University Place

cc >> Good afternoon and welcome to another session of History Sandwiched In. Today we are fortunate because our speaker is Virginia Terry Boyd who is a professor of design studies at UW. And she's going to speak to you about Frank Lloyd Wright, how his ideas were made into his art and architecture. So please welcome to History Sandwiched In, professor Boyd. >> Hi. Thank you for coming today. This is a big day in our history and it's actually rather difficult to be on a podium right after you've all heard, or many of you have heard Barack Obama. So I'm going to do my best to follow his wonderful example. Today we're going to talk about Frank Lloyd Wright but not so much from the point of view of his architecture but ideas behind it, concepts behind what emerges in form. And what is really interesting to me is how a person moves from ideas into something quite physical. The title of the presentation

and Frank Lloyd Wright

Designing an American Way of Living. When we speak of the house I think most of us automatically think of the home. Our definition of home includes of myriad ways that we come to inhabit spaces and implies our unique world of things, of behaviors and activities that are constructed mostly for ourselves, for our comfort and for our psyche. The home is not just a place but it is a way to be. And those are terms that Wright used. A home is a way to be. This concept of home and house may be so familiar to us as to be unremarkable in many ways. But it developed over time and Wright devoted considerable thought to understanding how to translate the idea of the way of living into actual physical form and in a uniquely American way. These are his words. "I think organic architecture should begin in the American home, the homes in which our American people dwell. There is the place where the idea of something integral of life, and not on it, begins." In his organic architecture he shaped a vision of a contemporary ideal. And his vision remained remarkably consistent over the five decades of his career and remained relevant even as American society changed in fundamental ways during that period. We're going to explore ways that Wright moved back and forth between his ideas about an appropriate way of living for American families and how those ideas should be transformed into the physical design of houses. I think that there are three characteristics that were integral and constant to his ideal home for Americans. First, was a thoroughly modern house that had an entirely new arrangement of interior space responsive to new patterns of living. Secondly, the new house form expressed the new era through a new modern aesthetic, breaking away from past styles. And lastly, the new house form had to be accessible to all essential in a truly democratic society. And I want to go through those three areas, those three characteristics in a little more depth. First, the new approach to space. Wright's early houses in the 1890s through 1950 that we now know as the prairie houses, proposed fundamental changes in the designs from the standard late Victorian house such as the house on the left, contemporary to those that Wright was building, his house on the right, particularly in the allocation and arrangement of interior space. Victorian houses adapted architectural styles, predominately European in origin such as -- and gothic and Italianate. Interior space was divided into layers horizontally beginning with a basement, main floor, more private floors above and the attic. Further compartmentalization was obtained by dividing each floor into increasingly smaller rooms devoted to highly specialized functions and activities such as butlers, pantries, library, sewing rooms, parlors kitchens, servant rooms a many, many more. Such spatial distinctions reinforced less visual but powerful social and role distinctions. The family occupied spaces separate from servants, parent spaces were separate from children's, women's and men's spaces were demarcated. Wright responded by rethinking such ill-fitting house plans. With his belief that architecture was principally about the shaping the space rather than configuring the form that enclosed it, it's not surprising that rethinking the design of house form he would begin with a fundamental reshaping of the interior space of the house. He sought to reduce social and role distinctions to support less prescribed and looser, more informal interactions befitting American life less bound by rigid class, social, gender and generational divisions. Therefore, he allocated the majority of the interior space to a single expansive living space conceived as the heart of the house, the symbolic hearth of the family. It was to serve multiple and overlapping functions including living, dining, intimate reading and conversation and festive public entertaining. He described the space in the

following way

"As big a living room with as much vista and garden coming in as we can afford. With fireplace in it and open bookshelves, a dining table in the alcove, benches and living room tables built in. A quiet rug on the floor, convenient cooking and dining space adjacent to if not part of the room." Use of this central space was intended to be flexible adapted to activities of the moment. Private space for bedrooms and baths and specialized service areas including kitchen and storage were much more compact in size. This approach, to be begin with a large open space and organize diverse activities and flexible zones within it, would be considered novel much later in the 1950s. Though Wright had by then been using it for almost 50 years. Glass was critical to Wright's new approach to space. The material provided Wright to connect the house with, to him, one of the most potent forces of

nature

Light. To a great extent, light permitted his goal of opening up the enclosed volume of space to find by the exterior walls of then contemporary houses and interior rooms closed with walls and ceilings. His early houses, such as Edward Boynton house on the left and the Hannah house for later on the right, give indication of ways Wright would extend his experimentation with light and glass in the future. The here to for box that limited the space of the room was abandoned and replaced was a composition of vertical and horizontal plains of glass alternating with narrower solid panels, virtually eliminating the traditional wall. And panels of indirect artificial light on the ceiling eliminated a flat enclosed effect opening the upper area of the room. As large floor-to-ceiling panels of glass became readily available, the material realized Wright's goal of then uninterrupted connection between the spaces of the interior and that of the natural world outside. Over the years, Wright continued to clarify his vision for an ideal American house form. The fundamental ideas about interior space remained intact but refined to an essence. Wright named the -- the Usonian house after Usonia, his name for the United States saying the house must be a pattern for more simplified and, at the same time, more gracious living. Necessarily new suitable to living conditions as they might so well be in the country we live in today. Overall, the refinements focused even more on a more single central space for living. A masonry core containing the fireplace was expanded to include all mechanical systems for the house and plumbing for kitchen and bath and heating. Thus clustering those rooms together in the middle of the house reducing construction costs and leaving livable space facing outside walls. As many of the furnishings as possible were constructed of the building within it, further enlarging livable space, reducing or eliminating the buildup of clutter. Wright was ingeniously creative at blurring the boundary between building structure and functional furnishings in order to enlarge that central space of the house, the location of most daily activities. The second characteristic of his transition of ideas into actual form was a modern aesthetic. Wright's intellectual concepts about an ideal house for Americans had to be translated into decisions about how the house should look. How does one go from the desire for a sense of beauty to a color for the wall? In his book title The Natural House, Wright describes this as the application of a grammar to the house. Applying a constant character for all of the elements, the shapes, the colors, the textures, the patterns that can articulate an over-arching architectural idea. These are the words that when combined according to principles of grammar, in this case the architect's idea, permit the house to speak in a language understandable and appealing to the client. For Wright, an unwavering requirement of his language was that it be composed of a limited set of elements used throughout all parts of the project from the shaping of the landscape, through the organization of the space of the house, the patterns of the glass and the furnishings themselves. Wright avoided the term decoration to describe this language of form, preferring instead either integral pattern or organic ornament. To emphasize that the visual character was the structure manifested in all of its parts. A style though, even though he wouldn't use that term, the style of Wright is abstract largely devoid of subject matter or motif. It is a vocabulary of pure linear geometric forms. And most important, as an abstract language was a look that expressed a new modern world. And that world was increasingly using the language of abstraction as its form of expression. Think just immediately of the actual, the art movement of abstract expressionism. It is that same power of abstraction that was sweeping through American cultural forms at the time. Certain materials and objects brought Wright's innate sense of visual enrichment all using the same aesthetic vocabulary. Examples such as the patterning of light, both natural and artificial, in lights greens such as these. And at this point notice that this is how he creates the pattern within stain glass and that particular material. And the effect of it. A very rich, visual material, visually rich effect. This is the way he would create a very similar effect, a whole wall of patterns, essentially, and light but in a very inexpensive way. This is done with plywood, two pieces of plywood that are cut with an abstract pattern, a piece of glass put in between them and then that mounted in the wall. And on the right I think you see the effect that the whole wall literally now is a pattern of light. Very similar to the stain glass earlier in his life but now done in a much more economical but very effective way. Light fixtures themselves were opportunities for the modern aesthetic. And very often the light fixtures, you really have to see them on and if you have the opportunity always ask if you can turn them on because very often the light shines through a pattern that's part of the fixture so that the pattern is reflected on the floor or the ceiling or the wall around that fixture. The pattern moves through with the light into the room as a whole. Decorative accessories of various different kinds of metals, materials provide opportunities of this new aesthetic. On the left, one of his iconic pieces a tall slender vase, originally made in copper and in this case these very sleek, elegant attenuated concave surfaces. Later he would come back to that form on the right in wood and, in this case, the sleek concave surfaces have now changed to this much more sort of crisp, faceted, crystalline kind of effect. But the linear element is really kind of similar in two very different materials with very different characteristics. Furnishings were another opportunity for the introduction of this new aesthetic. And again though the furnishings were integral to the whole. So I put a chair in not a context that it was originally designed for but another house and I think you can just see how you could move this chair easily into that space. The look, the structural basis for it is just so consistent. Chairs were a wonderful opportunity for experimenting with this new visual vocabulary. In this case, in the back of the chair with this very simple pattern but very visually strong pattern of repeated vertical spindles that just have a -- on the top and the bottom that give a very strong visual effect a decorative effect which again a term he would hate to use. But the visual coming through that structure very strongly. This for me is just a wonderful example of this just incredibly organized integrated way that the structure and the visual effect expressed, were one and expressed this new modernism. This is the David Wright house in Scottsdale and you see a plan for it on the right. The basic element of the design is clearly a circle. And there's just nothing in this house that does not reflect, interpret, expand, enhance that design. And for me the wonder of this is when you look at the plan, look at the colored penciled areas, that's the carpet for the house. And so from the very beginning of this design, the carpet was clearly in his mind. He had it completely worked out integral to, as important to him as the structure itself. And this is the final implementation of that. Almost an homage to a circle in many ways. So all of the materials and the objects and the structures provided forms to shape and surfaces to enhance his new visual language of geometry and line. A new language for the modern period. The last characteristic is I think particularly important, and that was his commitment throughout his career that his design, this house for Americans be accessible to everybody. From the very beginning he was committed to designing a moderately priced house. It was consistent with his view that a truly democratic America should make opportunities and advantages available so that everyone could reach their full potential including access to a modern living environment. As the century progressed and the rapid growth the of the middle-class changed American society in multiple fundamental ways, the sheer size of this group gave individuals within it power to affect social change. This population was potentially receptive to Wright's ideas believing that the home was a supportive refuge in place of comfort and particularly leisure. Somehow though, Wright had to get his ideas to this wide body of individuals. And he adopted several strategies which were not often used, some of which were not often used by major architects which he was at the time. He used frequent articles about his work in home magazines in ladies magazines. He illustrated his ideas in temporary exhibition houses and designed manufactured home furnishing products. And we're going to look at each of those individually. In their early history, women's home magazines were influential voices in the discussion of social and political issues of the day discussing housing reform, women's rights and domestic reform, health and nutrition, the effects of urbanism and industrialization. As they evolved, as the magazines evolved the focus shifted to the more intimate domestic scene in terms of topics. The area of interest, intense interest of the Wright. Early in his career Wright worked with Ladies' Home Journal and these are two issues from 1906 and 1907 quite early in his career. And you notice on the left, this is one of the first major, major meaning wide, exposure introduction of the ideas of the prairie house to the American public in this very widely subscribed to magazine. On the right, you see this idea right in the headlines. A small house with lots of room in it and that lots of room is that main living space. That's how he got that sense of expansiveness that he wanted. The architect had a more involved relationship with the magazine House Beautiful. Particularly after World War II. Then editor, Elizabeth Gordon, who you see here, was as passionately committed to making available to her readers the best and most current ideas in housing as Wright was committed to designing such, to creating such designs. The most extensive collaboration was evident in the November 1955 issue, which you see here, dedicated to Wright. Beginning a cover photograph of Wright's house, Taliesin, near here. And the cover legend reads "Frank Lloyd Wright, his contribution to the beauty of American life." And the issue emphasized living, not architectural style. The architectural style was in support of this broader idea. And in it Wright shared his own way of living with the readers. But Wright needed ways to make it possible for larger number of individuals to actually experience his principles of organic architecture firsthand. An early attempt of the American system built houses developed by Wright and the Milwaukee Arthur L. Richards Company. The company was to manufacturer service contractor and distributor of the houses designed as systems with some parts preassembled at the factory and some precut and assembled onsite. But the project never gained the necessary momentum. Although there was an elaborate promotional affect including the advertisement that you see on the left. And its use in a full page advertisement in the Sunday Chicago Tribune in 1917. And again, notice the headline for the advertisement, which reinforces his idea that he's trying to provide something uniquely American and you too, all of us, have access to it. He's not saying buy a Frank Lloyd Wright home. Another approach to get his ideas about an American house out to average people was a temporary exhibition house which permitted even more people to actually experience such a space. With the message again that it was something to which they could aspire. The most widely known exhibition house was included in the exhibition of 40 years of living architecture, the work of Frank Lloyd Wright which opened in New York City November 1953 on the site of the up coming Guggenheim exhibition which Wright was in the process of designing. In the late 1950s, then in his 80s, Wright began an entirely new approach to forwarding his ideas about American living to the public through manufactured, mass-produced home furnishing products. Wright worked with three manufacturers to develop products for the home. All coordinated across the manufactures, which was difficult to do, and named the Taliesin line. Wright's intent was to give the buyer the means or the tools, in the form of furniture, fabrics, wall paper and paints, with which to create an organic space within the confines of an existing nonorganic space or basically a box. First the heritage -- furniture which you see here. Recognizing that most individuals were likely going to continue living in a box, he designed furnishings in such a way that the furniture would become essentially the structural architectural elements with which to build an organic space and organizing it into the flexible functional areas that he was doing into the full houses. And you can see this, I think a little bit. I couldn't show you sort of the whole range of the heritage -- line but it was basically what we would now call modular furniture. Pieces that you could configure and reassemble that were designed to work together. So you could build essentially walls of cabinets and shelves that would divide up space which would create functional areas. And you see one of those pieces in the background. And you also see in the foreground the dining room set which is very reminiscent of those early in his career but with some major changes. A wider, deeper seat. It's upholstered now. And the chair back was a little softer and its line also upholstered. And the heritage -- was wanting to sell and knew what the market needed and wanted and so worked with Wright and Taliesin in making those kinds of changes. The second manufacture was F. Schumacher and Company a prominent textile manufacturer. Many of the fabrics in the Taliesin line were intended as drapery creating and intending to create literally floor to ceiling installations which were meant to essentially open up that wall through pattern and color. And I think if you can see that desired effect up here. Think back now to the stain glass windows where you had this wall of pattern and here is that same idea that the drapery wall, the walls of drapery created an illusion of the interior space expanding beyond the wall. These are some of the other textiles that were part of the Taliesin line. The last manufacturer was Martin Senour Paints which provided the means, through paint, to integrate the furnishings, the textiles and the surrounding wall surfaces through the element of color. So the three products together again were the tools in which an average person could create as much as possible and organic space within a box. It's kind of hard to see the Martin Senour Paints because they're translated now through a number of different technologies. But I think on the upper left you see some of the more organic colors that we associate with Wright but look at the rest of the pallet. Here are olive greens and aquas and oranges, the colors of the 50s. This was a real attempt to bring these ideas, to market them into the everyday average American. House Beautiful magazine, again, worked with Wright in bringing these ideas to the American market. They had a special edition of the magazine devoted to him. And showing off all of the new products and how they might be used. This is one page from that. Was Frank Lloyd Wright's approach to the design of an American house that provided sustenance to the soul, not just a fashionable house, successful? Providing a new approach to space in relation to new ways of living, a new modern aesthetic, and an attempt it make it available to everyone. Perhaps each of us must answer this question. Following Wright's death in 1959, House Beautiful composed another special issue dedicated to Wright. And this was their answer. "Your legacy from Frank Lloyd Wright, a richer way of life." Thank you.

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nature

Yeah? >> I heard someone described flank Lloyd Wright's career as two major periods and the middle period being the period when he did a lot of his housing. Do you think his interest in housing and his way of life grew out of an absence of public commissions and larger commissions or do you think he was genuinely interested. >> No. That's a question when I sort of became interested in this idea and I try to sort of show that here in that early in his career he was working with Ladies' Home Journal. That's 1906. And as I followed through the houses and his writings, this idea is consistent all the way through. There were periods when the public building were the major commissions but even during that time you still heard him committed to this goal of his which became almost a, not an obsession, but just an incredible sustained commitment that he wanted to provide the average person, and I know it sounds like such a cliche, but it was part of him all the way through. Sometimes because of commissions it didn't appear as much, but I think it was there all the way through. Yeah? >> About furniture, I know the word organic comes up a lot and used and you were using it but some of that furniture when I think about organic furniture I think about the lazy boy.

LAUGHTER

nature

It's good for the organism. So much of this furniture just looks uncomfortable to me. Was it? >> Well, see you have to remember that this individual lived, his career was developed within the Victorian period and he died in the 1950s. And you have to just think of the huge changes in the way people lived, operated during that time. When he came into his architectural practice, think of the way women, in particular, were dressed. They were dressed in corsets. They would not stand what the way I'm standing, they would stand with much better posture and posture that was very delimited in terms of its movements. You needed furniture that accommodated that kind of, men were in very stiff collars, they were always dressed in very formal ways. At home that opened up a little bit, relaxed a little bit but it was a very formal lifestyle. So now I think if you gave them a lazy boy that would have been, they would have been very uneasy about it because the mannerisms, the way they lived was a much more formal life. I think they would have felt very uncomfortable slouching the way we do. But when you looked the a the heritage -- pieces, and that's also why I was commenting that those were wider and deeper and upholstered and this is the 1950s now and we're in this, we're in -- and that, I think the lazy boy was there at that point or something very similar to it and things have changed. And piece changing. And if you look at his furniture in the 1950s particular that that's built in, it's low, it's wide, it's deep, coffee tables are now part of it. The center of gravity for his design, his furniture is much more consistent with lazy boy. I never saw lazy boy and if it is something similar to that. But I think he was more attune to I would say he had antenna out there on how people liked to live. And I think he was amazingly adaptive as times changed. Yeah? >> You mentioned that the main space is very large and that the bedrooms and the kitchens were very small. And as I recall, the kitchen in Taliesin is minute. Didn't women rebel? >> Early on there were servants in the house, in these houses. So the women weren't rebelling because they had help. But as this way of thinking about the space developed, and in the quotation that I gave you remember he was talking about the kitchens and the eating area being part of that space and I think we think about it now sort of the great room where we have dining and you can see into the kitchen, the kitchen is just part of that large space. And that was really the idea. There's a whole larger issue sort of changing roles and expectations that women have during this period which are undergoing fundamental changes and again though I think this architecture was not so much behind the ball in terms of moving from very conscribed kitchens that were separate to smaller spaces for kitchens but those spaces were part of this larger, more informal whole. And it was the woman that was then, the wife, the mother, who was in that kitchen. There was another hand? >> When you said commercially successful his furniture line was. I was a bride in that era and I never could have afforded it. >> It was a little more expensive, depending on one's means a lot more expense of. First of all, the furniture didn't sell very well. Textile sold the best. Paints anyone could use the paints so it's kind of hard to tell whether they were buying Frank Lloyd Wright's paints or because they liked a particular color in general. One of the reasons the furniture didn't seem to sell was that because it was modular to see how it worked you had to have it all together in a showroom and if you think about the way department stores in the late '40s and '50s laid out furniture they put all the chairs from all the manufacturers in one space and they put the tables here and they put the case pieces here so you couldn't really see how this all sort of worked together. And it looked, Scandinavian modernism was just coming in so we didn't really have a lot of experience with that kind of modularity. But it was a little bit more expensive. I tend to think that's probably why the fabric sold better because if you couldn't afford the furniture, but you wanted something of Wright's, you could afford a yardage of fabric and you could do something with that. But, in general, I think it was kind of ahead of its time and some of the fabric, because of intent of it was to create these big walls of fabric, those are really larger patterns and you can't do an awful lot, I mean you can't make dresses out of that. So it was kind of conscribed too. Thank you for coming.

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