Wright in Chicagoland

The State Assembly has also committed $1 million each towards the new Frank Lloyd Wright Rowing Boathouse, and Frank Lloyd Wright Filling Station at the Buffalo Transportation/Pierce-Arrow Museum, both previously unbuilt Wright designs. The boathouse will provide a home for the West Side Rowing Club, the nation’s largest rowing club. Wright’s design for the boathouse was originally included in his Wasmuth Portfolio series of distinctive Prairie Style lithograph designs. The winged Tydol Filling Station will be constructed on the campus of the Buffalo Transportation/Pierce-Arrow Museum.

Read the entire article at Interior Design

The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Wynant House was a derelict, weather-beaten mess that had been quietly rotting away in a Gary neighborhood awash in poverty. Then it burned to a husk.

Now owner David Muhammad, a construction executive, says he wants to rebuild it.

Read the entire Chicago Tribune article.

I drove out to Gary this afternoon to see what remains of the Wynant House. Fire has gutted the entire structure. It would be nice to believe that it could still be saved, but I think its a total loss.

Preservation Online noted that the two-story stucco house was one of only 11 of Wright's American System-Built houses, an affordable modular line the architect produced with the Wisconsin-based Richards Co. The Wynant House was the last model of its kind.

Read the entire Margaret Foster article at Preservation Online

Wynant House Destroyed

One of the last remaining examples of Frank Lloyd Wright's venture into precut homes was destroyed by fire January 9, 2006. The Wilburt Wynant House at 600 Fillmore in Gary, Indiana was an example of a American System Built Home. At the time of the fire the Wynant House was in the process of restoration by a nonpofit group.

Buffalo is hoping that their association with the works of FLW will mean increased tourism. As the home to the demolished Larkin Building, Martin House and the new Blue Sky Mausoleum, the city gets its fair share of FLW fans as tourists. But what about the general public? Will FLW be a tourism draw?

"There is a large collection of Frank Lloyd Wright followers who will find out what's going on in Buffalo on their own," said Ron Scherubel, executive director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy in Forest Park, Ill. "What you want to attract are the people who don't follow Wright as closely."

Read the entire article in the Buffalo News

Okemos owner aims to reschedule auction in future

The planned auction of the Frank Lloyd Wright home at 1155 Wrightwind Drive never happened.

The auction was first scheduled for Nov. 30, then rescheduled to Dec. 15 after news stories generated more interest in the 3,800-square-foot home.

"The auctioneer from Chicago got snowed in and couldn't make it up," owner Don Schaberg said.

Read the entire article in the Lansing State Journal