This is uncomfortable for me to admit, but here goes. When I was a kid I was so enamored with Frank Lloyd Wright that I would wear a cape around the house as I built Prairie-style homes using wooden blocks, Legos and my sisters’ books.
The cape, which I still own, was from my first Halloween costume – Superman. I’ve since been Batman-tized.
I must admit that I’m not particularly a fan of Wright the person, Wright the builder (I’ve been to Fallingwater) or Wright the furniture designer. Then why the heck did I wear that cape for so many years?
I am a fan of how Wright turned architecture on its side to produce a style that was adapted to the Midwestern landscape. His low-slung Prairie houses look as if they grew, like corn, from the flats and rolling hills of the country’s midsection.
My introduction to Wright was not through books or school or even popular culture. It was through osmosis and E. Fay Jones, who was one of Wright’s apprentices and an enormous influence on the 20th-century architecture of Northwest Arkansas.
Like Wright, Jones designed structures that were in harmony with the landscape. And the city of Fort Smith where I grew up is chock full of homes that Jones designed or heavily influenced – he was the dean of the architecture school at the University of Arkansas.
His buildings use native materials and are so well adapted to the landscape that you almost don’t notice them at first. You might see only a brown roof that is hiding on the side of a hill. You have to get right up on the house to understand it. Oftentimes, a Jones house is a private treat for the residents alone. Though the house might look like it was built into a hill, it offers astonishing vistas for its owners.
For me, it was Jones that sparked my interest in buildings and design. Through him, I learned about Wright. Then, after learning all I could about Wright, I put away the cape and retreated back to Jones.
I can remember the moment this happened. My sister Ashley was married in Thorncrown Chapel in Eureka Springs, Ark., which is Jones’s most famous structure. It’s a huge building of glass and wood inside a forest. When you are inside the chapel you feel as if you are simultaneously both inside and outside. It’s a weird and beautiful feeling that I have never had anyplace else.
As my first-born daughter spread rose petals down the aisle before the processional, I can remember looking up into the beams of the chapel, which were shrouded in darkness like the limbs of the tallest trees of the forest. It was both disorienting and exhilarating. And no, I had not been drinking.
This weekend I’m up in Oak Park, Ill., and as the sun started to set on Friday I happened to be near Wright’s home and studio on Chicago Avenue. For the most part, I think that this structure is one of the least impressive Wright buildings in Chicago. It looks like two buildings lumped together – a Shingle-style house Wright built while working for Louis Sullivan plus a rambling structure behind it that looks like a largish Prairie-style addition.
However, from the front, the Shingle-style section of the house was catching the failing light just right on Friday. And I could almost picture the guy at the front door with a cape and cane in hand.
— Christopher Schwarz
Let’s face it Chris, what got your attention was the window shades all aligned. I’ll bet all the screw heads are clocked (timed).
What a mellow, insightful and revealing reflection. It would go well with a precious dram of 18 year old Scotch sipped slow by the fireside. I wonder, Superman, was their ever “truth, justice, and the American way” or did we just loose it?
I have been to Thorncrown Chapel, it is one of the most amazing buildings that I have ever seen.
Dear Chris,
Thanks for sharing your experience with Wright and Jones. I have always loved Wright’s work, but had never been exposed to Jones until now. Thornhill Chapel is phenomenal! What a great childhood you must have had.
Take care,
Kathryn
thanks for sharing.
Eureka Springs… we went to the court house in Eureka Spring to get our marriage license. Interesting place! I need to get to Old Street Tools next time we are there.
From what I know about Wright structures, I think the real heroes were the builders. Wright had these grandiose ideas, but often no idea how to carry them out. He told the builders what he wanted and left it to them to figure out how to accomplish the seemingly impossible. Unfortunately, not every idea was carried out to perfection, and there are (were) numerous “failures” in the implementation of the ideas. This is not necessarily Wright’s fault, or the builders, both of whom were breaking new ground.
This is the description of true leadership. Wright imparted his dream, and the builders picked up on it to accomplish it. I find this true often in modern construction where the architect often leaves the details of “how to do it” up to the builder.
Chris, as you already know, Fay Jones also designed the Cooper Chapel in Bella Vista,, Arkansas. This is identical to Thorncrown Chapel in appearance, and allmost identical in setting. I often visit, and find a sense of wonder and calm that very few places can aspire to. Any woodworker or designer should do themselves a great favor, and visit one or both of these chapels . Chris, the next time you are in Northwest Arkansas you should take your family to the newly opened Crystal Bridges Museum of Art. Also, i would be proud to buy you a beer on Dixon Street and call the Hogs!
I hope you’ve enjoyed my hometown, Chris. If I knew you were coming, I’d have baked a cake, or kegged some home brew, more likely. Walking past Oak Park’s fine old homes as a child was probably largely responsible for my aesthetic awakening. I hope you find some inspiration while you’re in town. I don’t care much personally for Wright’s sensibility, but his homes move me all the same – there’s something so haunting to me about how he constrains spaces and hardens edges. Have fun and stay warm!
Wow, Thorncrown Chapel was amazing. A visit there is now on my bucket list. Posts like these are why I’m addicted to your blog Chris.
Chris-you must have some Welsh ancestry somewhere,with having all these heroes with Welsh connections! FLW and John Brown are some of my heroes too,and now thanks to you I can add
Fay Jones who I was unaware of-Thorncrown Chapel is simply amazing,I can sense the same
intuition that possessed FLW and John Brown also . A feel for knowing when something is right.
Someone you might not have heard of is Clough Williams-Ellis,another Architect and Welshman,and from the same era as FLW.I have a photograph of both together,taken on one of the several trips FLW made back to his Mother’s homeland. Clough as well as creating the Italian-ate village of Portmeirion in North Wales was also famous for several Arts and Crafts architectural master-pieces. Check him out-maybe you can then add another Welsh hero to your list!
Iechyd da, David.
You should leave Master Schwarz alone. He is German. Isn’t that bad enough? The man gets his screws to clock by machining them. Imagine Frank Lloyd Wright crossed with Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg. I shudder to think where this anarchy thing might go.
Yours aye
Morgan
Hmm, you are just up the road a piece from me. Interestingly enough, I live down the street from a Frank Loyd Wright house. It is now a museum that charges 15 bux a head for a tour. Familiarity certainly breeds contempt as I can get the tour free every morning as I walk the dog.
I will echo the above note about the distance between architects and builders. A personal experience I had to live through was an architect that designed the roof overhang of a house such that the windows would not open.
Get inside that building to see the wonderful library and the light shaft which anticipated today’s tubular skylight. If you get the chance now or later, head in to Chicago to take the early skyscrapers tour of the Chicago Architectural Foundation or at least look in at the Rookery Building in the Loop, an early Wright renovation.
I too admire Wright’s work, and his employer, Louis Sullivan, and his employer, Frank Furness, and his teacher William Morris Hunt. Trace that design lineage sometime to observe the evolution of the species.
Thanks for this post and the fond memories it evokes.
Now to examine Jones…
Chris – I spent about three years of Saturdays during the early 1980’s as a volunteer helping to restore the “Home and Studio.” I completely concur that he was not gifted from a structural engineering standpoint, but in his defense, he tried new things while others were stuck in traditional ruts. The second structure you refer to is the Studio where Wright practiced his craft after he left Sullivan’s firm, and was built several years after the Home was constructed. Both buildings are interesting to look at from the outside, even if they are not as memorable as some of his other buildings located in the neighborhood. Understand that he was a young and sometimes stuggling architect when the buildings were built.
As noted above, the cost to tour the complex has become exorbinant, and you will probably not be allowed to take flash photos of the inside (bring a pad for sketching). Nonetheless, the interiors of both buildings are what really shine, and both have several striking features, (such as the chain-ring truss that supports up the Studio balcony). Both structures contain many original Wright designed furnishings, and a tour is probably worth your time if you visit the area again.
FLW was the architectural equivalent of either Kim Kardashian (famous for being famous — I ask my interns who the heck this creature is and I still have no idea why she is on the cover of every magazine at the pharmacy) or Dave Kingman (occasional home run, frequent strikeouts.). I too have been to Fallingwater and found it to be a monumental waste of a hillside and waterfall. His understanding of how structures actually functioned was, well, limited. On the other hand The Pope -Lieghey House, a Usonian House with old growth cypress detailing throughout, was definitely a grand slam (I hope to build a version in the future), and some of his Prairie House concepts were at least base hits. His “furniture” was amusing sculpture at times, pretty lousy furniture in both form and function. In the end with Taliesin he was little short of a carnival barker or con artist who found a cadre of willing dupes. Sullivan was a genius, Wright was a poseur for the most part.
.Not entirely familiar with Fay Jones but will investigate further.
Wright was infamous for his arrogance, eccentricities and his womanizing, among other things. But he was FAMOUS for being a great designer. Yes, he had problems with his buildings, often structural issues, but he was pushing the envelope further than anyone had to that point. He was not remotely perfect, but he was not a poser either.
FLW did not just turn architecture on its side, he created a new modern American architecture. He innovated and originated in so many ways. He was the first(or one of) to design an building to include AC, extensively use an open floor plan, use organic architecture principles, use slab on grade construction (Usonion houses), lower cost housing (Jacobs 1), use precast cement blocks (LA area textile block houses), use solar design (Jacobs 2), extensive use of cantilever, include custom designed furniture, drapes and all interior fittings as a completely integrated design. Over 70+ years he built around 500 buildings and designed over 1000.
Wright did not work in a vacuum and had associates/apprentices in his offices and at Taliesin. He probably claimed much more than he actually did, but to say they were duped into working with him is grossly inaccurate. Many of his associates came to him well educated and with experience, often from other well known architects, and then went on to be successful on their own. And undoubtedly Wright influenced most anyone who worked with him. Look at Schindler, Neutra, and Fay as just a few examples.
Wright was a lot of things, good and bad, but calling him a poser or a con artist is to misunderstand the great designer that he was. The greatest thing that Wright did was to leave his impression on countless architects and architecture in general. Simply put, Wright was one of the greatest American architects of the 20th century.
I don’t suppose anyone’s still reading comments on old posts, but… oh well. While I was home for Christmas this year my parents and I took a little trip to northwest Arkansas and saw both Thorncrown and Mildred B. Cooper chapels. We saw the Cooper at night, lit up like a lantern in the woods. In the mid-90’s I had an opportunity to hear E. Fay Jones speak and present some of his projects. Even more than his design sensibilities, I was impressed with his humility and graciousness. Rather unlike Wright in that regard.