Yeong Min Kim 1 Encyclopedia of Architecture: THE DEVELOPMENT OF FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT’S EARLY RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE: FROM 1887 TO 1905 Frank Lloyd Wright’s first professional foray into the realm of architecture was marked by his ambitious move to Chicago and his subsequent employment at the architectural firm of Joseph Lyman Silsbee in the year of 1887.i After a brief eight-month stint with Silsbee,ii Wright soon began working as the gifted protégé of the greatly admired Louis H. Sullivan at Adler & Sullivan, where he eventually became Sullivan’s chief draftsman and later managed the firm’s residential design work. iii Wright’s engagement with architectural firm Adler & Sullivan thus paved the way to an extensive and impressive architectural career that left behind an inspiring oeuvre of buildings, projects, and drawings. Although Wright’s early involvement with Adler & Sullivan, or what he called the “only moderns in architecture,” proved to be influential in the development of Wright’s architectural style, Wright also began cultivating his own sense of style that is revealed in many of his early buildings.iv Evidence of his developing style of a tailored, geometric simplicity of design is dramatically demonstrated in the James Charnley house of 1891, one of Wright’s early works during his employment at Adler & Sullivan. The building as a whole evokes an Italian Renaissance villa, and the decoration- especially that of the balcony- is very Sullivanesque,v but through abstraction and strict geometry, the masses and volumes rightly become Wright’s own. The plan of the house is simple and symmetrical about an east-west axis, and the uncomplicated disposition of the interior space is reflected in the
Yeong Min Kim 2 simple and symmetrical exterior. Apart from the slight embellishment of the balcony, the ornamentation is otherwise kept to a minimum. Wright’s sense of geometry is also explored in the George Blossom house (one of the architect’s many “moonlighted”vi commissions) where the plan is symmetrical with the exception of the rear extension to the conservatory.vii Although Wright’s method of design did not originate completely from the Charnley house or the Blossom house, the axiality, harmony, and rhythm that would lead him into his Prairie period is clearly present.viii In 1893, Wright was forced to end his business relationship with Adler & Sullivan after he was caught moonlighting under his own name while still working for the firm. Thus, the William H. Winslow house was Wright’s first independent commission after he left the offices of Adler & Sullivan.ix Although Wright had stopped working for the acclaimed architectural firm, the masonry elements of the house are treated were treated to a foliage ornament in the manner of Sullivan. However, the stylistic characteristics that were to stay with Wright throughout his life are distinctly noticeable. In the Winslow house, the axis of symmetry runs through the fireplace, and the front elevation and the entry are symmetrical. Also, the ornamented façade on the second story that houses the strip of windows becomes a band defining the roof from the brick mass below. Interestingly, the break that separates the upper level of the house from the lower level occurs at the windowsill line and not at the usual floor level.x Thus, Wright’s design elevates the great roof above the wall’s mass, making it seem as though it were physically separated from the rest of the structure.xi More important, however, is Wright’s further exploration with geometry and his early experimentation with the modular system. The plan of the Winslow residence
Yeong Min Kim 3 (Figure 1), in addition to four other squares, is composed of two large squares that slide partially over one another to create a rectangular outline. Located between the arcaded screen in front of the inglenook and the outer limit of the paved area in front of the entrance door is a fifth square, which, with the encompassment of both the inside and outside area of the house, prefigures Wright’s future studies of interior and exterior spaces.xii The square, then, for Wright, was the most basic unit of space. Wright considered the covenant with nature as the basis of his design and iconography,xiii and rather than embracing conventional organic shapes and forms of the natural, vegetal, or zoological world, such as the undulating curves of an amoeba or the spiral configurations of a curling tendril, Wright employed a small, basic number of strictly defined geometric shapes: the square, the rectangle, the triangle, the lozenge, the hexagon, and the circle.xiv Moreover, Wright’s use of a modular grid system allowed him to establish order and rhythm in his architecture and also experiment with a wide variety of structural combinations through geometrical manipulations. It was important that the parts related harmoniously with one another, as well as with the whole.xv As mentioned earlier, these geometrical concepts had already been somewhat explored in his construction of the George Blossom house and the William H. Winslow house and would be improved and expanded with years to come. Whereas Wright’s early projects of the late 1880’s and early 1890’s show the influence of the Shingle Style, the Beaux-arts style, and Louis Sullivan, a more definitive, crystalline geometry can be found in his later works of 1895- 1897 as he became more
Yeong Min Kim 4 acquainted with the ideas of Viollet-le-Duc, Japonisme, and the Pure Design movement.xvi Viollet-le-Duc’s definition of “style” was achieved through Wright’s use of geometric simplification in his works, and his writings helped Wright establish a direct relationship between nature and architecture.xvii Pure Design, a theory that promoted the use of simple geometric elements,xviii enriched Wright with new perspectives for designing buildings. Also, “the planar composition of Japanese prints taught Wright how natural forms could be abstracted without losing their identity, a lesson that served him well whenever his architecture had to echo the lines of a site.”xix And according to Wright, his childhood discoveries of the Froebel geometry building blocks further helped him understand the geometric archetypes that he would later realize in the forms of his architecture.xx The kindergarten room in the Frank Lloyd Wright house of 1895 suggests Wright’s inclination to “subordinate design and function to iconography, if he thought that the occasion warranted it.”xxi Wright’s creation of a solemn tomb-like design with didactic murals that contained signs and symbols bears an iconographic message concerning the relationship of humanity and the forces of nature. Overall, the temple-like architectural design of the room brings about an aura of transcendence, thereby further underpinning the iconological aspects.xxii Wright’s emphasis on iconography is also exemplified in his design of the Harley Bradley house of the year 1900. The large residential structure has very wide overhanging eaves, partly in a functional effort to provide better protection for the windows, but also in an iconographical effort to make the roofs appear like a piece of
Yeong Min Kim 5 folded paper or bird wings, which gives the illusion making the building look more like a volume than a mass.xxiii Additionally, the influence on Japanese prints on Wright is quite apparent. By the year 1900, Wright had more or less mastered the modular method of design, “as well as the manipulation of ambiguous transitional spaces that may belong to one room or another to establish almost magical spatial flows.”xxiv His development of the Prairie Style- characterized by extended low buildings with shallow, sloping roofs, clean skylines, suppressed chimneys, overhangs and terraces, the use of unfinished materials, and the contrasts between two stories- is clearly evidenced in Wright’s residential works. The Susan Lawrence Dana house of 1903 demonstrates Wright’s absolute mastery of materials, particularly brick and stone, and the two-story high living room provides a soaring and explosive sense of space. The Edwin Cheney house, built in1904, reflects Wright’s emphasis on the spatial flow and movement within the interior, along with the accompanying feeling of diversion and prolongation. Again, Wright’s use of iconographic elements is shown in the Tree of Life window of the Darwin Martin house (the largest expression of the T plan in a Prairie style house). Lastly, the Japanese-style Thomas Hardy house in Racine, Wisconsin houses a balconied living room that opens up the entire living quarters to the Lake Michigan view, thus exemplifying Wright’s investigation of the cube. xxv Frank Lloyd Wright’s experiences with the previously mentioned themes and studies ultimately enabled him to achieve a better understanding of architectural
Yeong Min Kim 6 geometry, and led him to build upon the Prairie style that he continued to successfully to practice until the abandonment of his practice and relocation to Europe in 1909.xxvi
Figure 1) William H. Winslow House Plan.
i
Edgar Kaufmann, Frank Lloyd Wright: Writings and Buildings (Horizen Press, Inc. 1960), 20. ii Grant Carpenter Manson, Frank Lloyd Wright to 1910 ( New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1958), 20. iii William Allin Storrer, Frank Lloyd Wright: A Study in Architectural Content (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1984), 13. iv Kaufmann, 21 v Narciso G. Menocal, Lecture, September 16, 2008. vi Even while gaining some of Sullivan’s domestic commissions, Wright was working at night on commissions of his own, unknown to the firm of Adler & Sullivan and against the express provisions of his five year contract with them. vii Menocal, Lecture, September 18, 2008
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viii
Narciso G. Menocal, “The Charnley House As An Architectural Embryo,” Art History 449 Reader: 186. ix Menocal, Lecture , September 18, 2008 x Storrer, 24-25. xi Menocal, Lecture, September 18, 2008 xii Narciso G. Menocal, “The Transcendentalist Iconology of Wright’s Organic Architecture,” Art History 449 Reader xiii Ibid. xiv Ibid. xv Ibid. xvi Ibid. xvii Narciso G. Menocal, “Frank Lloyd Wright’s Concept of Democracy: An American Architectural Jeremiad,” Art History 449 Reader xviii Menocal, “Frank Lloyd Wright and the Question of Style,” Art History 449 Reader: 7 xix Menocal, “Frank Lloyd Wright and the Question of Style,” 13 xx Menocal, Lecture, September 26, 2008 xxi Menocal, “The Transcendentalist” xxii Ibid. xxiii Menocal, Lecture, September 30, 2008 xxiv Menocal, “The Transcendentalist” xxv Menocal, Lecture October 7-14, 2008 xxvi Menocal, “The Transcendentalist”