Isabel Martin Residence (Graycliff)

Unfortunately, the timing of my transit on a business trip did not allow me to take the tour of Graycliff, but the docent in the gift shop was kind and allowed me to step out and take a quick photograph of the buildings. The restoration is in progress as you'll see. Visit the official web site for Graycliff and definitely take the tour if you're in the area. (About 40 minutes from Buffalo.) You may want to check out the Darwin Martin Complex while you're in Buffalo.

The visitor's center and gift shop used to be the gymnasium.

Walter V. Davidson Residence

This is a private residence not far from the Darwin Martin Complex. Note the tree damage from a early heavy snow storm about a week earlier.

William R. Heath Residence

This prairie style house was built not long after the Darwin Martin Complex and is privately owned. Buffalo had a major early snow storm about a week earlier so you'll see some tree damage in some of the photos.

Unique art glass common in FLLW's prairie houses.

Darwin D. Martin Complex

While in transit to Erie, Pennsylvania on a business trip I was able to take an afternoon in Buffalo to tour the Darwin Martin Complex and visit some other Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in the area. You can learn more about the Darwin Martin Complex at the official web site.

The Darwin Martin Complex consists of four buildings in addition to the George Barton Residence. The Martin house is being restored and the Pergola, Conservatory, and Carriage House/Stable are being rebuilt as they had been demolished. As Sandy, our tour guide noted, these are the only Frank Lloyd Wright buildings that have been rebuilt (vs. being restored.) The total effort is costing $35 million!

The following photograph shows the "martin houses" on top of the Conservatory. A taste of Wright's sense of humor.

The front door is hidden between the two left urns.

In the next photograph, notice the gutters that follow the prarie style horizontal line. There are no downspouts, but instead there are catch basins on the ground. You can also see some of the art glass windows.

The next photograph is of a decal in a window to indicate what will be there eventually as the building is restored. There are examples inside the building where this is done (wallpaper) including the glass mosaic around the hearth. This will be a magnificant building to tour when it is completed, but it is fascinating to see the restoration process underway too.

This is an art glass window ("tree of life" pattern) on the upper story.

Compare the urns in the following photograph with the nearby William Heath Residence.

Wanted a place to slip this in: Buffalo viewed from the south shore of Lake Erie.

George Barton Residence

This building is part of the Darwin Martin Complex, but since it is listed separately in Storrer's book I list it separately here. Our tour guide, Sandy, said that the house was built before the Martin house as something of a test for Frank Lloyd Wright by Darwin Martin. The house was built on time, but significantly over budget. Fortunately for both Wright and Martin, they had developed a friendship, so the budget was not the obstacle that it might have been otherwise. Frank Lloyd Wright was not noted for maintaining a budget, either for his clients or for himself.

This is the back of the house. As you'll see throughout all of the photos this is a site under construction. There were about a dozen workers on site during the tour.

The Darwin Martin Complex is the source of some of the best known Frank Lloyd Wright window patterns.

The following photograph shows how the Barton House is positioned relative to the Martin House.

Designing with Light II (Symposium)

I was fortunate to attend a two-day symposium associated with the exhibit of Frank Lloyd Wright "light screens" in New York City on Monday and Tuesday, June 4th and 5th, 2001. The exhibit was hosted by the American Craft Museum and the symposium was hosted by Christie's. The exhibit was sponsored bySteelcase Inc. and the symposium was sponsored by HunterDouglas. You can find out more about the exhibit schedule and where it will be touring at flwlightscreens.com. I highly recommend seeing the exhibit since it may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see so many of his light screens together.

The American Craft Museum is located on 53rd near 6th Avenue....

Having never been to Christie's, it was an eye-opening experience for me. The catalogs of artworks previously auctioned and planned for future auctions was fascinating. It's an entirely different world from my everyday existence. The concept of spending $80,000+ on a Tiffany lamp is something to ponder..... this is what Christie's looks like from the outside.</P>

An auction room was converted to a presentation room during the symposium.

Mr. Bruce Pfeiffer

The symposium featured several speakers including two Frank Lloyd Wright apprentices: Edgar Tafel and Bruce Pfeiffer. Mr. Pfeiffer is also the Director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives and Vice-President of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation located at Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona. I had the good fortune to meet a third FLW apprentice, Mr. Mansinh Rana, who was present when Mr. Tafel spoke on Monday. It was a pleasure hearing both Mr. Tafel and Mr. Pfeiffer speak about their experiences with Mr. Wright, and Mr. Tafel and Mr. Rana confirmed Mr. Wright's story about telling apprentices not to "spit in his coffee" when Mr. Wright thought that an apprentice might be imitating him too closely. You can read about this particular story in Edgar Tafel's book: Years with Frank Lloyd Wright, Apprentice to Genius (pg. 169 in my reprint edition).

The curator of the exhibit, Ms. Julie Sloan, spoke on Tuesday. She has published two books in conjunction with the exhibit. The first, Light Screens: The Leaded Glass of Frank Lloyd Wright is more modestly priced. The second, Light Screens: The Complete Leaded-Glass Windows of Frank Lloyd Wright is a beautiful book for the serious enthusiast (it's on my Christmas list; :-) Ms. Sloan clearly knew her subject well. On Monday she was also present for the presentation by Mr. Tom Venturella, an expert in the restoration of Frank Lloyd Wright art glass. His hands-on presentation was interesting and confirmed much of what I had experienced from my own efforts working with stained glass. The description of the electroplating techniques used with the windows was especially interesting.

Ms. Julie Sloan

Ms. Julia Meech, curator of the exhibition Frank Lloyd Wright and the Art of Japan: The Architect's other Passion currently on display at the Japan Society in New York City, spoke on Tuesday. Hearing her speak about his dealings with Japanese prints and his importance as a player in that market has given me an interest in studying more about it. I knew that Frank Lloyd Wright was influenced by his interest in Japanese and oriental art, but I had not realized that it played such an important role in his finances and that he influenced the Japanese print market so greatly when he was an active trader.

Although the symposium had much to offer the Frank Lloyd Wright enthusiast, it also had several presentations by talented glass artists of today and also by experts in the use of lighting in buildings and interiors.

Mr. Ed Carpenter, a well-known artist specializing in large-scale public glass sculptures spoke on the first day. You can find references to his works by searching at Google for "Ed Carpenter glass" and his website is at www.edcarpenter.net.

Ms. Nancy Gong, an active practicing glass artist also spoke. I'm looking forward to hearing more about her work and you can visit her website.

Ms. Victoria Meyers, a practicing architect in New York and instructor at Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture, spoke on the use of light in architecture. I found her thoughts about how Frank Lloyd Wright's later buildings grew the concepts present in his earlier light screens to encompass the entire building interesting.

Ms. Kim Kiner, a Product Designer with Hunter Douglas had a challenging task to present thoughts on window treatments to the group. Frank Lloyd Wright did not believe in curtains and in fact his light screens were an attempt to control the light and frame the view. As one of the speakers put it "he was a bit of a control freak", which is a fair statement considering what I've read about his desire to design everything, even in some cases the clothes worn by a client. Ms. Kiner presented some interesting material concerning the qualities and characteristics of light depending on the direction and time of day. This part of the discussion reminded me of some of my recent Feng Shui reading.

Mr. Steven Weintraub, an independent consultant specializing in Museum Environment and Objects Conservation spoke about the lighting design in museums and how they are often not as well designed as you would think they should be for the presentation and preservation of art. He presented some interesting examples of well-designed and poorly-designed lighting in museums around the world.

Mr. Frank Quadflieg, the Creative Director for Andersen Windows, spoke concerning upcoming trends in window designs and products. By the way, Andersen offers a line of windows based on Frank Lloyd Wright window designs.

Mr. Craig Miller, curator of Architecture, Design and Graphics at the Denver Art Museum, and formerly with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC where he was the curator for the installation of the Frank Lloyd Wright Room there, spoke about two of Wright's largest buildings. Alas, neither exists today, but I found his discussions of Midway Gardens and the Imperial Hotel fascinating.

Overall a very enjoyable two days although I'm grateful that I don't have to commute into New York City often!

Francis W. Little Residence II, Living Room

Living room reconstructed, 1972 - Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

I was in New York for a business meeting and afterwards managed to slip in a quick visit theMetropolitan Museum to view the living room of the Little Residence. The reconstruction was done with one of the walls facing an exterior wall of the museum so the room was mostly illuminated with natural light. I was struck by how peaceful the space was when I entered the room.

Being somewhat familiar with his work now I was able to pick out traits that are common to many of his designs. Horizontal lines are evident throughout. Indirect lighting is used extensively. The brickwork has the vertical gaps filled in so that the horizontal is emphasized. I had thought this was a technique used later in his Usonian houses, but evidently this was used earlier in his Prairie houses. The exterior of the living room was reconstructed in the museum as well so the overhang that brings the exterior into the house prior to actually entering the house could be experienced. This reminded me of the transition from the entryway to the living room in the Pope-Leighey Residence.

There are a few additional Wright artifacts at the museum including items from the Imperial Hotel, theCoonley Residence, and Midway Gardens. I did not have much time to shop in the gift shop, but my inquiry about Wright-related items drew a blank. If you are visiting do your research up front concerning any souvenirs you might want. They can probably be ordered by phone or from their web site anyway.

The photos are very poor since I only had a low-end digital camera with me and flash photography is not allowed in the museum. Notice that the original furniture and fixtures were included in the room.

Overall a great "Wright experience" — if you are in the area don't miss it!

Roland and Ronny Reisley Residence

This was one of three Wright houses in the Usonian neighborhood. For more information see the Sol Friedman Residence and the Edward Serlin Residence. The road was very confusing and the map provided in The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion did not seem right. I thought it might be the mirror image since the roads seemed backwards.

Unfortunately, I was not able to find the third Wright house, but I did take some pictures of the other Usonian houses and grouped them on the Edward Serlin Residence page.

Edward Serlin Residence

I was not able to identify the Edward Serlin Residence! It is possible that it was located on a road that was marked private and warned of tripping a police alarm. Instead I have included on this page some photos taken of other Usonian style houses in the neighborhood designed by Wright apprentices. According to Storrer, the apprentices David Henken, Ted Bower, Kaneji Domoto, and disciple Aaron Resnick all designed houses in the neighborhood. For other Wright houses see the Sol Friedman Residence and the Roland and Ronny Reisley Residence. The next time we are up in the area I may try again to find the house.

Sol Friedman Residence

It turns out that Samantha's aunt and uncle live just a few minutes from a Usonian community in Pleasantville. There are three Wright houses plus about 40 homes designed by Wright apprentices in the neighborhood. As you would expect, it is heavily wooded and the road was narrow. When I left this community and drove into an adjoining suburban neighborhood the houses appeared lifeless and without character. I suppose we can't all afford to live in a custom designed home that relates to its site well, but we're missing a lot.

When I view these private houses it makes me wish that all Wright homes were open to the public, though I'm careful not to infringe on the homeowner's privacy. Wright homeowners must get more than their share of gawkers.

There are some pictures of the interior in The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion.

Not your everyday carport....

For other sites in the neighborhood see the Roland and Ronny Reisley Residence and the Edward Serlin Residence.

Guggenheim Museum

While in NYC on other business I managed to slip in a quick visit to the Guggenheim Museum. Unfortunately none of the inside pictures turned out. The simple 320x240 digital camera is not good for low light situations.

The walk down the spiral was inspiring. The building is not as large as I thought it would be on the outside, but it seemed much larger on the inside.

The FLLW initials plaque was hard to get to so the photograph is only so-so.

Guggenheim Museum Web Site