One of the wonderful things about the recently-opened Chicago Architecture Biennial is that it encourages visitors to leave the exhibition itself. From films to lectures to public kiosks, it's truly a regional event.
By far the furthest afield of these offerings - and definitely one of the most memorable - are the free trips to visit the legendary Frank Lloyd Wright-designed headquarters of SC Johnson in Racine, Wisconsin. The complex is about an hour and a half drive from Chicago.
Long before Apple and Google hired Norman Foster and Bjarke Ingels to build sexy campuses in Silicon Valley, H.F. Johnson Jr. hired Wright to build his Administration Building (1939) and Research Tower (1950), which remain two of the most innovative, and important office buildings in the history of modern architecture. 'I wanted to build the best office building in the world, and the only way to do that was to get the greatest architect in the world,' Johnson explained at the time.
The Research Tower, renovated in 2013, was opened to the public for the first time last year. Its 15 floors all cantilever off a central core, which extends more than 50 feet into the ground. The research spaces are skinned with 'Cherokee Red' bricks, and more than 7,000 Pyrex glass tubes. The development site of ubiquitous products like Glade, Pledge, and Raid, the tower contains original lab equipment, amazing architectural drawings, and correspondence between Wright and Johnson.
The curvaceous, horizontally-oriented Administration Building, also naturally lit with Pyrex glass tubing, is famous for its Great Workroom's amazing 'mushroom' columns, with their 9 inch diameter bases and 18.5 foot diameter tops. Wright convinced authorities to allow the unusual structures by stacking several tons of sandbags on top of them prior to construction. He (or course) designed all the furniture in the building (including the tippy three legged chairs), as well as its brass 'bird cage' elevators. It's the only working Frank Lloyd Wright office in the world.
Speaking of Norman Foster, on the tour you'll visit his Fortaleza Hall, which opened in 2010. The building includes a sweeping glass atrium containing exhibits about the building and company, and The Commons, (fronted by a Patrick Blanc green wall) which provides employee amenities. The tour also takes visitors to Wingspread, the Wright-designed, pinwheel-planned home for H.F. Johnson Jr., and to the spaceship-like Golden Rondelle Theater (not designed by Wright), which was shipped to Racine after the 1964 New York World's Fair.
On display at the SC Johnson Gallery is the Wasmuth Portfolio, which features almost 50 gorgeous lithographs and artifacts from Wright's most famous book. SC Johnson is also hosting three lectures and two films associated with the Biennial as well as its first-ever 'Wright at Night' tours on Thursdays.
Clerks working in the Great Workroom of the Administration Building in the 1940s
...and the Great Workroom in the 1980s
HF Johnson, Jr. sits with Frank Lloyd Wright and his apprentice, Wes Peters, during the weight testing of a dendriform column for the SC Johnson Administration Building in 1937. The column needed to hold 12 tons of weight in order to be used in the building design. The test stopped after the column withstood 5 times that weight.
The Golden Rondelle Theatre was built for the 1964/1965 Worlds Fair in New York. It has been in Racine since 1968, showing visitors various SC Johnson-commissioned films like "Living Planet" and the Academy Award-Winning "To Be Alive!"
The Fortaleza Hall, designed by Foster + Partners in 2010, is also part of the SC Johnson campus in Racine
-
Herzog & de Meuron and Piet Oudolf unveil Calder Gardens in PhiladelphiaThe new cultural landmark presents Alexander Calder’s work in dialogue with nature and architecture, alongside the release of Jacques Herzog’s 'Sketches & Notes'. Ellie Stathaki interviews Herzog about the project.
-
Beloved British screenwriter Dennis Potter inspires an exhibition with a difference at Studio VoltaireHilary Lloyd's multi-faceted exhibition at Studio Voltaire considers Dennis Potter's life and work, from much-loved TV classics to power inequalities
-
Insert here: London Design Festival gets intimate with insertable designAt London Design Festival, Heirloom Studio showcases 36 objects – some life-saving, some pleasure-giving, all made to go inside the body
-
Herzog & de Meuron and Piet Oudolf unveil Calder Gardens in Philadelphia
The new cultural landmark presents Alexander Calder’s work in dialogue with nature and architecture, alongside the release of Jacques Herzog’s 'Sketches & Notes'. Ellie Stathaki interviews Herzog about the project.
-
Meet Studio Zewde, the Harlem practice that's creating landscapes 'rooted in cultural narratives, ecology and memory'Ahead of a string of prestigious project openings, we check in with firm founder Sara Zewde
-
The best of California desert architecture, from midcentury gems to mirrored dwellingsWhile architecture has long employed strategies to cool buildings in arid environments, California desert architecture developed its own distinct identity –giving rise, notably, to a wave of iconic midcentury designs
-
A restored Eichler home is a peerless piece of West Coast midcentury modernismWe explore an Eichler home, and Californian developer Joseph Eichler’s legacy of design, as a fine example of his progressive house-building programme hits the market
-
How LA's Terremoto brings 'historic architecture into its next era through revitalising the landscapes around them'Terremoto, the Los Angeles and San Francisco collective landscape architecture studio, shakes up the industry through openness and design passion
-
Inside a Donald Wexler house so magical, its owner bought it twiceSo transfixed was Daniel Patrick Giles, founder of fragrance brand Perfumehead, he's even created a special scent devoted to it
-
The Pagani Residences is the latest ultra-luxe automotive apartment tower to reach MiamiRising up above Miami, branded apartment buildings are having a renaissance, as everyone from hypercar builders to crystal makers seeks to have a towering structure bearing their name
-
A modern cabin in Minnesota serves as a contemporary creative retreat from the citySnow Kreilich Architects' modern cabin and studio for an artist on a lakeside plot in Minnesota was designed to spark creativity and provide a refuge from the rat race
