Wright Chat

DavidC · Joined: 02 Sep 2006 Posts: 3184 Location: Oak Ridge, TN

Frank Lloyd Wright home for sale in Batavia

David

DavidC · Joined: 02 Sep 2006 Posts: 3184 Location: Oak Ridge, TN

Slight Reduction on Frank Lloyd Wright's Gridley House in Batavia

David

SDR · Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 8034 Location: San Francisco

Almost the only house in Wright's entire oeuvre to have simple rectangular lites in the windows. Graycliff is another.

Maybe a riff on Grid-ley ?

S

Roderick Grant · Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 3947

I know color photos are not always accurate, but the pix of Gridley make the exterior look too white.

Most of FLW's Priarie Houses were in suburban settings, where he supposedly used the patterned glass as a sort of privacy screen. Neither Gridley nor Graycliff had to worry about nearby neighbors or passing pedestrians, so they didn't need leaded glass windows. But Westcott also has simple windows, and sits not too far from the street, which seems to defy that explanation. To some extent, it must have been an aesthetic decision.

Wrightgeek · Joined: 07 Jan 2005 Posts: 1548 Location: Westerville, Ohio

An aesthetic and just as likely, a financial decision as well.

BTW, although Westcott is in an urban setting, the main living spaces are raised up from the streets that border them in such a way that makes privacy not a big issue. Which is similar to Robie, I suppose, which has arguably some of FLW's most magnificent glass designs.

Maybe it does go back to aesthetics. Remember that both the Westcott and Gridley Residences were designed in the 1904-1906 period when Wright was being heavily influenced by his growing interest in Japanese art, architecture and culture. Alhough the date of design for Westcott is noted by Storrer as 1904, other sources place it as being as late as 1907, and Gridley is dated as being a 1906 design. Regardless of the date of Westcott's inception, it was not completed until 1908, and was by several accounts reworked by Wright after his famous 1905 trip to Japan. The house clearly has a Japanese aura to it, and the windows definitely have a resemblance to shoji screens. Maybe Gridley also felt the affects of Wright's trip to Japan, but not having been inside the Gridley Residence I cannot confirm that. Maybe someone here on the board, like Paul R., can comment on that idea.

Here is another thought on the idea of art glass vs. non-art glass. Maybe in some locales where these homes were built, there weren't craftspeople available who could successfully carry out Wright's notoriously diffcult to execute designs for such windows? Just a thought.

SDR · Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 8034 Location: San Francisco

I can see that the art glass "screens" in Wright's houses could provide some degree of privacy in daylight, if not after dark. I'm not aware of his own explanation(s) for these windows -- but he wouldn't have been the only architect in history to have justified an aesthetic move with some practical cover. . .

S D R

JimM · Joined: 06 Jan 2005 Posts: 1070 Location: Anacortes, WA

Funny they chose a view from the back; the main facade is more attractive, and the aesthetics of the "square" windows is more apparent.

Paul Ringstrom · Joined: 17 Sep 2005 Posts: 2224 Location: Mason City, IA

JimM,
That photo is of the front of the house.

Paul Ringstrom · Joined: 17 Sep 2005 Posts: 2224 Location: Mason City, IA

The windows in the dining room sure give the feel of shoji screens.

The bedroom windows sure feel like Westcott bedrooms.

Both Westcott and Gridley have a nice clean airy feeling to me although Gridley is a much brighter house on the interior.

JimM · Joined: 06 Jan 2005 Posts: 1070 Location: Anacortes, WA

Peter Beers felt that was the back-I concur on looks alone!

Paul Ringstrom · Joined: 17 Sep 2005 Posts: 2224 Location: Mason City, IA

FRONT (looking west)

BACK (looking northeast)

BACK (looking southeast)

SDR · Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 8034 Location: San Francisco

A building is perhaps not as simple as a car -- which always has a back and a front because of its direction of travel.

Is the front of a house that side which faces the street -- or which opens itself to the principle view, or to the sunlight ? Is the back always opposite to the front ? Can a house be "all front," or even "all back" ?

Wright decried the house of the late nineteenth century, with its "Queen Ann front and its Mary Ann back" (as I recall him writing). By inference, he was saying that a building need not have a "front" and a "back" -- wasn't he ? That the detailing, and the personality -- the architectural vocabulary -- could and perhaps should be displayed on all sides, to all onlookers and to all weathers ?

Does a tree, or a mountain, have a front and a back ?

S

peterm · Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 8:43 pm Post subject:

Hans Wegner said the same concerning the making of a chair:

"A chair is to have no backside. It should be beautiful from all sides and angles."

He also said that when he examined a chair, he would always study the bottom, and that would reveal whether it was well designed and crafted.

Roderick Grant · Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 3947

The photo titled "BACK (looking southeast)" includes a substantial 1-story addition in the foreground, not part of the original design. "FRONT (looking west)" shows where the terrace wall, which originally extended all the way across the street side of the living room, has been interrupted by a cascade of steps.

I think it was "Queen Ann front and Mary Jane back," wasn't it? This was about the habit of Victorian houses to put all their fanciness up front where it could be seen by the public, and chintzing on the back, which the public did not see.

Wrighter · Joined: 09 Sep 2005 Posts: 311 Location: St. Louis, MO