The Journal Times Online - Racine, Wisconsin

There is a rich collection of architectural plans and presentation drawings in the exhibition, but not every person is expert in reading plans. For some people, three dimensional exhibits help tell the story. There is a fine variety of models in the Milwaukee exhibition.

The photos below are used with permission of the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, and others, as noted.

The earliest Wright work shown in a model is Unity Temple:

Jacobs 1, which many people consider Wright's first Usonian house (others point to the Willey House) is shown in layers. The model was previously exhibited two years ago at the Guggenheim Museum:

Frank Lloyd Wright
Model of Herbert Jacobs House #1, Madison, Wisconsin, 1936–37
Model designed and fabricated by Situ Studio, Brooklyn, 2009
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Wright also designed the landmark SC Johnson Administration Building in 1936. It is shown in two models. One is peek inside the Great Workroom, as it appeared when the building opened in 1939. The model was commissioned by the company for the 1980s exhibition "Creating a Corporate Cathedral' which coincided with the publication of Jonathan Lipman's "Frank Lloyd Wright and the Johnson Wax Buildings:

With permission of SC Johnson

The second Johnson model also shows the SC Johnson Research Tower which Wright designed in 1943. Construction started in 1947, and the building opened in 1950. It closed in 1981. While it is was a separate commission, Wright conceived of a tower for the Johnson campus when he designed the Administration Building. The model is lit from within, to highlight the drama of the Pryex-glass tube windows (there are 47 miles of windows in the Administration Building, and 17.5 miles in the Tower):

Frank Lloyd Wright
S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc. Administration Building and Research Tower , Racine, Wisconsin, 1936–50
Model designed and fabricated by Kennedy Fabrications Inc., New York, 2009
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

While many people think of horizontal designs when they think of Wright, he designed up as well as across. He proposed the Mile High Illinois building in 1956:

Photo used with permission of Vitra Design Museum, which commissioned and made the model.

Chronologically the last model in one exhibited in the first room of the exhibition, across from the Broadacre City model. "The Living City" model is based on Wright's 1958 book of the same name. It is an update of Broadacre City, with a number of his buildings, including the Ennis House, Price Tower, and the Marin County Civic Center, as well as unbuilt projects, including the Rogers Lacy Hotel in Dallas.

Photo used with permission of Vitra Design Museum, which commissioned and made the model.

For more information about the exhibition:

http://www.mam.org/frank-lloyd-wright/