The story of modern Dallas cannot be told without Frank Lloyd Wright. Before the Kalita Humphreys Theater was built, and long before the sleek geometries of Dallas’ skyline, the vision of Frank Lloyd Wright set the stage for it all. When Wright first visited in the 1930s, in the midst of the Depression, the architect and the city may have seemed an unlikely pair, but had much in common. Dallas,…

In his article “Organic Architecture Looks at Modern Architecture,” which appeared in Architectural Record in 1952, Wright bemoaned the fact that “modern architecture,” although an “offspring of Organic-architecture,” had begun to dominate the American scene. In terms of the private house, this may have been most evident in Southern California, now widely celebrated as a breeding ground of postwar modernism. Yet Wright’s continuing influence in the region was profound. While…

More than 200 people from all over North America, Canada and Japan attended the Conservancy’s conference in Madison, Oct. 10-14, for educational presentations, tours of more than 20 buildings, special events and more. Among many highlights were a tour of both the Jacobs I and Jacobs II houses following an impassioned presentation on the restoration of Jacobs I by owner and 2018 Wright Spirit Award honoree James Dennis, and a…

In the third year of the John G. Thorpe Young Professionals and Students Fellowship, the Conservancy welcomed four honorees to the October conference in Madison: Rebecca Hagen, Registrar, Fallingwater (Masters in Museum Studies, Johns Hopkins University, 2013); Kristi Jamrisko Gross, Museum Guide, Pope-Leighey House, (M.A. in Art History and Archaeology, University of Maryland, College Park, 2015); Allison Semrad, Robert Silman Fellow for Preservation Engineering at National Trust for Historic Preservation (MS in Historic Preservation,…

On Oct. 5, Conservancy Preservation Programs Manager John Waters met at the Pope-Leighey House in Mount Vernon, Virginia, with conservators Pamela Kirschner and Andrew Fearon, National Trust Graham Gund Architect for historic sites Ashley Wilson, and Pope-Leighey representative Peter Christensen. The focus of the discussion was the conservation of the exterior wood at this important Wright-designed public site. Fearon and Kirschner have done extensive work with the conservation of 20th-century wood and…