Retro Saturday: Happy 146th Birthday, Frank Lloyd Wright! A Miscellany Portrait of the Reprobate ‘World's Greatest Architect’

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“I.K”, [Frank Lloyd Wright] said with almost no prelude. “I.K, I have been conventional too long! I am a genius, I know no conventions, a genius knows no law. A genius must and will live his own life. From today I cast aside conventions; from today I live my own life!” That was the gist of a ten or fifteen minute prattle, in which the words 'genius', 'life', 'conventions' were flung about like confetti at a carnival. At first, I thought that as usual architecture was on his mind . . . but the next day the papers carried as an item of news that our genius had 'eloped with the wife of a client.'

- from The Autobiography of Irving K. Pond: The Sons of Mary and Elihu

It's been said that Frank Lloyd Wright's greatest creation may have been himself.  Through many rocky decades, he clung to his self-image of ‘world's greatest architect’, and by the time he died at 91 in 1959, he had convinced most of the rest of us, as well.  On this day, June 8th, that would have been Wright's 146th birthday, the old scoundrel's sorcery remains as potent and inspiring as ever, so what better time than provide this highly selective, impromptu portrait from our writings down through the years . . .

The Night Frank Lloyd Wright Spent in Hennepin County Jail was a direct consequence of Wright's willful liberation from his second wife.

Frank Lloyd Wright and the Japanese Print - The Art Institute had a great show last fall displaying many of the Japanese prints Wright had collected early on and sold to sustain himself during the lean times.  Among the prints were some of the original spectacular Japanese-influence renderings that had helped made his work world famous, many of which came not from Wright's hand, but from that of his employee, the richly talented Marion Mahony . . .

Frank Lloyd Wright's Right-Hand Woman

Also last year, the indispensable Tim Samuelson, who currently has another great show, Modernism's Messengers: The Art of Alfonso and Margaret Iannelli, up at the Cultural Center, curated an overview of Frank Lloyd Wright's early work, centered on the time he spent as an employee of Dankmar Adler and Louis Sulivan.

Wright's Roots

 

Wrights Roots: Garrick Theater colors seen for first time in over a century

In May, a joint campaign was announced in which the Alphawood Foundation would contribute up to $10 million in matching funds towards the restoration of Wright's 1908 Unity Temple in Oak Park,, which, if successful, could also see ownership transferred from the Unitarian Universalist

congregation which originally commissioned the building to ownership by a new, endowed foundation.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple among National Trust's 11 Most Endangered 

See Frank Lloyd Wright's Boiler!

Back in 2006, actor Peter Weller brought his own stamp to Wright in his portrayal in Richard Nelson's play at the Goodman Theatre, an interesting effort to capture Wright at his point of exile, the long, lean years between his early triumphs as his re-emergence as an architectural powerhouse in the 1930's.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Pacific Overture
Robocop channels Frank Lloyd Wright

The play also featured Harris Yulin as an alcoholic and exhausted Louis Sullivan, but when, during the play's run, a major American magazine created a list of 100 Influential Americans, Sullivan had a bit of revenge, coming in at position 59 to Wright's 76.

Koolhaas, Wright, Sullivan score in Overnights

Wright continues to be influential, as can be seen in Hyde Park, where Wright's Robie House . . .

. . . is both subtly mirrored and re imagined in Rafael Viñoly's Graduate School of Business for the U of C.

Rafael Viñoly talks Wright, new hospital, at the Logan Center for the Arts

And for dessert, a small Wrightian miscellany . . .

Frank Lloyd Wright archives won't be bleeding Art Institute Red

Frank Lloyd Wright Hits the Wall

Wright's dog house

 Let's Get Small - Frank Lloyd Wright's American System-Built Homes in Beverly

Psssst, hey - buddy!  Wanna buy the Larkin Building?

Mars realigns Wright, Achilles on the Glessner bowl, Caughman, Greene, Spirit of Design - still more for May!

A whole bunch of editions to the May 2013 Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.

99% Invisible's Roman Mars, whose April appearance at Frank Lloyd Wrights Unity Temple was rained out, has designs 4 dignity has its' big Spirit of Design fundraiser at Ignite Glass Studio.
rescheduled for May 9th, the same day

On Tuesday, May 14th, Rolf Achilles lectures on The Glessners'Kutani ware bowl and Chicago's take on Japonisme at the Glesser House Museum, while on Thursday the 16th, James Caughman talks about Furniture, Fashion and Music in the 18th Century at the Baker Knapp and Tubbs Chicago Showroom, and on Wednesday the 9th, Jeff Greene of EverGreene Architectural Arts talks about Preservation at the SAIC.

We're up to nearly 50 great items this month.  Check out all the who, what and when's on the May 2013 Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.

New Geographies 5, Shirley King for CAF, new items for logjam week on the April Calendar!

Yep, still adding items to the April Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.

This Thursday, April 18th, the publication of New Geographies 5 - The Mediterranean: Worlds, Cities, Regions and Architectures will be marked with a panel discussion at the Graham with editor Antonio Petrov, architect Clare Lyster, Sean Keller of IIT, Hashim Sarkis of Harvard and Stephen J. Ramos of the U of GA.

It's one of those logjam evenings that will also include 99% Invisible's Roman Mars at Unity Temple, Erin Feher on The Architectural Rise of San Francisco at the Driehaus, and Paul Stoller of Atelier Ten at AIA/Chicago.

We've also learned that this Friday's Chicago Architecture Foundation Gala, Architecture is Art, at the Radisson Blue at Aqua, will feature, in addition to dinner, dancing and an auction, a performance from Shirley King, who will perform with the Blue Road Band.  About the same time, Preservation Chicago will be hosting it's own Spring fundraiser at the Union League with live music, an auction, and a presentation by Lost Chicago author David Lowe.

As if that's not enough, there's also the final days of the American Planning Association's 2013 National Planning Conference, an AIA/Chicago panel on the Chicago Infrastructure Trust, Michael Webb of Cooper Union at UIC, the principals of Project Projects at the Art Institute, UrbanWorks' Patricia Natke talking about Pilsen at CAF lunchtime on Wednesday.  

Hashim Sarkis returns for a lecture, The World According to Architecture at Wishnick Hall, IIT , a Landmarks Illinois presentation on the restoration of Hairpin Lofts at the Chicago Cultural Center and a DePaul University Real Estate Center symposium on Chicago's New Eastside.

Next Saturday the 20th sees a symposium at Evanston's Block Museum, The Modern Capital: City, Utopica, or Spectacle?, on the occasion of the opening of its new exhibition, Drawing the Future: Chicago Architecture on the International Stage, 1900-1925.

And believe it or not, that's not all, not by a long shot.  Check out all the great items and get the who/what/where's on the April Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.

See! One Day Only! Frank Lloyd Wright's Doghouse!! At Unity Temple! plus FLW in California

It's June 1st?  You're kidding me- the first of the month again?  So I guess it's time for the June calendar, right?  Someday ....... someday .......

For now, a reminder that today, Friday, June 1st is your one-day opportunity to see Eddie's House, the doghouse that Frank Lloyd Wright designed for 12-year old Jim Berger in 1956.  A reconstructed version of the structure, plus the original plans and correspondence will be on display from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. at FLW's Unity Temple, 875 Lake Street, Oak Park.  "This is the doghouse's only trip to the Chicago area." You don't want to be the one having to tell your grandkids you let this opportunity pass you by.

Also today, at 5:00 and 7:30 p.m, there will be a screening of the documentary Romanza: The California Structures Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, with writer/director Michael Miner on hand for discussion.

Romanza gives us unprecedented access to every Wright building in California. We see it all, including the textile block houses in Los Angeles, famous for their appearances in Hollywood films; Wright's only San Francisco commission (a building he described as a "glass of champagne"); and the Berger House in San Anselmo, for which Wright also designed a doghouse. [see above]

Tickets are $15.00 for AIA members, Wright Plus members and volunteers; $18.00 for the general public.  Purchase here.

Goose Island for Obscura Day, Kalmbach's Grand Mansions, Buckley's Utopie, Doug Garofalo memorial - still more in April

We don't usually include tours on our calendar because there are just so damn many of them, but we did one to mention two:

Next Saturday, April 28th, is Obscura Day "an international celebration of unusual places" and Forgotten Chicago is offering a walking tour of Goose Island and Pulaski Park from 12:00 p.m to 2:30.

Goose Island is one of the more obscure areas of Chicago. Primarily industrial, it once contained a working class Irish residential enclave as well. We’ll discuss the history of much of the island, and examine remnants from its manufacturing and residential past.

We’ll also venture off the island to tour the once working-class neighborhood surrounding Pulaski Park. The area is dense with mixed architectural uses and history. Additionally, it has been shaped by various political forces over the years, from Progressive Era reformers to less-than-progressive machine politicians. We’ll check out some of the tangible physical evidence that reflects the area’s political history, and architectural oddities and other curiosities in the built environment.

The cost is $12.00, and with a limit of 35 participants, I'd expect it will fill up.  Get information and buy tickets here.

Then in May, architectural historian Sally Kalmbach will be offering From Grand Mansions to Luxury Apartment Buildings, The Story of the changing skyline of Lake Shore Drive, covering both the buildings, residents, and the architects, with an emphasis on Benjamin Marshall.  The tour is being offered Saturday May 19th and Wednesday May 23rd, both times from 10 a.m. until noon.  Cost is $25.00 per person.  For more information and to reserve your place, contact Sally Kalmbach via email.

And just to prove it's never too late to add to the April 2012 Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events, on Tuesday April 24th, 6:00 p.m. at the Graham, there's a lecture by Craig Buckley of Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture on Utopie: Encounters and Missed Encounters, followed by an open discussion moderated by Sara Knox Hunter.

Elsewhere this week, there's Digital Design at SOM at the Arts Club on Monday the 23rd, Peter Skosey discussing Bus Rapid Transit: Chicago's New Route to Opportunity, CAF lunchtime on Wednesday the 25th, SEAOI's Midwest Bridge Symposium, ULI Chicago's Rebirth of the East Loop and State Street, and Gunny Harboe's tour of Unity Temple, all on Thursday, the 26th.  And on Saturday afternoon, April 28th at the Hyde Park Art Center, there will be a "public memorial celebrating the life and work of visionary architect Doug Garofalo."

Check out the dozen events still to come on the April Calendar.

Digital Design at SOM, Giancarlo Mazzanti on Colombia Transformed, Gordon Gill at Unity Temple and lots more to come on the April Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events

We're halfway through the month and we're still adding new items to the April 2012 Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.

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On Monday, April 23rd, SOM Chicago is sponsoring a panel discussion, Digital Design at SOM: The Past, The Present and the Future Experiences and Lessons from a Platform for Practice, at the Arts Club.

Today, Monday the 16th, 6:00 p.m. architect Giancarlo Mazzanti will lecture at the Instituto Cervantes in an event affiliated with their current exhibition, Colombia Transformed: Architecture = Politics.  He will be introduced by the exhibition's curator, Vladimir Belogolovsky.  Also at 6:00 over at the Driehaus Museum, architectural historian Dennis Doordan will talk about Organic Design and Classical Architecture: A Chicago Story.  Monday also marks the final four showings of the Architecture and Design Film Festival at the Music Box, repeating films on Pruitt-Igoe, Robert Stern, Victor Gruen and Zaha Hadid.

Wednesday, the 18th, lunchtime at CAF,  Josh Ellis of the Metropolitan Planning Council talks about The Cost of Water, while Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering offers a breakfast symposium on Building the New Children's Memorial Hospital.  Thursday, the 19th, lunchtime at the Cultural Center, architectural historian Jean Guarino discusses Myth Buster: New Perspectives on the Chicago School for Landmarks Illinois, while at 5:30 at the Häfele America Chicago Showroom, DoCoMoMo/US President Theo Prudon discusses his organization's role in Preserving Modern Architecture, while on Friday, the 20th, 7:30 p.m., Gordon Gill talks about Form Follows Performance at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Unity Temple in Oak Park.

And there's much, much more.  Check out the nearly three dozen great offerings still to come on the April 2012 Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events.

See Frank Lloyd Wright's Boiler!

We're told there are still some $45.00 tickets available for tomorrow's Geothermal HVAC tour at Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple in Oak Park.  And while that may not, on the surface, sound like the most fascinating topic in the world, there are actually a couple of good stories behind it.

In 1908, Frank Lloyd Wright designed a state of the art heating system for Unity Temple, involving a coal-fired boiler and electric fans that forced the warm air through a series of subterranean tunnels snaking below the building.  It was ahead of its time.  And it didn't work.  Parishioners either froze or broiled, and there was a story that so much heat was generated outside the building trees became to bloom in the winter.  More conventional - and reliable - steam radiators were installed in the building, which survive until today.

Now, Unity Temple is in process of constructing a $1.5 million ground source heat pump system that's projected to reduce energy consumption by up to 70%.

And you can learn all about it and see it history and beginnings for yourself.  On Thursday, August 25th, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m., Mark Nussbaum, mechanical engineer and geothermal expert, will talk about Wright's original 1908 heating system and lead an extended tour of the new system including the field for the 650-foot-deep wells, the original boiler and fan rooms, the access points to the tunnels, and "hidden mechanical chases."  There will also be appetizers and drinks from Oak Park's Maya del Sol.

All proceeds benefit the restoration of Unity Temple.  You can find out more and purchase tickets here.

Blair Kamin at Unity Temple, Matali Crasset at the Art Institute - still more events for March

The March Calendar of Chicago Architectural Events never closes.  We've added several more great events:

Real Estate Capital Market Update - Mortgage Markets Back in Full Swing - will be the subject of of a panel experts at ULI Chicago's breakfast session the morning of March 24th at the Union League.

Blair Kamin : Terror and Wonder: Architecture in a Tumultuous Age - the Tribune architecture critic will lecture on his new book at Unity Temple Oak, at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, the March 22nd.

Matali Crasset - the designer - and now architect - lectures for the Architecture and Design Society at Fullerton Hall at the Art Institute at 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 23rd.

There are still nearly three dozen events to come in March.  Check out the entire calendar here.

Housing after Katrina, Restoring St. John Cantius, Lee Bey judges Gingerbread - 3 Great New Events

ArchitectureChicago PLUS apologies to those of you who have been experiencing problems viewing our calendar in - if you'll excuse the expression - Internet Explorer.  We believe we've fixed the problem.  If not, let us know.

Just added to the December calendar:

On Friday, December 10th, to observe Human Rights Day,  marking the date in 1948 when the United Nations issued the first global Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the National Public Housing Museum will be sponsoring a screening at Roosevelt University of the documentary Coming Home: The Dry Storm, about the housing crisis in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

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On Monday the 13th at the Harold L. Washington Library, Brother Joshua Caswell SJC will present Restoring a Landmark: The Story of St. John Cantius  Church, the north side landmark designed in 1893-98 by architect Adolphus Druiding, covering the major interior and exterior restorations that have been undertaken beginning in the 1980's.

Then for a good time for a good cause - the restoration of Frank Lloyd Wright's iconic Unity Temple, on the evening of December 9th, the Unity Temple  Restoration Foundation will be offering up Edible Edifice: Reinterpreting the Classic Gingerbread House, at Room & Board, 55 E. Ohio.

Attendees will be enjoy hot cider, holiday trees from Bleeding Heart Bakery and live music, and be able to review the designer gingerbread houses entered into a competition to be judged by Bleeding Heart's Michelle and Vinny Garcia, Smith+Gill's Jeff Stafford and Michelle Dumont, and architecture critic and Chicago Central Area Committee Executive Director Lee Bey. 

Projects will be judged on six criteria: originality, use of materials, craftsmanship, site design, use of lighting, and that special "je ne sais quoi . . . The works will then be auctioned off to the highest bidders with proceeds benefiting that other convention-defying edifice, Unity Temple.

There are over two dozen events still to come this month.  Check out the complete December Calendar here.

Halloween attacks Chicago architecture - Giant Spider on Rush, Poe at Glessner, PC at Cobb's dungeon

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No, your eyes were not deceiving you.  That was a giant, scabby spider you saw climbing up the side of the 1883, oh so stately and sober Nickerson Mansion on Rush.  If his huge rhinestone eyes are bulging with anger, it's because he just found out the Nickerson Driehaus Museum is closed on Monday's, and he's grown way too big to scamper through a crack in the window.

If you want to move inside, there a number of Halloween events coming up.

Tuesday, October 26th, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., Preservation Chicago is offering up Paranormal Preservation at the Excalibur  nightclub on Dearborn.

Eat, Drink and Be Spooked! Join us at this haunted historic landmark for a Halloween celebration and be possessed by one of the scariest of places in Chicago, the Dome Room. Sean Parnell author of Historic Bars of Chicago will be giving a brief talk in the haunted history of the Dome Room and will be signing books.

The building that is now Excalibur, of course, was built in 1892 as the home of the Chicago Historical Society, done up in architect Henry Ives Cobb's best fortress dungeon style.  One little known fact about the structure is its basement crypt were Laeddis was kept shackled before he was shuffled off to Shutter Island

The $30.00 tariff for Preservation Chicago's event includes 2 drink tickets, appetizer buffer, a one year membership for new members to PC, and a real shock if you choose to investigate that last stall in the washroom with its door half open.  Information and reservations here.

Unfortunately, Unity Temple has already suffered a repugnant "trick"  when 58 of the 72 tarnished bronze letters spelling out "For the worship of God and the service of man" were stolen from the sides of Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece. 

Fortunately, on Thursday the 28th from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., there will be a more positive event, Wine, Chocolate & Architecture: A Haunting Halloween Trio that will take place in a candlelit Unity Temple. The event will also feature clothing, jewelry and accessories "in hues of wine and chocolate" (makes it so much easier when you spill some of it on yourself) from Oak Park's Takara boutique.  $30.00 in advance, $35.00 at the door, 50% tax deductible. Get information about the event and how to purchase tickets here.

Finally, the Glessner House Museum will be offering actors from Lifeline Theatre presenting staged readings of Edgar Allen Poe's "terrifying stories and poetry. A holiday tradition!" (nevermore,  schmevermore), Saturday, October 30 at 5:00 and 8:00 p.m.  And, by the way, if you catch sight a huge ghostly figure, hooded in a monk's black cloak, remember it's bad manners, even on Halloween, to remind him that if he had just eaten more sensibly he would have had time to make a lot more buildings.  The event is $25.00, $20.00 for museum members, pre-paid reservations required.  On Saturday and Sunday, October 30 and 31, the Glesnner is also offering Haunted Tours of Prairie Avenue at 7:00 and 8:00 p.m., "Tales of strange sounds, unexplained sightings, and untimely endings as your explore Prairie Avenue after dark." $10.00 per person, $8.00 for members. Information about the events and how to order tickets here.

What?  You say we still haven't come up with anything that really scares you?

Ok.

how

about

THIS! : : : : : :

 BOO!

Sullivan at the Block, Design Evanston Awards, Music's sway over Frank Lloyd Wright, Traditional Building Exhibition and Conference - still MORE great October events

As if 50+ events weren't enough, we've just added another half dozen to the October Calendar of Architectural Events.   Saturday, October 2nd, the Pleasant Home Foundation will offer up A Tour of Oak Parks Arts & Crafts Interiors in Oak Park.  On Wednesday the 6th, the Häfele America Chicago showroom will offer  Digital Solutions: Locker Management (yes, even getting shut up in your own locker by the school bully has now gone digital.)

On Thursday the 7th, musicologist David Patterson will talk about The Five Influences: Music and Mr. Wright's Architecture at Frank Lloyd Wrights Unity Temple in Oak Park.  On Thursday, the 14th, Design Evanston will offering up their 2010 Awards, while from Wednesday the 20th through Saturday 23rd, the Traditional Building Exhibition and Conference will convene at Navy Pier with dozens of panels, workshops, seminars and tours.  Access to the exhibition hall is free with registration.

And on Thursday, October 28th, there will be another screening of Mark Richard Smith's new documentary, Louis Sullivan: The Struggle for American Architecture at the Block Museum in Evanston, part of the Block's film series, The American Architect in Focus, that will continue into November.

The October Calendar is now at 60 great events and counting. Check them all out here.