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Wright in Racine
Friday April 20, 2012
Posted by: mhertzberg at 8:05AM CST on April 20, 2012
(c) Mark Hertzberg The black Toyota Prius quietly rolls to a stop. Sean Malone, 42, steps out, a white straw hat on his head, an iPhone in his hand. Meet the new president and CEO of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. Sean Malone in the Thomas P. Hardy House
Malone, who comes from Ten Chimneys Foundation in Genesee Depot, Wisconsin, breaks the mold of what many people may have expected in the new head of the Foundation. Architect? No. Professor of architecture or of art history? No. Seen many Wright buildings before taking the position? No. Steeped in years of Frank Lloyd Wright? No. Lives at or near Taliesin? No. Lives at or near Taliesin West? No. Bright? Yes. Affable? Yes. Thoughtful? Yes. Articulate? Yes. Successful record with Ten Chimneys? Yes. Enthusiastic about his new job? Yes. Confident that he is the right person to help the Foundation overcome its challenges and negative publicity? Yes. It is clear why T-West would want Malone: he has a stellar record as a director of a non-profit organization. On the other hand, one might wonder why someone with no traditional background in the World of Wright would want to step into what has been somewhat of a revolving door at Taliesin West. Malone talks about his interest in Wright, “I have always been moved by his body of work. Because I am not an architect, I was not in a position that I could explain what it was that moved me. I found it invigorating. It’s just beautiful, balanced, intentional work, and so I started from a point of engagement with his art. The other piece that really excited me and brought me into the organization was the potential for the body of work and the philosophy of Frank Lloyd Wright to inspire others - individuals and communities across the country, and internationally.” There is much more substance to his vision about his new role than what some may fancy for him. His responsibilities are more than overseeing the preservation of Taliesin and Taliesin West, overseeing the Foundation’s architecture school, and racking in big bucks in donations, grants, and souvenir sales to fund the whole kit and caboodle. Malone says that the Foundation’s “biggest challenge” is “to decide what the next decade or two will be about.” That is not a particularly startling answer. What is more interesting is the next series of questions he poses, and the way he answers those questions. First, he asks, “Who do we exist to serve? That is a loaded question. It underlines my opinion that we exist to serve...it is something I believe all non-profits should do. That is what attracted me to the Foundation. “Who do we serve directly? People who visit the two national landmarks we own, our publications...but also the people we exist to serve through indirect means. If we are inspiring people who are professionals who are part of the built environment, more than just architecture, our ability to inspire them, is not just about them, it is about what they then go and do. “I am a real believer in both direct impact and indirect impact. Directly, I want to inspire architects and student architects, all people involved with the built environment (including writers, photographers, and city planners). All of them, if we inspire them, change peoples’ lives. If you take a look at the direct and indirect impact (of the Foundation on people), it’s global. Then Malone asks, “What are the deep meaningful needs of those individuals and communities? Once we define who we exist to serve, what are their needs? Sometimes it is things they do not know they want yet. It is about needs, not wants. It has to be (something) unmet. If someone is doing it adequately, I don’t want to do it.” Finally, Malone says he want to know, “Which of those needs do we agree we are uniquely positioned to meet, better than anyone in the world or that no one in the world can do at all?” Asking those questions, having “conversations” with people, is key to Malone’s approach to his new position. “That is the lens through which I look at the role of a non-profit. I don’t think that articulation is completely new or earth-shattering.” While most non-profits might end up with a list of only two or three challenges that answer those questions, Malone has no illusion that there will not be many “opportunities” that the Foundation could take on. He has no doubt that there could be a daunting list of goals that some may offer as priorities. Malone wants to pare such a list down. “What is particularly exciting for the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation...that is a big part of why I wanted to make this move and a big part of why I am so energized about the work that we are going to accomplish in the coming years. Malone asks more questions. “Why do you think of his body of work and philosophies? Why do you think it is going to be relevant ten years from now. Why do you think it is going to be relevant a hundred years from now. Those are the questions I am asking people.” The living room of the Hardy House is filled with morning sunlight as Malone tours Wright's Racine homes.
He has a degree in business from the University of Wisconsin, but Malone sees his work as being more than just a dollars-and-cents guy charged with keeping the troubled Foundation solvent. “The idea of how we live our lives has been an important part of my career, because I think it matters. i think people find it relevant, and that we as humans have the opportunity to make that a decision...I think his (Wright’s) work has something very meaningful to say about our ability to choose the life we are going to live, to live an intentionally lived life, and that is a powerful thing. That is one of the handful of truly universal challenges...the sense that we don’t have to choose between being great one thing or another. We don’t have to choose between deep relationships with family and friends and connections with the nature around us. You can live an integrated life.” Malone believes that one must do more than just read the plethora of biographies of Frank Lloyd Wright to understand him. One has to experience his work. “To get a sense of the universal truths, you don’t read a biography of Shakespeare, you read Shakespeare, and that is what draws me to the body of work of Frank Lloyd Wright. That is his legacy.” It is surprising to some that Malone continues to live in Wauwatosa, a suburb of Milwaukee, rather than move to Scottsdale or even to Spring Green. “I think that it is reflective of an organization that is no longer Arizona-centric.” He has full confidence in the people who oversee Taliesin and Taliesin West, without feeling the need to be on site full-time. “My job is to make sure that both are able to be successful in their day-to-day operations, both in public programs, like the tours, and in education, like the school of architecture, but the mission of the organization is, at the very least, national, so I think it makes sense that the CEO isn’t the on-site person at either place. We have very talented staff members. We didn’t need another COO in Scottsdale.” He spends a bit more than half his time traveling. He anticipates that he will be traveling less frequently to Taliesin West as time goes on, instead traveling more across the country to raise money for the Foundation, “Great things cost money, part of my job is to connect people with those activities. It’s the donors who make it really happen. It’s my job to steward that investment. It’s my job to make sure their donation is well spent and makes an impact.” Malone finishes the interview with a reminder of who he believes the Foundation must not lose sight of, “We exist to serve, and only succeed because of the public.” Some people will certainly deem Sean Malone’s tenure a success if he retains his position - he is at least the sixth CEO in a decade. Others will consider his tenure a success if the Foundation’s finances are stabilized. Malone himself has a broader goal. He drives a Prius. It is reasonable to think that he will be satisfied only with results that will be harder to measure: that he is able to bring stability to the Foundation so that Wright’s work can continue to influence people to live Wright’s architecture, to better their lives and their communities. Sunday March 11, 2012
Posted by: mhertzberg at 10:12PM CST on March 11, 2012
Text and photos (c) Mark Hertzberg
Terri Boesel unpacks artifacts from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation's archives at the SC Johnson archives, Tuesday March 6, 2012. The artifacts arrived in Racine Tuesday from the Foundation at Taliesin West, Wright's home in Scottsdale, Arizona. They are on a 99-year loan to SC Johnson, the first such loan in the Foundation's history. About 60 artifacts are coming to Racine in more than 18 crates. They will be conserved and exhibited, in rotation, in a new permanent exhibition about Wright and the American home at Fortaleza Hall on the Johnson campus. The exhibition is scheduled to open in late spring. The artifacts unpacked from the first crate included a table sconce from the Heath House and a Venini handkerchief vase that Wright had acquired for himself.
Friday January 20, 2012
Posted by: mhertzberg at 12:58AM CST on January 20, 2012
(c) Mark Hertzberg
We know Patrick Mahoney as the man with the answer to countless Frank Lloyd Wright questions. He is at almost any significant Frank Lloyd Wright meeting you might attend. He estimates that he has driven 120,000 miles from his home in Buffalo to see as many Wright buildings as he can. We also know him as a founding member of the Graycliff Conservancy, which has shepherded the restoration of Isabelle R. Martin’s summer home near Buffalo. Now we know him as an author and photographer. Here is a link to the demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCQ5aFqGnDU This website is generally about Frank Lloyd Wright’s work. Wright was not known for complimenting other architects. In that sense, perhaps the greatest compliment to Parker’s work is that Wright praised Parker’s work, and they corresponded for many years. Henning, a practicing architect, and author of two books about Wright, offers a very complete monograph about Parker’s work. It is well written and well illustrated. Many of the photographs are by Ezra Stoller. That alone says much about the importance of Parker’s work. Parker was 95 when he died shortly before Henning’s book was published. Reisley, one of Wright’s original clients, has written an engaging history of Usonia, which was to be a cooperative utopian community. There are 47 homes in Usonia, which was built after Word War II, near New York City. Reisley chronicles the joys and struggles of trying to build an idealistic community. The book is well illustrated, with copies of archival letters, plans, and newspaper stories about Usonia, as well as many of Reisley’s wonderful photographs of his own home and his neighbors’ homes.
Saturday January 14, 2012
Posted by: mhertzberg at 10:57PM CST on January 14, 2012
(c) Mark Hertzberg
Albert “Ollie” Adelman refused to be turned away at the door of Taliesin when he drove there to meet Frank Lloyd Wright without an appointment in 1948. Adelman, who was one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s surviving clients, died Friday January 13 in the house that Wright designed for he and his late wife, Edie, in Fox Point, north of Milwaukee. Adelman was 96. He had graciously opened his house up to Frank Lloyd Wright in Wisconsin for a special fund-raising event during the 2011 Wright and Like house tour.
Wednesday December 7, 2011
Posted by: mhertzberg at 12:21PM CST on December 7, 2011
(c) Mark Hertzberg
Finding a wonderful new book in your mailbox is a treat, when you have come home late from work, tired, hungry, and a bit cranky. You perk up, de-crankify yourself, and put dinner off as you open the package and leaf through the latest addition to your library (this doesn’t work with an e-book, does it?).
Tonight’s treat is Jeffrey Chusid’s book about Frank Lloyd Wright’s Samuel and Harriet Freeman House (1923-24) in Los Angeles (“Saving Wright - The Freeman House and the Preservation of Meaning, Materials, and Modernity,” W. W. Norton & Co., 256 pp., $55). Chusid’s career was shaped by his experiences with the Freeman House. Chusid, a professor at Cornell University, has not only been a director of the house, and its preservation architect, from 1986-1997, but he was first a tenant in the house beginning in 1985, the year after Mrs. Freeman gave the house to the School of Architecture of the University of Southern California. Mrs. Freeman lived in the house until she died in 1986, so Chusid had the opportunity to know Wright’s client. The book has multiple layers. The title tells us that this is much more than another book about another Wright house, its clients and its design. The book is a detailed case study in historic preservation and the myriad of challenges entailed in the task. Chusid writes in depth about every detail of this textile block house, which he asserts was “deeply flawed in both design and execution.” He discusses the materials used to build the house, and their properties. He tells us about other architects who were an integral part of the history of the house, including Lloyd and Eric Lloyd Wright, Rudolph Schindler, and Richard Neutra. We learn about the challenges faced by USC, as the School of Architecture tackles the daunting task of preserving and stabilizing the house which was damaged in 1994 Northridge earthquake. Chusid writes in his Preface that he owes his career in preservation architecture to Harriet Freeman, and that his commitment to make the restoration of the Freeman House an important “learning experience” for preservationists is part of his way of thanking her. The book, he continues, is part of his way of returning her “gift” to him. “Saving Wright” is richly illustrated with historic and contemporary photographs, and copies of numerous plans of the house. (I was pleased that Chusid selected some of my photos for the book). Chusid also includes the text of the contracts and other agreements between Wright and the Freemans. “There is no doubt that the Freeman House has been more of an educational experience for me and for a quarter century of students and visitors than if it had ‘worked’ and never required the level of study and intervention that it did,” Chusid writes near the end of the book. Some people look at Wright and his work idealistically. Truth be told, his roofs often leaked and even Fallingwater’s cantilevered balconies sagged precariously because they were poorly engineered. The Freeman House is an exciting design, built on a wonderful site, but it did not “work” perfectly. That is what makes Chusid’s book compelling reading for scholars and aficionados of Wright’s work.
Monday October 17, 2011
Posted by: mhertzberg at 11:16PM CST on October 17, 2011
Text and photos (c) Mark Hertzberg
Frank Lloyd Wright was ecstatic when H.F. Johnson, Jr. commissioned the SC Johnson Administration Building in 1936. He then tried to persuade Johnson to move his entire company out of the center of Racine, to a new site away from the busy urban neighborhood that surrounded it. Johnson refused. Wright pressed Johnson more. Olgivanna Wright is said to have finally told her husband, "Give him what he wants, Frank, or you will lose the commission." So, Wright had a coveted commission to build an inspiring workplace...in a neighborhood he did not like. While Wright opened many of his homes to the outside, he designed many of his public buildings to focus on their interior, rather than on their surroundings. He did that with the Administration Building, as he had done 30 years earlier with the Larkin Building in Buffalo and Unity Temple and Meeting House in Oak Park. Wright's solution for the fenestration of the Administration Building was to design skylights and 47 miles of Pyrex-glass tube clerestory windows surrounding the Great Workroom. The Great Workroom is where most of the office workers would be situated, working under a canopy of trees, the golf-tee shaped dramatic dendriform columns he used to support the building's roof. There were inner and outer banks of windows, held in place by aluminum racks and wires. Outer windows, left, and inner ones, right, on east side of the Great Workroom.
Original aluminum racks are used, when possible, above. If they are too weak to continue to use, they are being replaced by new stainless steel racks finished to look like aluminum. Wright's design could not be matched by the engineering of the day. For example, there was no perfect way to seal the joints between the glass tubes, and they leaked and leaked and leaked. Shades and supplemental lighting were added, too, when it was found that the glare of the sun could be annoying when it shown through the windows at certain angles, or that the building was simply not bright enough for people to work in effectively when the sun was not shining. In time, the inner layers of windows were replaced by sheets of plastic, molded to mimic the design of the glass tubes. Many of Wright's individual light fixtures, which hung between the outer glass tube windows and the inner bank of sheets of tube-like plastic, were replaced by ordinary fluorescent light fixtures. And, many of the tubes became discolored, in part because of years of leaks. The fluorescent fixtures are being removed. The company is in the midst of a $22 million Wright campus maintenance and restoration project to preserve the Administration Building and Wright's adjacent SC Johnson Research Tower. The work includes a window restoration project in the office building.
Clerestory window work, northwest corner of the Administration Building The outer clerestory windows are being cleaned. Those tubes that cannot be saved are being replaced by new glass tubes. The faded and discolored sheets of plastic, the inner layer of windows, are being replaced by new acrylic sheets which better mimic the original glass tube design. The natural light in the Great Workroom is now much brighter. The new inner windows better mimic the original glass tubes, above, than the sheets of plastic they are replacing, below. The company is using rubber gaskets to seal the joints between the tubes. They have been designed for this project, to ensure that the windows will not leak, unlike the caulk that was formerly used. The caulk would harden over time, leading to leaking. The fluorescent fixtures are being removed, and are being replaced with new energy-efficient lighting that is controlled by the sun. The new shades between the two layers of windows are also controlled by the sun.
Some of the inner window panels that are being replaced show the effects of water leaking. 10 a.m., Friday October 14, 2011: looking at old windows, NE corner
10 a.m. Friday, October 14, 2011: looking at new windows (with shades down), NW corner
New clerestory windows, south side of the Great Workroom
Links to previous, related articles: SC Johnson's stewardship of their Wright buildings: http://my.journaltimes.com/post/wright-in-racine/stewards_of_wrights_work.html Repair of the SC Johnson Research Tower roof: http://my.journaltimes.com/post/wright-in-racine/research_tower_roof_repair.html Replacement of the Administration Building skylights: http://my.journaltimes.com/post/wright-in-racine/scj_roof_restoration.html
Thursday July 14, 2011
Posted by: mhertzberg at 6:00AM CST on July 14, 2011
Text and photos (c) Mark Hertzberg
Seventy-five years after H.F. Johnson Jr. met Frank Lloyd Wright and hired him to design his company’s new office building, Johnson’s grandson, Fisk Johnson, and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation have announced a 99-year loan agreement between SC Johnson and the Foundation for 60 artifacts from the Foundation’s archives.
Frank Lloyd Wright and H.F. Johnson, Jr. outside the Wright-designed SC Johnson Research Tower
The loan grew out of discussions after the Foundation applied for a grant from the SC Johnson Fund for a fire suppression system for the archives at Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona, and explored ways to raise money for a building to house the archives. Hanging lamp from the Heath House (Photo courtesy Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation)
Taliesin West Wooden Armchair with cutouts (Photo courtesy Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation) They will be displayed, in rotation, in a new permanent exhibition highlighting Wright’s contributions to the American home. The exhibition begins next spring in Fortaleza Hall, the Norman Foster-designed building which opened on the SC Johnson campus in January, 2010. Fortaleza Hall already features the Frank Lloyd Wright Library and Reading Room, a research center which is open by appointment. A Wright gift shop will open concurrently with the exhibition.
Fortaleza Hall and the SC Johnson Research Tower at dusk. Kelly Semrau, the company’s senior vice president for Global Corporate Affairs, Communication and Sustainability, said that this exhibition will be unique because it is permanent, “The archives are not open. You can tour a Wright home. Every once in awhile there is a museum exhibition.” She did not rule out the possibility of a free-standing Wright museum in the future. Wright ultimately built four buildings in Racine, as a result of that meeting, and designed several others that were not executed. His legacy will now be preserved in the new exhibition, as well as in the four buildings: the Administration Building (1936); Wingspread (1937); the SC Johnson Research Tower (1943); and the Keland House (1954). And, if SC Johnson’s vision is realized, Racine will become even more of a destination point for Wright tourism. |
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