the hotel was painted after World War II, so our concrete block may well have acquired its light blue color at that point, before the building was razed and the piece made it's way to the USA.

Comments, corrections and critiques are always welcome!

A Bird in the Hand...

2012-01-20T09:09:00.000-08:00

An update on Audubon's prized Birds of America: The Duke of Portland's set of the four-volume, "double elephant" Birds sold at Christie's in New York this morning for a cool 7.9 million dollars.

Two plates from the large, rare edition of Birds of America

The Martin family library once held one of the seven-volume Royal octavo editions of Audubon's Birds, noted by Darwin D. Martin as a Christmas gift to his bookish family in 1911. Though the Martins' set was an edition more common than the Duke of Portland's, it must have had a place of prominence in the Martin library a century ago - most likely on the broad, open shelf of the library table.

As "the finest color-plate book of ornithology ever produced," the exceedingly rare "double elephant" edition is still fetching seven figures - that's more than one nest egg for most.

Odyssey of an Artifact

2012-01-13T13:34:00.000-08:00

A globetrotting block

Sometimes the provenance of an artwork or artifact - the curriculum vitae of an inanimate object - is as interesting as the inherent significance of the object itself.

This may be the case with concrete block from Frank Lloyd Wright's Imperial Hotel (Tokyo, 1917-22). This eight-inch cubic block with a recessed square motif now resides at 143 Jewett Parkway, Buffalo, but its pathway of provenance takes a few twists and turns between its creation and present location:

Main lobby of the Imperial Hotel

c. 1920: The block is fabricated in Japan along with various custom building components created by Wright for the Hotel: geometric blocks, bricks and tiles rendered in concrete, terracotta or Oya stone. These components, woven into various combinations in the exuberant geometry of the building, prefigure the concrete "textile blocks" of Wright's California houses of the 1920s. The block is employed as part of a pier detail in the hotel's main lobby (left).

1967: Former Taliesin apprentice Edgar Tafel writes from the Imperial Hotel to University at Buffalo President Martin Meyerson, saying that two wings of the massive structure are half demolished, as the Tokyo "Save the Imperial" group was unsuccessful in its mission. Tafel also states that a mutual acquaintance, Hiroshi Misawa, will attempt to obtain some parts of the doomed building for Meyerson's collection...

1968: The Imperial Hotel is demolished to make way for a larger, International Style edifice. Four fragments of the Wright hotel are bestowed upon Martin and Margy Meyerson by Tafel, who is engaged in renovating the Darwin D. Martin House (Buffalo, 1904-05) as the University President's residence...

1968-2010: At some point, parties unknown paint the block an unfortunate pale blue...

Mrs. Meyerson in her breakfast room

May, 2010: At the invitation of Mrs. Meyerson, Martin House curator Eric Jackson-Forsberg flies to Philadelphia to accept a gift of Hotel components, among other Wright-designed items (art glass and light fixtures from the Martin House). The concrete block had been used by Mrs. Meyerson as a plant stand in her Louis Kahn-designed breakfast room (right). Jackson-Forsberg drives back to Buffalo with a rental car trunk half-full of artifacts...

January, 2012: After a brief residency in the Martin House Restoration Corporation offices in the Market Arcade, the block is transferred to 143 Jewett Parkway, newly renovated as the MHRC's Administrative Center. The block continues its leisurely retirement, inspiring conversation and blog posts...

Wright Experiences

2012-01-06T07:02:00.000-08:00

The Martin House has a remedy for kids' cabin fever this season: two events in our "Wright Experiences" series to help defrost their creativity.

On February 4th from 1 - 4 PM, we'll offer Exploring Japanese Influences on Frank Lloyd Wright Using Mixed Media. Participants (age 8 and older) will receive an introduction to Japanese art and architecture and its influence on the design of Frank Lloyd Wright, then enjoy experimenting with these aesthetics through calligraphy, origami and book making. They'll even create a stenciled Japanese wind sock!

Then on March 3rd (1 - 4 PM), join us for Picturing the Wright Site, a photography workshop for kids. They'll enjoy an exclusive opportunity to experience the Martin House complex from a photographer's perspective, working with professional and experienced photographers to learn basic photographic techniques and compositional skills. They'll also receive a friendly critique of their own unique photographs. Participants will find themselves looking at the Martin House in a whole new light!

Please visit the "Events" section of the MHRC website for more details on these upcoming sessions, including fees and material requirements. Space is limited, so act soon. And save the dates for our Wright Summer Experiences, July 16 - 20 and 23 - 27. Two groups (one for students entering grades 3 and 4, and the other for those entering grades 5 and 6) will run concurrently, with the option to take the first week, second week, or both! Stay tuned to the Weekly Wright-up and our website for more details.

Martin in the Buff

2012-01-05T08:08:00.000-08:00

Eric O'Malley of PrairieMod has added the Darwin D. Martin house to his series of graphic abstractions of Wright buildings. These illustrations, created with Adobe Illustrator, capture the essence of each building in a logo-like, one color distillation.

The Top Eleven of Twenty-eleven

2011-12-22T10:32:00.000-08:00

As another year fades to black, it's time to reflect on what has been another busy one in the life of a Martin House curator. So here, in no particular order, are my Top Eleven Curatorial Moments of 2011.

And yes, for you Nigel Tufnel fans, this list does go up to eleven:

11) Meeting legendary Taliesin photographer, Pedro Guerrero and his wife, Dixie, and touring them through the Martin House. Pedro has taken some of the most iconic photos of Frank Lloyd Wright, and his stories of his long association with the architect are equally vivid.

10) Travelling with fellow Martin House staff and volunteers to Michigan to visit Saarinen's Cranbrook Academy, Wright's Affleck House, Turkel House, Meyer May and others. An added bonus in Grand Rapids was the opportunity to hang out with Martin grandson, Jerry Foster and his wife Hanne
(on their turf, for a change).

9) Assisting Rich Kegler of the Western New York Book Arts Collaborative in creating an ingenious image of the Martin House, formed entirely from metal and wood type and ornaments. These unique, limited edition prints are still available in the Wisteria Shop.

8) Welcoming two great speakers to the Martin House: David Patterson, who spoke on the fascinating topic of Wright and music, and Jonathan Massey, who introduced the intriguing life and work of Rochester-born designer Claude Bragdon. These guys will be hard acts to follow!

7) Receiving a beautiful carriage house art glass window from Buffalo collectors Will and Nan Clarkson. They miss it in their house, but are welcome to visit it in our house, any time they like.

6) The announcement of an extraordinarily generous gift of three pieces of Wright-designed furniture and a "Tree of Life" art glass window from the collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. I wish we could reciprocate, but we're fresh out of Clyfford Stills...

5) The return of a number of Martin House furnishings from the New York State Bureau of Historic Sites, just in time for the visit by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Preservation conference was a big success by all accounts, and folks say the furnished spaces of the house have never looked better.

4) Installation of two precisely-reproduced tables (dining and library) from craftsman Tim Coleman. Tim clearly took a great deal of pride in his work, and the tables add an invaluable dimension to the unit room.

3) Giving a panel presentation with my NY State Parks conservator colleagues for the National Trust conference - a rare opportunity to showcase the close collaboration between the ivory tower and conservator's lab.

2) Presenting the ups and downs of the Weekly Wright-up to the Public Sites committee at the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy conference in Philadelphia. There was lots of interest in the potential that blogs and social media hold for Wright sites that want to stay relevant in the 21st century.

1) Substantial completion of Phase 5A of restoration in the Martin House. We now have state-of-the-art mechanical systems, new plaster throughout, restored or reproduced trim in the Reception room, restored floor tile, reproduction light fixtures and the re-installation of some art glass. We're so close to the finish line, you can almost touch it...

Here's to the year ahead!

The Larkin Building, in Graphic Detail

2011-12-15T12:24:00.000-08:00

The Buffalo Bills' record isn't the biggest loss in Western New York. No, that would be the demolition of Frank Lloyd Wright's Larkin Administration building in 1950.

Fortunately, the building is well-represented by a series of professional photographs and drawings published in Wright's Wasmuth portfolio (1910). But now the folks at PrairieMod have made the Larkin Building even more iconic.

This logo-like image is the latest in PrairieMod's series of graphic architectural illustrations. Its abstracted silhouette invokes Wright's precis for the building: "...a simple cliff of brick hermetically sealed." (An Autobiography, 150).

Burning Down the House

2011-12-09T07:48:00.000-08:00

With the half-century anniversary of Frank Lloyd Wright's death and three recent books on the intrigues of his personal life (The Fellowship, Loving Frank and The Women), perhaps it was inevitable that a big-screen biopic would come next. "Driving Ms. Daisy" director Bruce Beresford will shoot "Taliesin," from a screenplay by Nicholas Meyer. The film will focus on - you guessed it - the lurid murders and conflagration at Taliesin (Spring Green, WI) in 1914.

While I'm happy to assume the film is innocent until proven guilty, I'm proactively skeptical about two things: the casting of the figure of Wright (to be determined) and the movie's treatment of his architecture. The former could easily make or break the production. Who on Hollywood's A list (or any other letters of the alphabet, for that matter) could tackle the role? It may be tempting to imagine a British actor for the role, but inappropriate given the inherent importance of the American identity to Wright's story.

The potential depiction of Wright's architecture is equally fraught with pitfalls. I will be pleasantly surprised if Meyer manages to make the buildings characters in their own right, as I think they should be. Wright anthropomorphized Taliesin in such a way that a powerful opportunity may be missed if the structure is reduced to a lavish set.

So, I'll suppress my inner curmudgeonly critic for now and await the final product.

At least it's not a musical...right?

Shop Till You Drop

2011-12-02T10:08:00.000-08:00

Now that you've run the gauntlet of Black Friday, we invite you for round two of your Holiday shopping: the Wisteria Shop's Home for the Holidays Shopping Spree, this Saturday at Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House Complex.

The Martin House Complex originally had nearly 400 pieces of art glass, and the shop is replete with related merchandise. There's something art-glass-inspired for everyone, from postcards to jewelry to decorative wood or glass reproductions. But perhaps the most functional and elegant items inspired by art glass are the place mats and table runners in the "Tree of Life," wisteria and Bursar's office patterns. These accessories are just the thing to add some Prairie panache to your table, and the Bursar's pattern items are new to the shop.

If you're intrigued by the art glass of the Martin House Complex, be sure to pick up a copy of Frank Lloyd Wright Art Glass of the Martin House Complex, a beautifully illustrated compendium of Wright's "light screens" created for his Prairie masterpiece.

For kids, check out the whimsical book Iggy Peck, Architect. With Andrea Beaty’s irresistible rhyming text and David Roberts’s puckish illustrations, this book will charm creative kids everywhere, and amuse their sometimes bewildered parents. For "big kids" (aka adults), indulge in one of the ingenious LEGO sets of Frank Lloyd Wright masterpieces (the Robie House, Fallingwater, or the Guggenheim).

The sale is this Saturday, December 3rd, 10 AM - 4 PM at the Wisteria Shop at the Martin House Complex. The event includes free gift wrapping, holiday refreshments and special sale items. The shop also has extended hours through December - click HERE for more details.

Welcome, Novice and Expert Alike

2011-12-01T10:26:00.000-08:00

Toronto Star Theatre (that's theatre with an "re," mind you) Critic Richard Ouzounian declares that "the Darwin Martin House is high on everyone’s list, because it proves that Buffalo has the Wright stuff. Frank Lloyd Wright, that is. This is one of his most emblematic houses and it’s being lovingly restored by a staff who can communicate their enthusiasm and knowledge to even a novice visitor."

Whether novice, intermediate or Wrightian Zen Master, we aim to please!

Thank You, Lou

2011-11-18T10:59:00.000-08:00

The MHRC announced this week that LPCiminelli has issued a challenge grant to the MHRC in the amount of $250,000. LPCiminelli has been a long-time supporter of the Martin House, and this announcement reflects the firm’s commitment to ensuring that the restoration is completed. In addition, the gift will assist the MHRC to prepare for the future with a leadership gift to the endowment. Under the terms of this unique challenge grant, gifts can be made to either the restoration campaign or to the endowment fund. The MHRC will need to raise $750,000 in order to earn the $250,000 gift.

“This year marks the 50^th anniversary of LPCiminelli, so we wanted to do something significant to say thank you to the Western New York Community,” said Louis P. Ciminelli, President and CEO of the firm. “That’s why we are proud to announce that we will pledge $50,000 a year for the next five years to the Darwin Martin House through this challenge grant.”

“LPCiminelli understands the importance of the Martin House and our efforts to restore it,” said MHRC president John N. Walsh, III. “The company and Lou Ciminelli have been loyal and capable partners, and this challenge grant takes that relationship to the next level—it will be a tremendous boost toward our fundraising goal.”

To date, $45 million has been raised for the restoration of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House Complex, with both the public and private sectors contributing almost equally. Funds raised through this challenge will be used for the interior restoration of the Martin House, including Wright’s intricate finishes and integral design elements.

The interior restoration of the Martin House is underway but only partially funded. The MHRC seeks to raise $5 million to complete the restoration effort. This final major phase of restoration work will involve all three levels of the 15,000-square-foot Martin House. Work to be completed includes reinstallation of Wright’s elaborate interior woodwork, restoration of intricately layered wall finishes and recreation of the wisteria-patterned glass tile mosaic on the central fireplace.

Buffalo, A Home Where the Architects Roam

2011-11-10T10:52:00.000-08:00

It's Not Easy Being (Yellow)-Green

2011-11-10T10:30:00.000-08:00

An important aspect of Frank Lloyd Wright's concept of organicism in architecture was drawing design inspiration from natural forms, textures and colors. Wright describes his preference and prescription for a natural palette in his his 1908 essay "In the Cause of Architecture:"

...go to the woods and fields for color schemes. Use the soft, warm, optimistic tones of earths and autumn leaves in preference to the pessimistic blues, purples, or cold greens and grays of the ribbon counter; they are more wholesome and better adapted in most cases to good decoration.

The interior of the Martin House is an outstanding example of this prescription fulfilled; in this case, however, Wright didn't exactly go to the "woods and fields." Rather, he went to the Olmsted-designed landscape of Parkside. The color palette of the Martin House - greens, golds and browns - is inspired by the leaves of a Parkside October - more specifically, by the vibrant yellow-green of ginkgo trees in autumn.

The resonance between the color of autumn ginkgo leaves and the colors of the Martin House interior came as a revelation in 2006, when the Reception room was partially furnished and painted in an temporary approximation of the original wall colors (left). This palette of wall color, upholstery, carpeting and art glass is all the more evident today, when the room is fully restored. For that matter, the ginkgo connection to the Reception room is all the more strategic when you consider that the young ginkgoes were planted at (or around) the same time the colors for textiles and walls in the house were being planned. So Wright didn't so much draw his palette from the existing landscape, but from his ideal vision of an artificial "prairie" in Parkside, accented with Asian species (ginkgo and wisteria).

Although the ginkgoes that once graced the south lawn of the Martin House had to be removed (due to their roots that threatened the house's foundation), an even more mature example stands almost directly across Jewett Parkway (above), providing a luminous array of yellow-gold leaves that easily could have been Wright's original inspiration for the autumnal palette for the Martin interior.

Reception room / Biff Henrich, 2011

Piano Mann

2011-11-04T08:40:00.000-07:00

The return of the Martin family piano to the Martin House living room has inspired renewed curiosity about the instrument and about Wright's unexecuted design for a custom piano case, part of his 1905 "tout ensemble" furnishings plan.

Dorothy Martin at piano, 1912

To be clear: the "family piano" is a 1909 Steinway grand with quartersawn oak veneer. It appears in the 1912 photo of Dorothy Martin at the piano, with Aunt Polly (Cora Herrick) at her side. In later years, Dorothy donated the piano to the Elmwood Franklin School, where it was used for decades before the school graciously re-gifted it to the Martin House. in 2006, Illos Piano Rebuilders restored the piano with funding from the Western New York Foundation. It was put through its paces during an unforgettable performance by BPO soloist Claudia Hoca in 2007, and has been on hiatus at the home of MHRC board member Donna DeCarolis for safekeeping since the beginning of Phase 5 of restoration.

Detail, "tout ensemble" drawing

But what of Wright's more unusual piano design? It exists only in two drawings: the "tout ensemble" plan, and a perspective drawing held by the Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt. The tout ensemble indicates that the piano was intended for the northeast corner of the living room (whereas the family's Steinway settled in the southeast corner). Both plan and perspective drawings suggest that the design is a curious hybrid of baby grand and upright, with pier-like front legs that sport ovular planters. Overall, the design is an altar-like, Jugendstil-inspired piece that would have harmonized (no pun intended) with various other components of the Martin tout ensemble.

Wright's design for the Martin piano

Wright's design for the Shaw piano (background)

Wright's rare piano design for the Martins has at least one other relative: a similar instrument proposed for the living room of the C. Thaxter Shaw house, Montreal (also unbuilt). The Shaw piano is similar to the Martin design, with heavy piers supporting the front of the instrument. But here, Wright incorporates cantilevered lamps rather than planters (surely a more practical option), and book storage in the pier/leg cavities. The latter would have been right at home in the Martin House tout ensemble, with its extensive accommodations for book storage (e.g. the living room sofa arms).

The Shaw living room drawing is an exquisite example of the draftsmanship of Wright's collaborator, George Mann Neidecken; the Martin drawing, though unsigned, has a quality of line that suggests it may have been by Neidecken as well. But, as with many of Wright's unexecuted designs, the Martin piano remains a tantalizing vision of what might have been, with nearly as many unresolved questions as it has keys.

Picking Up the Pieces

2011-10-28T13:32:00.000-07:00

When it comes to the scattered bits of the Martin House Complex, it's remarkable how the smallest piece can tell a story.

Mr. Warren's artifact from the 1962 demolition

Artifacts of the 1962 demolition of the pergola, conservatory and carriage house are still coming to light, nearly half a century later. Just this week, Robin Warren, an architect from Weedsport, NY visited the House and gave us a piece of iridescent glass in a frame of wide caming. The rectangular piece appears to be a component of a carriage house window. Each of the "garden variety" carriage house windows that spanned the perimeter of the second floor (three of which have been reinstalled) had ten such pieces - two rows of five rectangles across the pane. But the plot thickened when I noticed that the piece returned by Mr. Warren is slightly more rectangular than its counterpart in a typical second floor window. Such a size variation suggests a subtle shift in the geometry of the window as a whole.

A typical carriage house window

One possible location for such a variation would be the two high windows that flank the main doors of the carriage house on the south elevation. These windows are barely visible in one of the Fuermann photos of the carriage house. Two rows of seven rectangles each are discernible, but it's impossible to tell whether they're the same dimensional variation as Warren's artifact.

It's just one of those many instances when a time machine would come in handy.

In WNY We Trust

2011-10-21T10:07:00.000-07:00

Much as I love Artvoice as a contributor and avid reader, I bristled at Zachary Burns' characterization of the National Trust's Annual Preservation Conference in this week's issue. Burns' sarcastic comments about volunteers "dressing up" Buffalo to "hide [its] shame" for the sake of "streetcars and steel mills" of no apparent value smacks of the widespread and tragic misunderstanding of the practice of historic preservation and its potential to make a substantially positive impact on a nation and culture in the midst of painful flux.

I have to wonder if Burns stopped typing long enough and stuck his head out the window to feel the palpable energy that the Trust has brought to Western New York this week. If nothing else, the thousands of preservationists from around the nation have provided crucial perspective on Buffalo / Niagara's burgeoning preservation scene - the accolades have been humbling and inspiring, and what reason would these out-of-towners have to sing our praises if they weren't genuinely impressed with how WNY is reinventing itself as a mecca for cultural, historical and architectural tourism?

I know that I may be a little close to the action to be objective on this, but that's precisely my point about such events that coax Buffalo / Niagara onto the national stage. Time and time again, we prove that we're really good at being our own worst enemy, and it takes visitors from Tucson, Baltimore, Galveston and Santa Barbara to say "OMG - Buffalo?" to make us realize what genuine power of place and strength of community we have here.

And it's not just small city dwellers that have had their socks knocked off during the Buffalo conference. New York's grande dame of architectural preservation, Dr. Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, said that the Martin House is "a singular vision executed to perfection" and promises to spread the word about Buffalo's gems when she returns to the City. How many such statements will it take to convince the naysayers that if you rebuild it, they will come?

So Mr. Burns' weekly scorecard is in need of some revision: the National Trust's Buffalo conference was one for the "win" column, and our leadership role in "Preservation Nation" is secure.

Eight Bedroom House, Furnished

2011-10-17T15:35:00.000-07:00

Lest you think the Weekly Wright-up has been shut down by the FCC, here's a late post to say that our editorial staff has been distracted by the exciting work of preparing the Martin House for this week's visit by more than 2,000 preservationists attending the National Trust's annual Preservation conference.

Each day of the past week has brought transformative additions to the Martin House, as we roll-out elements of the interior furnishings plan:

On Thursday, we installed the golden-green carpets, according to Wright's carpeting plan for the first floor of the house. Later that day, the Martin family's custom, oak-veneered Steinway grand piano returned from its vacation across Jewett Parkway at the Wicks house (thank you Donna DeCarolis and Henrik Borgstrom).

On Friday, assisted by two of our outstanding conservators the New York State Bureau of Historic Sites, we took delivery of some thirty-five pieces of historic furniture (much of it Wright-designed) and decorative objects. Each of these pieces, to varying degrees, has enjoyed conservation treatment over the past sixteen years at the Bureau of Historic sites' Peeble's Island collections center.

Today (Monday), we added accents of silk flowers and ferns, based on arrangements seen in the 1907 Fuermann photos of the Martin House interior.

The cumulative effect is nothing short of breathtaking. But don't take my word for it--visit the Martin House and see for yourself!

Furniture conservator David Bayne and Furnituremaker Tim Coleman assembling the library table

Three Lenses on Buffalo

2011-10-07T12:34:00.000-07:00

Don't miss Studio Hart's exhibition Three Photographers and the City opening tonight at 6 PM. Each of the three photographers in this group show - Biff Henrich, Andy Olenick and David Steele - have made exquisite images of Buffalo's architectural treasures, including the Martin House. This is one of many special exhibitions opening to coincide with the National Preservation Conference coming to Buffalo, and will be on view through November 2nd.

Biff Henrich

Errata (Did I Spell That Right?)

2011-10-07T12:22:00.000-07:00

A couple of readers brought it to my attention that I goofed with last week's post on the Barton "family" of houses. The house I pictured in that post is Wright's DeRhodes House (South Bend, IN, 1906). The mysterious kit house referenced is in Florida. In any case, both houses are closely related to the Walser and Barton Houses.

Thank you, readers, for setting me straight.

Barton "Family"

2011-09-30T10:54:00.000-07:00

John A. Dalles, via PrairieMod

Look familiar?

This Wright-inspired "kit" Prairie house was brought to my attention by way of PrairieMod. It immediately struck me (despite the mysteries surrounding its designer) as a cousin to Wright's George and Delta Barton House (Buffalo, 1903-04).

Barton House, Fuermann & Sons, 1907

If this "family resemblance" is valid, there are least three members of the Barton House architectural "family" - the third (or should I say the first?) being the Walser House of Chicago, the model that Darwin D. Martin picked out for his pilot project with Frank Lloyd Wright.

Further research may well identify more scattered members of this extended family - kissing cousins and coattail relatives not directly sired by Wright.

Wilson Greatbatch, 1919 - 2011

2011-09-30T06:05:00.000-07:00

L to R: Wilson Greatbatch, Eleanor Greatbatch and MHRC Director John Courtin, 2005

The Martin House Restoration Corporation mourns the recent loss of inventor and benefactor, Wilson Greatbatch.

Mr. Greatbatch’s implantable cardiac pacemaker was named one of the 10 outstanding U.S. engineering achievements of the last 50 years by the National Society of Professional Engineers. He was a member of the prestigious National Inventors Hall of Fame and held a National Medal of Technology, bestowed by President George H.W. Bush at the White House in 1990.

Even in his advanced years, Mr. Greatbatch, who held more than 350 U.S. and foreign patents, was thinking "outside the box" with new inventions and discoveries—from a cure for AIDS using genetic engineering to a nuclear-powered spaceship to send people to Mars.

The Eleanor and Wilson Greatbatch Pavilion (Toshiko Mori Architect, 2009) at the Martin House Complex was dedicated to Mr. and Mrs. Greatbatch through the generosity of the East Hill Foundation. The building stands as a testimony to their progressive, entrepreneurial spirit, and to their great philanthropy to the Western New York community.

Link to full obituary in the Buffalo News.

Retrospective

2011-09-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

The rest of this week finds me in Philadelphia for the annual conference of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, but I thought I might as well report on what I'll be discussing with the Conservancy's public sites committee: at the risk of getting too self-reflexive, my topic is the Weekly Wright-up itself.

In four years of maintaining this blog, I've never mentioned the inspiration for starting it in the first place. It involves a great book about a cholera outbreak, of all things, and a visit to the Mile High City:

In 2008, I attended the American Association of Museums annual conference in Denver. Faced with the vast menu of conference session choices, I came armed with at least two needs that helped to narrow them down: 1) to find an outlet for the knowledge I had been amassing since I started at the Martin House in 2003, and 2) to utilize technology for this outlet. Thus, I gravitated to a session on interactive media, pop culture and museums given by author, blogger and lecturer Steven Johnson.

Johnson was already on my radar, having recently read his bestseller The Ghost Map, a chronicle of the 1854 cholera outbreak in London, and how the story of that tragedy interfaces with urban planning, mapping, and the rise of modern science. It's one of those books that's so well crafted and written that you don't have to work for the CDC to appreciate it. Within minutes of listening to Johnson, one of his other books - Everything Bad is Good for You - was added to my virtual pile of "reading to get to when I retire."

In applying his far-reaching intellect to the topic of museums, Johnson's central point was that, as "information spaces," museums stood to gain by embracing the Internet, interactive and social media, rather than eschewing it as a trivial distraction to audiences and insiders alike. A memorable example of "old school" thinking offered was George Will's comment that "this is progress: more sophisticated delivery of stupidity." Will's position is easy to dismiss, but I think Johnson put it best when he said "there isn't more 'idiotic teen behavior' today than there was 'back in the day,' it's just better documented via the Internet."

Ultimately, Johnson was making the common-sense point that any technology - from movable type to the Internet - is what we make of it (and how we perceive it). It (standing for blogging, gaming, streaming video, social media, etc.) doesn't inherently make us dumber; if anything, it has more potential to make us smarter, collectively, and it stands to reason that museums of all kinds would want to take advantage of such potential. I think about how much my son has learned about history and world culture from a military strategy PC game called Age of Empires. Sorry, history museums, but he still cites knowledge he's garnered from that game much more than he does any learning experience from a history museum (and we've taken him to many).

Sometimes, this is all it takes: an apparently responsible, obviously intelligent adult to say "it's OK...you can do this...they won't laugh." I scribbled "curator's blog" in my notes from Johnson's session, and the germ of the Weekly Wright-up was formed.

If you're reading this, I'm probably preaching to the choir. If so, forgive this retrospective assertion that the blog has accomplished most of what I had mused about that day in 2008: it has provided an automatic outlet to disseminate information and observations about Frank Lloyd Wright and the Martin House, and in the process, fostered a new online community. And, returning to Johnson's point, I firmly believe that establishing and maintaining the Weekly Wright-up has made me a better researcher and writer. Essentially, it's made me a better curator, and what more could you ask from a free, online tool that was just sitting there waiting to be used?

Bridge Game

2011-09-16T07:53:00.000-07:00

Darwin D. Martin's journal (Memorandum of Events in the Life of Darwin D. and Isabelle R. Martin) records a number of modern marvels observed by the inquisitive Martin, including his first encounters with a typewriter, "aeroplane," and, perhaps most vividly, a New York landmark seen during his brief time in the city working for the Larkin Soap Company:

Saw "Brooklyn Bridge" a-making: reels of wire rolling from main pier to its mate across East River accumulating the main cables. (June, 1879)

Brooklyn Bridge - Annette V. Leach

John and Washington Roebling's famous span was one of a series of suspension bridges that would captivate spectators in post-Civil War America. John Roebling's first masterpiece completed after the War was the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge spanning the Ohio River from Cincinnati, Ohio to Covington, Kentucky. Its design, with two prominent masonry towers, prefigures its Brooklyn descendant in many ways. But the more refined design of the Brooklyn Bridge would become iconic not only of New York itself, but of American suspension bridges in general - surpassed in the collective consciousness only by the Golden Gate Bridge, fifty years later.

Today, a new contender for best-known American bridge is taking shape over San Francisco Bay: the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (below). Its engineering claim to fame is that the East span will include the world's largest Self-Anchored Suspension Span. But it's the "Made in China" label on the Bay Bridge's steel components that's raising eyebrows with made-in-America proponents - a fact of globalization that would likely have Darwin Martin scratching his head in disbelief as well.

Towering Tragedy

2011-09-09T06:54:00.000-07:00

As terrible as the toll of the 9/11/01 attacks on New York was in terms of human lives lost, that horrendous toll also includes the loss of modernist landmarks. The collapse of the Minoru Yamasaki-designed twin towers of the World Trade Center left a gaping hole in lower Manhattan that is finally being filled after a decade of contentious property and design struggle.

Although Frank Lloyd Wright may well have scoffed at Yamasaki's sleek, modern skyscrapers, there is at least one indirect connection between the two architects: the 1968 First Day of Issue ceremony for the two-cent Frank Lloyd Wright stamp's Buffalo debut was held at the Yamasaki-designed One M&T plaza [see "Wright's Two Cents"], with dedication remarks that put Wright in a larger context of modern buildings in Buffalo (a context that might have made him squirm if he had heard them).

In light of the ten-year anniversary of these tragic events and two wars in their wake, Yamasaki's assertion concerning the symbolism of the WTC takes-on an eerie quality of inverse historical foreshadowing:

The World Trade Center is a living symbol of man's dedication to world peace... a representation of man's belief in humanity, his need for individual dignity, his beliefs in the cooperation of men, and, through cooperation, his ability to find greatness.

One can only hope that the One World Trade Center tower ("Freedom Tower") now rising above the WTC site can fulfill Yamasaki's altruistic vision, as his former landmarks ultimately failed to do.

Vote for Pedro

2011-08-30T07:48:00.000-07:00

Don't miss Mark Sommer's front-page account of Pedro Guerrero's visit to the Martin House in today's Buffalo News. A legendary documentarian who photographed Frank Lloyd Wright's work and life at Taliesin from 1940 to 1959, Guerrero and his wife, Dixie Legler Guerrero, visited the Martin House complex and Graycliff this week for the first time in twenty years. Spending a few hours with "Pete" (Pedro) was priceless, but his astonished enjoyment of the Martin House Complex restoration was reward enough. His spontaneous characterization of the restored complex was memorable: "like a marvelous drawing...from the hand of Frank Lloyd Wright."

Guerrero's quick wit and charm was infectious, making it immediately apparent why he was - and is - a beloved figure of the "old guard" of Taliesin.

Pedro Guerrero (R) with Martin House Senior Curator Jack Quinan

48 Hours at the Martin House

2011-08-26T06:26:00.000-07:00

Check out this short film created by Point & Shoot for the 2011 48 Hour Film Project. One Small Step might be pitched as a mid-century modern mash-up of Romeo & Juliet, Othello and Mad Men, set, in part, on the "Prairie."

Wrighting the Ship

2011-08-19T11:18:00.000-07:00

From the ocean liner appurtenances of Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye to Louis Kahn's floating concert hall, Point Counterpoint II, nautical vessels have figured significantly into the history of modern architecture. But before Le Corbusier or Kahn's celebration of boats as the ultimate expression of "form follows function," Frank Lloyd Wright referenced them in his work of the Prairie era.

Rendering of the Robie House

The best-known instance of this may be Wright's use of the German term Dampfer ("steamship") to describe his design for the Frederick C. Robie House (Chicago, 1908-10). Here, Wright applies the term as a metaphor for the hull-like volume of the Robie main living space, with its belvedere third floor evocative of a ship's bridge above. Prior to the Robie commission, Wright and his Buffalo client Darwin Martin employed nautical terms in discussing the highly integrated environment of the master bedroom proposed for the Martin House. In response to the ship's cabin-like qualities of the room's extensive built-in furniture and storage (to be reconstructed in phase 5A of interior restoration of the house), Darwin Martin refers to the "port" and "starboard" sides of the space (letter to Wright, 24 March, 1906). Such nautical connotations also serve to underscore the generally masculine nature of the room's design, with integrated sleeping berths and stowage units that suggest naval efficiency. This masculine coding of the master bedroom may have contributed indirectly to Isabelle Martin's exodus from the space some time after 1907.

Detail of Martin master bedroom

Nautical metaphors have been employed by Wright scholars to great effect in interpreting aspects of Wright's Prairie designs. Robert Twombley poetically describes the sense of shelter achieved in the Prairie houses by saying, "Anchored resolutely in place, looking as if nothing could rip it from its moorings, the prairie house offered a snug harbor to the family battered about on the uncharted seas of metropolitan life" ("Saving the Family: Middle Class Attraction to Wright's Prairie House, 1901-1909," American Quarterly, Vol. 27, No. 1 (Mar., 1975), p. 68). Underscoring this metaphor of house-as-moored-vessel, Jack Quinan characterizes the Robie house as "...a design that so transcended conventional notions of domestic architecture as to resemble a magical brick ship moored alongside East Fifty-eighth Street in Chicago" (Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House: Architecture as Portraiture, p. 172). Quinan extends the seagoing vessel analogy even further in discussing the plan of the Martin House complex:

A metaphorical interpretation of the Martin plan would hold that the buildings are shiplike...Understood as a vessel, the Martin House "steams" eastward, "driven" by Darwin's office at the west end of the main floor, its bow (the east porch) breasting a wave of flowers (the floricycle designed by Walter Burley Griffin, later redesigned as a semicircular pool) in the vast "sea" of lawn in the southeast quadrant of the lot. The destination of Darwin's metaphorical vessel is the village of Clayville in central New York, the site of Darwin's fondest childhood memories and of his mother's grave. Delta's house is poised, tuglike, to assist, just as she had assisted Darwin through his most difficult early years in Buffalo... (Quinan, p. 188).

Detail, north end of conservatory

Nike on "prow" in conservatory

In addition, it's worth noting that the Nike of Samothrace, a cast of which is the sculptural consort to the Martin conservatory, was originally part of a Hellenistic monument to naval victory. The ship's prow of the original Samothrace monument (now part of the Nike's installation in the Louvre) was abstracted by Wright into the prow-like form of the small pool / fountain at the base of the cast in the Martin conservatory. Along with its larger counterpart at the north end of the west gardens, the Nike pool / fountain conveys a sense of the Martin "fleet" steaming southward, driven by the carriage house and conservatory (with their dual metaphorical engines of nature and technology). Alternately, the complex is "moored," with an abundance of potential energy provided by its sublimated nautical forms and vigorously axial composition.

Special Delivery

2011-08-12T17:27:00.000-07:00

Tim Coleman posing with his handiwork

A very special delivery was made to the Larkin district today: Furniture craftsman Timothy Coleman delivered the components of the Martin House library and dining tables to Hulley Woodworking for finishing and eventual installation in the house.

Selected from a talented national pool of furniture-makers through a competitive bid process, Coleman was awarded the contract to reproduce the Martin tables in April of this year. Since then, he has dedicated the lion's share of time (and space) in his Shelburne, MA workshop to the challenge of creating exacting reproductions of the two large tables that anchor the "unit room" of the Martin House. The precision of these reproductions begins with Coleman's choice of materials: all the quartersawn white oak used for the tables came from the same log, ensuring an exceptional consistency of grain between them. Even in this unfinished state, the joinery and attention to detail evident in these tables is impeccable.

Once the table components are finished to match the millwork and built-in cabinetry in the Martin House, Coleman will return to assemble and install his masterpieces in the library and dining room.

The Return of Spring

2011-08-12T07:38:00.000-07:00

Among the many signs of progress at the Martin House Complex, our reproduction of the Richard Bock outdoor sculpture, Spring, is visible once again.

The piece, recreated by Skylight Studios of Woburn, MA, was installed in June, 2009, but has been obscured for more than a year behind temporary, plywood protection amid the construction staging area of the east lawn. With Phase 5A drawing to a close, the staging area is being returned to it's usual condition, and Spring has emerged once again.

That was a remarkably short winter, wasn't it?

Wright Away

2011-08-05T08:17:00.000-07:00

The influence of Japanese architecture - however indirect - is often cited in analyses of Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie designs. It may be somewhat surprising then to note that Wright did not truly see any Japanese architecture first-hand (the Ho-o-den notwithstanding) until the middle of the Prairie period, when he first traveled to Japan in the early spring of 1905.

That's right - at exactly the same time that the Darwin D. Martin House was taking shape at the corner of Jewett Parkway and Summit Avenue, Wright went half-way around the globe for three months, leaving a disconcerted Darwin Martin with an unfinished "opus" in need of detail. During this period, Walter Burley Griffin held down the fort of Wright's Oak Park studio, corresponding with Martin concerning open items such as art glass and landscaping. But, with little contact with his friend, architect and daily pen-pal (Martin continued to send letters to Wright, and got a few in return), how did the anxious Mr. Martin bide his time until Wright's return? Here's a summary of Martin's activity that spring, from his journal:

Mr. Wright starts 14th with Mrs. W. for Japan [journal, February]

Coldest night of winter. Snow is perhaps 2 1/2 feet deep [journal, February]

Baby girl, Lois, born to Winnie and Will, a CS. birth [journal, 10 March]

DDM attended stag dinner at Mr Barcalo's [journal, 16 March]

John Curtis, coachman, moved into stable [journal, 1 April]

Harry Hebditch left us, (sailed for England 22nd) and George Frampton took his place [journal, 19 April]

DDM at luncheon given by trustees Chamber of Commerce to Rear-Admiral Schley (retired) after which Henry E. Boller took the Admiral and Major Cutler of Niagara Falls for auto ride and stopped to view our new house whence I went to receive them. Had flags flying. Took party into Delta's where Belle and children joined us. The Admiral kissed Dorothy and Darwin. [journal, 27 April]

About 60 trees, 260 shrubs and 1200 perennial plants set out on Jewett Ave place. Two white pines, [...] feet high age of Dorothy, two small ones, two hemlock, & four arbor vitas from Bouckville set out on the 12th [journal, 9-12 May]

Mr Wright here after three months trip to Japan [journal, 20-22 May]

Upon his return Stateside, Wright penned a classic of breezy correspondence, casually complimenting (and playfully challenging) Martin as if he'd never left at a crucial juncture in the implementation of his most ambitious domestic commission to date:

My dear Mr. Martin --

We, Mrs. Wright and I, have come back much improved in health and spirits -- can lick my weight in wild-cats. How would you like to be a wild cat?

A three month's absence and entire change of scene meanwhile has given me my clients and friends in perspective and the spirit of one D.D. Martin shines our clear and white. I shall be glad to see him in the flesh once more... [letter of 18 May 1905]

I think it's safe to assume that Martin's reaction to Wright's return must have been one of relief. No doubt he maintained his "clear and white" spirit, but harbored some consternation beneath that angelic facade.

AND we have Tim Hortons

2011-08-05T06:56:00.000-07:00

Adrian Brijbassi of the Toronto Star sings the praises of a weekend in the Queen City, citing some of our very favorite spots: The Mansion, Tempo, Blue Monk, the Albright-Knox and the Martin House.

If our relationship with our neighbors to the north gets any warmer, we may have to raise the Maple Leaf over the conservatory...

Another Tree That Escaped the Forest

2011-07-29T15:34:00.000-07:00

VMFA

The latest stop on my world tour of "Tree of Life" windows in museum collections was Richmond, VA, where I visited the Martin House art glass at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Their "Tree of Life" window is displayed as part of the Lewis Decorative Arts Collection, and its curator, Barry Shifman, kindly gave me a personal tour.

This particular "Tree of Life" window is in good company - The Lewis Collection is an exceptionally rich representation of Art Nouveau, Jugendstil, Arts & Crafts and Art Deco objects, from furniture and art glass to jewelry. In this context the Martin window stands as yet another instance of how world-class decorative arts collections seek a "Tree of Life" window as a prime example of Frank Lloyd Wright's design in art glass.

The window is installed in the Wright section of the Arts & Crafts gallery of the Lewis Collection, along with a pair of Coonley playhouse windows, and a number of iconic Wright chairs - including a Larkin Administration building metal desk chair. The installation as a whole reads like a "who's who" of Wright's designs for furnishings and art glass. Surrounded by Stickley, Rohlfs and Greene & Greene pieces in the Arts & Crafts gallery, the Wright objects display a geometric affinity with their counterparts, but remind one that "Prairie" is not "Arts & Crafts," or vice versa. The Greene & Greene pieces from the Gamble House in particular are exquisite examples of turn of the century Japonisme - an influence on Wright, to be sure, but more sublimated in the unique synthesis of his designs.

My only regret concerning the VMFA's "Tree of Life" window (shared by Mr. Shifman) is its installation: set into the gallery wall and back-lit with a less than natural light, its lustrous iridescence is impossible to detect. Perhaps the installation can be revised so that both sides of the window are visible. Still, the Martin House window is a highlight of a museum and decorative arts collection not to be missed by those seeking an unforgettable aesthetic experience in Richmond.

Garage Bands

2011-07-21T13:25:00.000-07:00

Just as Frank Lloyd Wright's design for the Martin's carriage house is no ordinary garage, his windows for the building go well beyond the sort of utilitarian, glazed openings you might expect. In fact, it's the carriage house art glass design that William Martin cites to his Buffalo brother Darwin when giving a field report on the rigorous, uncompromising work under way in Wright's Oak Park studio:

The labor required from Mr. Wright is simply immense. You ought to come to Chicago and spend two or three days in his office and you would then better understand how they are able to arrive at, and create such homes. Mr. Wright showed me several sheets of paper on which he had been drawing designs for the glass for your barn [carriage house], and had only just arrived at what he wanted. Any one of the designs that he had discarded would have satisfied an ordinary man, and only he knows when the thing is right or wrong, and unless he gets it right he keeps on trying.

This passage is notable for two main reasons: 1) it attests to how Wright was obsessed with "getting it right," even when it came to detail so seemingly insignificant as windows for a "barn," and 2) it refutes the common myth that Wright's "genius" was of the God-given sort, such that every design idea sprang, fully-formed and immutable, from his mind. This is especially evident when looking at the next line of William's letter:

It is the same throughout the house. His tracing cloth shows the results of his labors, as it is ragged in many places where changes have been made repeatedly.

Later, Wright himself would say "an architect's most useful tools are an eraser at the drafting board and a wrecking bar at the site." Fortunately, not all of Wright's experimental sketches for the Martin carriage house glass design were erased: one variation of the window design remains, on the same sheet with the ultimate design (below).

Behind the Cottage

2011-07-08T10:32:00.000-07:00

Architect / artist / author Karen Tashjian has launched her own website, including vivid images of her paintings, set designs and publications - e.g. her book on the the Martin gardener's cottage.

And in Other News...

2011-07-08T09:20:00.000-07:00

The Clarkson carriage house window story is also in the Buffalo News.

Will Clarkson posing with the carriage house window that he and his wife gave to the Martin House

Fit to Print

2011-07-08T06:47:00.000-07:00

Don't miss Eve Kahn's story about our latest art glass acquisition in today's New York Times!

photo: Biff Henrich

Red, Wright and Blue

2011-07-01T12:31:00.000-07:00

Frank Lloyd Wright may not have been the most patriotic of Americans by today's standards, but one incident in the course of hashing-out the details of the Martin House interior inspired a classic quip on the colors of Old Glory:

Dear Mr. Martin -

When you put in the Blue terra cotta don't forget the red and the white - let us be patriotic - but say, just build the backing and leave the facing to the glass mosaic man.

[letter of 13 October, 1904]

Here, Wright playfully chides Martin in order to dissuade his practically-minded client from finishing the central Martin House fireplace with off-the-shelf blue tile. The more aesthetically-rich, custom mosaic of intertwined wisteria branches, leaves and blossoms, rendered in lustrous, gilded glass tiles, was more in keeping with the "domestic symphony" Wright sought for the Martins' new home. But apparently, Mr. Martin thought the tile equivalent of a Sousa march would be just fine.

The Circle Takes the Square

2011-06-27T10:06:00.000-07:00

As innovative a designer as Frank Lloyd Wright was, he was not adverse to "recycling" certain motifs from one commission to another. The prismatic shapes of the Barton House ceiling molding and the second floor scuppers from the Martin House are repeated in the main floor plan of the Robie House (Chicago, 1908). The wall sconces ordered for the Barton House were identical to those already designed for the Dana House (Springfield, IL, 1902) and also used in various subsequent houses. Now, another example has come to light: the repetition of the circle-in-square motif from the Martin House to the Larkin Administration Building (Buffalo, 1904-06).

Larkin building wall sconce

Martin Living room table

A Larkin building wall sconce sold recently via Urban Remains of Chicago bears the conjoined circle and square motif familiar to followers of the Martin House: distinctive tables Wright designed for the Martin living room and reception room have tops of the same geometric configuration. In the case of the Martin tables, this unusual shape may have been the whimsical resolution of a difference of opinion between architect and client. As part of his tout ensemble furnishing scheme for the Martin House, Wright proposed square or rectangular tables for the living room and reception room. Mrs. Martin, however, desired round tables. Apparently, Wright decided to give her both, resulting in the tables as built. The reason for transferring the circle-in-square motif to the Larkin building sconces is unclear, beyond the Larkin commission sharing Wright's drafting board with the Martin House in those years in general.


Detail, entry of Williams House

Plan, Temple of Heaven, Beijing

Wright may have employed a circle-in-square motif first in the Chauncey Williams House (River Forest, IL, 1895), where a window of such geometry flanks the Sullivanesque front door. For that matter, the circle-in-square motif enjoys a long history in Western art and architecture, from the floor pattern of the Pantheon to da Vinci's Vitruvian Man. Wright may well have been aware of such examples, at least with their distant reflections in Sullivan's work. And there's precedent for Wright's combination of the circle and square in the Eastern tradition as well: in cosmologically-based Chinese design, a square often represents the ideal city or domestic compound designed by man, and the circle represents the celestial realm and the divine (e.g. the Temple of Heaven in Beijing). Given Wright's burgeoning interest in Asian culture at the turn of the century, such Eastern influences come to bear on his Prairie era designs, alongside Western ones. By extension, one could read the circle-in-square motifs in the Martin House (in the tables as well as the interior light fixtures and urns on the exterior) as suggesting the sanctification of domestic - elevating the concept of house to that of sublime art, as Wright purported to do in his "domestic symphony," the Martin House.

A New Type of Martin House

2011-06-17T10:38:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Buffalo's wealth of architecture and the upcoming visit from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Rich Kegler, Founder and Executive Director of the Western New York Book Arts Center, has created a series of innovative letterpress prints of these landmarks. The series includes City Hall, Grain Elevators, Kleinhans Music Hall and - hot off WNYBAC's Vandercook press - the Darwin D. Martin House.

Utilizing the Book Arts Center's extensive (and growing) collection of wood type, metal type and printer's ornaments, Kegler is fast becoming the master of representing architectural forms through the once-utilitarian medium of letterpress. Familiar characters are re-purposed in surprising ways. For example: if those urns look familiar, that's because they're sideways parentheses. The sense of proportion and balance achieved is remarkable, rendered through a nearly-lost art that WNYBAC has made great strides in preserving and reviving. Kegler commented that these images were inspired by having a "shop full of blocks that beg 2-D 'Lego' assemblages," adding that he was "interested in pushing the boundaries of what can be done using only materials found in the shop itself."

The Martin House print was produced in an edition of 100, signed and numbered on Arches paper. Fifty will be available soon at the Wisteria Museum Shop at the Martin House Complex. Call Shop Director Becky Lee at (716) 856-3858 x 405 to inquire.

For other examples of WNYBAC's distinctive architectural prints, visit their Etsy store.

Postcards from Michigan

2011-06-10T08:11:00.000-07:00

Being a series of pilgrim's impressions from an excursion to Wright and Saarinen sites.

Friday, June 3 -
A beautiful day for a bus trip - picked up a group of Canadian friends en route across the Niagara peninsula. Arrived Cranbrook Academy for lunch. Sitting on original Saarinen-designed chairs made the cafeteria food taste better (at least a little). The palette of materials here feels familiar - so similar to the warm masonry and wood the Saarinens used in Kleinhans back home. The campus buildings and Saarinen house are a fascinating mash-up of Nordic Classicism, Deco, and homespun Finnish Arts and Crafts. Somehow, it works. Later: a visit to the Affleck house, a unique L-plan Usonian nearby. The light-filled entry hall near the bend in the "L" really activates the plan. Huge cantilevers reach out to the ravine, a la Fallingwater. I like the Usonians more and more - so much variation on a common theme.

Saturday, June 4 -
Escaped the mall-sprawl of Novi, and headed west to the Shaberg house. Love the funky, neo-retro-modern decor - references the era of the house, but doesn't try to live in the past. Means of support for the ceiling / roof are a mystery, and the mitered glass-meeting-plaster is uncanny. The owner is a welcoming and entertaining host - said that Pete Townsend once slept on his floor (in NYC). Knew I'd find a Wright-Who connection some day. Back on the magic bus... Later: arrived Grand Rapids and the Meyer May house, which inspires awe before we even step off the bus. Jerry Foster is waiting with bells on (actually, his Martin House t-shirt on). The house is a stunner and a must-see. (Note to self: buy stock in Steelcase) So many previews of the finished detail to come at the Martin House: wall treatments, sconces, furniture, landscaping. The living room is a tour de force of art glass, integrated with millwork in a way that hints at the California textile block houses. The Niedecken mosaic is sublime (and makes for a great tote bag). Nice dinner with Jerry and Hanne and the whole group - great to spend some time with them on their turf.

Sunday, June 5 -
Wow...the Turkel House is a gem, and any Wright house owners that hand me a Bloody Mary on the way in are OK in my book! They explain that the construction was far from "Automatic," but the end result is amazing - integration of the various blocks and glass produce a unique union of structure and enclosure - especially evident in the soaring "music" room. Great collection of Wright books, decorative objects and art, inside and out. And then brunch... could this GET any better? Nobody wanted to leave (good thing we had a travel schedule to keep). Thanks Dale and Norm - we'll be back!

Art Glass from the "Other" Martin House

2011-06-02T13:06:00.000-07:00

The William Martin "lightscreen" offered by Urban Remains

The recent posting of a Wright "lightscreen" from the William E. Martin house (Oak Park, 1903-04) offered for sale in Chicago prompted some reflection (no pun intended) on the art glass Wright designed for the elder Martin, vis a vis that created for brother Darwin D. of Buffalo.

In at least one letter to Darwin, William indicated that he was unhappy with certain aspects of the art glass that Wright provided for their house:

Our windows seem a little awkward but do their work O.K. If after seeing Mr. Wright you still want sample will do so - ours came from England via Toronto... Our glass job is not satisfactory = but promised to be made so = don't let W[right] give you any glass doors - or French windows - if you can avoid it they won't stand banging - we have four broken. [WEM to DDM, letter of 7 July, 1904]

Detail of the caming used in the William Martin panel

William's comments are relegated to the functional practicality of Wright's light screens (in a household with children), but the design may have given him pause also, based on his use of the word "awkward." The light screen designs for the William Martin house are much simpler, though more consistent, than those for the Darwin D. Martin house, where Wright lavished sixteen major patterns on the commission. William's doors and windows bear some resemblance to the lower portion of the "wisteria" doors from Darwin's house, but lack the cascading gold "flakes" that characterize the unit room glass in the latter. Interestingly, one of Wright's drawings for William's art glass shows a living room cabinet door proposal with simple chevrons a la the upper "branch" sections of Darwin Martin's "Tree of Life" windows, but this variation had been crossed out on the drawing [see Julie Sloan, Light Screens large edition, p. 157].

Martin House Senior Curator Jack Quinan has observed that the William Martin designs convey a sense of horizontal prison bars. I'm admittedly biased, but daresay that they certainly lack the balance and refinement of many of the art glass motif from the Darwin D. Martin house.

Thanks to PrairieMod for the tip on this art glass sale.

Grid Lock

2011-05-27T10:40:00.000-07:00

Parkside residents are well aware of the gently curving streets laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux as part of their master plan for the Buffalo Park system. Most Parkside houses follow suit, their facades aligned with the slight curve of the street. But, standing at the corner of Jewett Parkway and Summit Avenue, it's immediately apparent that the Martin House ignores the sweeping curve of the parkway.

Is the house out of alignment, or just in line with something else?

The conventional wisdom is that Wright liked to align his Prairie houses with the perfect grid planning ubiquitous in the American Midwest, tied into the Public Land Survey System that established a grid across the Prairie and Plains, and inspired by the Froebel tabletop grids of Wright's childhood experience. Wright's Prairie grid is most often aligned with the cardinal directions of the compass - the low-tech forerunner of GPS - reflected in many Native American motifs representing the four directions and four winds, expressed in beadwork, basketry, and other traditional arts.

First page of Wright's letter to Darwin D. Martin, May 11, 1903

But with the Martin House Complex, there may be a more specific, practical reason why the main house is aligned with an invisible grid, rather than with Jewett Parkway: the simpler Barton House - the first building constructed on the site - calls the shots. As evidenced by Wright's illustrated letter to Martin of May 11, 1903, Wright planned to align the Barton House with Summit Avenue and knew that the rest of the composition would have to follow suit in order to be "Wright."

Wright's Oak Park Studio logo

The underlying force that prevents the main Martin House from squaring itself to Jewett Parkway is hiding in plain sight in Wright's letter: the Celtic cross-inspired logo used in his Oak Park Studio letterhead. This simplified mandala clearly shows Wright's design allegiance to working within the compass-aligned grid. His "quadruple block" plan from "A Home in a Prairie Town" is a prime example of such a mandala translated to a residential planning proposal.

The quadruple block plan

By virtue of Wright's Prairie houses being almost exclusively in the Midwest, the vast majority of them are planned in step with the existing grid and cardinal directions. There are, however, a couple of notable exceptions: the Ward Willits house (Highland Park, IL, 1901), widely considered the first full-blown Prairie house, and Wright's own Taliesin (Spring Green, WI, 1911 -). These exceptions point to that fact that, while Wright kept to the square grid throughout the Prairie period, he was already thinking of the grid as an abstraction which need not always align with the compass.

A Booming Beacon

2011-05-20T07:43:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Martin House docent extraordinaire, Mike Osika, for receiving an Inaugural Beacon Award from Visit Buffalo Niagara! Mike received the "Tourism Volunteer of the Year" award during VBN's National Travel & Tourism Week celebration.

Mike's message as an ambassador for the Martin House and Western New York is always loud and clear!

Roots of "Tree" Revealed

2011-05-20T07:31:00.000-07:00

Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life" , recently unveiled at the Cannes Film Festival, sounds at least as enigmatic as Frank Lloyd Wright's art glass window design of the same name. And the visual effects coordinator for the film was Dan Glass... Hmm... Is there a cosmic connection?

Dear Mr. Wright

2011-05-13T10:36:00.000-07:00

Dear Weekly Wright-up Readers:

At risk of sounding like a crumudgeon-in-training (which perhaps I am), I was reminded this week that the age of the personal letter, exemplified by the now quaintly cordial correspondence between Frank Lloyd Wright and Darwin D. Martin, is well behind us - and with it, maybe the age of civility as well.

The bizarre slap-fest between Congressional candidate Jack Davis and a cameraman (who turned out to be Republican rival Jane Corwin's staffer) is just the latest instance of adults behaving like overgrown playground bullies. Such exchanges happen thousands of times a day on a smaller scale, thanks, in part, to the ready convenience of countless online forums. There, civility is maintained only by the integrity of individual contributors, and more often than not, our worst nature, prejudice, and good ol' fashioned ignorance is laid bare. Take, for example, the common mode of online chat and posting that gives the impression of innumerable keyboards with the caps-lock stuck - THE TEXT EQUIVALENT OF SHOUTING!!! Not to mention the utter lack of respect to others demonstrated by many who hide behind a username to exercise their First Amendment rights.

What does this have to do with the Wright-Martin letters of a century ago? Nothing directly. But it occurred to me that we could use a dose of the hard-wired etiquette practiced by Mr. Martin (if not always consistently by Mr. Wright). No matter how the Martin House budget was rising or how long he had been waiting for a requested detail, Mr. Martin always addressed his architect as "Dear Sir," or "Dear Mr. Wright."

Not to be a Philistine in this nostalgia for the slower, more genteel pace of personal letter exchange (you're reading this online, after all) - there's nothing inherent about cyberspace that promotes a breakdown in civility. So what is it? It could just be that people today are not less polite, but their lack of respect for others is just more widely publicized...

Sincerely Yours,

Eric Jackson-Forsberg

Wright Across the Street

2011-05-06T12:52:00.000-07:00

Check out Buffalo Rising for an interesting post on everyone's favorite Martin House neighbor, the William Wicks house, now home to MHRC board member Donna DeCarolis.

End of the Line for Typewriters

2011-04-29T11:43:00.000-07:00

Darwin D. Martin's office (whether at home or in the Larkin building) was filled with the clack-clacking sound of a manual typewriter, pounding out hundreds of letters to Frank Lloyd Wright.  Wright's return correspondence was a mixed bag of handwritten and typewritten text, but the fastidious DDM almost always typed his letters, and regularly kept carbon copies of his outgoing correspondence as well.  This week marks the final clack of the manual typewriter era with the last remaining producer of such machines ending production.

The earliest mention of Martin's typewriter use is in his journal, where he notes:  "JDL (John D. Larkin) & Co have a typewriter and I tried out the new fangled thing in the evening." (entry of April 6, 1882).  Martin most likely acquired his own typewriter for the Bursar's office of the Martin House, c. 1905 (if not earlier), and the MHRC is in search of a period machine to grace the reconstructed desk in that space.

The remaining stock of manual typewriters produced by the Indian company Godrej & Boyce (about 200) are for sale - and going fast, no doubt.  Wouldn't you love one to complement that old dot matrix printer? 

Tune in to MHRCTV

2011-04-15T12:01:00.001-07:00

Check out our new YouTube channel, "MHRCTV" for video clips of restoration in progress, and a growing list of favorites from the surprisingly large array of Martin House videos already online.

No sneezing baby pandas here, but hey, we got plaster...

Twombly, Sullivan and Wright

2011-04-15T12:01:00.000-07:00

by Daniel Kuether, curatorial intern

The opportunity to hear a top Wright scholar is coming to Buffalo. Come out and support the Graycliff Conservancy as they host a lecture by Dr. Robert Twombly on Thursday, April 21^stat 7 PM in the auditorium of the Burchfield Penney Art Center.

Photo by Bernhard Wagner, fotoGrafix

A widely published author, Dr. Twombly has written numerous times on American architecture. His books include; Frank Lloyd Wright: His Life & His Architecture, Toward An American Utopia: Social Thought, Iconography, and the Drawings of Louis Sullivan, and Power and Style: A Critique of Twentieth Century Architecture in the United States. He has also edited collections of Louis Sullivan’s and Frederick Law Olmstead’s private and public documents.

Dr. Twombly’s lecture will discuss the relationship between Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan and the effect this relationship had on the architecture of both men. Dr. Twombly received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin and is currently a professor at the City University of New York.

This is an excellent chance to learn from an influential scholar on the life and work of Sullivan and Wright.

Great Martin House Post on BR This Week

2011-04-08T08:09:00.000-07:00

Buffalo Rising

Going for the Gold(ish-green)

2011-04-08T07:48:00.001-07:00

A front-runner has emerged in our marathon search to find the perfect replacement carpet for the restored Martin House interior.

Frank Lloyd Wright specified carpeting for the first floor of the Martin House in a comprehensive plan (c. 1905, in the collection of the Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt); the Fuermann photos of the interior (1907) indicate that this plan was executed faithfully in a series of plush, solid-colored area rugs. Surviving samples of this original wool carpeting are an elusive golden-green color that has been difficult to match with color palettes today. But, thanks to the expert assistance of David Tiftickjian & Sons and Roche & Company, we've identified a match that's closer than we could have hoped.

The preferred carpet is made by Bentley, with the appropriately organic color name of "Leaf." The sample looks right at home with the existing palette of floor tile, brick, woodwork and wall finishes in the house. The final decision has not yet been made to order this carpet, but it's comfortably close to "taking the floor" of the Martin House this October.

Picture This

2011-04-08T07:48:00.000-07:00

Bernie Wagner, fotoGrafix

Have you taken a great photo of the Martin House? Got a sublime shot of Wright's "well nigh perfect composition?" Submit your best photo of the Martin House, Barton House, Greatbatch Pavilion or other favorite landmark to CEPA Gallery's expanded, online Visions of Greater Buffalo.

CEPA's 100 Visionaries' photographs will be presented for sale at the Visions of Greater Buffalo, 2011 Gala & Silent auction, May 19 in the Market Arcade. But this year, the Gallery's inviting everyone to be a part of Visions of Greater Buffalo!

Photos will be streamed throughout the Market Arcade Building during the gala Auction Event, and can be viewed on the CEPA Gallery website in the weeks before and after the event.

GUIDELINES:

Photograph your best color "vision" of Greater Buffalo (please, no people or pets).

CEPA wants to see your view of Greater Buffalo, so please send "unaltered" photos - no Photoshop, alteration filters or other enhancements.

Only one submission per person.

Upload your photo through the CEPA Gallery website at www.cepagallery.org.

By emailing your photo to CEPA, you agree to the Terms of Use.

Photos must be JPEG (.jpg or .jpeg) digital format, at least 1,000 pixels wide if a horizontal image or 1,000 pixels tall if a vertical image, and the file size may not be more than 5 megabytes.

CEPA Gallery reserves the right to refuse publication of any photographs it deems obscene, provocative, insensitive or otherwise inappropriate.

The DEADLINE for all submissions is May 1, 2011.

2011-04-01T06:37:00.000-07:00

More on Erie County's funding initiative for the Martin House on BUFFALO RISING.

A Tree, a Pitt and a Penn

2011-04-01T05:38:00.000-07:00

Although the name is a coincidence, the film looks sufficiently architectural, Transcendental - and for that matter, Oedipal - to be of interest to Frank Lloyd Wright fans.

Martin House Dollars & Sense

2011-03-28T13:37:00.000-07:00

As impressive as the effort to restore Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House Complex may be, the fundraising effort behind the project is equally incredible. To date, 41 million dollars have been raised from both private and public sources in support of this unprecedented and painstaking restoration. Even more impressive is the fact that the funding formula has been an almost even split between public and private sources. An incredible coalition of financial support has formed around this project. This week, two announcements of additional support (again, from both public and private sources) toward the $6 million still needed to fully restore the Martin House have made the news. All great news and a testament to the vision and determination of Buffalo, right?

In an economically-challenged community like Buffalo, struggling all the more in the midst of a national economic slump and a state that Governor Cuomo has called “functionally bankrupt,” what would appear to be a tremendous success story also raises eyebrows and stirs the debate over cultural funding at the intersection of public and private spheres.

To dive into the recent debate swirling around Erie County funding for the arts would be problematic (not to mention all-consuming) given my polemic position as scholar and champion of the Martin House. But, at the risk of dipping my toe in, I’m compelled to make a few points, as objectively as I can:

A significant distinction tends to be lost in sound bytes on these issues: the County Executive’s proposal of a $500,000 challenge grant to match the first $1 million of funds raised from the private sector in support of the final phase of restoration of the Martin House was made with the crucial distinction that these are capital funds. That means that County Executive Collins’ commitment is an investment in a permanent cultural asset. Not a dime of that proposed grant will go toward salaries, overhead or programming support for the MHRC. Yes, the MHRC was fortunate enough to retain operational funding via Erie County this year, when many worthy cultural organizations were cut; but that’s a separate discussion, and there's help on the way for the de-funded organizations.* For that matter, the Martin House Complex is hardly the only Western New York asset that has received public sector support; it may receive more scrutiny of this support, however, due to the high (and unavoidable) cost of such an ambitious restoration.

Those who cry foul over the “haves” and “have-nots” in this scenario often miss the fact that we’re not talking about disproportional slices of one pie, we’re talking about two different pies. Operational funds are needed by organizations every year; capital funds are one-time investments in assets that will produce returns in the long run. Both funding streams are necessary, but it’s an unfortunate reality that they become conflated in the realm of public opinion. There will always be those who argue that both of these funding “pies” should be eliminated entirely (and permanently), but I hate to think of what that would mean to the quality of life that we currently enjoy in Western New York. Arguably, complete privatization of culture means the withering of culture as a whole.

The Martin House is a bricks-and-mortar investment (literally and figuratively), part of the irreplaceable historic fabric of Western New York. It is embedded in the past history of Buffalo, and will surely help shape the city’s future as a magnet for cultural tourism.

As Wright himself said, “if you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life.” Let’s invest wisely, Buffalo—we only get one shot at this.

*You can help leverage $1 million to support 46 cultural institutions in Western New York by participating in the Give4Greatness campaign, sponsored by Artvoice, M&T Bank and Channel 7: www.giveforgreatness.org

As of this post, it seems there is funding from the City of Buffalo in the offing, which may offset much - if not all - of the losses of County funding.

Judging a Book by its Cover

2011-03-24T13:00:00.000-07:00

by Daniel Kuether

Is this a cloth book cover or perhaps something more? This unusual item, graciously sent to the MHRC recently by Margaret Foster, was originally thought to be a beautifully detailed book cover used by the Darwin D. Martin family. Upon further research, it appears that not only was the item used as a book cover, but it is also an important personal object from the Chinese Qing Dynasty!

The item is known as a Rank Badge or Mandarin Square. The Rank Badge was worn by men and women during the Qing Dynasty through the early 20^th century. The squares were sewn to the front and back of coats, to outwardly display the achieved position in society. Different motifs meant a different personal status. This design, now in the Martin House collection, contains the “Silver Pheasant” motif of the 5^th rank.

So why a book cover? The popularity of these items in private Western collections at the beginning of the late 19^th century saw creative alterations in their use. The badges were often turned into wall art, coin purses, furniture upholstery, and for the Martins, an unusual cover for a beloved book.

This Just In...

2011-03-17T10:51:00.000-07:00

Margaret Foster, granddaughter of Darwin D. and Isabelle Martin, just sent another "care package" of family artifacts to the Martin House and Graycliff. In this latest shipment were two unique items for the Martin House: an Asian rug that appears to be the hearth rug used in the reception room, circa 1912 (shown in Müller photos of that year) and a fabric book cover, apparently Japanese-made, with an elaborate, embroidered Phoenix motif. The latter may have come from the cache of items that Frank Lloyd Wright brought back with him from his first trip to Japan in 1905 and distributed to clients such as the Martins.

Hearth rug

Further research is needed to confirm these identifications, but their provenance as items handed-down within the family is clear. Thanks to Margaret and her family for their wonderful ongoing generosity in adding such objects to the Martin House collection!

Book cover with Phoenix motif

Japan's Darkest Hour (and One of Wright's Finest)

2011-03-17T10:20:00.000-07:00

The unfolding tragedy in Japan following last Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami (and subsequent radiation threats) is exponentially greater than that caused by previous quakes, such as the Kobe earthquake of 1995 or the Kanto quake of 1923. The latter tested Frank Lloyd Wright's barely-completed Imperial Hotel, one of few Tokyo buildings left standing in that cataclysm (a distinction that he exaggerated to the media).

See Tuesday's story on Curbed.com for more on Wright's hotel design and Japan's ongoing campaign to design more earthquake-resistant buildings. Sadly, creating buildings impervious to earthquakes accompanied by massive tsunamis may be an insurmountable challenge for architects of any nation.


Part of Wright's Imperial Hotel, in the wake of the 1923 Kanto earthquake

Central Not Terminal

2011-03-11T06:59:00.000-08:00

A crumbling Buffalo landmark; a grass-roots effort rallying around it; a multi-year, multi-million dollar master plan to give it new life... Sound familiar?

Illustration by Michael Gelen, Inkwell Studios

Sidelight Aside

2011-03-11T06:44:00.000-08:00

Sotheby's sale of a Martin House pier cluster sidelight from the collection of Max Palevsky yesterday prompted this story on Buffalo Rising, profiling the Restoration Corporation's philosophy concerning acquisition of original art glass. Thanks to BR for their sensitivity and astute understanding of why we don't jump at every piece of glass that happens to wink at us.

Showing Their Metal

2011-03-04T11:09:00.000-08:00

by Daniel Kuether, Heavy Metal fan

When it came to objects d’art, the Martin family gathered pieces from everywhere. This included work by local artisans, Japanese prints, and pieces given or sold specifically to the family by Frank Lloyd Wright. A group of pieces in the Martin collection of particular interest to Buffalonians and Arts and Crafts enthusiasts is a series of metalware vessels bearing the maker’s mark of a local craft shop: Heintz Art Metal.

In 1903, Otto L. Heintz left his Buffalo family business - the Heintz Brothers jewelry shop - and bought the local Arts & Crafts Company. He changed the name to Art Crafts Shop in 1905 and, finally, to the Heintz Art Metal Shop in 1906. The shop quickly grew in popularity for its distinctive designs. The business would be short lived however, and after the death of Otto Heintz in 1918, the company closed for good following the stock market crash in 1929.

The Arts and Crafts Movement was in full swing by the time the Martins were preparing to make their home on Jewett Parkway. The styles and motifs of this movement can be seen in many of the local craftsmens’ works, including the products of the Roycrofters and their charismatic leader Elbert Hubbard, a dear friend of Darwin Martin’s.

Heintz Art Metal gained prestige primarily for its popular silver-on-bronze decorative overlays. Darwin Martin owned a desk set of this signature Heintz variety. What’s unusual about the Martins’ set of five Heintz vessels is that they look nothing like this popular style, though they still bear the Heintz stamp. Each has a brass, acid-etched finish producing an irregular design, but there is no trace of the famous silver - or the earlier colored enamel - overlay.

The Martins' set of five Heintz Art Metal vessels

So where does that put the Martins’ Heintz metalware vessels? The acid-etched pieces were produced prior to the popular silver overlay wares. They most likely belong to the early transitional period between 1903 and the company’s name change in 1906. Their finish has become known to dealers and collectors as a “Tiffany-type patina,” referencing their resemblance to works by the Louis Comfort Tiffany Co. This would be a sign of the times and the competition between the two metalware companies.

The Martins’ vessels are quite unique, and few similar pieces exist. Their presence in the Martin House collection is an important example of Arts & Crafts design tied to local Buffalo history.

Bottom of one of the vessels, showing the Heintz shop mark and "IRM" monogram (Isabelle Reidpath Martin)

Another Sidelight Comes to Light

2011-02-25T13:09:00.000-08:00

Just when we thought that the late California collector Max Palevsky (1925-2010) had parted with all his Martin House Art Glass, a pier cluster sidelight has come to light in the March 10th sale of 20th Century Design at Sotheby's, New York.

At one time, Palevsky had a rare "Tree of Life" door, and two "wisteria" pattern panels from the Martin House, but they have since been sold or given to museum collections (the "Tree of Life" door to the LA County Museum of Art).

It's unclear why this small piece of glass was not included in previous sales of Palevsky's art glass, but perhaps it got overlooked in the midst of his extensive collection of modern art and design.

Malick's "Tree of Life" Continued

2011-02-25T12:51:00.000-08:00

More information has emerged via PrairieMod regarding Terrence Malick's impending release, The Tree of Life (with Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain) and the director's next film (as yet untitled). Beyond sharing a name with a certain iconic Wright window pattern, The Tree of Life has no direct allusions to - or inspirations from - Frank Lloyd Wright. But, hold the phone: Empire online reports that the forthcoming untitled film, staffing Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Rachel Weisz and Javier Bardem (that's right, friend-o), might revolve around Wright's Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

"Oh Ben...I know we'll find your contact lens around here somewhere."

Now for a readers' poll:

If Malick were to continue his flirtation with Wright and cast a contemporary actor as the famed architect in a film, who do you think should get the part? Think long and hard, folks - most actors are too tall, and don't look good in a porkpie hat...

Buffalo's Vanished Architecture Soon to Vanish

2011-02-18T11:08:00.000-08:00

This is from the "better late than never" category:

The Western New York Book Arts Center (WNYBAC) is holding a closing reception tonight, 6-9 PM, for two exhibitions: Monumental Ideas in Miniature Books, and Remembrances - prints, books and drawings by Amanda Maciuba, Sandra C. Fernandez and Francisco Amaya.

Amaya's drawing of the German Insurance Co. building

All are well worth the trip to 468 Washington Street (at Mohawk), but Amaya's work is not to be missed by architecture fans; it includes laser prints of frenetically-expressive drawings of lost Buffalo landmarks, including the "Rockpile," the 1887 library building, and Frank Lloyd Wright's Larkin Administration building. Amaya's section of the exhibition also includes lino cut portraits of eminent Buffalo architects, among them Esenwein, Green, Richardson and Wright.

While you're there, why not drop a $5, $10 or $20 in WNYBAC's donation box as a memorial to your favorite, extinct Buffalo building? Better yet, make a contribution to WNYBAC in celebration of your favorite landmark that's been spared.

Floored by Tile Mystery

2011-02-18T10:41:00.000-08:00

This one is for those obsessed with Martin House materials. Others may want to turn back now, before we head into such esoteric territory:

Detail of kitchen floor, showing hexagonal tile

Wandering through "battleground Martin" (aka the Martin House in the midst of Phase 5A) this week, I noticed a few stray, hexagonal white tiles lingering on the kitchen floor, lonely fugitives from the extensive removals that have been completed in the space. These hex tiles have long been a curiosity - ever since they were seen peeking out from loose corners of the later linoleum. Even casual inspection of the Fuermann photo of 1907 shows a square, white ceramic tile on portions of the kitchen floor not obscured by mats. So, surely the hex tile was a later addition. But who installed it? When? And why?

Marjorie Quinlan's Rescue of a Landmark has only this to say about the history of the kitchen floor: "After repairing the cracked and broken one-inch floor tiles, they laid a floor covered with the same commercial quality linoleum tiles as in the basement" (p. 57). Unfortunately for us today, Quinlan doesn't note whether the tiles that the Tauriellos repaired and covered were square or hexagonal (the hex tiles are 1" across).

Next, I turned to project architect Jamie Robideau. Jamie had this to say about the tile conundrum:

Clearly, the square white mosaic tile seen in the photo was present in the kitchen when the photo was taken.

Detail of 1907 Fuermann kitchen photo showing square tile

The hex tile obviously came later but we don’t know when. Pretty sure the cove base was original and reused. The curious thing about the hex tile is that markings were faintly visible which seemed to correspond with the leg locations of the structural glass counter apron; the same counter seen in the Fuermann photo.

A dynamite start for a murder mystery I would say.

Agreed, Jamie. If this were a game of Clue, we would only know what room the deed was done in - we don't know by whom, or with what weapon.

Wright Reflective at Sarah Lawrence

2011-02-11T05:59:00.000-08:00

by Daniel Kuether, curatorial intern

Sarah Lawrence College sits on a 41-acre wooded campus just north of New York City. There, amongst the trees, Frank Lloyd Wright addressed the graduating class of the all-women’s college in May of 1958.

In his address to the group of young women, Wright illustrates the campus as “beautifully green,” “nice and fresh,” and sees the campus as a reflection of what the nation and architecture must strive towards. He revels in his opportunity to speak to the class upon their graduation and his chance at molding their ideas on architecture, society, and the spirit.

Immediately, Wright divulges his thoughts on American architecture. “America most needs at this time …is art, and you know we have no religion to go with the Declaration of Independence, to go with the sovereignty of the individual - none.” Wright echoes the beauty of American freedom and the beauty of the individual but in a country without meaningful organic architecture, the nation fails to put substance behind the credo.

As Wright looks to the crowd and attempts to conclude his thoughts and discourse, he reflects back upon his architectural principles. The organic form, the basis of his work, is rooted in his spiritual reflection of the self and nature. He sees this architectural foundation as what the American nation is missing and what the women at Sarah Lawrence are capable of. “The principles that built the tree will build the man, and the principles that you find activating nature everywhere are those that will build the man, the woman, and the spirit.”

His commencement address to the students unites Wright’s architectural doctrine and his vision for the American society, city, and individual; it was an opportunity to observe the coexistence of his thoughts and see them geared towards a new generation.

Judith Katz brought this manuscript to our attention. She was there in the audience as Frank Lloyd Wright spoke directly to her, a member of the Sarah Lawrence class of 1958. By the time of this address, Wright was nearly 91 years old. Although still working, his reflections upon his life and career are evident in his tone. Perhaps he can sense the opportunity to instill his wisdom and to ensure his legacy in this last year of his life.

In Memoriam: Mrs. Eleanor Greatbatch

2011-02-04T13:04:00.000-08:00

The Martin House Restoration Corporation mourns the recent loss of Mrs. Eleanor Greatbatch.

Born in 1920, Mrs. Greatbatch earned her Bachelor of Science degree from Buffalo State College and became a Home Economics teacher. She raised five children with her husband, Wilson Greatbatch, and later became an accomplished weaver. She was a steadfast, supportive partner in her husband’s many innovative projects, including the development of the implantable pacemaker.

Mr. and Mrs. Greatbatch at the opening of the Pavilion, 2009

The Eleanor & Wilson Greatbatch Pavilion was dedicated to Mr. and Mrs. Greatbatch through the generosity of the East Hill Foundation. The building stands as a testimony to their progressive, entrepreneurial spirit, and their great philanthropy to the Western New York community.

The Dumpster Sublime

2011-02-03T12:52:00.000-08:00

Crumbling industrial buildings, rusting infrastructure and all manner of urban decay: Western New York has plenty of it. At least since Charles Burchfield's eerie renditions of factories and Victorian houses in bleak, sooty landscapes, artists have been finding aesthetic value - a certain sense of sublimity - in the reality of the Rust Belt. Dumpsters and Other Strangers II, an exhibition of photographs by Robert Schulman opening at CEPA Gallery this weekend, features elegant photographic abstractions of Western New York's "vintage" industrial and architectural assets.

Schulman, a pediatrician and prolific photographer, finds our Rust Belt heritage worth preserving. He sees both harmony and dissonance in it, saying that "[his] photos, poetic jazz-like abstractions, try to capture the beauty of what may soon be gone." This mission of documenting the antiquated industrial is paralleled by Bruce Jackson's American Chartres: Buffalo Waterfront Elevators, now on view at the UB Anderson Gallery.

Dumpsters and Other Strangers II is one of four exhibitions opening at CEPA this Saturday, 7 - 10 PM. The exhibition will be on view through March 19, 2011.

From Milwaukee to Paris (Hilton)

2011-01-28T08:23:00.000-08:00

Another major Wright exhibition - Frank Lloyd Wright: Organic Architecture for the 21st Century - opens in a few weeks at the Milwaukee Art Museum and, once again, this survey of Wright's work features a "Tree of Life" window from the Darwin D. Martin House.

The unique "Tree of Life" window from the MAM

This particular example of the famed window from the Martin House, from the Museum's collection, is a relatively rare variation: one of only two from the west elevation of the second floor where the familiar "Tree" motif is compressed to produce rectangular "pots" at the bottom, rather than square. The MHRC holds the other example of this member of the "Tree of Life" family.

As outstanding an example of Wright's art glass design as this window may be, I'm tempted to make a blasphemous association (but Wright himself was known for creative blasphemy, so bear with me): the "Tree of Life" art glass pattern may have something in common with celebutante Paris Hilton - both are, to some extent, famous for being famous.

Pick yourself up off the floor, Wrightophiles; what I mean to say is this: the exquisite aesthetic qualities of the Martin windows aside, they have been collected and exhibited so widely by art museums partly because everybody else was doing it. If the Corning Museum of Glass, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery of Australia and twelve other prominent institutions all have examples of "Tree of Life" windows, they must be the best, right?

Also, both the "Tree of Life" window and Paris Hilton have their own sense of "bling," but that's another matter...

Turning the Tables in Elmira

2011-01-21T09:13:00.000-08:00

With the process to commission reproductions of the Martin library and dining tables under way, research on these unique and complex designs continues apace. Last Friday, I embarked on a research expedition to examine the Wright-designed dining table from the Boynton House (Rochester, 1908), currently in storage at Naglee Fine Arts in Elmira, while the Boynton House is under restoration by the new owners. I met my furniture conservator colleague from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Bureau of Historic Sites, David Bayne there (conveniently, about half way between Buffalo and the Capital region) for some "quality time" with the Boynton table. Our objective was to learn as much as we could from the table, which in design and year of construction is one of the closest cousins to the Martins' own (now lost). As Wright often left construction details to furniture makers - Matthews Brothers, in the case of the Martin furniture - and these renditions of his designs may reflect in-the-field changes in the interest of feasibility and functionality, built examples often provide the best evidence.


The Boynton dining table, showing its unique expansion mechanism

A primary area of interest in examining the Boynton table was the expansion mechanism, as questions linger around the issue of exactly how the Martin table expanded, how much it expanded, and how the mechanism was incorporated into the construction. The Boynton table has a unique and fascinating system: the expansion slides disappear into a void where, traditionally, the stationary apron of the table would be, such that the mechanism becomes invisible when the table is in the closed position. This is intriguing from my perspective because it represents yet another example of Wright integrating necessary mechanical elements with structure, whether in building or furniture design. Examples of this in the Martin House Complex include drainage within the main piers and radiators within the secondary pier clusters (unit room).

All this begs the question of whether the Martin dining table had such an unconventional, integrated expansion mechanism. The jury's still out on this issue, and, with minimal evidence as to the construction of the Martin tables, we hope to bring the selected furniture maker into the dialogue to assess the feasibility and desirability of the expansion mechanism options.

Thanks to the Landmark Society of Western New York (Rochester) and to Naglee Fine Arts for their collegial cooperation in making this research possible!

New Look in Cyberspace for Hamilton Houston Lownie

2011-01-13T07:31:00.000-08:00

The new City Honors Campus / HHL Architects

Hamilton Houston Lownie, our beloved restoration architects for the Martin House project (now in Phase 5), have a fresh and exciting new website. Check it out HERE.

You may already know that HHL has worked on historic restoration projects for other Western New York treasures, such as Kleinhans Music Hall and the Roycroft Inn and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, but you might not be aware that they have designed significant, contemporary buildings around Western New York, including 285 Delaware Avenue, and the new wing for Buffalo Public School no. 195 (City Honors).

Hats off to our outstanding restoration architects (who wear many hats themselves)!

Prime Buffalo

2011-01-06T13:14:00.000-08:00

This one escaped the attention of the Weekly Wright-up's Editorial Department last year, but it bears looking back to StructureHub's January 2010 post on Buffalo's preservation surge, first in a series entitled "Seven Cities Primed for an Architectural Renaissance."

Here's an excerpt from this highly positive article:

But unlike Detroit, where historic architecture is marked by sheer quantity and pervasive decay, Buffalo’s historic architecture is most notable for its quality... Most significant among these is certainly the Darwin D. Martin House.

Now, if that doesn't entice you to read it, I don't know what will. And no money changed hands with StructureHub, I assure you.

Thanks to Director of Operations Margie Stehlik for bringing this to our attention!

The Richardson Complex, in the early stages of its own "Extreme Makeover"

Stoller's Lens on Mid-Century Modern

2011-01-06T13:13:00.000-08:00

Ezra Stoller, Price Tower, Bartlesville, OK (1952-56)

Ezra Stoller is the preeminent American architectural photographer, whose work has defined mid-century modernism. An exhibition of Stoller's photographs opens at Yossi Milo Gallery in New York on January 6 and includes iconic images of major Frank Lloyd Wright buildings such as Fallingwater and the Guggenheim Museum, as well as Mies van der Rohe's Seagram Building and Eero Saarinen's TWA Terminal. In addition, the exhibition includes Stoller's images of lesser-known structures, many seen for the first time. This exhibition provides a fresh look at Stoller's masterful eye for describing architecture and creating important documents of social history.

Along with Pedro Guerrero, Stoller was one of the major photographic talents to document Wright's life and work. Stoller's images of Wright buildings have been published widely, and some well-known examples were utilized in the exhibits in the Greatbatch Pavilion at the Martin House Complex.

More on the Stoller exhibit in the NY Times...

The Top Ten of Twenty-Ten

2010-12-22T12:55:00.000-08:00

As the calendar winds down (or speeds up?) to the end of the year, I thought it a good time to reflect on what has been an eventful time in the life of a Martin House curator. So here, in no particular order, are my Top Ten Curatorial Moments of 2010:

10) Serving on a panel with Neil Levine, Scott Townsend, Mark Hertzberg and Tom Kubala at the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy conference in Cincinnati; it was an honor just to share the same podium with these fellow scholars, curators and architects...

9) Travelling to Philadelphia to meet former UB First Lady and Martin House resident Margy Meyerson, reconnecting with a living piece of Martin House history, and driving home with a trunk load of artifacts...

8) Taking possession of the first-ever piece of horizontal art glass from the Martin House. Say it, Billy: this one was HUUUGE!

7) Seeing the publication of the first book on the Martin Gardener's Cottage by Karen Tashjian, AIA. Karen - thanks for bringing a fresh perspective to a building we thought we knew...

6) Our very own episode of "Extreme Makeover: Martin House Website Edition." www.darwinmartinhouse.org

5) Receiving a "Tree of Life" window from the Grey Art Gallery of NYU. Thanks to the Grey for redefining collegial...

4) Giving a talk on the Martin House art glass for the "alumni college" of my Hamilton College 20th reunion in June. Yes, I'm older than I may look...

3) Receiving four additional Japanese prints, originally from the Martin House collection, from extended Martin family. Sorry about the blank spots on your walls, folks, but we can't thank you enough..

2) Hosting Fallingwater Director Lynda Waggoner, Heinz Architectural Center Curator Ray Ryan and Architect John Patkau for the first of our "Design Dialogues" in the Greatbatch Pavilion. A new kind of "cabin fever" set in...

1) The commencement of Phase Five of Martin House restoration - in some respects, the most ambitious, challenging and intricate phase of work thus far. As Wright himself said, "the space within becomes the reality of the building." Welcome back to reality...

If I were to add a number 11 to this list, it would have to be the cumulative experience of updating this blog every week. Thanks to all of you who take a few minutes each week to read these musings; it's truly a pleasure to provide them.

Best wishes to all for happy Holidays with family and friends. See you in 2011!

EJF

Wright Flakes Out in Michigan

2010-12-16T07:40:00.000-08:00

Growing up in Wisconsin, Frank Lloyd Wright was no stranger to snow.

In fact, the poetic image that begins the "Prelude" of Wright's Autobiography is one of traversing a snowy Wisconsin field with his Uncle John, and taking the "path less traveled" through that starkly beautiful landscape (see "Frank Says" in the sidebar) in order to gather "weeds" that caught his eye. If past is prologue, this sort of childhood vision may have inspired Wright the architect's later interest in the complex geometry of snowflakes.

The hexagonal geometry of a snowflake

Enter Carlton David and Margaret Wall some sixty-five years later, a twenty-something couple asking for a Usonian house. Wright gave them what he described in Architectural Forum as "one of the more elaborate Usonian homes." The Wall House represents the first time that Wright employed a 60-120-degree equilateral parallelogram module, adding this inherently dynamic shape to the Usonian plan vocabulary of rectangles, triangles and hexagons. In the resulting plan, these parallelograms generate larger versions of themselves, as well as triangles and hexagons: the shape that Wright cited as most conducive to natural human movement and to the union of house and environment. From a bird's-eye view, the house's hip roof and pierced, cantilevered eaves produce snowflake-like forms, earning the house its distinctive name: "Snowflake."

The hexagonal hip roofs of the Wall House

Wright found hexagons in nature - whether produced by industrious bees or ice crystals - and employed them in other prominent Usonian-era structures, most notably the Hanna or "Honeycomb" House (Palo Alto, CA, 1937) and the Auldbrass Plantation (Yemassee, SC, 1938). But the Wall House becomes associated with the snowflake form in particular, perhaps by virtue of its site in southeastern Michigan (whereas such a wintry association would be inappropriate for Auldbrass or Hanna). And Wright surely realized on some level that the Usonian houses were akin to snowflakes in that they share common systems of generative geometry, and yet no two are alike.

Partial Plan

And, as if to underscore this juxtaposition, PrairieMod currently features a selection of Holiday cards from "organic" architects.; the card by John Randal McDonald features abstracted snowflakes that look like progeny of the Wall House plan...

Brad Pitt and the Tree of Life

2010-12-10T13:11:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, "free association" yields interesting results when it comes to Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House and it's iconic art glass.

The "Tree of Life" window

Take, for example, the upcoming film The Tree of Life [Terrence Malick, 2011] which shares an evocative name with the best-known art glass window from the Martin House. Coincidentally, the film stars one Brad Pitt, known to be an architecture buff and fan of Wright's work.

Pitt's wife, equally world-famous actress Angelina Jolie, appealed to his love of architecture in finding the perfect birthday gift for her husband in 2006, when she booked a private tour and champagne toast for the two at Fallingwater, Wright's masterpiece on Bear Run in southwestern Pennsylvania. Fallingwater has had some famous visitors before, including Albert Einstein and Ted Kennedy, but the visit by Hollywood power duo Pitt and Jolie brought some dazzling star power to the Kaufmann estate, despite the intimate nature of their visit.

Jolie and Pitt at Fallingwater, 2006. Photo by Cara Armstrong

Although details of the Tree of Life film are still sketchy, it has nothing to do apparently with Frank Lloyd Wright or the popular, tree-like art glass motif he designed for the Martins. But could the release of the film be an opportunity for a sort of Wright-meets-Hollywood marketing integration? Could the Buffalo or Toronto debut of the film be an opportunity for Mr. Pitt and Ms. Jolie to visit the Martin House (whether it's his birthday or not)? Is it too late for product placement in the film (set in the Midwest in the 1950s - a Usonian in the background, perhaps?)? Pitt wearing a t-shirt with the Martin "Tree of Life" motif during press conferences? The possibilities are endless.

Brad, if you're reading this, we could use some star power here in Buffalo. And we have many "Tree of Life" windows yet to reproduce, at a mere $29,000 each.

2010-12-02T06:57:00.000-08:00

"I wanted a home where icicles by invitation might beautify the eves... icicles came to hang staccato from the eaves."

[Frank Lloyd Wright, An Autobiography] Photo: Janet Akcakal

New Website Goes Live

2010-12-01T13:55:00.000-08:00

After months of digital tinkering and virtual design charettes, the NEW (and vastly improved) Martin House website has hit cyberspace!

And with that, I'll let it speak for itself... www.darwinmartinhouse.org

A Martin-Wright Thanksgiving Chronology

2010-11-24T08:21:00.000-08:00

1621: The Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians share a harvest feast

1623: The aforementioned hold the second Thanksgiving feast (to finally finish the leftovers from 1621?)

1789: President George Washington makes the first proclamation of Thanksgiving by the United States government

1863: In the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln calls for a "National Day of Thanksgiving"

1865: Darwin Martin is born in Bouckville, NY

c. 1873 Darwin Martin is attacked by a "bull turkey" in Nebraska

1867: Frank Lloyd Wright is born in Richland Center, WI

1893: "Lieber Meister" Louis Sullivan calls Wright a turkey (among other names)

1903-05: Wright and Martin collaborate to create some buildings in Buffalo, NY

1934: NBC radio broadcasts the first Thanksgiving Day football game (Lions vs. Bears), giving Americans everywhere a new form of turkey-day entertainment

1941: FDR signs legislation officially making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November

2010: The Martin House Restoration Corporation adds additional Thanksgiving weekend tours to help entertain your in-laws

Cottage Industry

2010-11-18T11:03:00.000-08:00

The MHRC is pleased to announce its publication of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Gardener’s Cottage at the Martin House Complex, a new book on the Martin family gardener’s cottage (1909), part of the Martin House Complex. Written and produced by Karen J. S. Tashjian, AIA, the book is the first-ever publication exclusively about the smallest and simplest structure in the array of Wright buildings at the historic site.

Tashjian’s book is comprised of a visual essay of images accompanied by short quotations, primarily by Wright himself. Tashjian’s photographs document the house through the eye of a painter and compel the viewer to take a closer look at the building’s details. The quotations invite the reader to contemplate the ideas behind the physical reality of the structure. The book also includes an essay on simplicity, and a history and dialogue on the issue of authenticity as it relates to the expanded and renovated cottage.

Tashjian’s inspiration for the book came from visiting the site as a tourist "in her own backyard.” As she describes this experience: “I was enchanted by the richness of this small structure. It demonstrates many ideas which I believe are essential to good design, as well as qualities of a small structure that make it graceful rather than confining. As interior photographs are not permitted, I went to purchase a book on the cottage so that I might linger in some of these spaces. There was no such book available, so at that moment this book was conceived: a small volume about a small Frank Lloyd Wright structure.”

Frank Lloyd Wright held many philosophical beliefs about materials, light, circulation, and spatial experience that inspired his work. All of these ideas are evident, to varying degrees, in the gardener’s cottage. Though the spaces are small, they are rich haptically, inviting interaction and the imprint of experience, rather than detached observation.

The author will be signing books from 10 am to 2 pm during our Holiday Sale at the Wisteria Shop on December 4.

2010-11-18T10:52:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting blog post which contemplates the Gingko tree and it's role in Wright's Prairie-period plant inspirations - from Budge Gierke, via PrairieMod.

Digital Cathedrals

2010-11-12T10:31:00.000-08:00

Blake Carrington: Cathedral Scan / Asbury Hall @ Babeville / Wednesday Next

I think this performance promises a unique and all-too-rare dialogue between architecture, digital media and performance...

Wright? Wrong.

2010-11-12T06:21:00.000-08:00

Multiple parties have asked us over the past few days about a piece of art glass that's up for auction in December, via Morphy Auctions of Pennsylvania. The piece is attributed to Frank Lloyd Wright, and came from "a residence in upstate New York," leading some to speculate that it may have originated from the Martin complex.

Well, don't start bidding just yet.

This window is, without a doubt, not from the Martin House, Barton House or any other building in the complex. I would also add, with almost total certainty, that it does not hail from the Heath House, the Boynton House, or any other Wright building in upstate New York. Or downstate New York, or the United States... In other words, I don't think it's a Wright design at all, and I suspect that Morphy is playing fast and loose with this attribution in hopes of a more lively auction.

The pattern does seem inspired by Wright windows, and bears some resemblance to some of the Martin windows, particularly in the top and bottom segments. But the series of Klimt-like triangles that march up the center of the composition introduce an awkward geometry that's just not "Wright."

Caveat emptor.

It's a Matter of Trust

2010-11-05T06:40:00.000-07:00

If you haven't see it, be sure to check out Buffalo: This Place Matters, featuring the MHRC's own Mike Osika, restoration architect Ted Lownie, and a fleeting cameo by UB School of Architecture and Planning Dean and man-about-town, Brian Carter...

Thanks to the CVB for producing such an amazing portrait of Buffalo!

FALLINGWATER COTTAGES COMING TO BUFFALO (sort of...)

2010-11-04T13:10:00.001-07:00

CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS

Pink Floyd Wright

2010-11-04T13:10:00.000-07:00

The Martin House has made the number four spot on the "Ultimate Frank Lloyd Wright Tour," posted recently on the Huffington Post.

Now, if you can overlook the curious misspellings of various sites (Taliesen, Falling Water, etc.), this is pretty cool!

Perhaps due to the creative spelling, the Post's post inspired one follower to comment: Oh, for a minute there I thought they said "Pink Floyd Wright." Those would be awesome houses too.

See you on the dark side of the pergola...

Houston, That's a Go for Re-entry

2010-10-28T09:03:00.001-07:00

Fuermann and Sons' 1907 photo of the entry hall / pergola.

Following several months where the Martin House was hermetically sealed for the painstaking process of ACM (Asbestos Containing Material) removal, the "all clear" has been issued, and public tours will again be allowed to enter the main house - albeit in a limited fashion - beginning on Monday, November 1. Tours will enter the front door of the Martin House, and proceed along the entry hall axis, exiting onto the pergola. This pathway through the Martin House will afford visitors a view of spaces to either side of the hall, where restoration work is ongoing.

While only a partial reclamation of the Martin House interior, this change to the compromised tour route is significant, because visitors will once again have the full experience of the breathtaking vista from the front door of the house down the telescopic pergola and into the top-lit conservatory, where Nike presides over all.

Greatbatch Shines in AL

2010-10-28T09:03:00.000-07:00

The "enlightening" collaboration between Toshiko Mori and Arup to infuse the Eleanor and Wilson Greatbatch Pavilion with light - both natural and artificial - is profiled in this month's edition of Architectural Lighting. More HERE.

One Down (Sixteen to Go)

2010-10-22T08:22:00.000-07:00

At one time, the Martin House was graced by seventeen pieces of art glass in the horizontal plane: skylight and laylight panels in the Bursar's office, living room, unit room pier clusters and main stairway landing. A few of these pieces have been identified in public and private collections, and a few have shown up on the auction block. But all have eluded the MHRC's best efforts to return them to the Martin House. Until now.

Yesterday, the MHRC took possession of a stunning skylight / laylight panel from the three-panel Bursar's office array. This acquisition was the result of over a decade of patient, careful research and relationship-building by our restoration architect, Ted Lownie. The panel was loaned from the anonymous owner for the "Windows" exhibition at the Burchfield Penney Art Center in 1999, and it has been high on our "wish list" ever since.

The importance of this acquisition cannot be overstated; having just one such example will allow us to perfectly reproduce all the other horizontal art glass for the house with complete accuracy as to the color and type of glass used, as the same palette is shared by all the skylight and laylight panels in the house.

Greatbatch Goes Global

2010-10-22T07:00:00.000-07:00

Adding to its growing list of accolades, Toshiko Mori's Eleanor & Wilson Greatbatch Pavilion has been shortlisted for an award from the World Architecture Festival held in Barcelona this November.

Joining the Greatbatch Pavilion in the nominations for the "Display" category are the likes of Foster + Partners Fortaleza Hall at the Johnson Wax complex in Racine, Wisconsin, and the Danish and Spanish Pavilions from the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.

Now, how do you say "I'd like to thank Mr. Wright" in Spanish?

AIA Accolades

2010-10-15T06:45:00.000-07:00


Ted Lownie, with NYS Parks Commissioner Bernadette Castro

The American Institute of Architects New York State (AIANYS) will present a 2010 Design Award to Hamilton Houston Lownie Architects (HHL) of Buffalo for the firm’s restoration of the Martin House Complex. This “Award of Excellence” in the Historic Preservation category will be conferred on HHL during the AIANYS’ President’s Dinner and Design Awards Presentation tonight (10/15) in Buffalo in recognition of their outstanding work in the reconstruction of the pergola, conservatory and carriage house and the exterior restoration of the Darwin Martin House.

This award is among selected projects representing exceptional work by AIANYS members in eleven categories: Adaptive Reuse, Commercial / Industrial (Large and Small Projects), Historic Preservation, Institutional, Interiors, International, Residential (Large and Small Projects), Unbuilt and Urban Planning / Design. The criteria used by the juries included design quality, program resolution, innovation, thoughtfulness and technique. HHL shares accolades in the Historic Preservation category with restorations of New York’s Beacon Theatre and Empire State Building (both by Beyer Blinder Belle Architects and Partners LLP).

HHL has been involved in the renewal of the Martin House Complex for more than a decade. The work is now in its final phase, focusing on the interior of the Martin House, and is the most ambitious restoration and reconstruction of a Wright-designed structure ever undertaken. The project has been recognized by the national and international media as an outstanding effort to preserve one of Wright’s masterworks of the Prairie era.

“The Martin House restoration and reconstruction, which we began in 1992, has been and continues to be, a project which continually provides unparalleled opportunities for professional growth architecturally. Working on the Martin House is a genuine privilege,” reflected HHL Founding Architect Theodore L. Lownie. Managing Partner Matthew W. Meier observed: “As architects, it’s truly been a privilege to devote nearly two decades of our professional service to research, stabilize, repair, reconstruct and restore Frank Lloyd Wright’s self-proclaimed ‘opus' – located right here in our own back yard!”

Toshiko Mori, speaking at the opening of the Greatbatch Pavilion

The Martin House Restoration Corporation is also extremely gratified that the AIANYS will present another award for its campus’s Eleanor and Wilson Greatbatch Pavilion (2009) to Toshiko Mori Architect (TMA) of New York City. Mori will receive an “Award of Excellence” in the Institutional category. TMA previously received an “Honor” Design Award from the Buffalo/WNY Chapter of the AIA in 2009, and another from the AIA New York (New York City) Chapter in 2010 for the design of the Greatbatch Pavilion.

Asbestos We Can

2010-10-08T08:08:00.000-07:00

The MHRC is rejoicing this week at receiving the "all clear" from Phase 5A contractors who have been performing asbestos abatement over the summer. The removal of massive amounts of ACM (Asbestos Containing Materials) from the Martin House is complete, and the air and surfaces of the interior thoroughly cleaned. We are all too happy to bid farewell to this potentially hazardous material (PHM, perhaps?).

This is great news for the Martin House staff as well as for our visitors. We've cleared a major, messy hurdle in pursuing the complete, interior restoration of the house, and it also means that we may regain access (albeit limited) to the house - a pathway from the front door through the entry hall to the pergola - in the near future. For the public, this means the return of a semblance of our "traditional" tour route, but also an opportunity to see other interior restoration in progress.

As a curator, it's always difficult to have one's collection (in this case a building) so compromised and inaccessible. This first segment of Phase 5A has obfuscated various research and interpretation efforts at the Martin House; but in the long view, it has paved the way for the full experience of Wright's richly detailed interior to take shape once again. The rewards will be well worth enduring this temporary "siege" on the house.

SULLIVAN'S STRUGGLE

2010-10-01T13:53:00.000-07:00

Louis Sullivan: The Struggle for American Architecture looks like a great film - and the first ever - on the life and work of Lieber Meister Louis Sullivan, coming to a theater near you (specifically, the Market Arcade Film and Arts Center, Wednesday, Oct. 6, 8 PM)

Click HERE to purchase tickets...

2010-09-30T12:46:00.000-07:00

Check out an interesting article on restoration efforts at our Rochester cousin, the Boynton House [click HERE]

Cincinnati Journal

2010-09-30T11:25:00.000-07:00

I recently returned from the annual Conference of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy - this year in Cincinnati, Ohio. This annual gathering of Wright scholars, homeowners and representatives of public sites was built on the theme of "Modifying Wright's Buildings and Their Sites: Additions, Subtractions and Adjacencies." This made for some interesting panel presentations and related discussions concerning buildings from the Guggenheim Museum (New York) to Taliesin West (Scottsdale) to the Freeman House (Los Angeles).

I had the pleasure and privilege of sharing a presentation on the Martin House Visitor Center competition in a panel with some very distinguished company: Neil Levine discussed Gwathmey Siegel's 1992 addition and renovation of the Guggenheim, Mark Hertzberg addressed Wright's own addition of the research tower to the S.C. Johnson and Son complex, Tom Kubala discussed his firm's recent addition to the Unitarian Meeting House in Madison, and Scott Perkins presented Zaha Hadid's dynamic project to expand the Price Tower Art Center. All of these fascinating case studies grappled with the complex question of what makes a successful (and sustainable) partnership with a Wright building. Other sessions explored the effect - perhaps inevitable - of changes to the built and natural environments adjacent to Wright's buildings. And some delved into the question of whether a dormant Wright building can be re-purposed and still maintain something of its original form and meaning.

A highlight of these conferences is always the afternoon bus tours to various buildings by Wright and his contemporaries in the host region. These tours offer continuing educational opportunities of a different sort - rare chances to experience the haptic dimension of these buildings in real time and space. Memorable among these field trips was a visit to the Westcott House in Springfield, product of an ambitious (and downright heroic) restoration effort, and a tour of the Tonkens House in Amberley Village, a meticulously-preserved Usonian Automatic where gold leaf graces the ceiling of the bedroom wing.

The Building Conservancy and its annual conference have a special relationship to Buffalo: the conference has been held here twice - first in 1997 and again in 2009. Moreover, the Conservancy's mission - and its logo - stems from one of Buffalo greatest mistakes: the demolition of the Larkin Administration building in 1950. Senior Martin House Curator and UB Distinguished Service Professor Jack Quinan was among the founding vanguard of the Conservancy, and has dedicated a great deal of his time and expertise over the past two decades to seeing that no more "Larkins" are lost to the wrecking ball.

Gurdjieff! (gesundheit!)

2010-09-17T12:34:00.000-07:00

If you're interested in Oligivanna Wright and intrigued by her mystical mentor (or if you're just into impressive mustaches), here's a free lecture that's right up your alley:

Exchanges on the Ideas of Gurdjieff: Mathematics, Philosophy and Psychology, by Scott Williams. Click HERE for details.