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FRANK * LLOYD ** WRIGHT
When someone mentions Frank Lloyd Wright, most people think
immediately about Falling
Water, otherwise known as the Edgar Kaufman House built in 1936
in Mill Run, Pennsylvania. This
house, without a doubt, is the architects masterpiece with its
cascading waterfall, cantilevered balconies,
sandstone walls, and mitered glass, all this natural beauty in a
wooded setting. Wright built it over Bear
Run Stream which runs directly below the living room floor! He
said to Kaufman, I want you to live
with the waterfall, not just look at it!
Edgar Kaufman, the original owner, was also an apprentice of the
architect. He was so impressed
by this masterpiece that he said, Architecture is poetry
architecture speaks as poetry to the soul. A
good building is the greatest of poems when it is organic
architecture. If this is true, Frank Lloyd Wright
is the greatest poet of the XIX and XX centuries. He was way
ahead of his time in the great variety that
he offered in his designs.
Every house he built enjoyed the concept of bringing the outside
in and the inside out. He
loved earth tones (soft autumn colors), and selected these
materials for their texture and colors. He
wanted lots of light to filter in, in a variety of ways. There
was never any wasted space in any of his
buildings.
He designed religious buildings both Jewish and Christian.
Temple Beth Shalom (1954) in
Elkins Park, Pennsylvania resembles another Noahs Ark rather
than a synagogue. Wright wanted it to be
a mountain of light, a moving Sinai. The Annunciation Greek
Orthodox Church built just two years
later in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, resembles a huge flying saucer
laid out in the form of a Greek Cross with
clerestory windows resembling those found in Byzantine
architecture. Florida Southern College (1938)
in Lakeland, Florida was an unusual project since students
played a major role in the construction of the
campus, mixing concrete and making blocks. Here Wright used
textured concrete and multicolored glass
to play with the filtered sunlight.
The S.C. Johnson & Son Administration Building (1936) in
Racine, Wisconsin, a seven-story
architectural marvel has skylights and covered walkways, and a
wide open interior with supports that
resemble huge round patio tables on very long slender columns.
The architect also designed all the wood
and meal furniture.
Another architectural masterpiece is the Solomon R. Guggenheim
Art Museum in New York
City. Often called the Ziggurat, it resembles an ancient
Sumerian temple with its spiral connected
levels. The project with numerous revisions and multiple delays
took a full sixteen years to complete. A
domed ceiling with skylights, spiral tiers graduating from small
at the bottom to much larger on top, and
an open interior court area are integral design features of this
highly controversial museum which opened
in 1959.
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He designed a wide variety of houses for people with very
exclusive taste and open pocketbook
budgets, those that accommodated any last-minute costly changes.
The Hollyhock House in Los Angeles,
built in 1917, is a massive structure resembling a Mayan temple
with its circling hollyhocks made of
poured concrete, texture block construction, and other
pre-Columbian designs. The vast gardens, almost
ceiling to floor windows, and open courtyard all brought nature
into the design. He said, Architecture
needs to be free, and that it was in this house.
While the majority of these buildings were designed for very
wealthy clients, someone had
approached him to design something far more affordable, yet
designed in the same great quality of his
other projects. These Prairie Houses (1906-1907) found across
the Midwest enjoyed some innovative
architectural features that have been handed down to the XXI
century, over 100 years later.
Large fireplace in a spacious living room
Window placement for cross ventilation
Lots of windows
Space under the floor for better ventilation
Lower ceilings providing for greater heating efficiency
Overhanging eaves to keep rain off exterior walls and provide
shade in the summer
Bedrooms grouped together
Ceiling fans
In his 75-year career, Frank Lloyd Wright had ample opportunity
to share his gift for unique and practical
commercial, residential, religious, and educational design. The
flow of his designs, the harmony with
nature, the blending of a variety of materials, and his
manipulation of colors and textures create a form of
visual poetry. Frank Lloyd Wright truly was the greatest
architect of the XIX and XX century.
