Wright in Chicagoland

Michaels Guide to attending the housewalk.

The Wright Plus Housewalk is the main fundraising event for the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust. In the past 30 years some 60,000 people have attended the event.

Its a good idea to purchase your tickets in advance. Tickets cost $70.00 for a Preservation Trust member and $85.00 for non-members. You can purchase tickets on-line at www.wrightplus.org or at the Ginkgo Tree Bookshop at 951 Chicago Avenue next to the FLW home and studio in Oak Park.

This will be a very busy day so start early. Parking is free in the Holley Court Parking Garage. You can walk from there or take the complimentary shuttle. The tour buildings will be open from 9am to 5pm. Wear comfortable shoes and be prepared for a lot of standing. The lines will be the longest at the FLW houses and I always plan at being at the most popular house waiting before 9am.

Three public buildings by Wright are part of the walk. These include the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, the Unity Temple and the Frederick C. Robie House in Chicago. With you Wright Plus ticket you can visit these any time during 2005 so its not a good idea to fight the lines and see them on Saturday.

There are four private residences by FLW that are open. These include the George W. Furbeck House, the Rollin Furbeck House, the Harry C. Goodrich House and the William G. Fricke House.

Another four houses are included in the walk by architects Henry Fiddelke, Tallmadge & Watson, and George Maher.

Check out photographs of the tour homes at Citywide Services and enjoy the housewalk

Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust - A Night for Wright Friday, April 29, 2005 5:30-8 pm At the Chicago Antiques Fair, Chicago's Merchandise Mart $25 (includes general show admission). Buy tickets online.

Start the weekend festivities with cocktails, hors d'oeuvres and a live auction celebrating the great American architect and his renowned Chicago masterpiece, the Frederick C. Robie House. The evening benefits the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust and its historic restoration of Wright's Robie House. View one of Wright's magnificent art glass windows from the Robie House in a pre-restoration display.

A 20-acre mountaintop parcel once planned for a Paradise Valley home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright is on the auction block.

For more than 50 years, the property has been owned by the Donahoe family, which hired Wright to design a luxury home for the site. Wright delivered the plans for the residence to the family in 1959, but he died two days later, and the home never was built, according to a statement from the auction company.

Read the entire article at The Business Journal

The Russell and Ruth Kraus House
 

The Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park

Set on 10 acres in the Sugar Creek area of Kirkwood, Missouri, is a unique and significant residence designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. This 1,900 square foot residence, built for Russell and Ruth Kraus, was the architect's first building in the St. Louis area, and is one of only five Wright designs in Missouri. It is an excellent example of Wright's democratic vision, intended to provide middle class Americans with beautiful architecture at an affordable cost. The home is notable not only for its architectural integrity, but for retaining all of its original Wright-designed furnishings and fabrics. The home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places because of its significance in American architecture.

Check out the WEB Site

Hanna House 

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hanna House, nestled on a hill on the Stanford campus in Palo Alto. Built in 1936 as a “modest residence” for a Stanford professor and his family (although Wright’s estimated budget ballooned from $15,000 to $37,000), it is a series of hexagon shapes clustered around a central fireplace. The hexagons repeat as a leitmotif in carpet and bathroom tiles, prompting the nickname “Honeycomb House.”

Noted by the American Institute of Architects as one of 17 landmarks that represent Wright’s significant contribution to American society, the Hanna House was really the first “outside the box” design for Wright, who craved to free himself from traditional rectangular structures.

Greatly damaged by 1989’s earthquake, it took nearly 10 years and $2 million to complete a seismic retrofit, but the house has been re-opened for public tours by reservation.

Read the entire article in The Wave

Taliesin, the former home of architect- icon Frank Lloyd Wright, is a valuable historical and economic asset to Wisconsin. But if the buildings and grounds near Spring Green are to make it to Taliesin's 100th anniversary in 2011, significant reform must occur within the organizations in charge of Taliesin and its larger companion campus, Taliesin West in Arizona.

The top reform priority is the Taliesin Fellowship, a group of architects and apprentices who carry on Wright's philosophies, living communally and working at Taliesin West and Taliesin.

Read more at the Wisconsin State Journal

Taliesin
 

Taliesin and Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Ariz., draw more than 150,000 visitors a year. Both are national historic landmarks.

But, The Arizona Republic recently ran a two-part series that detailed the difficulties of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, the group that governs and runs both facilities.

The newspaper reported the foundation needs $100 million and has started an emergency fund-raising effort, even though it has managed to raise only $2 million in the last two years.

In addition to the financial woes, the foundation has been racked by legal and organizational wrangling. The Republic quoted foundation vice-president Beverly Hart as saying, "We are an organization in chaos."

Read the entire story at On Milwaukee.com

MASON CITY — A citizens group hoping to restore the Park Inn hotel got enthusiastic support from the City Council Tuesday night.The city owns the hotel and is looking for interested parties to take it over and restore it.

Last month, the council voted to advertise the property on eBay and also asked interested citizens to come forward with plans within 30 days.

A group calling itself Wright on the Park Inc. came forward Tuesday night sporting articles of incorporation, bylaws and a PowerPoint presentation."I've never seen this much enthusiasm for a restoration project," said Peggy Bang, one of the presenters, who is former chairwoman of the Mason City Historic Preservation Commission. "We have the expertise and passion to get this done."

Read the entire article in Globegazette

Park Inn, Mason City, Iowa 

Offered for sale on eBay, Mason City's Park Inn Hotel (1909-1910) is the only hotel still in existence of the six Wright built. As the only remaining Wright-designed hotel, the Park Inn is internationally significant both architecturally and historically. The Park Inn is a prototype for Wright's world famous Imperial Hotel in Tokyo (1914-1922) and, in its massing, a forerunner of his Midway Gardens in Chicago (1914).

Check out the eBay listing for photographs of this project. Whoever buys this better be ready for a big time commitment of cash. The restoration of the hotel, is projected to cost $10 Million, of which the first $1.3 Million has been spent on stabilization of the roof, restoration of the external facades and replacement of 72 stained glass windows, lost through the years, with accurate reproductions.

The offering on eBay is controversial, who could be the buyer?, what will they do with the property. The Park Inn is on the National Register so there is protection there.

What would FLW think of the eBay offering? He was always at the forefront of modern things and he liked controversy.