It Looks like Frank Lloyd Wright's Buffalo, New York masterpiece, the Darwin Martin House, is going to get a new neighbor. We received a press release on a generous grant the Martin House Restoration Corporation received towards the construction of a new visitor's center.
As stated in the release:
The Martin House Restoration Corporation (MHRC), which operates Frank
Lloyd Wright's landmark Darwin Martin House Complex has announced a
$2.5 million gift for its new, Toshiko Mori-designed visitor center
pavilion. Wright's largest Prairie Style complex (32,000 square feet)
is currently undergoing a $40 million restoration to return it to its
original 1907 condition. The gift from the East Hill Foundation enables
the MHRC to begin construction on the visitor center in late February
with completion anticipated in late 2008.
Toshiko Mori, chair of the Department of Architecture at the Harvard
University Graduate School of Design, has received numerous awards for
her work, including the Academy Award in Architecture from the American
Academy of Arts and Letters.
"Our goal is to restate the importance of Wright's place in setting the tone for today's architecture," Mori stated. 'Current ecological concerns are focusing us once again to reconsider the true meaning of organic architecture; that is architecture that is integral and intrinsic, that embraces technological advances that will work with natural forces, and that has poetic intentions to lift the human spirit.'
This is fantastic news! The Mod Squad saw a presentation on the proposed visitor center at the 2007 Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy's annual conference. Ms. Mori's design is a sublime expression of Wright's principles translated in her own way for the 21st century. As stated on her website:
The Visitor Center will provide support spaces for visitors to the Darwin D. Martin House, Frank Lloyd Wright’s residential complex in Buffalo, New York, which is undergoing restoration. Programs housed in the Visitor Center include exhibition space, permanent galleries, a theater, and museum shop. TMA’s design seeks to enhance the Martin House through contrast rather than imitation. The Visitor Center reinterprets the Martin House to expose the structural, infrastructural, and programmatic relationships of the historic building, while continuing Wright’s lifelong interest in innovation through the exploration of new materials, technologies, and techniques. The inverted hip roof of the Visitor Center, for example, both references the form of Wright’s building and allows uninterrupted viewing of the Martin House. The glass façade of the Visitor Center reflects the public nature of the building’s program and contrasts with the introversion of Wright’s design.
I'm very excited to see this story unfold--it's a perfect example of what the idea of PrairieMod is all about: Timeless Principles we learn from our past, expressed in uniquely individual ways for today. I very much look forward to visiting the visitor's center and the Martin House when it is complete. See you there!
Images copyright Toshiko Mori
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