PrairieMod

Auctions Done Wright

Richard Wright's boutique gallery and auction house in Chicago is an important destination for collectors of important 20th Century furniture, art and design. His auctions regularly feature pieces from the masters of Modern Design, like Mies, Gropius, Le Corbusier, Eames, Nakashima, and of course Frank Lloyd Wright. A recent auction on March 28 featured several pieces of furniture and decor from the Adelman House, the Keys House and Sweeton House. Another auction of important 20th century design objects is coming up in May 21st. Even if you can't afford to place a bid, we recommend getting yourself a catalog to peruse...it's always beautifully designed and full of eye candy to drool over!

Produce Great People; the Rest Follows: Elbert Hubbard & Roycroft

During a recent business trip to Buffalo, NY, I had the opportunity to stay at the Roycroft Inn of East Aurora, NY. At the front of the inn is a massive oak door with a quotation carved into in..."Produce Great People; the Rest Follows". These words (some attribute to Walt Whitman, some Elbert Hubbard) foreshadow things to be discovered at the Roycroft Inn & Campus.

Elbert Hubbard, founder of the Roycrofters, an Arts & Crafts movement community established a little over 100 years ago, left an amazing legacy behind. The tranquil beauty of all that remains and all that is restored at the Roycroft Campus leaves one breathless. Such a rich history deserves to be explored and understood by modern folks like ourselves.

How is what has been preserved by organizations like the Roycroft Campus Corporation & the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation important to us today? Aside from the beauty and the intrigue is something deeper. The ideals espoused by the Roycrofters were and are simplicity, natural living, health and intellectual well being. Aren't those things what we city-dwelling or suburbanite Americans are still chasing after? We create devices to help make life easier, though that never really seems to work. We maintain parks and preserves to stay in touch with nature amidst an overpowering sprawl. And aren't good health and a strong intellect things we try to develop through our memberships to health clubs and endeavors at higher education?

Aside from pondering these questions, I also was surprised to learn some key facts about Elbert Hubbard and the Roycrofters that I wasn't aware of before. Mr. Hubbard was a shrewd businessman and a marketing genius, not just a country philosopher who produced incredibly beautiful and useful objects. He was an advocate for Socialism, but ran the Roycrofters as a capital enterprise. The list goes on, but I'll leave that for you to discover....perhaps on a visit to East Aurora for an enchanting weekend?

Some excellent places to start are a read through The Fra, published by the Roycroft Campus Corporation and Elbert Hubbard's most famous essay, A Message to Garcia (at one time the 3rd most published piece after the Bible and the dictionary). Enjoy!

A Collector's Passion

The Charles Campbell Gallery in San Francisco, California will be hosting an exhibit of one of the largest personal collections of Frank Lloyd Wright artifacts from May 20 through June 24, 2006. More than 30 pieces from the collection of Walter Bill Schmidt, a former art teacher, will be on display including two windows from the Darwin Martin House, original Frank Lloyd Wright photographs, drawings and even concrete blocks from the Ennis House. A rare chance to see such a display of Wright items from an important private collection.

Photo courtesy of the Charles Campbell Gallery website

We Are Speechless...

Received a Google News Alert about about a Puppetmaker, who among other characters and figures, makes a Frank Lloyd Wright marionette. The picture speaks for itself.

Photo courtesy of Inetmer

Google Search Tool Added!

In order to help our vistors and readers, we've just added a Google Search tool on the left-hand side of our weblog. You can search our site or search the World Wide Wide with it. Enjoy!

SAMARA's 50

One of Indiana's most important Frank Lloyd Wright homes, SAMARA (so named by Mr. Wright because of the seed pod motif used throughout the house of the same name) is celebrating its 50th anniversary. A new exhibit of artifacts associated with the home is at the West Lafayette Public Library from April 2 through July 30, 2006 during regular library hours. Some of the items on display include an origami chair, a garden lantern, assorted furniture, floor and table lamps and over 150 color drawings, photographs, plans, etc. If you can't make it to the exhibit, check out the book that is available on the house which highlights it's history and design.

House Photo by David Stadler

All That Jazz

Our friends at Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple are holding their fourth annual restoration gala on May 6. Every year, this swanky event features dinner catered by the finest restaurants in Oak Park, IL, cocktails, and a silent auction...all in an effort to raise money and awareness for the building's restoration. This year's attendees will be treated to a special concert from the world famous jazz vocalist, Spider Saloff. The magnificent building is the perfect setting for a concert of this caliber and we at PrairieMod would highly suggest anyone who can, to order their tickets now, since they won't last long. For more information, call 708-383-8873.

Everybody Deserves Beauty: American System-Built Homes

I recently picked up a copy of a 1993 PBS documentary entitled "Three Wright Eras: places for living, work, worship". The first segment about living, featured an American System-Built Duplex that has been restored as a single family home. The street that this home is on, is the longest stretch of FLLW homes in the world. I had read about these before, but to actually be able to see inside one was quite fascinating.

Cost efficient. Beautiful. Individual. The American System-Built Homes were designed as one of Wright's first attempts at creating affordable housing of taste and style. They were a scaled down version of the grand homes he designed for wealthy clients. It truly was a challenge that sparked his imagination. This was a project of passion.

It's important to note that these homes were a collaboration between Wright and a Milwaukee real estate developer named Arthur Richards. As a result, many feel that these structures are not authentically Wright. However, these homes were a project that meant a great deal to him and the same ideas he addressed here would be a challenge he'd continually return to throughout his career. Wright produced more than 900 working drawings and sketches of various designs for this system of homes. It is the largest portfolio of drawings in the Frank Lloyd Wright archives! Sadly, America entered WWI soon after these were built and the broader concept never caught on due to lack of materials that were being diverted to the war effort.

After digging a bit, I discovered today that the Frank Lloyd Wright Wisconsin Program has purchased two of these South-side Milwaukee structures. There are plans for restoration and public access with a goal of 2007 for tours and regular events. You can read more details here and here.

If you really enjoy details, check out the Historic Designation report for this neighborhood here. There are also some drawings from a Historic Survey which are fun!

Photos courtesy: www.WrightInWisconsin.org & FLLW Companion CD-ROM

 

And You Thought We Were Kidding: Prairie Meets Modern

You may have noticed that PrairieMod is all about discussing the ideals of the Prairie Style meeting modern sensibilities, but this article by Traditional Homes Magazine is an extreme (maybe even literal) example of PrairieMod living. The 1998 article details a kitchen remodeling in an original Minneapolis Prairie home that was built in 1915.

There are some tantalizing photographs of the new kitchen, but they leave one longing to see the rest of the home and how the updates integrate with the entire structural environment. That is really the test, isn't it? Nevertheless, it is wonderful to see folks trying to responsibly blend the old styles with the new. It's 20th century beauty with 21st century functionality.

Modern Desert Life

Modern Phoenix is a newer website that chronicles the modern design movement in Phoenix, Arizona. As is states on their home page the site: "features photographic documentation, articles and interactive discussion of classic mid century design, art and architecture in Phoenix, Arizona. The site also includes Contemporary design with Modern spirit (MoCo) and renovations of classic modern structures."

The ASU Web Devil website reviewed the site and makes mention of one of the most impressive modern buildings in Phoenix, Frank Lloyd Wright's Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium. The article quotes David Tyda, editor of Desert Living Magazine as saying "The Frank Lloyd Wright influence here has spun into many fascinating directions. We're lucky to have legendary architects from the old school still practicing out here."

The Phoenix area also boasts an impressive list of Wright homes such as the Harold Price House, the Raymond Carleson house and the Norman Lykes House. If you find yourself thoroughly in love with the beautiful desert surroundings and want to relocate, the impressive Lykes house is fully furnished and ready to be moved into for a mere $3,000,000!

Check out the site and the town to experience some of the these Modern wonders in person.

Grady Gammage photo courtesy of the ASU website.
Lykes house photo courtesy of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy

The Michigan Moderism Exposition

A friend of PrairieMod's was kind enough to point this particular event out to us. It's the Michigan Modernism Exposition, which will feature outstanding examples of pieces designed by such greats as Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Herman Miller, Heywood-Wakefield, the Stickleys, and Salvadore Dali.

Their website states that Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Prairie, Arts and Crafts, Surrealistic and Neo-Classical Schools of design, are all considered hallmark styles within the Modernism movement. While I personally feel that movements like Arts and Crafts, Prairie, and Art Nouveau could more accurately be described as preludes to Modernism, it is interesting to ponder the relationship between these various styles. In some way it does speak to what PrairieMod is all about.

Event details: April 21-23 at the Southfield Municipal Complex in Southfield, MI. Hours are Saturday from 11am-9pm & Sunday from 12pm-5pm.

Everything Old is New Again

An on line article for Furniture Today, the weekly business newspaper for the furniture industry, reports that most manufacturers are featuring designs that are predominantly Arts & Crafts and "Cottage Style." It's an interesting turn of events since, apparently Art Deco and more contemporary styles were all in vogue the last few years.

Among the top new collections with and Arts and Crafts flavor are Hooker's Simply American, Magnussen Home's Oak Park, Pennsylvania House's Badin Ridge, Cresent's Artisan and the new Frank Lloyd Wright Collection licensee, Copeland Furniture.

It will be interesting to see what this new furniture will look like, and how it compares in quality and price to the the top Arts and Crafts name in furniture, Stickley.

Banking on Wright

Wright on the Park, Inc., the group that is undertaking the restoration of the Park Inn Hotel in Mason City, Iowa, has designs on acquiring and restoring the Frank Lloyd Wright Bank next door. The group acknowledged that it will double their workload and fund raising efforts, but it had been their intent to include the bank in their plans all along. We at PrairieMod applaud their efforts and look forward to touring both sites the next time we're in Iowa.

Photo by Arian Schuessler