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The Jacobs I House

Posted by PQPP3 on May 18, 2018

May 182018

Madison, Wisconsin
441 Toepfer Avenue

The front of the home now rid of its coat of creosote and showing off the woodwork as it was intended

Traveling with the VSA we had the true pleasure of touring the home of James Dennis, who graciously opened his home and took time to answer all of the questions we could possibly throw at him.

The home is the first of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian homes and was originally built for Herbert and Katherine Jacobs.

Wright used the term “Usonian,” to refer to an artistic, low-cost house built for an average citizen of the United States of North America. The North America portion was an important part of his adaptation of the term. Wright went on to design over 300 Usonian houses.

The back of the house with its brick and glass walls. Walter Burley Griffin created landscape plans for the house.

The house was built in 1937 on two lots in the Westmorland subdivision. The Jacobses picked the Westmorland subdivision for its then rural character and the relatively inexpensive price of lots. Wright forced them to give up a lot on the west side of Toepfer (on higher ground, with the potential for better views) for two lots on the east side of the street, which gave the house a better orientation for Wright’s design.

The house is 1550 square feet and consists of walls of boards, primarily in the front of the home and walls of solid brick or glass primarily in the rear of the home. The house sits on a concrete pad laid over tamped sand. It does have a small basement that contains the equipment for the radiant heating system.

James showing a sample of the wood wall construction

James Dennis showing the group a sample of the wood wall construction

The wood walls are mainly a composition of layered boards that Wright apparently invented. Wright believed that the thin sandwich walls would be cheaper and faster to erect than walls of standard balloon framing. These walls consist of interlocking pine boards standing on end, the side next to the floor is grooved to fit into the upper edges of zinc strips which are troweled into the concrete slab. This thin wall was then covered with building paper, and over that, on each side, is a layer of 91⁄2-inch wide boards arranged horizontally and held to the vertical boards by 3 1/4- inch redwood battens screwed to the boards with the screw heads all aligning to the directions of the boards. The walls were then covered with several coats of linseed oil on the outside and waxed on the inside.

The brick walls are the same on both sides. The glass wall in the living room and the two bedrooms are floor-to-ceiling sheets of plate glass set into narrow rectangular frames. These are nine feet high in the living room and seven feet high in the bedrooms.

Looking up through the overhands one can see how the water would drain off of the roof.

Looking up through the overhangs one can see how the water would drain off of the roof.

The roof was originally a flat roof which was later modified by the present owner to contain a slight slope solving a consistent drainage problem.

The house is filled with bookshelves throughout that were modified by Mr. Dennis to be slightly wider, allowing them to actually hold books.

One of the two bedrooms in the home.

The hallway connecting the main area of the home to the bedroom area

The kitchen, as in any Frank Lloyd Wright home is very small, it has been modified to allow some modern appliances

The kitchen, as in any Frank Lloyd Wright home is very small at only 7 x 8 feet, it has been modified to allow some modern appliances. The only windows are in the clerestory above

A window in the dining area just outside of the kitchen

A bay window in the dining area, just outside of the kitchen, lights both the dining and kitchen area

The fireplace was always the heart of the home in a Wright house.

This unique track lighting is original and, as specified by Wright, consists of 15-watt incandescent bulbs.

In a sad state of disrepair, the home was purchased by Mr. Dennis, a professor of American Art at the University of Wisconsin. Mr. Dennis explained to our group that when he purchased the home the exterior board walls were black from a coat of creosote, the roof leaked, and the overhangs were sagging. He brought the home back to its present shape with the help of Chicago restoration architect John Eiffler.

The restoration was not easy and was very obviously a labor of love by Mr. Dennis. Steel beams were placed to help correct the sagging edges, and return the roof to near horizontal. The heating system failed when steel pipes froze during restoration so it was replaced with PVC piping and the floor was re-poured with the added color of Cherokee Red The wooden walls were cleaned and repaired, the roof was covered with a continuous rubber membrane to help with drainage, and the electrical system improved. With all of these repairs, the house is now exactly as built.

A view of the ceiling in the interior of the home.

The carport, a term we were told was invented by Mr. Wright

The extreme cantilever of the carport, a term we were told was invented by Wright

The home is called Jacobs I as Wright later built another house for the Jacobses when their family expanded.

Although not scaled, this drawing from GreatBuildings.com will give one a sense of the floor plan.

The Unitarian Meeting House

Posted by PQPP3 on May 17, 2018

May 172018

Madison, Wisconsin

At various times Wright used the word “aspiration” and “praying hands” to describe the soaring prow of the Meeting Hall.

Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and completed in 1951, when Wright was 84 years old, this church is recognized as one of the world’s most innovative examples of church architecture and one of Wright’s more influential buildings.

Despite being one of the more stunning buildings in Madison it was almost not to be. When the congregation was deciding who should design the meeting hall Wright was not the most obvious or wanted choice. In a widely circulated letter, one society member described Wright as “arrogant, artificial, brazen, cruel, recklessly extravagant, a publicity seeker, an exhibitionist, egotist, sensationalist, impatient, unscrupulous, untrustworthy, erratic and capricious. . . .”

The First Unitarian Society realized (after fees) $102,650 from the sale of its old church and parish house and $23,915 from the sale of its former parsonage. At the winter parish meeting held January 25th, 1946, the vote to hire Wright was twenty-five in favor, three opposed, and one abstention. The building was continually over budget and behind time.

You are greeted with this lovely saying as soon as you enter the Meeting Hall.

You are greeted with this quote as soon as you enter the Meeting Hall.

The materials selected by Wright consist of tawny-colored native stone, dolomite, for the masonry, natural finish oak for all of the trim which is a native and plentiful wood in Wisconsin, large expanses of clear glass, placed in horizontal, bands in the two wings and in the prow, and terra-cotta- colored concrete for the exterior steps, patio areas and interior floors.

The interior view of the prow

This was Wright’s “Little Country Church” as it sits on a small hill that once overlooked experimental farms that belonged to the University of Wisconsin.

The benches are designed for multiple uses. They are made of one sheet of 8 X 10 plywood and produced by the apprentices at Taliesin. Plywood was used as a cost-saving material but also makes them light enough to move easily.

Wright was a member of this church and his parents were founding members of the congregation in 1879.

The building reflects Wright’s beliefs in Unitarianism and Transcendentalism. Presumably, to underscore his family’s connection to the church, Wright had the name of his uncle, who was a Unitarian minister, inscribed with the names of five other Unitarian and Transcendentalist on the oak fascia at the base of the octagonal opening in the Hearth Room ceiling. The other names include Charles William Elliot, Theodore Parker, William Ellery Channing, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.

Unity Chapel also featured a large room divided by a curtain. The Meeting House inscription reads, “Do you have a loaf of bread break the loaf in two and give half for some flowers of the Narcissus for the bread feeds the body indeed but the flowers feed the soul.”

The curtain, which no longer hangs in the hall due to its delicate nature has a wonderful story on its own. In the attempt to cut down on the ever-increasing costs of the building of the church the women of the church took it upon themselves to construct the curtain itself.

Wright agreed to the women’s suggestion for a curtain to hang between the worship space and the social space, but it was to be designed by him. The women, knowing nothing about weaving, took classes at the local college to learn to weave, and then dyed the various materials in their own homes in big vats over their kitchen stoves. Each color was then sent to Wright for his approval.

It is a stunning piece of artwork all unto itself.

Triangular tables, designed by Wright, are used throughout the church.

Wright’s preliminary drawings reveal his use of a four-foot diamond or quadrilateral parallelogram with 60 and 120-degree angles as the unit grid for the design. The parallelogram provided the basis for the grid Wright used when laying out the floor plans and establishing the elevations for the roof, angular prow, and decorative details.

The Loggia continues the east-west axis established by the lobby and contains offices and a library, which were initially designed as classrooms, and a hallway with restrooms. The interior walls of the rooms in the Loggia correspond to the angled grid lines incised into the colored concrete floor; these spaces occupy approximately two thirds of the wing. A long hallway, which is lit its entire length by full-height windows and three glazed French doors, comprises the other third.

The Loggia continues the east-west axis and contains offices and a library, which were initially designed as classrooms. The interior walls of the rooms in the Loggia correspond to the angled grid lines incised into the colored concrete floor.

Wright donated these Hiroshige woodblock prints to the church. Each door is bracketed with one horizontal print and one vertical print. When the doors are open, the vertical prints are still completely visible, due to their positioning.

The Loggia ends at the West Living Room. This room was originally intended as the living and dining space of an unbuilt pastor’s residence.

The front entry side of the Meeting House

Knowing that the estimates for the construction were well over what the church could afford, arrangements were made with Albert J. Loeser, the owner of a quarry near Prairie du Sac, for the purchase of the dolomite for the walls at $20.00 per cord. Loeser agreed to further reduce prices if the society members hauled the stone themselves. Able-bodied members of the congregation assembled almost every weekend from the fall of 1949 through the spring of 1950 for the sixty-mile round trip to the quarry. It has been estimated that the volunteer stone haulers loaded and then unloaded approximately one thousand tons of stone. The church still refers to this labor force as the “stone haulers”.

This bell was supposed to simply be a decorative piece for the Meeting House. It is made of sheet copper, the same material used in the roof. It was never meant to be rung and was designed to be suspended under the highest point of the roof in front of the glass prow. Strong winds caused the bell to swing so much that it was removed to prevent any more serious damage.

Taliesin East

Posted by PQPP3 on May 17, 2018

May 172018

Spring Green, Wisconsin

So very much has been written about Taliesin that it seems silly to write a post about it, but it has been on my list of architectural sights to see ever since my father took me to Taliesin West when I was 10.

Taliesin was named in honor of FLW’s Welsh heritage, it was the name of a druid bard, and literally means “shining brow.” The structures wrap around the ridge of the hill, embracing the site and standing as a “brow.”

A lovely example of some of the stone work with a peek into the root celler on the right

Taliesin (or Taliesin East, following the construction of a Taliesin West in 1937) was the home and studio of the great American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. Designed by Wright himself, the building was built in 1911, and underwent several changes before being finalized as its current iteration in 1937.

The farm portion of the property, this was the old cow and horse barn area

Wright designed the Taliesin structure two years after leaving his first wife and home in Oak Park, Illinois with Mamah Borthwick. The design of the original building was consistent with the design principles of the Prairie School, emulating the flatness of the plains and the natural limestone outcroppings of Wisconsin’s Driftless Area.

The Taliesin house had three sections: two broad portions on either end and a narrow connecting loggia. Wright described, the house as “low, wide, and snug.”

Wright chose yellow limestone for the house from a quarry of outcropping ledges on a nearby hill. These stones were laid in long, thin ledges, evoking the natural way that they were found in the quarry and across the Driftless Area. Plaster for the interior walls was mixed with sienna, giving the walls a golden hue resembling the sand on the banks of the nearby Wisconsin River. The outside plaster walls were similar, but mixed with cement, resulting in a grayer color. Windows were placed so that sun could come through openings in every room at every point of the day. The finished house measures approximately 12,000 square feet.

Wright had a passion for Japanese art and his homes showed the Japanese influence in his work. He first became interested in his early 20’s, and within a decade, he was an internationally known collector of Japanese woodblock prints.

In 1885, at the age of 18 Wright met architect Joseph Silsbee, who was building a chapel for Wright’s uncle in Helena Valley, Wisconsin. The following spring, Wright went to work for Silsbee’s firm in Chicago.

Silsbee’s cousin, Ernest Fenollosa, happened to be the world’s leading Western expert on Japanese art at the time. It is no known whether the young Frank Lloyd Wright ever met Fenollosa in person. However, it is known that Wright admired his views, and appears to have obtained his first Japanese woodblock prints from him.

Wright, like Fenollosa, felt that “the Japanese print is an organic thing,” and his 1912 book on the subject, “The Japanese Print: An Interpretation,” was really a general treatise on aesthetics based largely on Fenollosa’s ideas.

Wright’s favorite Japanese print artist, Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849), had published sketches illustrating how the subtleties of living forms could be constructed from simple mechanical shapes.

Wright’s collection of wood-block prints by artists both Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige have been removed from the house and many have been repatriated back to Japan, others are in storage until Taliesin can provide a better temperature controlled environment.

The house however, is not lacking in Japanese art and influences.

Many of Wright’s most famous buildings were designed while he was at Taliesin East, including Fallingwater, “Jacobs I” (the first Wright-designed residence of Herbert and Katherine Jacobs), the Johnson Wax Headquarters, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Possibly even on these two drafting tables that were gifts of his first major employer and mentor Louis B. Sullivan.

Taliesin would burn three times, and as Wright did not have enough money for its reconstruction after the third fire, a group of former clients organized a partnership to pay Wrights debts. To keep Taliesin economically viable, the society devised programs in which students paid an enrollment to be able to learn and “experience the lifestyle of Frank Lloyd Wright”. This program still continues at both Taliesin East and Taliesin West.

A small wood sculpture just inside the front door

This is one of FLW’s signature lamps, copies of which can still be purchased today

Wright was also well known for his furniture that graced most every home he built. These are his barrel chairs and dining room table

Wright was also well known for his furniture that graced most every home he built. These are his barrel chairs, a high back chair and dining room table. Notice the Japanese print behind the table.

A look towards the windows in the great room that command a stunning view of the Wyoming Valley

Details and musical instruments found behind the piano in the great room

While not a true cantilever, as there is rock support in the middle, this little “Bird Porch” lets you stand in nature.

Chinese screens incorporated into one of the sitting rooms

Classic Wright geometric ornamentation

Broken pottery inlaid into one of the many fireplaces throughout the home

The work space of Wrights bedroom

A pergola made from old plumbing pipes and barn doors

A view of one end of the drafting room area with a piece from a Louis Sullivan designed building

A view of one end of the drafting room area with a piece of ornamentation from a Louis Sullivan designed building

One could spend days just studying the roof lines of a Frank Lloyd Wright home, and Taliesin East delights at every turn.

There are many tours available at Taliesin East. They all begin at the Wright designed Vistors center that also houses a small restaurant and excellent book and gift store.

I was here with the Victorian Society in America on the Spring Study Tour and we took the two hour house tour, which is the most complete way to see the home.

The tour was $54 and they run every day from May to October and weekends the rest of the year.

It was a true thrill and a tour that one could take over and over to truly appreciate the genius of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Metal spire on the Visitors Center

Wyoming Valley School

Posted by PQPP3 on May 17, 2018

May 172018

Spring Green, Wisconsin

Built in 1957, the building was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, who donated his design and 2 acres of land to the Wyoming School District in honor of his mother, Anna Lloyd-Jones Wright. It is the only public school ever designed by Wright.

The story goes that the school had land close to the road, but Wright, who truly believed in making architecture part of nature, wanted to build it into the small hill so he moved the building site back several 100 feet. It was not until later that it was discovered this was not property the school owned, Wright bought the two acres from the farmer who owned the land and gave it to the school.

Even with Wright’s generous donation the building did not have a budget large enough to be constructed, so many ways were found to help bring it in on budget, this included the use of cement block instead of stone, common light fixtures extended with standard plumbing pipe, and standard windows.

There are two fireplaces in the school. It is thought that only one was used, and this was often during Christmas pageants.

That same year, Wright was beginning construction on his redesigned Guggenheim Museum in New York, he was in the midst of a contentious battle regarding his 1955 design for the Monona Terrace Civic Center in Madison, and he was also in the midst of publicizing his Mile High ‘Illinois’ Skyscraper. In addition to these he had also just completed the design for his Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin and according to Frank Lloyd Wright: The Complete Works, that same year his office produced designs for at least another 34 new building projects, of which at least nine would begin construction in 1956 or soon thereafter.

Considering how busy he was this was quite obviously a labor of love for Wright, an opportunity to show what schools should look like and a chance to honor his mother.

The clearstory lets in so much light, that the electric fixtures are often not needed to light the building

The clerestory lets in so much light, that the electric fixtures are often not needed to light the building

The school opened in 1958 with 46 students in grades 1 through 8. After consolidating with the River Valley School district the building was used by the district’s 4th graders until being closed in 1990.

There are 12 mitered windows throughout the building

It was sold then sold to a private owner for $305,000. The first owner lost it through bankruptcy and it was purchased again by Jeff Jacobsen, a local landowner and neighbor.

The building closed and sadly, remained empty for much of the next 20 years.

In August of 2010 the school was given to the not-for-profit Wyoming Valley School by Jeff Jacobsen.

Small details were added to make the cement block a tad more attractive

This is mirrored on the interior as well

A view of the back of the school, showing how it was built into the hill.

The school is open for tours by guides that are local and very knowledgable, they will regale you with not only stories about the schools architecture, but stories from the teachers and students who attended the school during its 30 year run.

Just down the street from the Wyoming Valley School and Taliesin East, is the Lloyd Jones Family Chapel.

The rumor is that Frank Lloyd Wright, at the age of 18, met architect Joseph Silsbee, the architect hired by Wright’s uncle, to build the chapel, and the Wright had a hand in the design. The story is probably apochryphal, but if he did have a hand in the design it most likely was the interior ceiling.

The church also houses the family graveyard. Wright was originally buried here, but was later dug up, cremated and his ashes were spread with his third wife in Arizona. There is still a grave stone honoring Wright.

Also, hidden away on the grounds is the grave of the love of Wright’s life, Mamah Borthwick Cheney.

Grave of Mamah Northwick Cheney