Wright Chat

[jenisebhruvel]

well uptil I know,The Obolers lived in the gatehouse and other buildings for many years. After he died in 1987, Eleanor remained briefly on the property, then sold it to a new owner, who eventually plans to restore the buildings .The buildings are in sad shape and are still being prepared for restoration.
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midlothian homes

[Roderick Grant]

jenisebhruvel, the property has passed through more than one hand since Eleanor sold it, including B of A, which repossessed it from one owner. Several owners have tried to do work on it. I'm not sure what's going on now, but one hopes its future is looking better than it has for the past 23 years.

[PrairieMod]

IMHO, one of the most distressing aspects of the "Eaglefeather" design was the modern-day adoption of the font by the same name for anything even remotely Frank Lloyd Wright-related.
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[John Robie]

This website provides the following information:

32436 Mulholland Highway
Malibu, CA 90265
Find on map >>
Owner: DOROTHY L TR DOROTHY L BLOWERS TRUST BLOWERS
Total land value: $1,193,530
Total building value: $64,368
Total value for property: $1,257,898
Recording date: 05/25/1999
Year built: 1941
Effective year built: 1941
Area of property: 2,486 square feet
Assessment for fiscal year: 2008/2009

[Steve Lamb]

Mr. Wright used steel at the Obler property and hid it in redwood beams. This was clear in the early 1990's when I toured the barn. At that time the end of the barn farthest away from the driveway had never been completed and was still unfinished, steel structure exposed and clearly boxed where construction had halted at one point.

I spoke to the Kevin Parkhurst in Eric Lloyd Wright's office at Mr. Wright's birthday party and indeed the plan is to someday build Eaglefeather and restorew the extant structures. The project is winding its way through the California Coastal Commission.

[Paul Ringstrom]

[SDR]

Surely we know that there is steel in a number of Wright houses. . .? Some of it might even have been indicated by Mr Wright himself !


SDR

[John]

[Steve Lamb]

If you read Tafel's book the issue of hidden steel and "in the nature of materials" was present during Mr.Wright's lifetime and troubling to some "Wrightian" purists.....

[SDR]

As I read it the purists did not include any apprentice tasked with getting the houses built -- and left standing when the props were removed. . .!

Tafel, "Apprentice to Genius," pp 190-91:

"In 1938, Life Magazine ran a story featuring Me. Wright's ideas about a house for a family with an income of $5000-6000. Bernard Schwartz, of northern Wisconsin's Two Rivers, was interested in building the house on a little site. Enough land was obtained and a two-story Usonian house was developed. The living room had a long clerestory of some thirty feet; the carport was cantilevered deeply; the three-inch walls were skimpy -- so steel beams were added without Mr. Wright's knowledge (he was busy with other matters). Schwartz questioned the bills for steel. He was not happy with the extra charges; I explained them as due to minor job conditions.

"Therefore, when an apprentice went south -- soon after this -- to supervise a similar house, Wes and I took him aside and gave him the facts of structural life. "Tuck steel away thusly and nobody will know . . . " The apprentice was chicken; he followed the original plans. When the props came down, so did the roof. The client called Mr. Wright, whose response was "Send the boy back to Taliesin." Returning to the fold would solve everything. Mr. Wright had the plans brought out and inspected the structure. I admitted adding the steel in the Schwartz house. "I can deal with my enemies, but cannot trust my own apprentices . . . You have violated my trust. . .. This is the end. You had better start packing. First, drive me and Mrs. Wright to Madison ... " Only a few miles out, still fuming about the betrayal, he ordered me to stop at a filling station. While he was out of the car, Mrs. Wright asked how I could do such a thing after all the years together. I pointed out that we had saved Mr. Wright's reputation in Wisconsin and that if it had to be lost by an uninformed or unseasoned apprentice, better it should happen far away -- in the South. When Mr. Wright returned to the car, Mrs. Wright implored him to look at the situation differently. After all, Edgar was doing his best. The whole subject was dropped and forgotten."

[peterm]

Is the cantilever made from wood or hidden steel more heroic than one where the steel is openly and honestly expressed?

Maybe this is one of Wright's little vanities where we must learn to smile and forgive, much like we do when we think of the additional height contained in his elevator shoes...

[SDR]

It's a really interesting question, to me. My picture of Wright's approach is that, first, he doesn't care at all for the dramatic potential of expressed structure. To him, it's either more dramatic to make it appear that wood alone -- or maybe no particular material at all, just pure form-- is responsible for whatever we see -- or else it's just irrelevant how it's done. If he wants the roof to float out over the drive, to make a semi-sheltered place for a car, let it just. . .be -- and don't ask any questions ("It's none of your business.")

I gather that for him, and his apologists, actually exposing working members would be comparable to exposing a bra strap, or the top of a man's sock with garter attached: vulgar, and an un-called-for distraction from the show.

Or something like that.

Stephen

[peterm]

I think you are right, but at the same time, why would he care, then, if an apprentice added steel to ensure the strength of a cantilever? Was it because that might have been perceived as an insult to his engineering skills?

[SDR]

Well, really, that Tafel anecdote above reveals that Mr Wright apparently thought it would be possible to build, without steel, what in the end required steel to stand -- the unnamed house "in the south" -- and that in turn suggests either naiveté -- or something worse (plumb igno rance, not dishonesty. How could it possibly benefit the architect to risk being caught with his pants down ?). I don't know how else to read it. . .


SDR

[Jeff Myers]

In later Usonians steel was used for the cantilevers. Samara has a steel beam that holds up the roof cantilevers, same with Dobkins and Palmer(if that is correct). Did Mr. Wright start to use steel after Schwartz? or was it not till the later works it was employed?
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Jeff T