The Martin House Landscape plan of 1910 (Wasmuth)
Currently the Martin House is an architectural
photographer’s dream, of sorts, in that the buildings reside on a veritable
carpet of green grass (except for the northwest garden behind the house) and
the elms and maples that once screened the property along Jewett and Summit
avenues are long gone. The setting would be more appropriate to Le Corbusier’s
Villa Savoie. Plans are underway, however, to restore the landscape, a task
made formidable because of a jumble of evidence: four or five original drawings
that are not consistent, numerous historic photographs not all dated, fragments
of the original plantings, and letters referencing the purchase of certain
plants. Then there is Wright’s elegant re-imagining of the entire plan for the
Wasmuth portfolio in Berlin in 1910. (above) The largest and most carefully
detailed plan, executed by Walter Burley Griffin while Wright was in Japan
early in 1905, features an overwrought “floral hemicycle” consisting of 20,000
plants that were to arc around the east porch of the main house. This plan may
be the reason that Wright fired Griffin later in 1905. So there are many
questions to resolve: Do the early photographs reflect portions Griffin’s
plan? Since Griffin subsequently
won the competition to design Canberra, the new capitol of Australia, does his
plan merit special attention? Should Wright’s Wasmuth version of the plan be
given consideration? These questions will be answered by a team of experts
working with the understanding that
the landscape is of the utmost importance to Wright’s unifying vision.
On another matter, Wright’s home for his son, David, in
Phoenix, -- named by the architect, “How to Live in the Southwest,” (above) is at risk
of demolition. For an online
version of the press release see: www.savewright.org/index.php?t=news_focus&story_id=82 Or write mayor.stanton@phoenix.gov and express your dismay at the
possibility of losing this important building.
2 comments:
Thanks for the comments on the landscape plan. The hemicycle planting is shown on the plan, so hard to believe Wright would fire him over it. He did show the street corner at right angles even though it is not and read the number of bays is longer than actually built to the garage. He did use the semicircle landscape plan on other houses.
Perhaps he was fired by Wright as you suggested. Was the simplified plan as drawn later installed and Wright disapproved this upon seeing it? An early sketch shows a reflecting pool to the east of the pergola, did Martin nix this and are there later plans or a letter that mentions this? A shame this was deleted, imagine the reflections on the pergola ceiling and the view to a fountain at the end.
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