The (in)Organic City

The (in)Organic City Is Frank Lloyd Wright’s philosophy of ‘Organic Architecture’ suitable for urban centers?

Christian Wren Master of Architecture QED - Fifth Year

Manchester School of Architecture Spring 2013

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Declaration No portion of the work referred to in the dissertation has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning.

Copyright Statement (1) Copyright in text of this thesis rests with the Author. Copies (by any process) either in full, or of extracts, may be made only in accordance with instructions given by the Author and lodged in the John Rylands Library of Manchester. Details may be obtained from the Librarian. This page must form part of any such copies made. Further copies (by any process) of copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the permission (in writing) of the Author.

(2) The ownership of any intellectual property rights which may be described in this thesis is vested in the Manchester School of Architecture, subject to any prior agreement to the contrary, and may not be made available for use by third parties without the written permission of the University, which will prescribe the terms and conditions of any such agreement.

(3) Further information on the conditions under which disclosures and exploitation may take place is available from the Head of Department of the School of Environment and Development.

Christian Wren

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Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................ 4 Literary review. ........................................................................................................ 6 1. The origins of Organic Architecture ................................................................ 10 1.1 Organic roots ........................................................................................................ 10 1.2 The early Organic principles of the Wainwright Building ...................................... 12 1.3 Willits House and the Larkin Building: Rural Organic vs. Urban Organic ............. 14 2. The maturity of Organic Architecture .............................................................. 25 2.1 Lessons from Tokyo .............................................................................................. 25 2.2 Wright’s conflictive rejection of urbanism .............................................................. 27 2.3 The rebellious organicism of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum ..................... 30 3. The legacy of Organic Architecture.........................Error! Bookmark not defined.

3.1 The immediate legacy ..................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

3.2 Present understanding of Organic Architecture ............Error! Bookmark not defined.

3.3 How Wright’s philosophy would change given todays issues ....... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 46 List of illustrations ................................................................................................. 49 Appendix ............................................................................................................... 49 Email interview with Eric Corey Freed ........................................................................... 49

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When selecting a site for your house, there is always the question of how close to the city you should be and that depends on what kind of slave you are. The best thing to do is go as far out as you can get.

Avoid the suburbs – dormitory towns – by all means. Go way out into the country – what you regard as “too far” – and when others follow, as they will (if procreation keeps up), move on.

Frank Lloyd Wright1

1

Frank Lloyd Wright, The Natural House (New York: Horizon Press, 1954). p.139

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Introduction This dissertation explores the development and application of what is a surprisingly underrepresented philosophy in Architectural study, ‘Organic architecture’. A strand of the Modernist movement, the phrase originates from American architect Frank Lloyd Wright who was the first person to use the term ‘organic’ not just as a descriptive preface, but also as a way of defining and categorizing his work.

At its core, Wright’s ‘Organic architecture’ has three broad principles that developed over the course of his career, and can be individually subdivided further. Firstly, a building should interpret nature’s values in architectural form and theory, growing internally from the bounds of its natural condition and representing the time that it exists in. Secondly, it should be a product of its place and time. Finally, it should make intelligent use of technology available, expressing the nature of materials.2 Whilst it wasn’t until the early 1930s that Wright formally categorized his architecture as ‘Organic’, he used these principles as the basis for his work from the outset of his practice.

Much of Wright’s highly regarded work was set away from America’s densest urban centers, with a considerable focus on residential architecture in the more rural outskirts. He openly loathed the polluted and overcrowded American city, once describing New York as an ‘overgrown village’ during a TV interview3, and he relentlessly pursued the idea of decentralization. With Wright’s Organic architecture uniting building and site ‘through a geometric emulation of the rhythms and patterns of surrounding environment’4, is it possible for this approach be successfully applied when the surrounding environment is the dense convoluted sprawl of the urban metropolis?

2

Frank Lloyd Wright, Modern Architecture: Being the Kahn Lectures for 1930 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008). pp. 5-6 3 Frank Lloyd Wright on Omnibus, accessed April 4, 2013, http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=54KYCxu0VBA#!.

4 Vincent Scully Jr., Frank Lloyd Wright (New York: George Braziller, Inc., 1960).

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Through studying built works associated with the approach and analyzing critique, this essay looks to chart the development of Organic architecture through Wright’s career, explore whether the philosophy adapted to the rise of the increasingly over populated city, and if it has a place in today’s urban setting.

Starting with the work of Wright during his early career up to the publication of the Wasmuth Portfolio in Europe in 1910, the origins of the philosophy and representation in Wright’s work will be presented. Using Willits House and the now demolished Larkin Administration Building as rural and urban case studies of Wright’s young organic method; the early architectural manifestations of the approach will be studied.

The second chapter starts with a brief exploration of Wright’s in Tokyo, and his view of decentralization being the answer to the rampant urbanization that his Organic philosophy’s was struggling to overcome. The chapter then scrutinizes the success of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Wright’s most successful foray in to the urban environment.

The final chapter explores the legacy left by Wright’s Organic approach in the rural and urban work of those who shared his architectural principles, both during his lifetime, and in recent years. The chapter continues with an email-conducted interview with Eric Corey Freed, founder of San Francisco based practice organicARCHITECT. The questions explore Corey Freed’s position on Organic design, urbanism, and Wright’s influence, and precedes a concluding section questioning how Wright’s philosophy would change in the modern world given the issues of today.

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Literary review.

The roots of Wright’s theories are suggested as being motivated by political and social principles by American architect Edgar Kaufmann Jr. in his book. Kaufmann Jr.’s father, also named Edgar, commissioned Wright’s most famous work, Fallingwater, making him a reliable source of Wrightian theory.

Democracy was taking unanticipated forms and an appropriate architecture gradually grew with it, organically part of it, utilizing technologies and structural innovations developed in the untrammeled, individualistic society of the New World. In this sense democratic and organic were synonyms.5

The ideal of democracy being inherently linked to Organic design is insinuated by Wright himself in his book, The Living City. He writes ‘A definite phase of the new Ideal comes in what we call organic architecture – the natural architecture of the democratic spirit in this age of the machine.’6 However upon further reading, it’s not political theory that most influences Organic notions, but time and place. Hungarian Architect Imre Makovecz, who become something of a national hero in postcommunist Hungary7 with his distinctive take on Organic Architecture, acknowledged that an update in thinking was required if the Organic movement was to keep up with an evolving planet. Makovecz, who was strongly influenced by Wright, writes, ‘The world has changed since Frank Lloyd Wright began his work in an organic way, and so organic architecture is quite different now. Frank Lloyd Wright’s knowledge derived from the 19th century – his teacher was Louis Sulivan – but at the end of the 20th century our problems are quite different.’8

Whilst Makovecz acknowledged organic architecture was different in the early nineties from Wright’s period, one thing remained consistent amongst Organic architects 5

Edgar Kaufmann Jr., 9 Commentaries on Frank Lloyd Wright (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1989). p.40 6 Frank Lloyd Wright, The Living City (New York: Horizon Press, 1958). p.23 7 Jonathan Glancey, “Imre Makovecz Obituary,” September 29, 2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/sep/29/imre-makovecz.

8 Imre Makovecz, “Architectural Design,” Anthropomorphic Architecture (November 1993). p.15

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throughout the century. Agreeing to a coherent definition. In reviewing the Architectural Association and Bartlett organized ‘Organic Architecture week’ in 1978, Bob Allies writes, ‘Whether it established the existence of a coherent tradition of organic architecture… was not so clear. The inevitable starting-point for the conference was some kind of definition of the term ‘organic architecture.’’9 By the nineties there was still frustration at the lack of clarity of what organic architects represented, as observed by Mark Alden Branch. ‘It's easy to see what organic architects believe they are not, but defining just what they are is difficult. Even talking about organic architecture as a "movement" or a "school" elicits protests from most of the people identified with it.’10

Alden Branch’s essay from 1992 in the now demised Progressive Architecture magazine is one of the few pieces of architectural literature that, albeit briefly, raises the question of Organic Architecture’s suitability in urban settings.

Most organic architects do not work on urban commissions… The dearth of urban organic work inevitably leads to questions of its appropriateness to the city: Can an organic building be a good neighbour? Does concern for "context" preclude organic expression?... The "urban question" seems to be of little importance to most organic practitioners, who have as little use for cities as Wright did.11

Alden Branch doesn’t attempt to answer these questions, instead citing Wright’s Guggenheim Museum as one of the few examples of successful use of the Organic approach in the city, but that it ‘succeeds largely by contrast’12. This view is shared by American architect Thomas Doremus, who elaborates, ‘In plan, the museum begins with simple distribution of spaces on a square grid that respects the alignment of

9

Bob Allies, “The Architects’ Journal,” What Is Organic Architecture? (November 8, 1978). p.877 Mark Alden Branch, “Progressive Architecture,” A Breed Apart (June 1992), http://business.highbeam.com/438315/article-1G1-12313089/breed-apart-turning-their-backsarchitectural-establishment.

11 Ibid.

12 Ibid.

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Manhattan streets. It is upon the careful destruction of this grid that Wright’s whole effort depends’.13

But even when in a non-urban setting, are there contradictory compromises that Organic architects must make? In an essay for Architectural Design in 1993, American architect Sidney K. Robinson explored the ‘complex relationship organic architecture has with both the natural world and the human world’, using Douglas Cardinal’s Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec as a case study, and ‘Eden’ as an analogical ideal of the natural environment.

Cars seem to be an intrusion on the notion of organic architecture. Since there were (are?) no cars in Eden, their appearance here in a 500 car garage under the plaza can only be seen as a critical lapse all too familiar in such a wishful ideal.

The charge of inconsistency can be blunted only by acknowledging that making a building that addresses nature cannot escape the ‘as if’ condition of rhetorical argument.14

In presenting his Organic method, Cardinal counters Robinson’s assessment stating that it is not the content a building encases that defines its organic nature (in this case cars), but it is the interpretation of nature’s practices in the design process.

Once the shape of a room is determined by its function, the room may be understood to act much like a single cell, with its own genetic code. Through the use of diagrams, area relationships are planned between the individual “cells”, eventually to create a matrix of rooms. With this matrix the building begins to design itself.’15

It’s in returning to Alden Branch that the most coherent definition of Organic architecture is found.

13

Thomas Doremus, Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier: The Great Dialogue (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company Inc., 1985). p.119 14 Sidney K. Robinson, “Architectural Design,” Building as if in Eden (November 1993). p.9 15 David Pearson, New Organic Architecture: The Breaking Wave (Berkley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2001). p.106

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‘But the most inclusive description of organic architecture says simply that it is a process of design where a building is generated from within: the requirements of program, together with (usually) some kind of geometry-based system and an indefinable spark of creativity, determine the overall form. The external appearance of the building, instead of being a separate concern, is the natural result of the process.’16

The accumulation of literature relevant to this study has also revealed a group of architects that don’t necessarily share the same concern for self-promotion as Wright, but do share his lack of interest in expressing their work and ideas in urban settings, with few attempts to explore the possibilities of bringing Organic Architecture into the city. Whether this is justified, will be explored in this essay.

16

Mark Alden Branch, “Progressive Architecture.”

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1. The origins of Organic Architecture

1.1 Organic roots

Before exploring the first examples of the Organic approach in urban environment, the background that formed Wright’s early organic thinking is explored. There are a number of key influences that shaped the attitude of the young Frank Lloyd Wright and would form the basis for Organic philosophy.

As a teenager, Wright spent his summers on his uncle’s farm in Spring Green, Wisconsin.17 It was here; in the heart of the American prairie land that Wright would first make the connection between the processes of nature and the processes of architectural design. Of his time on the farm, Wright writes, ‘All around me, I, or anyone for that matter might see beauty in growing things and, by a little painstaking, learn how they grew to be “beautiful”.’18 This simple observation would form the basis of the Organic philosophy, that building form grows its own structure in the same way that a plant grows out of the soil, both unfolding similarly from within, architecture mimicking natural biology.19 It was on the prairie that he originated the thought that, ‘The planes parallel to the earth in buildings identify themselves with the ground,’20 giving a structure a visual relationship and continuity with the earth.

Whilst his experiences on the prairie would shape the nature aspect of the Organic approach, the theoretical aspect can be traced to German polymath Johann Wolfgang Goethe whose writings on modernity were born out of a fusion of organic science and art.21 He wrote, ‘Organs do not compose themselves as if already previously finished, they develop themselves together and out of one another, to an existence which 17

Taliesin Preservation Inc., “Frank Lloyd Wright,” Taliesin Preservation Inc., April 6, 2013, http://www.taliesinpreservation.org/frank-lloyd-wright.

18 Frank Lloyd Wright, The Natural House. p.15 19 Donald Leslie Johnson, Frank Lloyd Wright Versus America (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1990). p.67 20 Frank Lloyd Wright, The Natural House. p.16 21 Gustaaf Van Cromphout, Emerson’s Modernity and the Example of Goethe (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1990). p.58

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necessarily takes part in the whole’22, a precursor to core belief of Wright’s Organic.

The socio-political roots of Organic notions can be found in writings of the American Transcendentalists. Also inspired by writings of Goethe,23 they believed in the virtues people and nature, and that society was being corrupted by politics and corporatism.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose core belief in individualism would be shared by Wright throughout his career,24 led the movement.

Wright grew up in an America that had yet to find a visual identity of it’s own. Whilst studying engineering at the University of Wisconsin in Madison in the mid 1880s, he witnessed the collapse of the new West Wing of the Old Wisconsin State Capitol.

The catastrophe saw workers killed by crumbling classical elements amidst plummeting clouds of lime, with one worker maimed by a falling cornice.25 For Wright, this cornice would represent his contempt for classical imitation, that classical elements should represent the cultures they came from, and were contrary to an ideal that architecture should grow from it’s own cultural and natural conditions. In Wright’s eyes, America relied on the Greek standard of democracy for its architecture, rather than a standard that derived from the American land and the nations own social and democratic principles and

Figure 1

constitution.

22

Donald Leslie Johnson, Frank Lloyd Wright Versus America. p.67 Gustaaf Van Cromphout, Emerson’s Modernity and the Example of Goethe. p.2 24 Ibid. p.116 25 Wright, Frank Lloyd. Modern Architecture: Being the Kahn Lectures for 1930. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008. p 59 23

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Whilst Madison was Wright’s first experience of urban living, it was in Chicago where his developing Organic approach would first manifest as a constructive form. After a year in practice as a draftsman for Joseph Lyman Silsbee, Wright joined Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan’s firm Adler & Sullivan. Wright would form a strong working relationship with Sullivan who was one of the few people he would ever admit to being directly influenced by, and whom he referred to as his ‘Lieber Meister’26 (translated in German as ‘Dear Master’, another allusion to Wright’s German influence). Of Sullivan, Wright wrote, ‘Louis H. Sullivan – Beaux-Arts Rebel. I went to him, for one thing, because he did not believe in Cornices.’27

Sullivan was more than an architect; he had a burning ambition to develop a new architecture to reflect America’s democratic ideal, fuelled by it’s growing economic prosperity coupled with the revolutionary new technologies and structural innovations of the second industrial revolution. Wright’s exposure to new materials and technologies, such as the shift from iron to steel and the possibilities of cantilevering, would add the next dimension to his Organic approach - that a building should reflect the period of its existence, and that would mean implementing the most up to date technologies of the time. Intelligent use of ‘The Machine’28 - that is using it to create simple forms consistent with nature, and not imitations of earlier handicraft - would play an important part in Wright’s methods.

1.2 The early Organic principles of the Wainwright Building

Whilst Wright worked chiefly on residential commissions at Adler & Sullivan, he did have input on non-domestic projects in the heart of Chicago. He was originally hired to complete the drawings of the Auditorium Building, at the time the largest building

26

Frank Lloyd Wright, The Natural House. p.18 Wright, Frank Lloyd. Modern Architecture: Being the Kahn Lectures for 1930. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008. p 49 28 Frank Lloyd Wright, Modern Architecture: Being the Kahn Lectures for 1930. p.3 27

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in America and notable for it’s ornate interior and heavy Romanesque exterior.29 He would also work on the Wainwright State Office Building in St. Louis, Missouri, considered one of the first skyscrapers in the world. Designed by Adler and Sullivan, the building implemented a steel frame, with a three part hierarchal façade of an emphasized base, vertically orientated shaft, and deep cantilevered cornice that Sullivan said ‘was an application of ‘organic’ principles.’30 Sullivan used an organic ornamental vocabulary on the façade that was fundamental to his architectural language, and reflected the Art Nouveau movement at the time.

It would be a building that reflected the industrializing America in terms of revolutionary structural techniques, and a reflection of a new American democracy with the rejection of classical

29

Joel Henning, “Form Follows Function, Elegantly,” The Wall Street Journal, September 6, 2008, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122064771323104933.html.

30 Alan Colquhoun, Modern Architecture, Oxford History of Art (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002). p.41

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ornament for organic ornamentation. Whilst the design process and form could not be considered organic in Wrightian terms, in terms of reflecting a period, it can be argued that the Wainwright Building was the first collision of organic thinking in an urban setting. However, its strict vertical emphasis was against Wright’s organic ideal of grounding a building in horizontality, and its accentuated corner pilasters gave the building a sense of individuality that detached it from it’s surrounding environment.

Whilst it is considered to be an, ‘influential prototype of a modern office architecture’31, the building is an early of example of the struggle of organically integrating architecture into the urban environment. Whether Wright’s experience on the Wainwright Building would have impacted upon his opinion of designing in the urban environment, it is difficult to tell, but in terms of shaping his Organic ideal, the building was key, and Wright had great appreciation for it.

‘It was tall and consistently so – a unit, where all before had been one cornice building on top of another cornice building. This was a greater achievement than the Papal Dome, I believe, because here was a utility become beauty by sheer triumph of imaginative vision... [T]he Wainwright Building has characterized all skyscrapers since, as St. Peter’s characterized all domes, with this difference: there was a synthetic Architectural stuff in the Wainwright Building, it was in the line of organic Architecture – St. Peter’s was only grandiose Sculpture.’32 1.3 Willits House and the Larkin Building: Rural Organic vs. Urban Organic Wright spent six years with Adler and Sullivan before setting up his own practice focusing on residential commissions in the Chicago outskirts. Away from the growing urban center and in the undeveloped suburbs amidst the flat green plains of the North American prairie, Wright’s own Organic approach would manifest itself for the first time. After a decade of experimentation, eclecticism and refinement,33 Wright developed what would become known as the Prairie School style. Willits House, 31

Megan Sveiven, “AD Classics: Wainwright Building / Louis Sullivan,” Arch Daily, April 13, 2011, http://www.archdaily.com/127393/ad-classics-wainwright-building-louis-sullivan/.

32 Frank Lloyd Wright, Modern Architecture: Being the Kahn Lectures for 1930. p.85 33 Thomas Doremus, Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier: The Great Dialogue. p.57

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designed in 1901 in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, is considered to be the first mature example Prairie House, with client Ward Willits the first to provide Wright with a substantial site, large budget and allowance to do interior furnishings himself.34 The Prairie style was born of the organic philosophy, and whilst set away from the city, its success would open the door to one of Wright’s largest non-residential commissions yet, and one based in an urban setting.

By the early 1910s, Wright’s reputation as a domestic specialist in Chicago was established, and after an executive from the Larkin Soap Company found himself captivated with his work after a visit to Wright’s design house in Oak Park, Wright was invited to design the company’s new office building in Buffalo, New York.35 With Wright having had no practical experience of designing any city based non-residential architecture, the commission came with its challenges. During the design stage, founder of the company John D. Larkin wanted to replace Wright with former employers Adler & Sullivan who were considered the most progressive designers of office buildings at the time. However, Wright, so keen to get his first big urban commission, exaggerated his input on the Wainwright building to ensure he got the job.36

The completed Larkin Building was considered a triumph for American architecture, and gives this essay an opportunity to evaluate and compare the components of Wright’s organic architectural approach in its first manifestation in an urban environment with a selected example from a non-urban setting. Using Willits House as this example, organic thinking will be explored in terms of site condition, spatial arrangement, building form and composition, and material and construction techniques. This is not an exercise in comparing buildings, but comparing the organic design processes Wright used in two different environments.

34

Ward Willits House, 2012, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SStVK2SNJnI. Jack Quinan, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Building: Myth and Fact (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006). p.8 36 Ibid. p.9 35

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Site condition.

The site for Willets House was a secluded plot several acres in size, five hundred meters from the shore of Lake Michigan. Whilst its location is typical of much of Wright residential work of this time – green suburbia – the size of the site would allow Wright greater scope to engage the building with the land and its surrounding environment. The site was perfect for an Organic approach to flourish.

The site for the Larkin Building was slightly smaller than the site for Willits House, which combined with the fact that it had to provide facilities for executives, department heads and 1,800 clerical employees, emphasizes its compact nature. The tapering site was sandwiched by an existing complex of Larkin company buildings, and the New York railroad to the north and west. With an entirely urbanized surrounding environment, Wright faced the challenge of adapting the organic process without working with any qualities of nature.

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Plan and spacial arrangement.

Willets House is an excellent example of the organic approach of spaces growing from within a site analogically similar to a plant sprouting from its soil. Born from a central core that houses the fireplace and chimney, the interior projects away to form a cruciform plan without partition separating each space, allowing an internal flow around the hearth. Transitions and hierarchies are key, with the user entering from the street up the drive, entering under a porte cohere to the first floor living quarters that are raised above the ground on a stylobate. The seamless transition from outside to inside is a hallmark of Wright’s Organic. Subtle changes in height and an axial geometry in the grid divide public and private space and dictate a diagonal movement from one room to another.

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The dominating feature of the six-anda-half story Larkin Building was the central atrium that rose through the main block, a stark contrast to the heavy core of the Prairie House. Two forces, business activity and staff comfort drove the design. The business activity was the receipt of five thousand letters, which were processed in various stages. The circulation of the letters began on the third floor, moving downward or horizontal stage by stage,37 an expression of Larkin’s organization and Wright’s organic articulation. The open plan organization of offices on each floor was

37

Ibid. p.48

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not an original feature of the design, but allowed free movement throughout the building. It also added a democratic sense to the spatial organization, with senior and executive staff positioned on the main floor beneath the skylight and in view of the whole office, with semi-private meeting rooms on the south end of the floor. Similarly, to Willits Building, the main floor is positioned a level above the ground, accessed by stairs from the street level. The annex on east side of main block formed the entrance lobby and personal support spaces for employees. This was Wright’s way of ensuring maximum focus for business activities in the main block, and by locating the annex on this side, he shielded it from the dirt and coal-burning smoke of trains operating to the west of the building. Entrance from the annex led to a climatic entrance that emphasized the transition from the uncontrolled urban environment to the controlled internal environment. Flying in the face of the organic ideal of integrating building with site and setting, it was the introverted nature of the building that made it a success as an office environment.

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Building form and exterior composition.

Wright felt that horizontal orientation was a distinctly American design treatment, reflecting the flat plains of the prairie and vast undeveloped land. The form and composition of Willits House unmistakably reflect this, with the shallow sloping roof, expansive overhanging eaves and tall art glass windows in horizontal bands, all fundamentals of the Prairie style. Wright wrote that, ‘Conceive that here came a new sense of building on American soil that could grow building forms not only true to

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function but expressive far beyond mere function in the realm of the human spirit’38 The design typifies the way Wright would delicately scale his buildings three dimensionally in keeping with human proportions.

The key compositional features of the Larkin Building were the stair towers positioned in the four corners. Wright pushed the towers to the corners of the building, separating them as independent entities that acted as air intakes for ventilation. They were also an attempt to banish the box form of the building, on which Wright said, ‘The box is divorced by nature from Nature.’39 The internal circulation dictating the external form demonstrates the organic principle of designing from within, but in this example the resulting form of heavily articulated corners have a similar effect to the corner pilasters of the Wainwright Building in introverting the building from the surrounding environment.

It has been noted that these tall brick access towers resembled the grain elevators that originated in Buffalo.40 These imposing structures scooped up grain from lower levels before depositing it in a silo, a functional similarity to the stair towers in the Larkin 38

Frank Lloyd Wright, The Natural House. p.21 Donald Leslie Johnson, Frank Lloyd Wright Versus America. p.92 40 Jack Quinan, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Building. pp.40-41 39

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Building that carried people and ventilated air to each floor. Wright rarely suggested influence in his work, but by rejecting the academic classicism inspired office form for a form that resembled an agricultural building type native to the Buffalo area, he was making a clear organic gesture. Designing with respect to the surrounding environment – in this case the surrounding environment not being the country, but existing architecture – and designing with respect for agrarianism.

The composition of the Larkin Building is notable for the extensive use of ornament.

Inscriptions, sculptures and reliefs adorn both the inside and outside of the building. The ornament conveyed the humane ideals of the company, and represent Wright progression from the work of Louis Sullivan.

He also designed into the annex a pair of waterfall like fountains that flanked the entrance. They were a statement of natural environs in an urban backdrop, and would prelude Wright’s most famous work, Fallingwater.

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Material and construction technologies.

Wright understood the significance that industrial processes and material innovations would have on construction in the twentieth century, and referred to these technologies as ‘The Machine’. He felt strongly that its use to imitate work of earlier handicraft as kitsch, and saw its intelligent use as creating simple forms consistent with nature and unachievable by handicraft. The Willits House employs a wood frame and stucco construction, with the frame exposed to express it’s structural function, and the stucco exuding the refined surface of the building.

If possible, materials were often decided on before a form was given to the building, weaving their characteristics into the early stages of design. However, cost constraints at the end of commissions often led to clients reusing furnishing from their previous houses, but as far as Wright was concerned, ‘So far as possible all furniture was to be designed in place as part of the building.’41 A key factor to Willits House being considered an excellent example of Wright’s work was that every aspect was Wright’s designed. Wooden seating, tables and cabinets were built into the design and left unfinished to exude their character, use and synthesis into the building.

An important requirement of the Larkin Building construction was that it be constructed in the best available fireproof manner, as a loss of customer records would have been catastrophic for the company.42 Wright therefore designed a steel framed building clad in brick inside and out, with vertical piers of rising through the atrium and the plane of each floor set back to emphasize the verticality of the interior.

Magnesite, a smooth pale grey substance, was used on floors and desktops for its sound absorption properties. Like Willits House, much of the furnishing of the building were designed by Wright that allowed desks, chairs and office cabinets to have a seamless integration, rather than being superficial additions.

41 42

Frank Lloyd Wright, The Natural House. p.28 Jack Quinan, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Building. p.56

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The design of the building was revolutionary for its use of air-conditioning and seasonal heating and cooling, with fresh air taken from the top floor of the building to the basement via air stacks, before passing through an air purifying system, and being discharged through ducts on different floors. In the summer, foul air was released from the ceiling, and in the winter, released from the ground. After failing to recover from the Great Depression, the Larkin Company were forced to sell the building in 1943, and despite being recognized by the likes of Nikolaus Pevsner as a masterpiece of early modern architecture, it was demolished in 1950.43

Along with the Unity Temple in Oak Park, the Larkin Building and a number of Wright’s Prairie School houses would form a two volume folio of his work that was published in Germany in 1910 that become popularly known as the Wasmuth Portfolio. The publication exposed Wright’s organic principles to the first generation of modernist architects in Europe.

43

Ibid. p.119

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2. The maturity of Organic Architecture

2.1 Lessons from Tokyo The next two decades marked a stagnant period of built works in Wright’s career, but also a period of experimentation and maturity in his development of the Organic approach. He spent a considerable amount of time away from America during this period, spending time in Europe, and notably in Japan. Wright took a keen interest in Japanese art and culture, and was shocked by their disownment of their culture in favour of Western influenced modernization.44 Wright was given the opportunity to re-address this balance by designing the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.

Whilst the design had all the hallmarks of the Organic approach, with low pitched roofs in response to Japanese tradition, carefully considered transitions of space and, use of locally sourced stone, it highlights the point that Organic architecture is not limited to one style, or indeed is a ‘style’ of it’s own. It was broadly considered to be Mayan in design45, largely thanks its expressive Mayan motifs and Chichen Itza-like pyramid roofs, however, in composition it also bears resemblance to Willits House,46 considered a standard bearer of Prairie House style. This shows that Organic architecture is Organic not in its stylistic association, but in the thought processes that take place in the designer’s conception.

As Fig.TBC and Fig.TBC show, rampant urbanization of post-war Tokyo enveloped the building, with the environment it previously sat in now siting multi story apartments inspired by Le Corbusier’s industrialized modernist approach. This raises an interesting question with regards to Frank Lloyd Wright’s work in cities. The Organic ideal relies on a unified harmony between building and site, and site and surrounding environment. Whilst the architect has total control over the former, they have no control over later. In rural areas the surrounding environment has a 44

Anthony Alofsin, Frank Lloyd Wright: Europe and Beyond (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999). p.43 45 Ibid. p.31 46 Ibid. p.27

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consistency in nature that ordinarily the architect can rely on and work with. In rapidly developing urban areas, such as in 1920s Tokyo, the architect must work in an environment they know will be different in the near future, which makes Organic application exceptionally difficult. However, building in the country is no guarantee of a stable environment as Wright states. ‘I tried to get a congregation out of the city when we built the Unitarian Church in Wisconsin, but before it was finished, a half dozen buildings had sprung up around it. Now it is merely suburban instead of in the country.’47

This suggests that it’s not the nature of the surrounding environment that is important to successful Organic architecture, but the consistency. Building in a rural setting is no guarantee of the surrounding fields still being as they were in fifty years time, and were Wright to redesign the Imperial Hotel today on the same site, he would use the same Organic principles as he did in 1926, but with a different outcome that forms a synthesis with todays Tokyo environment. This represents a strong argument in favour of Organic design in cities, and also raises the question of how Wright’s Organic output would be different given the issues of today, which will be explored in Chapter three.

Whilst the Imperial Hotel was celebrated by Tokyoites48, Wright’s influence in Japan extended little further, with Le Corbusier’s industrialized modernist approach favored over Wright’s preservation of Japanese tradition, and in 1968, it was demolished. Like the Larkin Building, the Imperial Hotel would only be a temporary monument to the organic approach in the urban setting.

2.2 Wright’s conflictive rejection of urbanism Wright had become anxious about the impact the European modernists would have on American architecture. Following years of declining relevance, and having been put in

47 48

Frank Lloyd Wright, The Natural House. p.140 Anthony Alofsin, Frank Lloyd Wright. p.31

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the camp of the ‘out-of-date New Tradition,’49 by architecture critics, Wright’s output of the late twenties was largely literature on architectural theory. In line with the individualistic notions of his work, it was important to Wright that he was seen as a paternal figure to modern architecture,50 and his influence on the first generation of European modernists is evident. In reviewing Le Corbusier’s seminal written work, ‘Towards a New Architecture’, Wright wrote that, ‘all Le Corbusier says of means was at home here in architecture in America in the work of Louis Sullivan and myself – more than twenty-five years ago’,51 and amidst the developing International Style movement of formal simplification and a complete rejection of ornament, Wright’s Organic strand of modernism was losing relevance.

His 1930s renaissance would begin with an invitation to present six lectures in the Khan lecture series at Princeton University in 1930. The lectures mark the first time that Wright used the term ‘Organic’ not just as a descriptive preface, but as a way of defining and categorizing his work. He also used the lectures as a platform to discard the ideas of modern architecture in Europe and explore his rejection of urbanism. In a lecture titled ‘The Tyranny of the Skyscraper’, he denounced the development of the skyscraper since the Wainwright Building, that it was now a ‘clumsy imitation masonry envelope for a steel skeleton’52, and that its purpose was ‘space-manufacturing-forrent.’53 However there is an uncomfortable detachment from Wright’s theory and practice as he designed several skyscrapers in his career, and whilst some were fanciful in concept, such as the Mile High Tower, others, such as the National Life Insurance Company Building in Chicago in 1926 were serious attempts addressing issues of urbanization. Wright presented his design for this building as an evolution of Sullivan’s work, but it was rejected by his conservative clients as being too progressive.54 Pre1930, Wright saw the skyscraper as an architectural problem to be solved, but post1930 it was the social and economic implications that he wanted to address. The

49

Frank Lloyd Wright, Modern Architecture: Being the Kahn Lectures for 1930. p.li Ibid. p.xxxi 51 Ibid. p.xxxi 52 Ibid. p.98 53 Ibid. p.95 54 Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, Treasures of Taliesin: Seventy-Seven Unbuilt Designs, 2nd ed (San Francisco: Pomegranate, 1999). p.30 50

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lecture concluded with Wright suggesting that the skyscraper would be better suited in the countryside where it would no longer be a contributor to city congestion, but instead become an icon of freedom.

This precludes Wright’s theories on decentralization that would manifest as Broadacre City, his proposed alternative to city living. The proposal was Wright’s egalitarian fusion of ruralism and urbanism, with families given one acre of land to live and grow food on, and allowed one car to get around the 10 km by 10 km settlement. Different parts of the scheme allocated functionality such as agriculture, industry and entertainment. The plan was as much of a social political statement as it was

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architectural, and true to organic principle, it was a reflection of its time. With America in the midst of the great depression, Broadacre City presented a vision of the good life, and an opposed alternative to Ville Contemporaine, Le Corbusier’s super dense vision of urban living.

Broadacre would be the controlled environment that Organic Architecture could flourish, with a regulated setting that buildings could be designed, not in, but with, and the knowledge that this environment would be consistent. This could be viewed as an admission by Wright that his Organic approach wasn’t suitable in urban setting.

With each settlement to be located in the country, it would share the same organic reconciliation with man and nature that Wright attempted in his architecture. He said that ‘Ruralism as distinguished from Urbanism is American, and truly democratic’.55 However, the Broadacre plan was not ruralism. It would be better described as ‘organic urbanism’.

In terms of decentralizing and the modern aspiration of home ownership, Broadacre City anticipated the suburban sprawl that exploded post World War Two. The key difference is todays regionalized suburbs are entirely dependent on cities for industry and services, whereas Wright’s vision was totally self-sufficient.

2.3 The rebellious organicism of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum As well as his much discussed proposals for Broadacre City, the 1930s were notable for Wright’s most famous creation, Fallingwater. The residence, partly built over a waterfall in Mill Run, Pennsylvania, proved to be his greatest success at synthesizing architecture with nature.56 WIt helped bring both Wright and the Organic philosophy back into mainstream architectural thought, and in 1943 he was approached by modern art collector Solomon Guggenheim to design a home for his substantial art collection in New York. Wright had tried and failed to get commissions in New York before, and this no doubt will have contributed to his public criticism of the city that 55

Frank Lloyd Wright, Modern Architecture: Being the Kahn Lectures for 1930. p.109 Whilst an exceptional example of Organic design, the Fallingwater site is so unique as a natural environment that it doesn’t make it suitable as a point of comparison in a discussion on urbanization.

56

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had made it impossible to manifest his Organic approach. With Wright then considered a periphery figure in the modernist movement mastered by Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe and Gropius, there is great irony that his opportunity to build in America’s modern cultural center would come in the form of a museum for modern art. His design for the Guggenheim Museum was the culmination of Organic principles from throughout his career, and presents the best case study of Organic architecture in an urban setting.

Site condition.

Several sites were researched bearing in mind Wright’s priority that the sites were easily accessible for the public. In correspondence with Guggenheim’s art advisor Hilla Rebay, Wright wrote, ‘Our installation will have drawing power wherever we plan it because it will be organic in character and truly exemplar.57’ This statement is notable for two reasons. Firstly, it suggests that Wright already had an idea for a design regardless of site condition, despite the organic notion of growth from within, unique to a site. Secondly, the description of the museum as an, ‘installation’, a term typically associated with artwork, alludes to the iconic form the museum would take.

The site chosen was on the corner of 89th Street and Fifth Avenue in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, surrounded on three sides by a series of flat, prosaic office 57

Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank Lloyd Wright, The Guggenheim Correspondence (Fresno, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1986).

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buildings of similar form. The rectilinear plot had direct frontage to Central Park and its reservoir, and whilst it wasn’t the open country that Wright’s had built his architectural legacy in, it still provided him with a direct link to a natural environment.

Plan and spacial arrangement.

In the same way that Manhattan is generated from a strict and formal grid, the ground floor plan for the Guggenheim Museum shows a rectilinear grid that forms the basis of the design. This demonstrates the organic notion of addressing the surrounding context. However, it is the complete geometric manipulation of this grid along all three axes that was Wright’s intuitive way of dismantling the formal and machine generated notions of the modernist movement.

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Originally the circulation saw visitors start their visit by taking an elevator to the top floor and working their way downwards through the museum on the single floor plan.

Wright wrote that, ‘A museum should be one extended expansive well proportioned floor space from bottom to top, a wheelchair going round, and up and down through out, no stops anywhere, and such screen divisions of the space gloriously lit from above.’58 This was opposed to the typical circulation pattern of museums that required visitors to retrace their steps through the building to the exit, and also meant that the last artwork the visitor would experience would be the Guggenheim Museum itself.

The circulation is a mirror of that used in the Larkin Building, with the key focus there being the flow of letters and mail from the top to the bottom of the building. Here, the people are the fabric of the building, and Wright gave their movement through the museum as much consideration as artwork itself.

58

Ibid.

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Building form and exterior composition.

The European-led International Style movement was starting to rise from the New York skyline, with its refined model of corporate architecture exemplified in the Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building that was completed a year before the Guggenheim Museum. Described as a continuity of the Greek ideal of a dominating structure that was perfectly proportioned, it was the antithesis of Wright’s organic geometry.

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Wright described the form as an ‘inverted ziggurat’59, with the external form of the building expanding as it rises, and the internal form narrowing as it rises to a glass ceiling. Whilst Wright maintained a rejection of the imported Classical form throughout his form, there is no denying the visual connection between the tapering cylindrical form of the inside of the Guggenheim and the spherical rotunda of the Pantheon in Rome.

With the concavity of the wall making hanging art difficult, and the novel “alien” form, the Guggenheim Museum was described as being Wright’s revenge on both artists and New York. This was reported with typical bravado in the American press, as can be read in Fig.TBC. Since, the building has been criticized as being designed as a work of art itself, and it is difficult to argue with this. A rectilinear block extension that was originally scrapped from Wright’s plans due to cost constraints was added in 1992 as per Wright’s original design.

59

A Ziggurat was an ancient Mesopotamian temple that had a spiral ramp that coiled from base to top.

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Material and construction technologies.

The construction of the Guggenheim was an ambitious culmination of the structural innovations that occurred over Wright’s lifetime. He had a genius for combining design with structure, and this is present in the structure of the museum. The cantilevered ramp rises with twelve reinforced concrete partitions that penetrate the spiral, not just providing structure, but a strong visual expression of function. Loads are transferred from the aluminum framed glass dome to the ribs that stem seamlessly from the radial concrete partitions. The surfaces are rendered a smooth off white, with clean and crisp edges and no distracting detail, and there is a notable lack of ornament anywhere in the design. In some ways the museum can be interpreted as Wright’s most traditionally modern building.

The Guggenheim is considered to be Wright’s greatest example of Organic architecture, but this is mostly down to a literal interpretation of its form, and not a consideration of the roots and process of the design. The museum succeeds by completely shutting out the external environment and becoming entirely introverted, completely conflicting the organic notion of integrating with the site condition.

Wright made no effort to synthesise the design with a vast expanse of park that the site frontage afforded him instead doing something that can be considered very inorganic, setting up a clear definition between inside and outside. Wright may have thought that the notion of an urban park was no less urban than a block of apartments, and was a contradiction to the freedom afforded in the country. Regardless of style, the Guggenheim is one of the few modern buildings to retain its original function and ownership, and a testament to Wright, remains contemporary to this day.

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3. The legacy of Organic Architecture

3.1 The champions of Organic design Bruce Goff was an American architect whose influence came from direct correspondence with Frank Lloyd Wright, and like Wright, his reputation was built on residential architecture. Whilst Wright’s organic houses are typified by their flat planes, Goff had an eccentric informality that exemplified the organic notion of a building emerging from its site as a plant would. Bavinger House, built in 1950 in Norman, Oklahoma, is the perfect example of this, with a spiraling form and floor plane that predates the Guggenheim by almost a decade.60 It was built from locally quarried sandstone, and has a series on ponds on the ground floor, which demonstrate Goff’s far more idiosyncratic and literal take on organic architecture.

Like Wright, it was his efforts to bring his organic vision into the city where Goff struggled, with a vast number of designs never making it from sketch to site. An example of this is his design for First National Bank in Missouri, a remarkably ambitious take on the rigidly formality of the skyscraper. An irregular six-sided form would rise from a regular cubic base, expanding in width at it ascended – again a visual ploy seen in the Guggenheim. A curtain wall honeycomb-like cladding of prefabricated steel cells would add to the geometric perplexity to the structure.61 The structure and application is similar to that used in the Seagram Building, but it was the unconventional geometric manipulation of this conventional form that conservative clients rejected, and prevented much of Goff’s visions being a realized. He was an advocate of Organic architecture for the rest of his career, and in 1978 organized the ‘Organic Architecture week’ event hosted in London by the Architectural Association and the Bartlett.62

60

David Pearson, New Organic Architecture: The Breaking Wave (Berkley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2001). p.39 61 Jean François Gabriel, Beyond the Cube: The Architecture of Space Frames and Polyhedra (New York: John Wiley, 1997). p.78 62 Bob Allies, “The Architects’ Journal.”

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Bruno Zevi was Organic architecture’s most vocal advocate in Europe. Whilst not a designer of buildings, he was an influential writer and philosopher who saw Wright’s organic approach as the bastion of democracy that was needed in an Italy ravaged by political and social turmoil in the 1940s and 1950s. Ardently anti classicist, Zevi listed seven principles that he ‘absorbed from Wright’ in an essay published shortly before his death in 2000.

1. Listing of contents and functions, derived from William Morris and the arts and crafts movement, to which Wright subscribed in the key of the machine.

2. Asymmetry and dissonance. Indeed, the Taliesin master is the Arnold Schoenberg of architecture.

3. Antiperspective, three-dimensionality, directed to deny the boxlike building as seen from a static Renaissance point of view.

4. Four-dimensional decomposition. Wright is the father of the Dutch De Stijl movement.

5. Cantilever, shell and membrane structures, which join to end the schism between engineering and architecture.

6. Living, dynamic, fluid space. Herein lies the very identity of Wright.

7. Continuity between inside and outside, between building and landscape in urban texture.63

Describing the assimilation of Wright’s organic as, ‘exasperatingly slow’,64 Zevi sought to establish clarity to the architectural use of the term ‘organic’, and saw it’s success dependent on a coherent understanding. He set up the Association for an Organic Architecture in 1945,65 and played a key role in organizing ‘Frank Lloyd Wright: 60 Years of Living Architecture’ in Florence, what was envisioned as the largest ever oneman show for an architect. The exhibition was in fact conceived by the American government who had noticed the prominent role that the Communist Party had taken

63

Anthony Alofsin, Frank Lloyd Wright. p.75 Bruno Zevi, The Modern Language of Architecture (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1978). p.214 65 Anthony Alofsin, Frank Lloyd Wright. p.67 64

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in Italy’s post war reconstruction effort, and wanted a cultural vehicle to propagandize the freedom and liberty of American democracy.66 It was described as ‘Wright’s first posthumous exhibition, only the corpse was still alive’67, and a key aspect of it was the plans for Broadacre City, accompanied by it’s huge scale model, (Fig TBC). Whilst rejected in form by American planners, its prominent role in the exhibitions suggests an acceptance of its ideologies of decentralization and forming an urban scale relationship between human and nature. Zevi remained an unrelenting proponent of Organic architecture for the rest of his career in an Italy that would eventually embrace the democratic ideal proponed by Wright.

66 67

Ibid. p.84 Ibid. p.77

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3.2 Recent understanding of Organic Architecture

David Pearson’s 2001 book ‘New Organic Architecture’ is the most notable recent literature that directly addresses Organic architecture. He presents list of commandments called, ‘The Gaia Charter for organic architecture and design’ that he feels embody the organic values.

Let the design: •

Be inspired by nature and be sustainable, healthy, conserving and diverse

•

Unfold, like an organism, from the seed within

•

Exist in the “continuous present’ and ‘begin again and again’

•

Follow the flows and be flexible and adaptable

•

Satisfy social, physical, and spiritual needs

•

“Grow out of the site” and be unique

•

Celebrate the spirit of youth, play and surprise

•

Express the rhythm of music and the power of dance68

Broken down point by point, each aspect can be traced back to Wrightian principles, and presents a reasonable definition of the Organic approach. However the book appears driven not by theory, but by aspirational chapter headings such as ‘Youthful and unexpected’ that are undefined and not rooted in Wright’s approach. The buildings selected are purported to represent Organic principles, but in fact a number of them make the mistake of imitating rather than interpreting natural forms. This affirms the concern raised by Mark Alden Branch in his 1992 article for Progressive Architecture Magazine. He wrote that the term ‘organic’ in relation to architecture was suggesting ‘inaccurate biomorphic connections.’69

Pearson’s book presents a geographically spread ‘cross-section of practicing Organic architects and their architecture’70, all of which are set in rural settings. This rejection of

68

David Pearson, New Organic Architecture: The Breaking Wave. p.72 Mark Alden Branch, “Progressive Architecture.”

70 David Pearson, New Organic Architecture: The Breaking Wave.

69

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organic approach in the city continues in the 2006 book, ‘Organic Architecture: The Other Modernism’ by American architect Alan Hess. Hess presents ‘an overview of Organic architecture in America over the last century’71 showcasing twenty-nine exemplar works of the field. All twenty-nine are dwellings located away from urban centers. This infers, either that both Pearson and Hess feel that no attempt of applying Organic theory into an urban setting has been considered on par with examples in more rural settings, or that buildings situated in densely built up areas can’t be categorized as Organic Architecture by default of their unnatural environment.

These two books suggest a narrowing of understanding of the Organic approach, and a complete rejection of its urban use. It’s in an interview conducted via email with Eric Corey Freed, the self-professed ‘Organic Architect’ that a clearer understanding of the urban applications of Organic architecture today becomes apparent. San Franciscobased Corey Freed set up the firm ‘organicARCHITECT’ in 1997 as ‘an alternative to traditional design practice’.72 He is a speaker on the subjects of biomimicry, sustainable design, green building, planning and public policy, but his work is grounded in the principles of Frank Lloyd Wright.73 Corey Freed generously agreed to provide in depth answers to four questions on the subject of Organic architecture, urbanism and Wright, providing an invaluable insight not just into his architectural approach, but that of Frank Lloyd Wright.

As demonstrated in previous chapters, Organic architects such as Wright and Goff often struggled to convince clients of the merits of their design process. Corey Freed says that some of these rejected projects, such as Wright’s Crystal City plans in Washington and Goff’s First National Bank in Missouri, were some of the best examples of organic design in urban infill site. In terms of his work, he makes clear that it isn’t the location of a project that has the biggest impact on accepting commissions, but whether the client is both polite and open minded to his design

71

Alan Hess, Organic Architecture: The Other Modernism (Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith, 2006). p.9 “organicARCHITECT: Firm Profile,” organicARCHITECT, accessed April 12, 2013, http://www.organicarchitect.com/about/index.html#axzz2QNXomot1.

73 “organicARCHITECT: Eric Corey Freed,” organicARCHITECT, accessed April 12, 2013, http://www.organicarchitect.com/about/ecf.html#axzz2QNXomot1.

72

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process.74 He also takes an ethical standpoint with regards to working with fossil fuel companies, prisons and interestingly ‘pristine clean fields’. This can be interpreted as saying that no architecture, organic or otherwise can improve the country setting.

This dissertation has explored a range of issues that Organic design has faced in the urban environment, such as the addressing the congestion of competing architectural styles, dealing with developers looking for a quick return, and the ever changing surrounding environment. Whilst not explicitly saying how, Corey Freed says that it’s these challenges that often become the central idea of the design, inspiring a solution that may not have been reached in any other situation, thereby making the design inherent to it’s urban site. In this respect, if the challenge for the Guggenheim Museum in New York was to exhibit a vast collection of art on a tight rectilinear site, then the solution of a continuous quarter of a mile long coiled ramp puts the site constraint at the core of the design.

One of the key Organic notions is that a building should reflect its time and culture.

Corey Freed states that this notion embodies Wright himself, that he was ‘part of the zeitgeist when America was young and hopeful and full of promise.’75, and that he personally pioneer an architecture that reflected American culture. This may contribute to Wright’s personal anguish with the American city that had embraced the foreign born styles of Classicism and the International Style, and rejected his native born architecture. The culture of today has evolved a great deal since Wright’s period, and Corey Freed poses the question, ‘How would [Wright’s] philosophy change should he have been given [twenty-first century] issues?’76 and in addressing this question, this dissertation concludes.

74 75 76

Eric Corey Freed, “Organic Architecture Dissertation Request.,” April 12, 2013.

Ibid.

“organicARCHITECT: Eric Corey Freed.”

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3.3 How Wright’s philosophy would change in the modern world?

If Wright’s organic ideal stems from reflecting the time and culture of his practice, then to look at how his philosophy would change today requires an assessment of how the issues of today are different from Wright’s time. Expand.

Whilst the advancement of scientific understanding has paved the way for revolutionary new material and engineering technologies that Wright would have certainly adopted, Corey Freed suggests that this presents fresh challenges to the architect. ‘[H]e was unburdened in not knowing what I know. He was unaware of VOCs, formaldehyde, water pollution, smog, asthma rates, lead poisoning, asbestos and climate change.’77 Add to this the huge number of strict building codes that have been employed since Wright’s period, and it’s safe to say that his originality of organic expression would be seriously inhibited in today’s climate.

The most poignant aspect of Eric Corey Freed’s response is the conscientious struggle he finds in achieving the balance between excess and sustainable solutions. He elaborates, ‘I am conflicted. A large part of my brain and ego wants to focus on designing innovative, cutting edge buildings. But my rational and logical side argues against doing more than is needed.’78 Frank Lloyd Wright was notoriously stubborn in his ways, with an individualistic attitude that would rarely have argued against doing more than is needed. Today, expressions of excessiveness and waste are frowned upon by a world more educated, inter-connected and socially aware than at any point in history, and whether Wright would have been able stick so firmly to the Organic principles the way did can be questioned.

Wright’s interest in Japan today…

Self promotion through new media…

77

Eric Corey Freed, “Organic Architecture Dissertation Request.”

78

Ibid.

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Conclusion This dissertation has discovered that most important requirement of Organic architecture is that is designed into a consistent environment that allows the synthesis of building, site, and surrounding environment to remain over the duration of the building’s existence. As this is not an aspect that is intrinsically linked to either urban or rural settings, it suggests that Organic design can work in urban settings. There is an interesting difference in that in the past rural country has been more likely to be a stable and consistent environment than an urban one. But with issues such as climate change - both man made and natural - changing the face of rural areas, in the future it could be the urban environment that is more consistent than the natural one. This suggests that Organic architecture is not just suitable for urban environments, but in the future it could be preferable in this congested, but reliable setting.

Wright Organic philosophy relied on the suburban ideal. His proposals for Broadacre City were not just a political and social statement, but also an attempt to create the perfect environment for Organic architecture to flourish. Combined with the fact that his greatest built work in an urban setting was the introverted and in many ways, inorganic, Guggenheim Museum, then it can be seen as an admission from Wright that Organic design isn’t suited to the urban setting. However this is a conclusion drawn only from his built work. As Eric Corey Freed suggests, Wright hatred towards city has been misunderstood, and he was a man of reform. ‘He hated the bad parts of the city, and wanted to transform it as he had done with the American house or office building or church.’79 Had Wright been given the freedom to express his Organic principles in urban settings throughout his career, urbanization today could have been very different today. Perhaps the biggest stumbling block was something that has remained to this day, an inability to accurately define Organic principles.

In many ways, his vision for Broadacre City has grasped since his period, with the rampant suburbanization of people wanting a life that’s neither urban nor rural, and it’s

79

Eric Corey Freed, “Organic Architecture Dissertation Request.,” April 8, 2013.

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evident both his theories on decentralization and Le Corbusiers on centralization have infact both happened over the last several decades.

Wright said, “The best work I have ever done was the result of provocation,”80 and no doubt if he was around in the competitive and commercial world of architecture today, he would be provoked into designing inspiring architecture rooted in Organic theory suitable not just in the increasingly suburban country, but in urban centers.

Bibliography Alan Colquhoun. Modern Architecture. Oxford History of Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Alan Hess. Organic Architecture: The Other Modernism. Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith, 2006.

Bob Allies. “The Architects’ Journal.” What Is Organic Architecture? (November 8, 1978).

Anthony Alofsin. Frank Lloyd Wright: Europe and Beyond. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.

Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer. Treasures of Taliesin: Seventy-Seven Unbuilt Designs. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Pomegranate, 1999.

Bruno Zevi. The Modern Language of Architecture. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1978.

Christopher Day. “Architectural Design.” Ensouling Buildings (November 1993).

David Pearson. New Organic Architecture: The Breaking Wave. Berkley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2001.

Donald Leslie Johnson. Frank Lloyd Wright Versus America. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1990.

Edgar Kaufmann Jr. 9 Commentaries on Frank Lloyd Wright. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1989.

80

Frank Lloyd Wright, Modern Architecture: Being the Kahn Lectures for 1930. p.li

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Eric Corey Freed. “Organic Architecture Dissertation Request.,” April 8, 2013.

Frank Lloyd Wright. Frank Lloyd Wright, The Guggenheim Correspondence. Fresno, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1986.

———. Modern Architecture: Being the Kahn Lectures for 1930. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008.

———. The Living City. New York: Horizon Press, 1958.

———. The Natural House. New York: Horizon Press, 1954.

Frank Lloyd Wright on Omnibus. Accessed April 4, 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=54KYCxu0VBA#!

Gustaaf Van Cromphout. Emerson’s Modernity and the Example of Goethe. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1990.

Imre Makovecz. “Architectural Design.” Anthropomorphic Architecture (November 1993).

Jack Quinan. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Building: Myth and Fact. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.

Jean François Gabriel. Beyond the Cube: The Architecture of Space Frames and Polyhedra.

New York: John Wiley, 1997.

Joel Henning. “Form Follows Function, Elegantly.” The Wall Street Journal, September 6, 2008. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122064771323104933.html.

Jonathan Glancey. “Imre Makovecz Obituary,” September 29, 2011. http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/sep/29/imre-makovecz.

Mark Alden Branch. “Progressive Architecture.” A Breed Apart (June 1992). http://business.highbeam.com/438315/article-1G1-12313089/breed-apart-turningtheir-backs-architectural-establishment.

Megan Sveiven. “AD Classics: Wainwright Building / Louis Sullivan.” Arch Daily, April 13, 2011. http://www.archdaily.com/127393/ad-classics-wainwright-buildinglouis-sullivan/.

Note, n.d. “organicARCHITECT: Eric Corey Freed.” organicARCHITECT. Accessed April 12, 2013. http://www.organicarchitect.com/about/ecf.html#axzz2QNXomot1. “organicARCHITECT: Firm Profile.” organicARCHITECT. Accessed April 12, 2013. http://www.organicarchitect.com/about/index.html#axzz2QNXomot1.

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Sidney K. Robinson. “Architectural Design.” Building as If in Eden (November 1993).

Taliesin Preservation Inc. “Frank Lloyd Wright.” Taliesin Preservation Inc., April 6, 2013. http://www.taliesinpreservation.org/frank-lloyd-wright.

Thomas Doremus. Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier: The Great Dialogue. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company Inc., 1985.

Vincent Scully Jr. Frank Lloyd Wright. New York: George Braziller, Inc., 1960.

Ward Willits House, 2012. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SStVK2SNJnI.

List of illustrations

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Appendix Email interview with Eric Corey Freed From: Eric Corey Freed <eric@organicarchitect.com>

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Subject: Re: Organic Architecture dissertation request.

Date: 12 April 2013 01:37:52 BST To: Christian Wren <12104936@stu.mmu.ac.uk> Let me know if you need more: Eric Corey Freed 1. Does whether a project is in an urban or rural setting have any impact on whether you accept a commission?

No, that isn't how it works. I choose the people, not the project. I'm looking for people that are open to the design process and are nice. I tell them I have to choose them as much as they have to choose me. When I meet a potential client and they are rude the to waitress, I won't take the job. It sounds funny but it makes a difference: if they were rude to a stranger upon first meeting me, imagine how awful they would be after we spend months together!

I wouldn't take certain types of jobs, such as: * prisons * projects on pristine green fields * projects for a fossil fuel company, or Monsanto, fast food But those clients won't come to me anyway. The benefit of being so outspoken is that it scares off all of these bad clients.

2. What do you find are the main struggles with applying the Organic approach to built up urban settings?

I don't find them to be struggles as much as challenges. Narrow urban lots are not ideal for using thick walls of straw bale, and don't often lend themselves to passive solar orientation. I often have to find ways to bring light into the space, or take advantage of thermal mass. Since these are presented as challenges, they often become the central idea behind the design, and inspires a better solution.

3. Are there any examples of Organic architecture in urban centers that you feel are particularly successful?

Some of the most incredible organic designs I've seen are of those unbuilt.

Frank Lloyd Wright gave us wonderful infill urban sites with projects like: Crystal City in Washington and some visionary plans for the Point in Pittsburgh.

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The Guggenheim in New York is a contradiction, as it only works because the surrounding buildings are so flat and banal. So in that case, you couldn't have an entire street lined with Guggenheim-like sculptural buildings. But it is a museum and should be iconic.

I'd also note his Richland Center Warehouse and his hotel proposed for Dallas.

Bruce Goff also has some incredible proposals for urban centers that remain largely unbuilt, including several church buildings designed for Tulsa, Oklahoma, and a hotel for Las Vegas. Also check out the First National Bank in Missouri done around 1970.

4. How do you feel your philosophy of the Organic approach differs from that of Frank Lloyd Wrights?

I believe Mr. Wright was a man uniquely of his time and his culture. He is an embodiment of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Walk Whitman. He was part of the zeitgeist when America was young and hopeful and full of promise. Remember, he was born just two years after the end of our Civil War and lived to see rockets into outer space. That was a time of great promise for the US. As a result, he realized that it was his job (and responsibility) to develop a new type of Architecture - an American Architecture that reflects our culture. His long life and long career accomplished so much and many people take the things he pioneered for granted.

I was born into a very different country (and world) and into the beginning of the decline of the United States. Starting with the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the birth of the modern day environmentalist/protectionist movement. As I entered the profession I soon realized that as much as I would like to focus solely on design, I cannot. My job and responsibility is to change HOW we build our buildings. As a result, I feel guilty working on my projects. It's hard to have a four hour meeting about countertops when you know there are more pressing issues in the world. It's hard to listen to (relatively) rich, (mostly) white people complain that their house or office isn't big enough when you have millions without access to food or clean water. This is no longer the same America of Opportunity - this is the America of Overconsumption and Excess.

That being said, much of my core philosophy is firmly grounded in the work of Mr. Wright, of course. The main difference is one of priority. I prioritize healthy finishes, reduction of energy use and responsible management of resources over the design itself. These self-imposed constraints often limit

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what I can do in good conscience. I find that often I am eliminating things as I can't justify that the aesthetic impact is worth the environmental one.

So I am conflicted. A large part of my brain and ego wants to focus on designing innovative, cutting edge buildings. But my rational and logical side argues against doing more than is needed. This is a constant battle and internal argument I have with myself. On a daily basis, I say things to clients, such as, "Yes, the existing glass block is ugly, but it's not worth ripping it out just to put in a new window. Instead, let's find a recycled translucent panel to put over it." (That just happened today.)

I believe that all buildings should be unique and creative expressions of the client and the site. But I also expect that every building strive to generate its own energy, grow its own food, process its own water, clean its own waste and sequester its carbon. These goals are critical to our survival as a species, so that makes them of utmost importance over any selfish aesthetic concerns of mine.

I would argue that Mr. Wright was the first green architect (just look at the 2nd Jacobs House in Wisconsin for proof). But he was unburdened in not knowing what I know. He was unaware of VOCs, formaldehyde, water pollution, smog, asthma rates, lead poisoning, and climate change.

The question you should be asking is, "how would his philosophy change should he have been given these issues?"

From: Christian Wren <12104936@stu.mmu.ac.uk> Subject: Re: Organic Architecture dissertation request.

Date: 8 April 2013 18:03:09 BST To: Eric Corey Freed <eric@organicarchitect.com> Eric, Thank you so much for the swift reply and insight into Frank Lloyd Wright!

Indeed what you say about Wright not 'hating cities' as much as people think is in stark contrast which much of what i've read, so it's very interesting to hear a differing point of view. Yes i've been looking quite a bit into Broadacre City, and i'm still trying to find out where it fits into my argument, and whether it implied Organic in urban living can only work in very controlled urban conditions. And the Mile High Towerâ&#x20AC;Ś well that just confuses the hell out of me where that fit into Wright's school of thought.

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Yes the Guggenheim is a pretty key point of reference i'm using, as I type i'm trawling through a book called 'The Guggenheim Correspondence'. So far i'm thinking that it actually succeeds by contrast which is draws all sorts of interesting conclusions.

If you were able to get any replies to any of the questions by the end of the week that would be incredibly appreciated. And yes, either my parents were extremely prophetic in naming me or just had a good sense of humour.

Many thanks again, and I look forward to hearing back soon.

Christian.

From: Eric Corey Freed <eric@organicarchitect.com> Subject: Re: Organic Architecture dissertation request.

Date: 8 April 2013 17:32:07 BST To: Christian Wren <12104936@stu.mmu.ac.uk>

Sir Christian Wren: With a name like yours you seem destined to be an architect, especially in England!

Part of the past focus of organic buildings in rural and suburban areas was merely a cultural one (post World War II expansion and all of that.) Some of the most intriguing proposals by Frank Lloyd Wright (Mile High Tower, Crystal City in Washington, and Broadacre City as some examples) show an alternative model of urban living.

There is already a great deal written on Frank Lloyd Wright and the city, though much of it seems to misunderstand him. You can't simply say, "Wright hated cities" as that is too dismissive. In fact, he loved his time in New York while working on the Guggenheim. He hated the bad parts of the city, and wanted to transform it as he had done with the American house or office building or church.

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Thanks for the questions. I won't be able to type out my answers to your questions for several days. Things are quite busy here, but will push to get them completed by the end of the week. I trust that is ok.

-eric

From: Christian Wren <12104936@stu.mmu.ac.uk> Subject: Organic Architecture dissertation request.

Date: 8 April 2013 17:14:51 BST To: <eric@organicarchitect.com> Dear Eric, My name is Christian Wren and I am a fifth year Masters student studying for an MA in Architecture at the University of Manchester in the UK. I am currently writing my dissertation on the subject of Organic Architecture, and specifically it’s appropriateness in urban settings. I’ve done considerable research on the history and development of the Organic approach, and what’s clear is that its application seems almost entirely confined to rural and suburban areas, and very rarely in the city. With literature on the subject sparse, I thought it would be a fascinating topic to study. My current working title is, ‘The (in)Organic City: Is Frank Lloyd Wright’s philosophy of ‘Organic Architecture’ suitable for urban centers?’

Being the self proclaimed ‘Organic Architect’ you are clearly the go-to architect for opinion on where Organic Architecture sits in today’s architectural thinking, and I was hoping that if you were able to find time, you would be able to answer a small number of questions? I fully appreciate your busy schedule and any correspondence would be hugely appreciated, and fully accredited in my dissertation. I’ve kept the questions as few and as concise as possible!

1. Does whether a project is in an urban or rural setting have any impact on whether you accept a commission?

2. What do you find are the main struggles with applying the Organic approach to built up urban settings?

3. Are there any examples of Organic architecture in urban centers that you feel are particularly successful?

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4. How do you feel your philosophy of the Organic approach differs from that of Frank Lloyd Wrights?

Again, I expect your inbox must be pretty wild, so thanks for even taking the time to read this (assuming you’ve got this far!). I’ve developed a real interest in this area of study since working on the dissertation, and I would be genuinely thrilled if you were able to spend a few minutes to help me gain an even greater insight, whether that’s by replying to any of the questions, or even making five minutes for a phone call.

Many thanks, Christian Wren.