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Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park | Annual Lecture: The Restoration of Unity Temple

QUICK FACTS:
Date: Friday, April 6, 2018
Location: Farrell Auditorium, Saint Louis Art Museum

Unity Temple is one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most important works. Soon after its completion he said, “Unity Temple makes an entirely new architecture…and is the first expression of it. That is my contribution to modern architecture.” It was truly revolutionary and changed the way architects thought about space forever. In June of 2017 a fully restored Unity Temple was reopened to the public. The design team, led by Harboe Architects, spent nearly a year conducting in-depth research into the best ways to authentically restore and fully modernize this national treasure. The $25M restoration took over two years to complete and included all aspects of the building.

Lead architect Gunny Harboe, FAIA, and founder of Harboe Architects, will present the transformative restoration that has returned this internationally significant work of architecture to its original appearance while giving it new life for its congregation and for the thousands of Frank Lloyd Wright enthusiasts who come to see it from all over the world.

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The Last Home Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright | 6836 N. 36th Street

Composed of overlapping circles that are carved into the desert landscape, reflecting the curvatures of nearby mountains, the house deftly reflects Wright’s philosophy of organic architecture.

Wright said, “In organic architecture then, it is quite impossible to consider the building as one thing, its furnishings another, and its setting and environment still another. The spirit in which these buildings are conceived sees all these together at work as one thing.” The property is currently listed with The Agency for $3,250,000.  Continue reading “The Last Home Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright | 6836 N. 36th Street”

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Frank Lloyd Wright’s Tirranna | 432 Frogtown Road

Located in New Canaan, Connecticut on a 15-acre piece of wooded land that looks over the Noroton River, 432 Frogtown Road was first built for Joyce and John Rayward and has only been in the hands of two other owners. Also known as the “Rayward-Shepherd House” or “Tirranna,” Wright designed this spectacular home during the last years of his life while he was completing the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

Only four years after the house had been built, the Raywards commissioned Wright’s firm to return and complete a massive extension that would be based on his original designs. So, William Wesley Peters and Taliesin Associated Architects ended up expanding the house after Wright’s death in 1959, which included a new bedroom wing, greenhouse, central garden, covered walkway, and a caretaker’s quarters. Jim Gricar of Houlihan Lawrence explains that even though these additions expanded the residence enormously all of the same materials and finishes were maintained from the first round, making it a seamless update.  Continue reading “Frank Lloyd Wright’s Tirranna | 432 Frogtown Road”

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A Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian Masterpiece on the Market | Toyhill

Built in 1948 and named ‘Toyhill‘ by Wright himself, this home is considered an artistic masterpiece and shows Wright’s early interest in overlapping circular masonry, which would become an innovative and iconic treatment found in his later work—including the Guggenheim Museum.

Located an hour outside of Manhattan in Pleasantville, New York, the Sol Friedman house (also called Toyhill) is one of a handful of homes that Wright personally designed as part of his Usonian homes project, which was intended to offer beautifully designed, affordable homes to middle-income buyers.

The 2,164-square-foot midcentury home offers three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and an open layout that connects the living areas with a continuous, circular flow.

The round, light-filled design is intended to create a visual connection between the interior space and the serene exterior environment. The home also features a large center fireplace, oak built-ins, and Wright-designed furniture.

A winding staircase connects the main living areas with the bedrooms on the upper level.

The upstairs bedrooms feature clerestory windows, which were specially designed to allow optimal light and airflow into the higher stories while still maintaining privacy.

A unique feature of this Usonian home is the roof’s upturned and cantilevered overhang (pictured above), which allows for passive solar heating and natural cooling without obstructing surrounding views.

Adjacent to the house is a distinctive mushroom-like concrete-pedestal carport, which naturally echoes the circular construction of the main house.

The home is currently listed through Houlihan Lawrence for $1.5 million. 

Reblogged from here

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Frank Lloyd Wright’s Penfield House Could be Yours

The three bedroom and one and one-half bath home has been put on the market for $1.3 million by the original family. Currently used as a vacation rental, the home can be purchased as a private residence or continue its use as a tourist rental.

Some major perks come with the purchase of the home, most notably: the future owners will not have to pay heating costs thanks to one of two natural gas wells located on the property. Also included in your purchase: all original Wright-designed furniture.

The Penfield House is a great example of how Wright always worked with his clients’ personal traits and the land in mind. Months after a visit to Wright at Taliesin in Wisconsin, Louis and Pauline Penfield received Wright’s plans for the home in the mail, in which the home was designed to accommodate Louis tall frame — featuring high ceilings, narrow stairs with wide steps, and 16 ribbon windows.

Built in 1955, the Usonian home is no exception to Wright’s belief of building of the land, not on it. The home is situated on heavily wooded acreage, facing — and offering stunning views of — the Chagrin River. The home is across the street from protected forest, creeks and hiking trails.

The Penfield House has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 2003, and is completely restored.

Reblogged from here

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Louise & Marie Hamilton House | Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright Apprentice

QUICK FACTS:
Address: 4001 Haven Avenue. Racine, WI
Price: $265,500
Website: Here
3 Beds, 3 Baths
Living Area:  2,456 Sq. Ft.
Pr/Sqft: $108.10

This 1949 residence was designed by Edgar Tafel in the Usonian style, as Tafel was an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright from 1932 to 1941, for Louis Hamilton, one half the namesake of home appliance manufacturer Hamilton Beach. (Hamilton was hired by the company’s founder as the advertising manager.)

Since then, the low-profile house has been carefully brought back to its original design by the current owner. The three-bedroom features two and half baths, a dynamic floorplan measuring 2,456 square feet, and original cypress wood throughout making up the built-in furniture including shelving, cabinetry, dressers and closets.

 Anchoring the dwelling is great room with large glass expanses, high beamed ceilings, a brick hearth, and clerestory windows. This space flows into a dining area, which leads into a kitchen.

The private spaces are set in a wing that can be closed off from the main home, and the bedrooms there are spacious and incorporate lower ceilings to establish a sense of intimacy and quiet. The quaint bathrooms boast original tiling and even a built-in vanity in what was Mrs. Hamilton’s powder room.

Floors remain carpeted, as in the original design, and a basement, two-car garage, and enclosed back porch round out the space. The property also features fresh landscaping with heritage trees, preserving the time-capsule aspect of this special home, and comes with the option to apply for registration as a historic site. Located at 4001 Haven Avenue, it’s offered at $265,500.

Reblogged from Curbed.

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Happy 150th, Frank Lloyd Wright! His legacy endures in St. Louis | William Bernoudy | ST LOUIS STYLE

Post-Dispatch file photo of Ted's Home
Post-Dispatch file photo of Ted’s Home

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT – via stltoday

“Mr. Wright has made a contribution to architecture in this country and a contribution which will no doubt (give) him a place of some importance in the history of architecture of this century when it may be written,” replied Benedict Farrar, then the president of the St. Louis Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. “But that the historian will take Mr. Wright’s own evaluation of himself and place him first and everyone else nowhere is hardly within the realm of possibility.”

Time may heal all wounds, and Wright, who died at age 91, would have been 150 Thursday.

And, despite Farrar’s predictions and Wright’s temperament, the American Institute of Architects in 1991 declared him “the greatest American architect of all time.”

Post-Dispatch file photo of Frank Lloyd Wright
Post-Dispatch file photo of Frank Lloyd Wright

His Prodigy William Bernoudy

Today, real estate listings here still boast about “Frank Lloyd Wright style” — some with more of it than others. Architects who studied under or worked for Wright left their mark in the St. Louis area, some designing structures with distinct Wright elements.

Walter Burley Griffin worked for Wright in his Oak Park studios. Although Griffin is known as the Frank Lloyd Wright of Australia, he designed several homes and buildings in America, including a private home on historic St. Louis Street in Edwardsville.

In 1932, University City High School graduate William Adair Bernoudy spent only one year at Washington University before he became a charter apprentice at Taliesin, Wright’s Wisconsin home and studio.

Bernoudy designed several private homes in the St. Louis area, including the Ladue home of real estate agent Ted Wight, who specializes in selling modern homes. Bernoudy himself and his wife, Gertrude, even lived in what is now Wight’s home. A cantilevered overhang, Asian-inspired screens and tight hallways opening to bigger living spaces are just a few Wright characteristics in his house, Wight said.

Wight says there’s a growing appreciation among customers for modern homes that are architecturally interesting. “Some people want to buy a house, but not just a house,” he said. “They want a house with a pedigree.” Bernoudy and modernist architects such as Isadore Shank and Harris Armstrong have supplied them. About three or four such homes come on the market a year, Wight says, though some have been torn down.

View the full article here.