Homeland

I have to admit, I knew little about Taliesan before visiting it yesterday, and in many ways, it defied my uninformed expectations. When I imagined the private home of Frank Lloyd Wright, words like magnificent, perfect, and expansive came to mind. A masterpiece in every way.  Instead, I found a constant work in progress, a workshop for architecture apprentices, and a moving story of the personal life of one of America’s sacred sons. 

I knew the main part of the house had burned twice, once due to arson and once due to an electrical malfunction. I knew that FLW redesigned and rebuilt it both times, but I did not know the extent to which he was forever thinking of trying out new techniques, ripping out walls, adding windows, changing artwork, redesigning furniture. He once redid two rooms just for the visit of Solomon R. Guggenheim and his assistant to discuss bidding on the project for the now famous Guggenheim Museum in New York City, an endeavor FLW passionately wanted to undertake. (Of course, we know Guggenheim selected him.) 

FLW spent some 50 years of his life in this verdant valley, periodically from the time he was a teenager until the time of his death. His scandalous and tragic love affair with Mamah Borthwick and his marriage to the third Mrs. Wright largely took place in this home. 

Mrs. Wright’s cantilevered Bird Walk so she could commune with her feathered friends

FLW was known to sleep only a few hours and would get up in the middle of the night to go to his workroom on the other side of the house. Mrs. Wright became tired of this whimsical behavior and had her own bedroom constructed. When a famous architectural magazine planned to come to Taliesan to interview Wright, he decided he needed a new, larger combined bedroom and work space, so he instructed his apprentices to build him one, with a construction timeline of one month. 

Bedroom/workshop

To declare Taliesan a hodgepodge of technique is probably harsh, but it is definitely a departure from FLW’s commissioned works. But, the bottom line is, it was exactly the way he wanted it, and shouldn’t that be the way it was?

Southern view of Taliesan

Sprawling western view of Taliesan

Abundant use of FLW’s favorite color, Cherokee Red

Inventive stringed quartet stand

Incorporation of items surviving previous house fires into the rebuild

Bringing the outdoors in

Unitarian Meeting House

Arrogant, artificial, brazen, cruel, recklessly extravagant, a publicity seeker, an exhibitionist, egotist, sensationalist, impatient, unscrupulous, untrustworthy, erratic and capricious  

- opinion of one of the First Unitarian Society members against FLW, also a member, designing their meeting house

In the end, of course, the Society did select Wright, and he went on to design perhaps one of the most distinctive houses of worship in the world.  Constructed in the latter years of his career, the structure became one of his favorites of all the many projects he led.

Perched atop a hill, like the wings of a bird protecting her flock.

FLW called the apex of the roofline the prow, as of a ship, and some shipbuilding techniques were even used to create the supports of the roof.  If you imagine a sailing vessel turned upside down, perhaps you can visualize how the roofline resembles the hull of a boat.

The interior of the Meeting House is an amazing display of FLW techniques.

Meeting House interior

Notice the use of all the triangular shapes throughout.  Even the diamond shapes in the Cherokee Red floors are two triangles placed end-to-end.  The sloped and curved ceiling is a clear departure from the more rectangular shapes of traditional houses of worship.  

Signature stone placed on the exterior of the Meeting House to designate it was one of FLW’s favorite structures. 

Next we’re on to Spring Green and FLW’s masterful Taliesan. 

 

Frank Lloyd Wright in the workplace

After a lunch at the marina on the waterfront of Lake Michigan in Racine, we made our way to the SC Johnson Global Headquarters where FLW was commissioned to design the Administration Building with its Great Workroom, completed in 1939, and later completed in 1950, the 14-story cantilevered Research Tower. Head of SC Johnson Herbert F. Johnson, Jr. was so impressed with FLW’s work that he later hired him to design his nearby home Wingspread, which we visited the day before. 

Unfortunately, pictures of the interiors of these buildings are prohibited, so I can’t show you the impractically designed three-legged desk chair, which was known to pitch employees onto the floor if they sat any way but perfectly upright.  Legend has it that Herbert F. Johnson, Jr. told an incredulous FLW that his chairs needed a redesign and invited FLW to his office to discuss it. Strategically positioning a pen on the corner of Johnson’s desk, FLW reached for it and immediately found himself sprawled on the floor.  He agreed to redesign the chairs with four legs.

If you’ve ever climbed the narrow, winding staircase at Blarney Castle in Ireland to kiss the Blarney Stone, you have an idea what it’s like to make your way up the stairs of the Research Tower. (There is an elevator, no longer in use, that the faint of heart could use.) In this research space well-known products such as Glade, Raid, Off!, and Pledge were invented. 

The Research Tower is one of the largest buildings ever built on the cantilevered principle. The base of the structure is a mere 13 feet wide, while it rises 14 stories into the sky of the SC Johnson complex. 

Due to safety concerns with the narrow, winding staircase and the need for larger research space, employees abandoned work in the Research Tower in 1982. However, SC Johnson remains the conservator of this remarkable building, having completed restoration of it in 2014. 

Now, we’re on to Madison for further FLW adventures. 

From 800 square feet to 14,000 square feet

We began our first day of visiting Wisconsin FLW sites by being a little bit naughty. Knowing it would be closed to the public yesterday, we drove over to the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Milwaukee hoping to at least see the outside and maybe even score a sneak peak of the inside. We arrived to a sign informing us that we’d turned onto a private drive and were on private property. Oops. 

Designed by FLW in 1956 and completed after his death, the church is constructed entirely of reinforced concrete. I understand the interior is breathtaking, but, alas, all I dared do was take a quick picture of the outside from the car window.

Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church

From our quick stint of trespassing, we headed over to the Burnham Block,

also in Milwaukee. Here we toured several of FLW’s American System-Built Homes, originally designed to be affordable housing for the middle class. The idea was to have homes that could be constructed on site from pre-milled cuts of materials, a sort of IKEA idea for home building. Unfortunately, the homes were still too expensive for the average American, and with the onset of World War I, a financial disagreement with the developer, and the attention of FLW turning to other projects, the American System-Built Homes were never fully realized, though discoveries of other homes built in this manner are still being discovered today. What’s unique about the Burnham Block is the collection of several homes in one location. Interestingly, most of the homes were originally purchased by investors, not by individuals as Wright had envisioned, and turned into rental homes, sometimes duplexes, no more than 800 square feet in size. Today, one is an Airbnb. 

The first FLW home to be built on Burnham Block at number 2732 W Burnham Street. This one is a duplex, the steps in front leading to the second story and the ground floor entrance hidden on the right side. 

The most recently renovated Burnham Block home, at 2714. The house originally cost $5000. Renovations cost $500,000. 

In the above photo, the room on the right corner is the living room, which might appear quite small from the outside (remember, this is an 800 square foot home). However, FLW uses several of his hallmark techniques to enlarge its appearance. First, the outside doorway and small foyer into the home is compressed, such that when you enter the living room, the release into higher ceilings and wider walls, provides relief, like having felt slightly clostrophobic, then entering a great open space. 

The banks of windows meeting at a corner stud opens the space to the outside, and a faux tray ceiling, simply outlined with timbers, gives the illusion of a higher ceiling. 

After Paul bought a pair of FLW-inspired socks, we headed south to Racine to have a tour of Wingspread, a 14,000-square foot former home of SC Johnson head Herbert Fisk Johnson, Jr. Now a conference center, most all of the FLW touches are present. The building was constructed in a pinwheel-like design, with four wings extending out from a central grand hall. 

Wingspread, exterior view of the kitchen wing

Wingspread great hall with spiral staircase

Though not always practical in their design, FLW loved fireplaces. This one is in the children’s playroom at Wingspread. I’m sure it caused no problems. 


Wingspread example of windows forming the corners of the room, bringing the outside in. 


Classic FLW cantilevered structure on one of the Wingspread wings

After our full day of Frank Lloyd Wright, we headed back to our lovely Victorian B&B in Milwaukee and had a glass of Pinot Grigio in their garden. A great way to finish off a great day. 

The inspiration

Among other things, I owe my first exposure of Frank Lloyd Wright to my freshman college year American history professor.  A small town girl, coming from rural South Carolina to attend an all women's college in Atlanta, I had a lot to learn over those four years.  I'm glad to claim among those things the seeds of interest in FLW and his Prairie Style of architecture.  

My first real life experience was perhaps his most famous, Fallingwater.  Ever since, when I travel close to one of his buildings, I make a stop.  

An avid armchair traveler, late last year I ran across mention of the Frank Lloyd Wright Trail in southern Wisconsin and began planning a trip for my husband Paul and me.  Starting out in Milwaukee and continuing west to Richland Center, the highlight of the self-guided trail must be his home and architecture school Taliesan, in Spring Green. Because of the limits of available opening hours, I will miss at least one site at the end of the trail, the A.D. German Warehouse, though I am hoping to, at least, get a glance and snap a few pictures of the Wyoming Valley School, just three miles away from Taliesan, the only public elementary school designed by FLW, originally constructed in honor of his mother.  It will be closed for tours on the day of our time in that area, so a picture, perhaps from afar, will have to do.  The A.D. German Warehouse is also closed that day, but it is a bit further afield...and we have a four-hour drive to make a date with a secluded cabin in Door County where we'll spend five days recuperating and rediscovering this other jewel of Wisconsin, albeit not connected to Mr. Wright.

We set off in about a week, and while I'm no FLW expert by any claim, I'll be sharing photos and thoughts about this particular selection of the amazingly prolific body of work of America's premier architect.

Taliesan