Tag Archives: Wright

Hardy House: What a difference a week makes!

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(c) Mark Hertzberg

      The Hardy House interior looked quite raw and unfinished 10 days ago as final preparations are made for Saturday’s tours of the house – the first in decades. What a difference a week makes! I was astounded when I stopped at the house last Thursday and saw painters Dennis and Daniel Bishop at work. They are bringing the living room back to life, with its original color, and staining the Georgia pine trim. There are less than 20 tickets left for the tours: call Frank Lloyd Wright Wisconsin at 608-287-0339 to make reservations. The interior is not completely finished yet. Exterior work will follow after the interior is finished. This is a wonderful opportunity to see a Wright house rehabilitation in progress.

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I had just come back from looking at the home’s seven hallway windows with Joan Szymczak (owner Eugene Szymczak’s sister-in-law) at Paul Phelps’ Oakbrook Esser glass art studios in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. Phelps explained that the windows are too badly damaged from previous repair to restore. The original windows will be saved, but he will build replicas (Szymczak and Phelps are framed in one of his reproduction Robie House windows in the first photo).

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ImageImageI couldn’t resist taking Phelps’ picture through one of his Coonley Playhouse windows:

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New SCJ Wright Exhibition: “Usonia”

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Photos by Mark Hertzberg for SC Johnson, and used with permission

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     There are two well-known aspects to the SC Johnson company in Racine, Wisconsin: manufacturer of household products and stewards of the company’s Wright-designed Administration Building (1936) and Research Tower (1943/44). The company celebrates Wright’s influence on the American home in “At Home with Frank Lloyd Wright,” the permanent Wright exhibition in Fortaleza Hall (designed by Lord Norman Foster and Partners; opened in 2010) on the company campus.

      The first phase of the exhibition opened in June. It focused on Wright’s Prairie-style homes. The second iteration of the exhibition, “Usonia,” opens to the public May 3. It is being installed this week.

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While many people think that Wright designed homes only for wealthy clients, he was very interested in designing affordable housing. His Usonian homes were designed so that the client could help build them.

      The exhibition includes an “exploded” model of Jacobs 1 (1936), the Madison house widely considered to be Wright’s first Usonian home,  which the home owners helped build. The model, which is on loan from the Milwaukee Art Museum, was assembled Monday by workers who looked as if they were carefully positioning marionettes:

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      The exhibition also includes a masonry wall, in Wright’s signature Cherokee red brick, a board and batten panel built like the outside of Jacobs 1 (and other Usonian homes), and a photo mural that shows the view one might see from the living room of a Usonian home. These photographs were taken Monday. Installation continues until the exhibition opens:

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Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church

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Text and Photos (c) Mark Hertzberg

I recently had the privilege of being invited by Father Angelo Artemas to photograph the interior of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee.

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Interestingly, with all the thousands of dollars in camera bodies and lenses I carry, the two thin horizontals were shot with my iPhone 4S using the Panorama camera function.

I have many “record shots” of the sanctuary, but the photos I am posting are photos of details in the church. One of the most important design features in the sanctuary are the three light poles in the stairwells. The three light poles represent the Holy Trinity. The white lights represent the stars, the blue lights the Virgin Mary.

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Cindy, my wife and extra set of eyes, noticed a resemblance between the sculptured ends of the pews and the statue of Nakoma at the SC Johnson Research Tower in Racine. Maria Pandazi, a member of the congregation and past president of Frank Lloyd Wright Wisconsin (www.wrightinwisconsin.org) explained to me that, “The sculptured ends of the pews are intended to represent the Christian symbol of the fish pointed downward (the ball being the tail).”

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Natural light is supplemented by light fixtures below the dome:

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Wright’s windows were integral parts of his designs. There are art glass windows on either side of the front door. The first photo shows one of the windows and its reflection on the floor of the entry way.

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The second photo shows one of the windows viewed through the glass wall added at the entrance to the sanctuary after Wright’s death. He did not design those windows.

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Another significant change in the church was the removal of the icons which Eugene Masselink designed for the altar. The original icons are now displayed in the basement of the church:

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The next photos are exterior photos shot last summer…

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April 5 update: Hardy House Restoration

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Photos and text (c) Mark Hertzberg

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Restoration of the Thomas P. Hardy House continues at a fast pace with 90 visitors expected to tour the house April 27 (see previous post and http://www.wrightinwisconsin.org – reservations still available). Concrete was poured today at the north and south entry ways. The cantilevered concrete slab at the south door had caved in (photos in previous updates show daylight in the view looking up from the basement) so both the south and north entry slabs were replaced today.

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Construction of cedar gates, replicating the ones Mr. Wright put across the north and south entry ways when the house was built in 1906, is expected to begin soon. The original gates were removed by the third owners of the house (1947-1957). This is a model that Chad and Homer Nichols made of the gates they will build:

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Paul Lemke, the plasterer, had a challenge building the scaffolding to work in the living room. It also took him several days to cover the cedar trim with blue masking tape…after he swept the cobwebs off the ceiling.

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Paul thought he had finished the upstairs bedrooms several months ago…but then the insulation crew arrived a week ago and put holes in the ceilings. Paul will need to redo the ceilings.

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The most dramatic change in the exterior appearance of the house is the plywood shelter built around the entry hallway a few weeks ago. Gordon Hudson and Kevin Grant built the shelter before removing the upper portion of the exterior hallway wall. They will use photos taken of the hallway before restoration began in September to guide them as they rebuild the wall to make sure it will last another 100 years.

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We look forward to seeing many of you at the April 27 tour, which benefits Frank Lloyd Wright Wisconsin. Tours are limited to 90 people, by reservation for specific time slots between 9:30 and 2:30 p.m. Reservations are accepted by telephone only, at 608-287-0339. (I am on the board of the organization, and I will be leading the tours.)

New Wright exhibition coming to SCJ

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(c) Mark Hertzberg

The Frank Lloyd Wright At Home exhibition in Fortaleza Hall on the SC Johnson campus in Racine is expected to reopen the first weekend in May. The first year’s exhibit, about his Prairie-style work, was dismantled a few weeks ago. It had opened last June. The second phase of the exhibition is about his Usonian homes. It will be up for about 10 months until the changeover for a still-to-be determined third  phase of the exhibition.

The photos below are of workers from the joint curators, SC Johnson and the Milwaukee Art Museum, and from Merchants Moving and Storage in Racine, taking down the Prairie-style artifacts. Many of the artifacts are on loan to SCJ under a unique 99-year loan from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. I expect to preview the Usonian exhibition for you in a few weeks.

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