During his career, Frank Lloyd Wright built only one house in Tennessee: the Shavin House, perched on Missionary Ridge in Chattanooga. Now, this unique piece of American architectural history is on the market.

The home, at 334 North Crest Road, was built in 1949 after newlyweds Seamour – a building materials salesman with an appreciation for modern design – and Gerte Shavin decided that, rather than buying an existing home, they would channel their savings into commissioning a residence from the era's most celebrated architect. They paid roughly $33,000 for the house and its Wright-designed built-in furniture, a considerable sum for the time.

Wright designed the home in his Usonian tradition – a design philosophy centred on the idea of the ideal American home: modest in scale, with open interiors, abundant natural light and a strong relationship between architecture and landscape. The Shavin residence embodies these principles, built from native Tennessee Crab Orchard stone and Louisiana cypress.

Wright himself never set foot on the Chattanooga site; construction was overseen by Marvin Bachman, one of his apprentices from Taliesin, Wright’s home, studio and school complex in Wisconsin. Bachman died in a car accident before the project was finished, but the house was nonetheless completed in 1952. It remained in the Shavin family for more than seven decades – Seamour, who also served as the home's general contractor, lived there until his death in 2005, while Gerte remained part-time until 2020.

Signature Wright touches are everywhere: a hidden entrance that reveals the main living spaces only after entry, clerestory windows, mitred glass corners that dissolve the visual boundary between interior and exterior, and a massive stone fireplace centerpiece. A dramatic cantilevered carport roof extends outward from the main building, while inside, Wright's signature built-in seating, shelving and cabinetry unify architecture and interior.

The Shavin House does depart from Wright’s usual style in one notable way: while many of his houses tuck into their surroundings, this one commands the top of Missionary Ridge, with sweeping views of the Tennessee River, Lookout Mountain and downtown Chattanooga. This distinctive character earned the home a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993, and it became Chattanooga's first official local landmark in 1995.

With its entrance to market, the Shavin House offers the chance to steward one of fewer than 100 completed Usonian houses in existence. While it may not carry the fame of Fallingwater or the Robie House, many consider it one of the finest surviving examples of Wright’s residential philosophy.

The Shavin House is on the market with Sotherby’s International Realty for $1.6 million.

Frank Lloyd Wright is best known for his architecture, celebrated for pioneering his distinctive brand of organic modernist design. Fewer people realise that Wright also designed many of the interior elements of his buildings – in fact, this was central to his philosophy of ‘total design’, in which a building and everything within it forms a unified whole. He created furniture, lighting fixtures, textiles, stained-glass windows, tableware and decorative objects – often specifically for individual buildings.

One such building was the Martin House, a residential complex designed between 1903 and 1905 for businessman Darwin D Martin. The house is considered one of the most important works of Wright’s Prairie School period, and he also designed its interior elements.

These objects will take centre stage in a new exhibition at the house (which, after decades of neglect, underwent a major restoration courtesy of the Martin House Restoration Corporation). ‘Collecting Ourselves’ opens on 27 March and runs until 7 September 2026.

The exhibition traces the decades-long effort to recover and reunite original Martin House objects. Dispersed nationwide, items such as art glass, furniture and decorative pieces have been traced through collectors and institutions. Through archival research and collaborations, Martin House staff have painstakingly documented, retrieved and restored these elements, marking a major historic preservation achievement.

‘Collecting Ourselves’ reveals the research, collaboration and ethical stewardship involved in restoring the house to Wright’s original vision, while also, of course, displaying his objects as he intended them to be seen. Among the works featured are a Tiffany & Co floor lamp, a dining-room table stanchion, stained-glass window panes, light sconces and chairs. They will be shown alongside archival materials – including letters, drawings and documentation – that reveal Wright’s highly detailed plans for the home’s interiors and furnishings.

‘For the first time, we are sharing the full story of how these objects left the house, how we traced them across the country, and how ethics, care and collaboration guided their return,’ said Jessie Fisher, executive director of the Martin House. ‘This exhibition is about stewardship as much as it is about architecture.’

Through these objects, ‘Collecting Ourselves’ tells a deeper story about the care, conservation and documentation of design. While structural restoration often attracts the most public attention when it comes to Wright’s buildings, the exhibition highlights the equally vital role that archives and collections play in reconstructing historic spaces.

'Collecting Ourselves' runs from 27 March-7 September 2026 at 125 Jewett Pkwy, Buffalo, NY 14214. Visit the Martin House's website for tickets.

Long live the Christmas card – a ritual that feels increasingly endangered in our digital age. The simple act of putting pen to paper and sending wishes inked in black or blue is, in a word of instant messages, profoundly gratifying.

In celebrating this venerable tradition, we found ourselves asking: what sort of Christmas card does an architect send? What festive missives emerged from the minds of Charles and Ray Eames, Frank Lloyd Wright, or Ludwig Mies van der Rohe? We scoured archives, museums and foundations to find out.

The discoveries are a delight: historic cards that are clever, charming and whimsical – testaments to the creativity of the 20th century’s greatest architectural minds. Read on for a look at festive designs from the Eameses, Wright et al, where holiday cheer meets design brilliance.

Charles and Ray Eames

These cards were illustrated by Charles Eames between 1927 and 1931, before he met his wife and creative partner, Ray. Over the years, he created hand-drawn Christmas cards for family and friends, many of them lithographs enhanced with hand colouring. Among the collection are a wreathed door drawn for Fred and Lucia Woermann, the parents of his first wife, Catherine (top); and a card depicting Charles, Catherine and their daughter Lucia standing on a cartoon-like map of St Louis, Missouri (bottom).

These photographic Christmas cards were created by Charles and Ray – posed and photographed by the couple in the 1940s.

Frank Lloyd Wright

This 1907 Christmas card, created in Oak Park, Illinois, is rendered in ink and pencil on tracing paper. It features text drawn from a poem titled ‘The Four Seasons in Four Verses’ in Book Four, Freedom, of Wright’s An Autobiography.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

A card that Ludwig Mies van der Rohe designed and sent to architect Carter Manny in 1968.

Alison Smithson

In December 2025, Roca Gallery in London launched an exhibition of Christmas cards by Alison Smithson, a British architect and key figure in the brutalist movement, who collaborated with her husband Peter Smithson on projects such as Robin Hood Gardens and Hunstanton Secondary Modern School. Alison created cards annually, a tradition now continued by her daughter Soraya, who organised the exhibition.

Louis H Sullivan

This card was designed and signed by Louis H Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright's mentor and one of his key influences, in 1920. Sullivan is often called the ‘father of the skyscraper’, with key works including the Wainwright Building in Missouri, the Guaranty (Prudential) Building in New York, and Chicago’s Carson Pirie Scott Store.

Denys Lasdun

Denys Lasdun was one of the UK’s key authors of modernist and brutalist architecture, known for projects such as the National Theatre and the Royal College of Physicians in London. This 1950 card, titled 'Egophile', depicts Lasdun alongside fellow architects Maxwell Fry, Jane Drew and Lindsey Drake as classical columns.

This card was sent to rather than received by Lasdun, and features a drawing of the Royal College of Physicians in Regent’s Park. Signed ‘from the medical orderlies’, it appears to have been sent by the staff there.

Jane Drew and Max Fry

This card, designed in 1953, depicts Chandigarh, India, where British modernist architect Jane Drew worked on urban planning and housing projects alongside Le Corbusier.

This card, from 1948, shows the home and office at 63 Gloucester Place, London, which Drew shared with her husband and creative partner, Max Fry, who frequently collaborated with her on educational, housing and institutional projects.

Ernő Goldfinger

Ernő Goldfinger, the Hungarian-born British modernist architect known for brutalist residential buildings in London such as Trellick Tower and Balfron Tower, created this Christmas card in 1938 for himself and his wife Ursula.

Chamberlin, Powell & Bon

The architect trio behind the Barbican Estate created many Christmas cards over the course of two decades. These cards, produced between 1960 and 1982, drew on their extensive travels to Italy, Spain, Egypt, India and the USA, reflecting the wide-ranging influences that informed their work, yet maintaining a distinctly brutalist sensibility.

Stephen Rowland Pierce

Stephen Rowland Pierce was a British architect and town-planning consultant, known mainly for his work on Norwich City Hall (1938), widely regarded as one of Britain’s finest interwar public buildings. This 1920 Christmas card, rendered in black and white, depicts a townhouse in the modern style of the period.

Michael Ventris

Michael Ventris worked primarily on postwar housing and school projects, his modernist designs emphasising functionality and clarity. This 1946 Christmas card, sent to his son Nikki, shows Father Christmas at an architectural drawing board with a sack full of miniature houses by his side.

Raymond McGrath

Raymond McGrath was chief architect for the BBC in the 1930s, designing studios and broadcasting facilities with a functional, modernist aesthetic. His 1930 black-and-white card depicts a fantastical underground house called The Burrow.

The Seto Inland Sea in Japan, nestled between the Hiroshima, Okayama, Hyogo, Kagawa and Ehime prefectures that form the Seto Inland region, is a treasure trove of 20th and 21st-century architecture gems. This is not only the result of the local architects' inspiring visions. It also stands as testament to a series of clients with a forward-thinking stance and deep ambition – a confluence that created the perfect breeding grounds for pioneering building design.

Join our architecture tour to find out more.

Seto Inland Sea: context and origins

The emergence of avant-garde post-war architecture in the Seto Inland region owes much to the presence of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, built by Metabolist architect Kenzo Tange in 1955. Commissioned by the state to mourn the victims of the nuclear attack, the institution was designed by Tange, a native of Ehime Prefecture's Shikoku island, which faces the Seto Inland Sea.

Instead of Japan's traditional timber frame style, it was constructed using concrete, a cutting edge material for the time.

'Tange applied the Japanese-specific timber construction method, built with columns and beams, to concrete used in Western structures. This method spread throughout Japan,' says Terunobu Fujimori, an architectural historian who interviewed Tange during the architect's lifetime. The technique is particularly evident in the Seto Inland region's buildings.

There was plenty to build following the destruction of WWII. Kagawa Prefecture suffered particularly from air raids by US bombers. In Takamatsu City alone, 73 public buildings were destroyed, including the prefectural office, 264 factories and companies, and 90 temples and shrines.

Politicians and local business leaders wanted new public buildings that would be cherished by all and that would demonstrate the ideals of Japan's newly-formed democracy. The charge was led by Masanori Kaneko, who served as Governor of Kagawa Prefecture for 24 years. Guided by the conviction that ‘politics and art are one and integrated as a whole. Both must be dedicated to enriching the life of the citizens,’ Governor Kaneko commissioned the construction of several civic buildings and cultural facilities, which earned him his nickname, ‘design governor’.

The result is one of the richest assortments of architecture in Japan, by some of the world's leading design names. Here are eight highlights from the Seto Inland Sea region.

8 buildings to see around Japan's Seto Inland Sea

Kagawa Prefectural Office, Kagawa Prefecture

Architect: Kenzo Tange
Year: 1958

The Kagawa Prefectural Government Building was designed by Kenzo Tange (1913–2005), who was deeply influenced by Le Corbusier and practised with the latter's disciple, Kunio Maekawa. The building incorporates traditional Japanese design elements – such as columns and beams reminiscent of timber construction, and balconies with handrails – but uses concrete, just as he did at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.

Responding to then-Governor Kaneko's request for ‘an civic building befitting the democratic age,’ Tange conceived a ‘prefectural office open to the citizens.’ This spirit is most strikingly embodied in the ground floor's pilotis – a column-supported, wall-less atrium. The pilotis created a dramatic, publicly accessible space that allowed free passage for all citizens who might not otherwise have ventured in.

The ceiling features wooden louvres made from local pine timber, while the floor incorporates paving stones of Aji stone and Shodo island granite (both found nearby), alongside pebbles collected from the ocean floor. Tange's distinctive design, blending Japanese and Western elements, remains a powerful statement today.

Seto Inland Sea History and Folklore Museum, Kagawa Prefecture

Architect: Tadashi Yamamoto
Year: 1973

Perched atop the Goshikidai hills overlooking the waters between Okayama and Kagawa Prefectures, the Seto Inland Sea History and Folklore Museum is a facility conceived to convey the life and culture of the region. It displays fishing gear, wood boats and domestic items from the area. The stone-built structure was designed to harmonise with the natural surroundings by architect Tadashi Yamamoto (1923–98), who was also an official at the Kagawa Prefectural Government.

During his tenure at the prefectural office, Yamamoto nurtured his architectural philosophy through collaborations and exchanges with figures such as Tange, artist Isamu Noguchi and designer George Nakashima through which he was exposed to a new wave of post-war modernist design. The stone-piled exterior, made from the volcanic rock andesite, evokes a pirate's castle. The stone-piling was overseen by Masatoshi Izumi, a stone sculptor and production partner of Noguchi, who had a workshop in Kagawa. The concrete walls were built using formwork techniques to reveal wood grain patterns, blending naturally into the hilly landscape of Goshikidai.

Teshima Art Museum, Kagawa Prefecture

Architect: Ryue Nishizawa and Rei Naito
Year: 2010

Perched on a hill near Karato Port in Teshima – an island between Shodoshima and Naoshima in the Seto Inland Sea – the Teshima Art Museum is a collaborative work by architect Ryue Nishizawa and artist Rei Naito. Built on a section of land where terraced rice fields, once left fallow, were regenerated with the help of the locals, the architecture evokes an image of a water droplet. Measuring 40 metres along its short side and 60 metres in length, with a maximum height of 4.5 metres, the building is a concrete shell structure without a single pillar. Its smooth volume, made of free-form curves, appears to merge seamlessly with the surrounding terrain.

Integrated with this architecture is Rei Naito's installation work ‘Matrix’, which explores the animating force (anima) of nature. This piece incorporates an underground spring and throughout the day, water emerges from numerous points on the floor, creating a fountain. Surrounding sounds of nature, light, wind, and rain come through the two openings above, creating a space where environment – which changes seasonally – art and architecture are integrated.

Inujima Seirensho Art Museum, Okayama Prefecture

Architect: Hiroshi Sambuichi
Year: 2008

The Inujima Seirensho Art Museum – approximately a ten-minute cruise ride from Hoden Port on mainland Okayama prefecture – is a museum centred on the theme of ‘heritage, architecture, art, and environment.’ It was created by renovating a copper smelter that operated for only ten years from 1909 before falling into disuse. The environmentally conscious architecture, conceived by Hiroshima-based architect Hiroshi Sambuichi, incorporates existing chimneys and Karami bricks – slag bricks made from the residue left after copper is removed during the smelting process – while utilising natural energy sources like solar and geothermal power.

The museum incorporates an advanced water purification system harnessing the power of surrounding plants, evolving like a living organism as part of Inujima's perpetual natural cycle. Art works evoking the spirit of novelist Yukio Mishima, who rang a wakeup call to Japan's rapid modernisation, fill the space which once contributed to the country's industrial evolution but now exists only as a shadow trace – making a comment about the future of the country and its relationship to its past through art and architecture.

Kurashiki International Hotel, Okayama Prefecture

Architect: Shitaro Urabe
Year: 1963

Opened in 1963, the Kurashiki International Hotel is as popular now as when it first launched. Founded in response to growing post-war calls from local businesses and the government for an international-standard hotel in Kurashiki, a local city in Okayama prefecture, the hotel was born from the vision of its founder, Ohara Soichiro, who sought to create a modest but practical establishment where heartfelt hospitality prevailed.

When architect Shintaro Urabe (1909–1991) designed the building, he intended it to blend into Kurashiki’s landscape. Constructed in reinforced concrete, it was conceived as a fusion of Japanese and Western styles. The traditional namako kabe – a type of wall in coloured tiles found in Kurashiki’s historical district – appears alongside pitched kabe hisashi eaves, resembling mini roofs, which are layered on top of each other across all floors and nod to local construction typologies. Urabe’s vision described that, ‘by the time the ginkgo trees planted by the hotel at its opening have grown into spreading trees, this hotel too will have put down deep, strong roots in local and among the people of Kurashiki, welcoming visitors from around the world.’

Elements like the staircases, handrails, and wall clocks remain unchanged since the hotel's opening. Urabe, while planning the design, sat with the hotel's general manager, gaining deep insight into how the hotel might operate – such as the importance of maintaining the line of sight for guests seated in the lobby and how international guests spend their time in their rooms. This resulted in his meticulous detailing of the interior. The hotel is a source of pride for the local citizens of Kurashiki, and a piece of architecture that is truly embedded in the local life.

Honpukuji Temple, The Water Temple, Hyogo Prefecture

Architect: Tadao Ando
Year: 1991

One of the Buddhist Shingon sect’s temples, Honpukuji, dating back to the 12th century, is located on Awaji Island in Hyogo Prefecture, overlooking Osaka Bay. Enshrined here is a statue of Yakushi Nyorai, which is also designated an Important Cultural Property. In 1991, Tadao Ando designed the new main hall, Mizumido – Water Temple – to honour this deity. Accessed by a wooden approach leading to the new main hall, Ando’s temple is not something one would expect from an ordinary Japanese temple: an austere concrete wall divides the secular world from the sacred realm.

Circling it to enter, visitors encounter a 40m long elliptical pond cast in concrete. Floating within are water lilies, a Buddhist symbol. A staircase leading underground is positioned centrally, bisecting the lotus pond. Descending these steps, as if burrowing beneath the earth, leads to the main hall. In the late afternoon, when the sunlight streams in from the west and layers different colours on the vermilion-painted walls, the hall is bathed in a tapestry of crimson hues, offering visitors a unique experience where time and space seem to merge.

Yodogo Geihinkan, Hyogo Prefecture

Architect: Frank Lloyd Wright
Year: 1924

In 1924, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) designed this residence for Taizaemon Yamamura, a local who ran a sake brewery. Shortly after the Second World War, it became the property of Yodogawa Steel Works Co., Ltd., and has been open to the public since 1989. Wright undertook the original design in 1918, but soon returned to America, so completion was entrusted to his disciples in Japan, Arata Endo (1889–1951) and Makoto Minami (1892–1951). Following Wright's exploration of the fusion of nature and architecture, the architecture exploited the site's undulating terrain, extending from the nearby Rokko Mountains, and the floors are arranged in a stepped configuration running north-south.

A notable feature is the 120 small windows arranged throughout the house, which allow natural light to filter through during different hours of the day, creating an ever-changing interior atmosphere. The use of sculpted Oya stone is another unique and unusual element. The material is commonly used for exteriors, but here, it features expansively in the interior. Oya stone sourced from Oya town in Tochigi Prefecture is soft and easy to work with, and was a favourite material for Wright when he worked on the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.

Kiro-san Observatory, Ehime Prefecture

Architect: Kengo Kuma and Associates
Year: 1994

Kiro-san Observatory crowns the 307.8 metres-high Kiro mountain Observatory Park in Ōshima in Ehime Prefecture. As Oshima is among more than 700 islands dotted around the Seto Inland Sea, the site commands panoramic views of the world's first triple suspension bridge, one of Japan's three major tidal currents, as well as the highest peak in western Japan – Mount Ishizuchi – when the weather is clear. However, as the site sits within the Kiro-san Observatory Park, part of the Seto Inland Sea National Park, regulations prevented the construction of a conventional protruding structure that might unduly spoil the mountain scenery.

Kengo Kuma, whose studio designed the Observatory, says, ‘We attempted to make architecture disappear on the summit of Ōshima’. Avoiding the fate of conventional protruding observatories – where the act of construction distracts from the landscape – Kiro-san Observatory is instead folded into its environment. Its structure is buried within the terrain, forming an observation deck that remains imperceptible from the outside while offering views from within.

Last summer, we reported that Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fountainhead had come on the market for $2.5 million; following its listing with Crescent Sotheby’s International Realty, the property has now been acquired by the Mississippi Museum of Art (MMA).

The purchase of the Wright-designed residence in Jackson’s mid-century Fondren neighbourhood marks a significant step in the museum’s goal of engaging local communities, and will open Fountainhead to the public for the first time.

The house, also known as the J. Willis Hughes House, was designed in 1948 and completed in 1954 for oil speculator J. Willis Hughes, who lived there with his family until 1980. It was later purchased by the architect Robert Parker Adams, who devoted years to its restoration before his death in July.

Fountainhead has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1980 for its architectural significance. It is a quintessential example of Wright’s Usonian philosophy – his vision for a distinctly American style of architecture. Usonian homes were typically single-level bungalows designed for middle-income families, emphasising affordability, functionality, aesthetic simplicity and harmony with nature.

Fountainhead was constructed without traditional materials such as stud walls, sheetrock or brick, instead featuring Heart Tidewater Red Cypress walls and ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows. Its parallelogram layout responds to the site’s unique topography, influencing everything from wall placement to door proportions.

The residence is known as Fountainhead partly due to the belief that Ayn Rand’s novel, The Fountainhead, was inspired by Wright’s life. The name also refers to a key architectural feature: Wright used the site’s sloping terrain to extend the bedroom wing into the landscape, incorporating a fountain that feeds into a swimming pool, which then flows into a stream.

Following the acquisition, MMA will begin restoring the home and developing a plan for its maintenance, with the public opening date to be announced later. The museum will manage the property and its programming to ensure its long-term relevance, including providing bus shuttles to the site. MMA director Betsy Bradley describes that, in making Fountainhead an extension of the museum’s offerings, it will ‘[allow] access to this national treasure, inviting visitors to engage deeply with Mississippi’s architectural heritage and design legacy’.

The board of trustees chair, Lisa Percy, predicts that ‘Fountainhead will become a must-see destination and unique experience for residents of and visitors to Jackson’, adding that MMA was inspired by successful initiatives at other institutions, such as Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art’s purchase of Wright’s Bachman-Wilson House in Arkansas.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s towering influence on American design extends far beyond his era-defining, organic architecture. His vision encompassed every element of a space – windows, textiles, lighting and furniture – with each component reflecting his ethos of unity, function and form. Now, a new exhibition at the Museum of Wisconsin Art hones in on a particular strand of his legacy: chairs.

Frank Lloyd Wright: Modern Chair Design, running from 4 October 2025 to 25 January 2026, asks, what makes a Wright chair? Perhaps unsurprisingly, his chairs were deeply architectural, designed not just as seats, but to complete the spatial and visual harmony of a room. They often had geometric forms, mirroring the buildings they inhabited; were crafted from high-quality woods with visible joinery; and were built-in or custom-fitted in accordance with Wright's concept of the building as a ‘total work of art’. Never mind human comfort, something Wright was criticised for during his time.

The exhibition features over 40 of Wright’s furniture pieces – many on public display for the first time – alongside his original sketches, archival photographs and animated renderings. Together, they present the chair not as a peripheral design but as one of the the architect's most distinctive – and often polarising – contributions.

While Wright is best known for conceptualising over 1,100 structures, he also created more than 200 chairs. That this facet of his career is often overlooked forms the basis of the research of architectural historian Eric Vogel, a scholar-in-residence at the Taliesin Institute.

‘When Wright rebuilt Taliesin [his home, studio and architecture school in Spring Green, Wisconsin] after two major fires, he paired the new architecture with significant new and unprecedented furniture forms that were rejected by his clients at the time for their unconventionality,’ points out Vogel. Several of these ‘lost or never-produced’ works have been recreated by the Museum of Wisconsin Art

Modern Chair Design also includes collaborations with three master woodworkers – including Wright’s great-grandson, S. Lloyd Natof – who have reimagined lost or unbuilt chairs using the architect's original drawings and archival materials. Elsewhere, audiences can see chairs designed by Wright for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum café.

Modern Chair Design invites audiences to reconsider Wright – as not just an architect of buildings, but of everyday experience. Through the lens of the ostensibly humble chair, the exhibition reveals a designer who approached even the most functional items with audacity and vision.

'Frank Lloyd Wright: Modern Chair Design' opens this Saturday 4 October. Visit The Museum of Wisconsin Art's website for tickets

The Fountainhead, also known as the J. Willis Hughes House, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1948, when he was 81 years old. It was constructed between 1950 and 1954 for oil speculator J. Willis Hughes, who lived there until 1980. The home was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the same year, before being bought and restored by architect Robert Parker Adams, who is now bringing it to market.

Located in Jackson, Mississippi, in the midcentury neighbourhood of Fondren, The Fountainhead exemplifies Wright’s Usonian philosophy, a distinctly American vision of architecture – free from European influence – characterised by affordability, functionality and aesthetic simplicity.

A key feature of Wright’s Usonian homes, of which he designed about 60 over the course of his career, was their organic design and oneness with nature. The Fountainhead was built without stud walls, sheetrock, brick, tile or paint. Instead, its walls and ceilings are composed of exquisite Heart Tidewater Red Cypress. Floor-to-ceiling windows further invite the surrounding landscaping into the space.

The Fountainhead was shaped by the land it sits on, with the design responding to the site's unusual topography: it is built as a parallelogram, which helped define everything from the wall placements to proportions, such as the size of doors.

The name The Fountainhead is not just a reference to the home’s bedroom wing, which tapers into a fountain which spills into a pool. It is also a nod to Ayn Rand’s novel,The Fountainhead, whose protagonist Howard Roark is often thought to be inspired by Wright. The author was certainly a fan of the architect, having asked him to design a house for her in the mid-1940s, although the project never came to fruition.

The Fountainhead presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to own an icon of both modernist design and American cultural history.

The Fountainhead is listed with Crescent Sotheby’s International Realty for $2.5 million

Frank Lloyd Wright’s modernist architecture – characterised by open floor plans, efficient use of space and emphasis on functionality – naturally lent itself to accessible design. Or so thought Kenneth Laurent, a Second World War veteran who became paraplegic due to a spinal injury. After his wife, Phyllis, read about Wright’s work, Kenneth wrote to the architect, stating: ‘I am paralysed from the waist down and by virtue of my condition, I am confined to a wheelchair. This explains my need for a home as practical and sensible as your style of architecture denotes.’

Wright accepted the challenge, designing his only home specifically conceived for a person with a disability – decades before the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was enacted and such adaptations were normalised. The result was the Laurent House in Rockford, Illinois, completed in 1952.

The house is a single-story dwelling that seamlessly integrates accessible features into its design. It has hallways and doorways wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair; built-in furniture and workspaces at accessible heights; an open floor plan for easy navigation; flush thresholds (with no raised step or lip); and smooth transitions between indoor and outdoor spaces. The bathrooms are unusually large for a Wright design, and include a roll-in shower.

Beyond its innovations, the Laurent House remains one of Wright’s quintessential Usonian homes. The concept – derived from the ‘United States of North America’ – reflected the architect’s vision for a uniquely American style of affordable, beautiful and efficient housing.

The 2,600 sq ft house is integrated into the natural landscape, sitting on a 1.3-acre lot that slopes towards a creek. It features Wright’s signature horizontal lines and makes use of organic, cost-effective materials such as red tidewater cypress and Chicago common brick. A key feature of the Laurent House is its solar hemicycle design – it is Wright’s first single-storey building to adopt this form. A 50ft curved glass wall faces northwest, visually dissolving the boundary between interior and exterior.

Over the years, the Laurents developed a close personal relationship with Wright. In 1958, they sought his services for an extension to their home, but he passed away before it could be completed. The project was later realised by one of Wright’s former apprentices.

The couple lived in the house for the rest of their lives. After Kenneth’s passing in 2012, the home was acquired by a nonprofit organisation, restored and, in 2014, opened to the public. Today, it is managed by the Laurent House Foundation and recognised as one of the best-preserved Wright homes in existence. Visitors can experience the house through docent-guided tours (and should pair a visit with the nearby Anderson Japanese Gardens for a design-focused itinerary).

The Laurent House is a remarkable example of how beauty and accessibility can coexist. It stands not only as a case study in accessible and Usonian design, but as a broader symbol of democratic architecture.

Kenneth’s own words capture the impact of Wright’s work on his life: ‘Every morning for 60 years, I would come out of my bedroom and pause in the doorway, sitting in my wheelchair, to look down the window wall. I’d take in the beauty that Wright designed, seeing both the indoors and outdoors, as if there were no barriers. That scene allowed me to forget about my disabilities and focus on my capabilities.’

Modernist architecture emerged in the early 20th century as a reaction against the ornamental styles of the Victorian era and Art Nouveau. Rejecting decoration, modernism prioritised function, embracing new technologies and materials that arose from the Industrial Revolution. It also responded to the growing need for housing as a result of urbanisation. This was architecture for a new century, employing new construction methods and a fresh aesthetic that addressed social, technological and cultural shifts.

A whistle-stop introduction to modernist architecture

Throughout the 20th century, modernism spawned distinct regional variants. Le Corbusier's five points of architecture (more on this below) came to define the International Style, which is probably what most people think of when they think of modernism, characterised by clean lines, a ‘truth to materials’, and hallmarks such as flat roofs, glass curtain walls and steel frames.

In Europe, the Bauhaus School emerged as a prominent source of modernist thinking, with offshoots including brutalist architecture. The United States became a major centre for modernism, developing variants such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie School, California modernism and midcentury modernism. In Brazil and other equatorial regions, tropical modernism adapted the movement’s principles to local climates, while, in India, the quest for a postcolonial identity gave rise to its own iteration.

In the post-war period, modernist styles became the dominant aesthetic for institutional and civic buildings – known as late modernism (1950s-1970s). With the rise of minimalist modernism, which provided the blueprint for skyscrapers, and brutalism, which was often used in urban planning, the style faced mounting criticism for being sterile and monotonous. The architectural pendulum, as ever, began to swing back, sparking a renewed interest in complexity that heralded the rise of postmodernism.

Famous modernist architects

To tackle the long list of famous modernist architects, we have organised them by their continent of origin. This list is by no means exhaustive – modernism's vast and diverse nature means there will be many more – yet this is a strong starting point for the movement's most influential proponents.

Further, it reflects the societal imbalances of the 20th century – for instance, in terms of gender. Architecture has historically been a male-dominated profession, with women often pigeonholed into interiors or furniture design rather than building design. Recognition and attribution biases further obscured their contributions, frequently reducing their roles to collaboration or assistance.

Eurocentric aesthetic standards have also shaped the history of modernism, with Western movements often elevated as universal benchmarks, which is why we have chosen to represent a geographically diverse selection. That said, we have started with Europe, where modernism originated.

Europe

Le Corbusier (1887-1965)

Style: International style
Famous works: Villa Savoye; Unité d'Habitation; Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut, all France; the city of Chandigarh, India

Swiss-French architect and urban planner Le Corbusier viewed architecture as ‘a machine for living’, and was one of modernism’s most influential figures. He developed the ‘Five Points of Architecture’ – a set of principles advocating the use of pilotis (stilts), open floor plans, free façades, horizontal windows and rooftop gardens – which essentially constitutes the familiar modernist aesthetic. Le Corbusier is also known for the pivotal role he played in designing the Indian city of Chandigarh.

Walter Gropius (1883-1969)

Style: Bauhaus
Famous works: Bauhaus Dessau, Germany; Gropius House, USA

Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus School in Germany in 1919 (later forced to close by the Nazis in 1933). The movement embraced key modernist ideas such as form following function and simplicity in design, while also introducing distinctive concepts like the fusion of art and industry and the use of materials such as steel and glass. The Bauhaus building in Dessau, the art school’s HQ, is an iconic example of this architecture.

Alvar Aalto (1898-1976)

Style: Humanist modernism, organic architecture
Famous works: Paimio Sanatorium; Finlandia Hall, both Finland; Viipuri Library, Russia

Alvar Aalto was a Finnish architect and furniture designer who embraced functional modernist principles while humanising them through the use of natural materials – especially wood – and organic forms. His career coincided with Finland’s rapid industrialisation in the early 20th century, helping establish the style that he developed with his wife, Aino Aalto, as a blueprint for the Scandinavian modern aesthetic.

Eileen Gray (1878-1976)

Style: International style
Famous works: Villa E-1027; Tempe à Pailla, both France

Irish designer and architect Eileen Gray struggled to establish herself in a male-dominated field, but is now celebrated as one of the most important figures in 20th-century design. Her style blended art deco elegance with modernist functionality, exemplified in the E-1027 house in France, a minimalist villa featuring built-in furniture and sliding panels, which was incorrectly attributed to Le Corbusier for many years.

Lisbeth Sachs (1914-2002)

Style: Organic architecture, humanist modernism
Famous works: Summer House Strauss, Switzerland

The work of Lisbeth Sachs, one of the first registered female architects in Switzerland, is marked by an organic sensibility, with curvilinear forms, expressive materials and structural clarity. She created spaces where interior and exterior boundaries blur, exemplified in her 1976 project, the Summer House Strauss. Her long-overdue recognition culminated with a dedicated showcase at the Swiss Pavilion during this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale (2025).

Africa

Hassan Fathy (1900-1989)

Style: Vernacular modernism
Famous works: New Gourna Village, Egypt

Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy blended modernist principles with traditional building techniques, using indigenous materials such as mud brick and vernacular methods like Nubian vaults and passive cooling to achieve climate-responsive design. Culturally, Fathy sought to develop community-centered, affordable housing for rural, economically disadvantaged Egyptians. This philosophy is exemplified in New Gourna, a planned resettlement village near Luxor, designed in the 1940s.

Demas Nwoko (b. 1935)

Style: African modernism
Famous works: Dominican Institute, Nigeria

Demas Nwoko, a Nigerian architect, artist and designer, integrated indigenous African motifs, materials and crafts into modern architectural practices, challenging Western conventions. He viewed design as a force to positively shape the environment, seeking to create meaningful cultural and social spaces for African communities, such as the educational Dominican Institute, built in the 1970s.

Asia

Charles Correa (1930-2015)

Style: Contextual modernism
Famous works: Gandhi Memorial Museum; Kanchanjunga Apartments; Jawahar Kala Kendra, all India

Although he was born in Mozambique, Charles Correa is primarily associated with Indian architecture, with much of his work addressing urban planning challenges in the country and helping redefine national architecture in the post-independence era. His style fused traditional elements with modernist principles while adapting to local climate and culture. The Gandhi Memorial Museum in Ahmedabad showcases Correa’s signature use of open spaces, natural light and ventilation.

Balkrishna Doshi (1927-2023)

Style: Humanist modernism, brutalism
Famous works: Indian Institute of Management; Aranya low-cost housing, both India

Balkrishna Doshi was profoundly influenced by mentors Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn, but forged his own Indian interpretation of modernism. His work often featured elements suited to India’s climate, such as open courtyards, shaded terraces and natural ventilation. Awarded the Pritzker Prize in 2018, Doshi was celebrated for his humanistic approach, which focuses on low-cost housing, communal spaces and sustainable urban design.

Geoffrey Bawa (1919-2003)

Style: Tropical modernism
Famous works: Kandalama Hotel; Lunuganga Estate; Sri Lankan parliament building, all Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa is widely regarded as the father of tropical modernism – an architectural style that merges modernist principles with the demands of tropical climates. His designs frequently blur the lines between indoor spaces and lush natural surroundings, featuring open plans and natural materials. Bawa’s work is climate-responsive, with examples including the Kandalama and Lunuganga hotels, where you can stay today.

Tadao Ando (b. 1941)

Style: Minimalist modernism
Famous works: Church of the Light; Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum; Chichu Art Museum; the Koshino House; the Water Temple, all Japan

Tadao Ando buildings are generally minimalist sanctuaries crafted from exposed concrete with plenty of natural light and water features. His work reflects the Japanese Zen philosophy, with a focus on calm, contemplation and harmony with nature. Iconic projects like the Church of Light in Osaka and the Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum redefined contemporary Japanese architecture.

Minnette de Silva (1918-1998)

Style: Tropical modernism
Famous works: Karunaratne House; Pieris House; Watapuluwa Housing Scheme, all Sri Lanka

Minette de Silva was the first Asian woman elected as an associate of RIBA. She blended modernist principles with crafts, materials and forms suited to the tropical climate of her native Sri Lanka, using, for example, methods such as rammed earth and wattle-and-daub and features like open courtyards, passive ventilation and adjustable partitions. De Silva’s work was largely overlooked due to the gender biases of the 20th-century architectural establishment, but her influence on figures like Geoffrey Bawa is being increasingly recognised.

North America

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959)

Style: Organic architecture, Prairie style
Famous works: Fallingwater, Pennsylvania; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Robie House, Chicago

Frank Lloyd Wright revolutionised American architecture over his 70-year career with his philosophy of organic architecture – buildings that harmonise with their natural surroundings. His Prairie style, prominent between 1900 and 1917, sought to create a distinctly American aesthetic inspired by the landscapes of the Midwest, featuring cantilevered roofs, open floor plans and horizontal lines. Beyond his Prairie homes, Wright’s celebrated works include Fallingwater, a masterclass in environmental integration.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969)

Style: International Style, minimalist modernism
Famous works: Seagram Building (with Philip Johnson), New York; Crown Hall, Chicago

Though he was born in Germany, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe made his mark in the US after emigrating there, helping to define the glass-and-steel aesthetic that laid the foundation for the modern skyscraper. The Seagram Building became, in many ways, the global blueprint for corporate architecture. Credited with popularising the phrase ‘less is more’, van der Rohe’s designs are characterised by clean lines, open floor plans and light-filled, transparent spaces. Read more about Mies van der Rohe's life and works.

Richard Neutra (1892-1970)

Style: Mid-century modernism, California modernism
Famous works: Kaufmann Desert House; Lovell Health House, both California

Austrian-American architect Richard Neutra was a key figure in midcentury modernism, particularly in Southern California, where buildings such as the Kaufmann Desert House in Palm Springs helped define the California modern style. His designs are sleek, light-filled and open plan, emphasising health, lifestyle and a connection with the outdoors through the use of glass and natural materials.

Louis Kahn (1901-1974)

Style: Monumental modernism
Famous works: Salk Institute, California; Kimbell Art Museum, Texas

Louis Kahn, recipient of both the AIA Gold Medal and the RIBA Gold Medal, was renowned for his monumental, monolithic buildings that showcase their weight, materials and structure rather than concealing them. Kahn’s designs blend modernism with classical influences, characterised by geometric forms and materials like brick and concrete.

Charles and Ray Eames (1907-1978 and 1912-1988)

Style: Mid-century modernism
Famous works: Eames House, California

Perhaps two of the most influential figures in 20th-century design, married couple Charles and Ray Eames are renowned for their contributions to architecture, furniture and industrial design. Their use of new materials like moulded plywood and fibreglass combined functionality with aesthetics. The Eames House, built in 1949 in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, stands as a landmark of midcentury modern residential architecture.

South America

Oscar Niemeyer (1907-2012)

Style: Brazilian modernism, sculptural modernism
Famous works: Civic buildings of Brasília; Niterói Museum of Contemporary Art, both Brazil; United Nations Headquarters, US

Strongly influenced by Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer’s use of free-form concrete, often cast in sinuous curves that echoed the natural landscapes of Brazil, led some to dub him a ‘sculptor of monuments’. Along with urban planners Lúcio Costa and Joaquim Cardozo, Niemeyer helped design the new capital of Brasília in the 1950s, including the National Congress, the cathedral and the Palácio da Alborada.

Lina Bo Bardi (1914-1992)

Style: Brazilian modernism, humanist modernism, brutalism
Famous works: SESC Pompéia; Glass House; São Paulo Museum of Art, all Brazil

Born in Italy, Lina Bo Bardi is celebrated for her contributions to Latin American architecture, particularly in Brazil, where she navigated challenges as both a foreigner and a woman. An advocate for architecture’s social potential, she created buildings marked by cultural and material sensitivity, blending brutalist forms with Brazilian vernacular influences.

Carlos Raúl Villanueva (1900-1975)

Style: Regional modernism, brutalism
Famous works: Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas; Olympic Stadium, both Venezuela; Aula Magna, Mexico

Venezuelan but raised in Europe, Carlos Raúl Villanueva brought modernist ideals to Latin America, where he fused them with local cultural and climatic contexts. A defining concept in his work was the idea of ‘synthesis of the arts’, a belief that architecture should be integrated with painting, sculpture and other visual arts. Villanueva also drew from brutalism, with extensive use of reinforced concrete, and his projects often had a social dimension – he played a major role in shaping the urban fabric of cities like Caracas and Maracay.

Two American icons have come together for a collaboration that invites adventurers to live amongst design legacy like never before. Today Airstream, the Ohio-based travel trailer company known for its recognizable aluminium exterior, debuts its first collaboration with Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, the Usonian Limited Edition Travel Trailer.

The travel trailer was unveiled at Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter home and studio in Scottsdale, Arizona. With more windows than any other Airstream model and a porthole door window, the trailer positions the outdoors as a work of art. It measures 28 feet and sleeps up to four, with a banquette in the communal kitchen area that converts to a near-queen size bed and two blue sofas that convert into a king-sized bed (a rarity for Airstream) with the flip of a switch. The primary bedroom features a large window framing the landscape with a hatch that opens for fresh air and stargazing.

Making the most of a tight space is Airstream’s modus operandi and lends itself well to Wright, whose building designs often compress visitors into a narrow space with low ceilings before creating the feeling of 'release' by ushering them into a more spacious environment – like walking through the hallway of an Airstream before entering the king bedroom.

Odes to Wright – be it the light switches or the Gordon leaf motif (a design resurrected from Wright’s archive) on the collapsible kitchen table and trailer door – are everywhere. The ceiling features wood louvers, reminiscent of those at Taliesin West, and illuminated timber shelves, again embellished with the Gordon leaf.

Airstream has collaborated on limited edition trailers with the likes of Pendleton, Eddie Bauer, even Tommy Bahama, but this collaboration is an especially apt fit.

'If you had Venn diagrams of the Frank Lloyd Wright customer and the Airstream customer, they're gonna be pretty close to on top of each other,' said Carey Walley, director of marketing at Airstream.

Wright’s Usonian principles, which the trailer takes its name from, centre around practicality and multi-function design as well as integration with the surrounding landscape. Airstream, whose first trailer launched in 1936, has abided by a similar ethos since its foundation by inventor, engineer and great-outdoors lover Wally Bayam.

For Bob Wheeler, president and CEO of Airstream, the Unsonion Limited Edition Travel Trailer is a way to 'show people that [Wright’s work] are not static things that are set in their museums. In fact, it's a way of life that anybody can do. Now you can get one of these trailers and go out and live that incredible life in a beautiful, Wright-inspired design.'

Two hundred numbered editions of the Usonian Limited Edition Travel Trailer are now available on a first-come, first-served, basis, for $185,000. For more information, visit airstream.com.

In California, Hollyhock House was architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s first Los Angeles commission built between 1918 and 1921. Now the home turned museum could face closure amid cuts happening across the city.

On 21 April the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, put forward a $13.9 billion budget aiming to close a $1 billion deficit which happened due to the damage costs and tragic aftermath from the recent fires across the city. The plan includes cutting more than 1,600 city employees.

Why Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House is under threat

Hollyhock House, which is run by the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs, is currently staffed with two employees. If cuts go ahead then the property would be inoperable, therefore subsequently compromising the building’s UNESCO status.

Concerned about the cuts are The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, who have said, ‘The eyes of the world are on the City of Los Angeles. We hope they will choose to properly steward this incredible piece of our global cultural heritage.’

In 2019, Hollyhock House became the city’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site, joining seven other Wright sites. Today it is owned by the City of Los Angeles and operated by the Department of Cultural Affairs.

The residence was designed for Aline Barnsdall, an American oil heiress, with plans to make Hollyhock a centrepiece of a 36-acre arts complex, which was only partially realised. In 1927 Barnsdall donated it to the city. The building was an ode to the scenic beauty of its context, and a beacon of California Modernism.

The building was built in Hollywood, in line with when the movie industry was emerging and becoming established in the city. Although offering Art Deco touches, the house’s facade nods to ancient Meso-America with a pyramid-like shape and flat top. Hollyhock house belongs within its movie star environment, effortlessly captivating and demanding attention.

hollyhockhouse.org

If you’re a film buff and have yet to watch The Studio, clear your calendar immediately. The comedy-drama series, which was released in March 2025, stars Seth Rogen as Matt Remick, the head of a Hollywood studio struggling to balance corporate demands with his desire to create quality films. Chaotically funny, nail-bitingly embarrassing and razor-sharp in its satire of the film industry, The Studio has just been renewed for a second season.

There’s also something for architecture fans in the series, which, beyond being brilliantly engaging, also looks exceptionally stylish. On top of an eye-popping roster of celebrity cameos (including Martin Scorsese playing himself), The Studio features some architectural guest stars, which we’ve compiled below.

The Continental Studios headquarters: inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright

The headquarters of Continental Studios, the film studio of which Remick is in charge, is described in the series as a ‘temple of cinema’ and attributed to Frank Lloyd Wright. It is not, in fact, a Frank Lloyd Wright building, but a fictional one inspired by the architect's 1920s Mayan Revival period style, complete with the use of concrete textile blocks, and designed by production designer Julie Berghoff for the Warner Bros lot.

John Lautner’s Carling House: Matt Remick’s house

The Studio features the Foster Carling House, built in 1949 in the Hollywood Hills by John Lautner, an American architect who apprenticed with Frank Lloyd Wright. The home was designed for the composer Foster Carling, and is the pinnacle of streamlined midcentury charm, with an open-plan, hexagonal layout (Carling requested this to accommodate his grand piano and social gatherings). The space age-feeling home also features exterior walls clad in redwood, a glass-walled indoor-outdoor pool, and a living room wall that literally swings open to reveal 360-degree views of LA.

John Lautner's Harvey House: Patty Leigh’s house

The residence of Remick’s former boss and mentor, Patty Leigh, played by Catherine O'Hara, is also filmed in a Lautner residence: the Harvey House, built in 1950 for industrialist Leo Harvey. Leigh welcomes her successor to her home in episode one, ‘The Promotion’. The house is now owned by actress Kelly Lynch and writer-producer Mitch Glazer, who restored it in 1998 under the stewardship of Lautner Associates. The Harvey House, considered a masterpiece of midcentury design, features a circular wooden courtyard, stone floors and floor-to-ceiling glass.

John Lautner’s Silvertop (Reiner-Burchill Residence): featured in ‘The Oner’

The Reiner-Burchill Residence, also known as Silvertop, was built between 1956 and 1963, and is featured in The Studio in an episode where guest star Sarah Polley plays a director attempting to capture a continuous tracking shot. The building is a feat of design, positioned on a sloped terrain and entirely glass-walled, which posed logistical challenges during filming. The series’ cinematographer, Adam Newport-Berra, has said that he soon realised that his team ‘had completely penned [themselves] into a corner, because the house is all glass walls, it’s impossible to cheat the time of day. And there’s no flat spots on the property… you have nowhere to stage gear, nowhere to put people, nowhere to set cranes for lights'.

A rare Frank Lloyd Wright table lamp hit the auction block yesterday (13 May 2025) in New York as a highlight of Sotheby's Modern Evening Sale. The so-called ‘double-pedestal’ lamp, commissioned more than a century ago for the Susan Lawrence Dana House in Springfield, Illinois, is one of three such lamps ever created – and was sold for $7.5 million breaking Sotheby's auction record for works by the architect.

As Jodi Pollack, Sotheby’s chairman and co-worldwide head of 20th-century design, tells Wallpaper*, the lamp is 'one of the great icons of design by arguably the most influential architect of our generation.'

The lot, titled Frank Lloyd Wright: A Lamp for the Ages, is a glowing testament to the architect's innovative approach to design: in the early 1900s, electric lights were still a novelty, and Wright was one of the first to custom-design them.

The Sotheby's example is just one of three double-pedestal lamps designed by Wright, two of which were commissioned for the Dana House in 1903, while another was commissioned several years later for the Robie House in Chicago. One of the original lamps is in the collection of the Dana House museum, meaning that the Sotheby’s lamp is the only one that will ever be available for public auction.

‘This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a major collector or institution to acquire a beacon of design,’ says Pollack.

The Dana House was designed for Susan Lawrence Dana, an independent-minded heiress who sought to express her personality with her home. It was an early example of Wright’s Prairie style, which emerged in Chicago in the early 20th century and took cues from the Arts and Crafts movement. The house contained 100 original pieces of furniture, as well as 450 art glass windows, doors and light fixtures designed by Wright.

‘Susan Lawrence Dana was the ideal patron, giving Wright a “blank-check” budget and creative license,’ says Pollack. ‘What he created was radical, experimental and without precedent.’

So too were the double-pedestal lamps, which have an architectural silhouette complete with 'eaves' and green panels that are thought to reference the house's 'floating screen' of glass pendants, or ribbons hung on Japanese shrines. (Wright took cues from Japanese architecture in his design of the house). The shade's geometric pattern, meanwhile, is thought to have been inspired by the sumac plant, which is indigenous to the American prairies. Depending on the light, the iridescent glass shifts from green to brown to amber.

‘It manages to distill down to the essence all of Wright's ideas about architecture and design,' says Pollack. 'It is like owning a perfect little house by Frank Lloyd Wright.’

Such pedigree is reflected in the high price achieved. In 2002, the last time the lamp appeared at auction, it snagged nearly $2 million at Christie's. In 2023, Sotheby's set a Wright world record when ceiling light from the Francis W. Little House, also in Illinois, sold for $2.9 million. This time around, the Dana House lamp had a low estimate of $3 million.

‘Each of us in the auction business has a wish list of works that we aspire to represent. The Dana House lamp has always been at the top of my list,’ says Pollack. ‘When this lamp was sold by Christie's in 2002, around the same time I had joined Sotheby's, I immediately recognised it as one of the most stunning and profound objects. When I saw it on view, it brought me to my knees.’

For Wright collectors and enthusiasts, this sale was a big deal: not only is the double-Pedestal lamp one of a kind, it is also a physical relic of the architect's genius.

‘Wright remains a darling of the public, and for good reason,’ says Pollack. ‘His works are as timeless and modern today as when they were created.’

Frank Lloyd Wright: A Lamp for the Ages was part of Sotheby's Modern Evening Auction, which took place 13 May 2025.

What makes a ‘Frank Lloyd Wright building’? Is it a property constructed on his watch? A structure penned by him? A home that speaks to his notion of ‘Usonia’ – an America built to his architectural vision? It’s a question that has recently been put to the test as a property designed by Wright right before his death has now been constructed in Willoughby Hills, Ohio.

The story of this building starts with another. In 1955, Wright built a home for Louis Penfield (who, at 6ft 8in, had challenged the architect to design a space that would accommodate his height). Shortly after it was completed, however, the building was threatened by construction plans for Interstate 90.

Penfield asked Wright to design a second home a few hundred feet from the first. By this point, the architect was 91 years old and claimed to have enough projects to last him until the end of his life. But, soon after he died in 1959, Penfield received drawings of ‘Project #5909’, which had been found on Wright's drawing board. It was his last residential commission.

The original Penfield property was not, in the end, destroyed by the interstate and, in 2018, it was purchased by Sarah Dykstra. The purchase included the plans for Project #5909, which had been dubbed ‘RiverRock’ by Wright. Dykstra worked with her mother, Debbie, and a team of Wright enthusiasts to construct the unbuilt house in a way that remains true to the architect’s vision, even incorporating stone harvested from the Chagrin River by Penfield in the 1960s.

Thus, RiverRock is something of a time capsule – a piece of Wright constructed in 2025. The three-bedroom, two-bathroom home, which sits on 30 acres of land, has a long, low-lying volume clad in river rock. It features heated floors, a wood-burning fireplace, and views of the surrounding woods through floor-to-ceiling glass in the living areas. The interior features natural materials like stone and wood, which are characteristic of Wright’s designs. RiverRock, along with the Louis Penfield House, are available to rent.

Although RiverRock looks, to the untrained eye, like a midcentury home, Dykstra was not able to follow Wright’s blueprint exactly, due to the need to meet contemporary building standards. Despite her commitment to making necessary changes ‘under the skin’ of the property, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conversancy contest RiverRock’s authenticity, claiming that it deviates too much from its original plans to be considered a true ‘Wright’, describing it instead as an ‘interpretation’ and ‘derivative’.

Whichever camp you are in, ultimately, RiverRock honours the low volumes, natural materials and organic feel of Wright's Usonian dream, and offers a contemporary glimpse into the architect's world.

An overnight stay at RiverRock is $800 on weekdays and $1,000 on weekends. Seven-night stays begin at $5,500, riverrockhouse.com

Pay a visit to the leafy Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois and you’ll encounter some of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most celebrated works – his famous home and studio and his restored Unity Temple among them – and the throngs of tourists that follow. But just a few miles away, two stops east on the Green Line in Chicago’s Austin neighbourhood, Wright’s only Prairie Style home on the city’s West Side is in danger.

The Joseph Jacob Walser House, built by Wright more than a century ago, sits vacant. It has a hole in its roof; Its yard is choked with weeds and litter; its interior has been ransacked. The house is in such poor condition that it made a list of Chicago’s seven-most endangered buildings earlier this month, as compiled annually by the nonprofit, Preservation Chicago. 'This is one of those buildings that should be the pride of the Austin community,' says Ward Miller, the organisation’s executive director.

At one point, the house was just that. Wright designed the home for local businessman and real estate developer JJ Walser in 1903. Though not as grand as some of its Chicago area cousins, such as the Laura Gale House or the Robie House, it exhibited the hallmarks of Wright’s organic, Prairie School style: deep eaves; horizontal lines; bands of art glass windows; and an open floor plan. It even earned a spread in House Beautiful magazine in 1905.

The Walsers lived in the house for seven years before parting with it in 1910. The decades saw multiple homeowners – and just as many interior renovations – before it came into the hands of Anne and Hurley Teague in 1970. Austin also changed as the result of redlining and disinvestment and fell upon tough times. But the Teagues remained good stewards of the house for a half-century, during which it became a Chicago Landmark (1983) and was put on the National Register of Historic Places (2013).

For the Teagues, the Walser House was more than an architectural point of interest. ‘I wasn’t too much concerned about whether it was historical or what kind of story it was,’ Anne, who grew up in Atlanta, told the Austin Weekly News in 2009. ‘This is my dream house from a child.’

That all changed when Anne, by then in her nineties, passed away in 2019. The Covid-19 pandemic and the financial burden of maintaining the residence by her heirs caused the home to go into foreclosure. Miller, who says he’d been in touch with the Teagues over the years through Preservation Chicago, 'had no idea that she passed and that the house was vacant'.

The house’s future, because of its complicated status, remains uncertain. One thing’s for sure: it will continue to deteriorate until the legal issues are resolved (it cannot be demolished because of its landmark status). But organisations like Preservation Chicago and Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, another Chicago advocacy group, hope awareness of the Walser House, a gem that’s ‘hidden in plain sight’, will allow it to have a vibrant next chapter.

‘Austin is a community where there’s been a lot of challenges,’ Miller says. In an ideal scenario, the building would land in the hands of an educational organisation and be open to the neighborhood to enjoy. ‘It would be a great point of pride in the community to see this building celebrated and restored.’

If your January has been made slightly better by the return of cult TV series Severance then you may be interested to know the architectural significance of some of its filming locations.

Not only were scenes in the sinister Lumen HQ filmed in modernist Eero Saarinen’s imposing Bell Works in Holmdel, New Jersey, but there is another architectural set of note in the Emmy-award-winning show.

The home of Ricken – the brother-in-law of Mark Scout (played by Adam Scott) – seen in that nail-biting series one finalé, is a midcentury home built by architect Kaneji Domoto. Domoto studied at Taliesin – architectural master, Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and school – where he developed a style heavily influenced by his mentor.

The home was built in 1949 in the community of Usonia in Pleasantville, New York by Domoto and named the Bier House after its owners, Gertrude and Arthur Bier. It’s the largest of Domoto’s five houses in Usonia – the only realised community planned around Wright's Usonian principles (a conceptual model focusing on low-rise, fairly modest but design-led family homes built in natural materials). The living room features a cantilevered hearth, skylights constructed from fibreglass, and interior walls and hearth made from fieldstone. The dining terrace incorporates an existing tree into its design – a principle of organic architecture.

All of Domoto’s designs borrowed key principles from Frank Lloyd Wright’s work and vision for the Usonian community. The housing project was designed to bring affordable homes to the middle classes with a focus on the use of natural and readily available materials. In Bier House, we see an emphasis on linking interior and exterior spaces and a focus on the central hearth of the home as a centrepoint (you will have seen characters gather in front of it for Ricken’s book reading).

The use of Cypress wood, concrete and fieldstone was also in keeping with Frank Lloyd Wright’s preferred choice of materials.

Domoto joined the Usonian project in 1948, after work began on the housing community four years previously. Not long afterwards, Wright left the project and, rumour has it, didn’t approve of some of Domoto’s designs. Nevertheless, Domoto went on to have a long and industrious career, creating 700 projects in total that spanned architecture and landscape gardening. He died in 2002 at age 89.

Weisblat House, designed by modernist architecture master Frank Lloyd Wright in his famed Usonian style and named after original owners Christine and David Weisblat, is on the market for only the second time since its construction over seven decades ago. The partially furnished single-family home, completed in 1951, sits on a round, one-acre lot located at 11185 Hawthorne Drive in Charleston Township, near Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Tour Frank Lloyd Wright’s Weisblat House in Michigan

Weisblat House is listed with realtor Brian Kirksey of Keller Williams Realty Paint Creek, Ethos Real Estate Team, with a $2,250,000 asking price. In creating the sales listing, Kirksey drew on previous knowledge of the home gained from visiting it with Christine Weisblat, who had shared personal insights about the property’s development.

'I was first introduced to the property in 2005 by the original owner, Mrs Weisblat. She asked me to do an appraisal of the property. I was over the moon to appraise an original Frank Lloyd Wright [home], let alone [meet] an original owner, who worked directly with Wright... She told stories of how they sourced the materials, how difficult Wright was to work with, and the sense of community of the neighbours that all had Frank Lloyd Wright homes as well,' Kirksey says.

The 11-room, two-bedroom, 2,429 sq ft residence utilises Wright’s signature in-line layout, with bedrooms located on the opposite side from its shared spaces. Several aspects of the house, including a large fireplace in the living room, incorporate Wright’s concrete block system.

'Looking at the house, I know the story of the concrete blocks and how Wright made [the team] fire their own blocks, [and also about] the frog pond and Frank Lloyd Wright’s love of nature,' Kirksey says.

The Weisblat House is one of four Wright-designed homes constructed in The Acres, a planned residential community laid out by the legendary architect. A collection of scientists working for the Upjohn Company purchased the 71-acre parcel in 1946, with an initial plan to develop 21 homes. However, only one other home was ever constructed, according to the State Historic Preservation Office's (SHPO) dedicated heritage body Michigan Modern.

The Weisblats expanded their home in 1961, with an addition that included a gallery, a green house, a utility room and an additional bathroom. The addition was completed by Taliesin apprentices John Howe and William Wesley Peters, as Wright had passed away in 1959.

The Acres was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on 19 May 2004. The Weisblat House itself is protected by a preservation easement that prohibits modification or demolition and requires the home to be maintained in its current condition.

The land and the bonus lot also have a no-build clause on them, according to Kirksey. Nonetheless, he anticipates the property will draw considerable interest, due to its updated interior spaces and serene surrounding landscape – along with the international reputation of Frank Lloyd Wright.

'I'm so thrilled to be able to sell this house once again, and be a steward of this home again,' Kirksey said.

ethosre.kw.com

A defining figure in 20th-century architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867 – 1959) is one of a handful of masters who shaped the world of architecture as we know it today, influencing it as few others did. His name crosses boundaries and disciplines, breaking out of the sometimes-introspective world of architecture to touch on art, design and the way we live. With his roots in residential architecture, and his rich portfolio being instrumental in the development of modernist architecture, this is a creative that was both meticulous and versatile; organic and highly refined. By the time of his death, he completed hundreds of projects in the US and abroad. 

Frank Lloyd Wright's work ranges from sprawling Prairie houses of the American countryside to more compact urban Usonian homes, and of course, the instantly recognisable, flagship modernism of Fallingwater and the New York Guggenheim, which have since become shorthand for the entire midcentury movement. At the same time, he wrote and taught, famously founding Taliesin West, a laboratory of architecture operating to this day. 

Frank Lloyd Wright: a master is born

Wright was born in Wisconsin and honed his professional skills in Chicago, where he moved in 1887 and founded his independent practice in 1893, with offices in downtown Chicago and Oak Park. He lived there (his own home and studio in Oak Park is open to visitors today) after working at established firms in the city to perfect his skills. His long, prolific career touched on many typologies, from houses to offices, skyscrapers, and industrial, religious and education buildings. 

The 'pioneering environment of late-nineteenth-century Chicago,' writes today's Frank Lloyd Wright Trust in the Ilinois city, was critical in fostering the architect's spirit of ingenuity and progressive thinking. There, through a series of residential commissions, he developed the Prairie House style, which cemented his reputation at the time, opening doors and securing a spot for him in the global architecture history books.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie House

What it was? The Prairie House typology blends Louis Sullivan's early modernism with Arts and Crafts elements, fused in low, sprawling forms with predominately flat roofs and linear, horizontal elements that emphasize their connection with the ground - such as bands of bricks or strip windows. He described them, as the Chicago Architecture Center notes, as, 'the city man’s country home on the prairie.'

Frank Lloyd Wright: skyscrapers, Japan and Taliesin West

In 1905, while still working at Oak Park, Wright embarked on an extensive trip to Japan. Not only did the trip result in a significant proportion of the tiny handful of the architect's projects outside the US, but it also fostered a lifelong appreciation of his Asian country's art and culture. Probably the most famous of his works there is the Imperial Hotel, a luxury hospitality accommodation created in 1923, which was eventually demolished in 1967 - although recent plans by architect Tsuyoshi Tane have been revealed on a project that reinterprets Wrights design into the Imperial Hotel New Building in Tokyo, slated to go on site in 2031. 

The only skyscraper Wright ever built is the Price Tower, a corporate headquarters in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. The tower stands tall featuring 19 concrete floors which cantilever out. 'Wright described the design as a tree-like mast supported by a central “trunk” of four elevator shafts anchored by a deep central foundation,' writes the Chicago Architecture Center on the scheme. 

An important chapter in Wright's architecture story, Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona, was the architect's winter home and 'desert laboratory.' It is a place that endlessly inspired him and his work. The complex was conceived as a 'desert utopia' on the McDowell Mountains, comprising low-slung buildings crafted to draw and reflect the surrounding landscape's vast arid expanses. It was a personal passion project too, as it was built and maintained by the architect and his apprentices over the years, tweaked and perfected endlessly. 

As a result, it not only contained the architect's own office and his family's private living quarters; it also gradually expanded to include a drafting studio, dining facilities, three theatres, a workshop, alongside residences for apprentices and staff, and a range of walkways, terraces, pools and gardens. A comprehensive oeuvre, Taliesin West also featured interior furniture and decorations designed by Wright himself, often built on-site by his apprentices. 

Frank Lloyd Wright: key architecture works

Martin House (1905)

One of the master's earlier works, Martin House, in Buffalo, NY was built between 1930-1905, as the family home of business executive Darwin D. Martin. The building features Wright's horizontal planes, low volumes, natural colours and materials, and brick structure. A designated Historic National Landmark, Martin House is indeed an expansive residential estate. The design includes the main house, a secondary dwelling, a gardener’s cottage, and a series of interconnected buildings brought together by an integrated landscape, crafted by specialist designer Walter Burley Griffin. 

Robie House (1909)

A key example of the Prairie House style Frank Lloyd Wright is known for, Robie House in Chicago is one of the best-preserved examples of the master's work. The Chicago Architecture Center describes it as 'a cornerstone of modern architecture,' now part of the UNESCO World Heritage list. Its low volumes were inspired by the vast landscapes of the Midwest prairie. 

Unity Temple (1909)

Unity Temple is considered to be the greatest public building of the architect’s Chicago years. As Wright come from a family of Welsh Unitarians from his mother's side, this must have felt close to his heart. He was awarded the commission in 1905, when the original religious building on site was burned down. The Chicago Architecture Center explains that 'he wanted a modern building that would embody the principles of “unity, truth, beauty, simplicity, freedom, and reason".'

Hollyhock House (1921)

Hollyhock House was Wright's first Los Angeles commission. The home of local patron of the arts Aline Barnsdall, the structure is certainly a departure from the Prairie homes of Chicago. Built between 1919 and 1921, the residence displays elements of what is known as the architect's Mayan Revival portfolio, featuring abstract reliefs and tilted walls that give it a stepped appearance. The main home, which is on site today and part of the UNESCO Heritage List, was originally meant as part of a larger complex, which was never realised. 

Ennis House (1924)

Possibly the most well-known of Wright's Mayan architecture-inspired structures in Los Angeles, this home jumped to popular culture stardom by appearing in the 1982 movie Blade Runner. It has since captured the imagination of cinephiles and architecture enthusiasts alike, with its design that references ancient Mayan temples. Located in the Los Feliz neighbourhood, south of Griffith Park, it was a private commission for Charles and Mabel Ennis. It suffered damage through time and earthquakes since its creation, but was restored in the 2000s and is now preserved - although it remains largely not open to visitors. 

Fallingwater (1935)

Aside from the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Fallingwater is without a doubt Frank Lloyd Wright's most instantly recognizable building. A signature of the architect's dynamism and bold residential style, the dwelling was commissioned by Edgar Kaufmann and the Kaufmann family, owners of Pittsburgh’s largest department store. It was built in 1937 in Bear Run, Pennsylvania. The house has been open to visitors since 1967 and is widely studied and exhibited, and today it is one of just eight Wright projects that form part of the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Taliesin West (1937)

Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona, was critical in Wright's career and architecture, as well as being his beloved winter home. The complex has been called Wright's 'desert laboratory,' himself describing it as 'a look over the rim of the world.' Built, maintained and handcrafted over many years by the architect and his apprentices, it is possibly Wright's most personal creation. It can be experienced from afar through a series of virtual tours of several Wright projects launched in recent years by The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, in partnership with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and Unity Temple Restoration Foundation. 

SC Johnson Administration Building and Research Tower (1939 and 1950, respectively)

HF Johnson Jr hired Frank Lloyd Wright to build his Administration Building (1939) and Research Tower (1950) in Racine, US - today, they 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 has since been renovated and opened to the public. Its 15 floors all cantilever off a central core, which extends more than 50 feet into the ground. The tower contains original lab equipment, amazing architectural drawings, and correspondence between Wright and Johnson. 

Kenneth Laurent House (1952)

The Kenneth Laurent House is a single-storey structure of timber and Chicago Common Brick. Located at 4646 Spring Brook Road, it is set back from the quiet road behind a long driveway, on a 1.3-acre plot that's cocooned by tall trees and shrubbery. Blending effortlessly into the setting, the house nevertheless anchors the eye in a way that reminds you of Wright's masterpiece, Fallingwater. Completed in 1952 at a cost of $35,000, the three-bedroom, two-bathroom, 2,500 sq ft house has barely changed in the ensuing fifty years until it went on the market in 2011. The Laurents had kept everything from the built-in furniture to the furnishings more or less as they were the day they first moved in.

Bachman-Wilson House (1954)

The Bachman-Wilson House is Usonian design that now sits on two acres of the  Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. Having been transplanted - in trucks full of carefully catalogued pieces - some 1,250 miles from its original site in Millstone, New Jersey and meticulously reconstructed in Bentonville, Wright's Bachman-Wilson house has started a second life nearly sixty years after it was first built. 

Beth Sholom Congregation (1959)

Beth Sholom Congregation in Elkins Park, just outside of Philadelphia, is one of Frank Lloyd Wright; 's last buildings. It is a Mayan-era-inspired structure that challenges its utilitarian raison d’être, putting style and immersion before function. Under a pyramidal roof in the light-filled main hall hangs a floating Plexiglass chandelier designed by Wright himself (he called it a ‘light basket’), flecked with bright green, blue, yellow and red glass. Auditorium seats clad in brown leather hark to the heyday of mid-century design. The seats observe a stage in a theatrical composition dominated by gold curtains and edgy decorative details. 

Guggenheim New York (1959)

Frank Lloyd Wright's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is one of the most instantly recognisable icons of modernist architecture. Its rounded shape and spirals have become shorthand for the movement's progressive thinking and 20th-century building design. The museum's home opened in New York in 1959. It is widely considered its author's masterpiece and it is now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Since its creation, the Guggenheim has also been designated a New York City Landmark and was carefully renovated at the turn of the century - still hosting groundbreaking exhibitions in art, architecture and design to this day, such as Rem Koolhaas 2022 show ‘Countryside, The Future.' 

Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church (1961)

The Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Milwaukee was part of Wright's later works, constructed between 1956 and 1961 (and completed posthumously). It's often part of The Wright and Like Tours which take place in Chicago and the Midwest, and features a circular sanctuary and an intimate 106-foot wide, floating dome. 

Massaro House (aka Petra Island House) (2007)

Based on Frank Lloyd Wright drawings, the cantilevering Petra Island Massaro House, located in New York’s Hudson Valley, is now open to visitors. The structure was created by Joe Massaro, who realised Wright’s proposal for a 5,000 sq ft residence on the heart-shaped private islet on Lake Mahopac, in New York’s Hudson Valley. 

Joe Massaro’s personal charm and determination should not be underestimated. Many before him had tried and failed to realise Frank Lloyd Wright’s proposal for a 5,000 sq ft residence on Petra Island, a heart-shaped private islet on Lake Mahopac, in New York’s Hudson Valley.

Massaro, who grew up down the road in Elmsford, paints himself as an unlikely champion for the build. He was not born into a design family. After school, his parents discouraged him from joining their service station as an auto mechanic. Instead, he fabricated forced-air ducts for industrial buildings and crossed paths with the eminent US architect IM Pei on one big sheet metal job in the 1980s. That was, however, still leagues away from the architectural milieu of Frank Lloyd Wright – the godfather of modern house design, who was born in Wisconsin in 1867 and died more than six decades ago. Wright was already an éminence grise in the 1940s when a wealthy builder first ferried him by boat to Petra, 11 uninhabited acres forested with trees. Even today, touring the island requires a reservation since it has neither roads on it nor a bridge to it.

Massaro House on Petra Island

Wright was enchanted by the prospect of building there. His proposal was bold, futuristic and made the most of its site, the home’s living room boasting water views akin to being on a cruise ship. But construction would prove prohibitively expensive, plus the scheme also flouted mandatory setbacks from the water. In defeat, Wright completed only a modest 1,100 sq ft cabin on the island, farther from shore, in 1951.

A succession of subsequent owners applied for regulatory approval for the unbuilt mansion. At one point, seeking money from investors, someone invited Massaro himself to a picnic on the island – by then he had taken over his uncle’s sheet metal business, which flourished. He brought homemade chilli for the hotdogs, but declined to buy in.

The project would change hands once more before Massaro offered to purchase the island outright. He recounts the day he piloted his WaveRunner to the Wright-designed dock, where he taped up a clear plastic sandwich bag containing notepaper with his phone number scrawled onto it, trying to get in touch with the owner to make an offer. Guard dogs chased him off so fast that he left his roll of tape behind.

Massaro secured the title to the island in 1995 in trade for another lakefront house he owned on Mahopac plus some cash. As owner, he spent weekends in the Wright-designed cabin and tackled small repairs. Years passed before he even thought about trying to build the mansion: ‘A normal person wouldn’t do it!’ Finally allowing himself to dream, he went for it, committing to Wright’s original vision as if the master were still alive. Building it proved, predictably, a tricky ride.

Massaro had to fight to place the building astride the forbidden waterline, exactly as Wright had proposed. ‘I’m not big with rules, especially if they don’t make any sense,’ he says. The precise location for the home’s footprint was easy to pinpoint thanks to structural clefts still clearly visible in the native stone outcroppings – and also delineated in five scale drawings that Wright prepared during his lifetime. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation helped with producing fresh renderings for Massaro to explain the vision, and to charm the local authorities into granting an exception – and the exception was granted. ‘People feel comfortable with me,’ he says, with his trademark warmth. 

Massaro also needed construction plans. He explored working with the Wright Foundation on the build, but eventually he went ahead independently, enlisting Illinois-based architect Thomas Heinz, an authority on Wright, to prepare some detailed construction drawings. Heinz had already tackled two dozen Wright-related projects at that point. Perhaps most notable among these is the 1912-1914 Frank Lloyd Wright Room, from the Francis W Little House in Minnesota, which was meticulously salvaged for reinstallation at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Then there were the logistical obstacles in planning building work on the island. Visitors who book a 90-minute Petra Island tour today meet at the private boat dock on the mainland, and the transfer feels pretty straightforward. But practical hurdles around construction on the site cannot be overstated. The crew had to wait for the lake to freeze over in winter so an excavator could drive across the ice to the island from shore.

Heinz notes that the original drawings for the mansion did not call out dimensions. Fortunately, they were precisely drawn to scale and could be measured. All the wooden windows are bespoke. As at the Wright cabin across the lawn, and as found in many other projects by the architect, the mansion floors are red concrete. And following the example of Fallingwater (a private residence in southwestern Pennsylvania designed by Wright in 1935 and considered one of his greatest masterpieces), the spectacular native rock outcrop here bursts through the foyer’s polished floor, just as Wright intended.

It was challenging to conform to the modern energy-conservation codes that Wright could never have anticipated. Heinz says he had to use the latest state-of-the-art technology available, such as halogen spotlights, when construction began, finally, in the early 2000s. 

Perhaps a few other details of the mansion wither under close inspection. The ‘desert masonry’ technique used in the cabin – and seen also on a larger scale all over Taliesin West (Wright’s winter home and studio in the desert at Scottsdale, Arizona, designed in 1937) – could not be replicated precisely for the new structural concrete walls. They got laminated with a sprinkling of stone. ‘I think the rocks are too far apart, but that was up to Joe,’ says Heinz. Recalling Wright’s austere, suited and often caped figure, as seen in period photos, a visitor might be surprised to hear Heinz mention the master’s flexibility and deference to owners’ preferences: ‘He would do whatever pleased his client.’   

Massaro House, Petra Island, NY, is open to visitors by appointment only

wrightoverwater.com

A version of this article appears in the May 2024 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

‘Frank Lloyd Wright’s Southwestern Pennsylvania: The Fallingwater Projects’, currently on display at Speyer Gallery at Fallingwater, located approximately 70 miles southeast of Pittsburgh in Mill Run, Pennsylvania, features unrealised projects that Wright designed for the Unesco World Heritage site from the 1930s through the 1950s. The exhibition was inspired by Wright’s two-dimensional drawings created in collaboration with Edgar Kaufmann Sr for projects intended for the Fallingwater site, as well as downtown Pittsburgh.

‘The impetus for this project was [a booklet] we found called Pittsburgh in Progress, to accompany an exhibition that was held in Kaufmann's department store. The “Pittsburgh in Progress” exhibition was set up in 1946 to commemorate 75 years of the department store's history … looking forward 75 years, which would have been 2021. We wanted to also consider the changes or [consider] what this city thought it would look like at 75 years versus the reality of what it actually is in the 2020s,’ said Scott Perkins, senior director of Preservation and Collections for Fallingwater. 

Brian Eyerman, an architectural designer with Skyline Ink Animators + Illustrators, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, employed 21st-century technology to create multimedia renderings of projects that were never constructed, as an examination of how the surrounding rural landscape might have been realised.

‘Frank Lloyd Wright’s Southwestern Pennsylvania’ at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art

The Fallingwater exhibition is presented alongside a complementary show, ‘Frank Lloyd Wright’s Southwestern Pennsylvania’, at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, which employs three-dimensional renderings of five unrealised Wright projects for Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Skyline Ink Animators + Illustrators was also tasked with executing renderings for the Westmoreland Museum exhibition, including a civic centre (1947), a self-service garage for Kaufmann’s Department Store (1949), the Point View Residences designed for the Edgar J Kaufmann Charitable Trust (1952), the Rhododendron Chapel (1952; seen in the animation below), and a gate lodge for the Fallingwater grounds (1941).

‘People who know about Frank Lloyd Wright [are] going to be super familiar with some of the projects. They’re going to know about the model for Broadacre City, or they're going to know about Fallingwater, but they're going to see these objects in a completely new light where you see them activated through the mind of Frank Lloyd Wright,’ said Westmoreland Museum chief curator Jeremiah William McCarthy.

‘For people who have very little familiarity with Frank Lloyd Wright, this is a great introduction to his work because it helps you understand his practice in a holistic sense,’ he added.

‘Frank Lloyd Wright’s Southwestern Pennsylvania: The Fallingwater Projects’ runs through the end of December 2023,  fallingwater.org

‘Frank Lloyd Wright’s Southwestern Pennsylvania’ runs through 14 January 2024, thewestmoreland.org

‘Toshiko Mori & Frank Lloyd Wright: Dialogue in Details’, a further complementary exhibition, is on view in the Westmoreland Museum’s Paneled Rooms, and runs through 14 April 2024

It's almost time for the Wright and Like Tour 2023 in Milwaukee. For the second time following its pandemic-induced two-year pause in 2020 and 2021, the Wright in Wisconsin organization is sponsoring its popular tour event, set to take place on 29 July 2023.  Now in its 24th year overall, the tour features homes and other structures located in and around Milwaukee, specifically the communities of Bayside, Fox Point, River Hills and Shorewood - and it is all curated to celebrate and appreciate the work of 20th century modernist architecture master, Frank Lloyd Wright. 

Wright and Like Tour 2023: the highlights

While, the 'Wright' part of the tour may feel self-explanatory, given the event's overall theme, the 'Like' part is more unusual. It is a section of the tour that refers to homes and structures related to the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, but designed by other architects. Most of the 'Like' sites for this year’s tour are Usonian in design and concept; one of them this year, for example, is a 21st century interpretation of the mid-century modernist style. This combination ensures a broad mixture of visits for the tour, according to Wright in Wisconsin representative, Bill Swan. 

'The ‘Like’, is sometimes apprentices of Wright. Sometimes there are people who were inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright and learned his lessons very well. Sometimes they’re current architects who have worked on remodelling Wright buildings and now they're out on their own as an architect. The ‘Like’ can mean different things depending on the architect involved,' Swan said. 

Two original, Wright-designed projects on the tour are located in close proximity to one another at Burnham Block: the fully restored Model B-1 and the Two Flat Model C, which is currently under restoration. Both are American System-Built Home (ASBH) designs that date to 1916 and have been owned and operated in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Burnham Block, Inc., since 2017.  Gift shop items along with rare and collectible books will be available for purchase there.

The third ASBH Wright design on the tour is the Elizabeth Murphy House/Model A203 constructed in 1917. Its homeowners have continued restoration of their private home since it was last featured in the 2017 tour, ensuring fresh reveals and never-seen-before insights this year.

Another Wright design for this year’s tour is the Joseph Mollica House/Erdman Pre-Fab I, completed in 1959. It is the largest of the Marshall Erdman Prefab homes built, and it features a reversed floorplan of the Van Tamelen House, which was featured in the 2022 Madison tour. The final stop is the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church by Wright, constructed between 1956 and 1961.

Tour participants will also receive an illustrated booklet that describes each site, including history about the projects they will experience – as well as information on the original homeowners of the residential schemes. 

wrightinwisconsin.org 

The American furniture manufacturer Steelcase is today known for its ergonomic task furniture and problem-solving storage systems that characterise the contemporary workplace. But the historic company, which dates back to 1912, is now re-establishing an overlooked part of its history. 

Steelcase has reintroduced a fresh (and loyal) reinterpretation of Frank Lloyd Wright’s original designs for a workstation and desk chair, which the architect created for the SC Johnson Administration Building in Racine, Wisconsin, in 1939. Made by Steelcase back then as it is now, the Frank Lloyd Wright Racine Collection faithfully recreates the desk and desk chair in the style and finishes of the originals, while adding new touches that reflect our current ways of living and working from home.

Frank Lloyd Wright Steelcase furniture collection: from 1939 to today

‘From its beginnings over 80 years ago, Steelcase’s relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright has helped to revolutionise design for work,’ says Meghan Dean, general manager of ancillary merchandising and partnerships at Steelcase. ‘Now, we continue that mission into the home, as there’s never been a better time to revisit design principles that have always been ahead of their time.’

As one might expect, Wright’s designs from 1939 were unwittingly intuitive and innovative. The wide work table featured rounded edges, separate levels above and below the desk for additional storage, an integrated waste paper bin on one side, as well as a built-in tower of drawers on the other, which each swivel out for easy access while the user is seated. 

All of these features have been maintained in Steelcase’s new edition, albeit with some subtle changes in proportion and scale. For example, the desk’s accompanying chair now boasts a wider seat, and its eye-catching, oval, upholstered back easily tilts to support a wider range of postures. In addition to the original rust-red colourway, the desk and chair are also available in elegant black. The chair design has also been adapted into a commanding lounge chair version, which easily fits into live-work situations, outside of the traditional office setting.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Racine Collection is the first product collaboration between Steelcase and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, but the connection between the two entities runs far deeper. In 1985, Steelcase purchased Wright’s Meyer May House in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and spent two years refurbishing it according to the architect’s original vision when he designed it in 1909. 

The new collaboration is intended to be the first of more to come, with fine furnishings, textiles and wallcoverings on the horizon.

‘Frank Lloyd Wright used design as a means of deepening the relationships between people, nature and place,’ says Stuart Graff, president and CEO of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. ‘With the Frank Lloyd Wright Racine Collection and our collaboration with Steelcase, we’re excited to expand his vision of an architecture for better living.’

steelcase.com/franklloydwright

Intrigued by the fact that over half of Frank Lloyd Wright’s works were never built, home project internet company Angi took on an unusual task: to bring to life some of the midcentury American architecture master’s houses using the magic of contemporary 3D design. ‘Remarkably, more than half of Wright’s 1,171 architectural works never took a solid form. While unbuilt Frank Lloyd Wright houses occasionally materialise on the American landscape, 660 of his building designs remain confined to paper,’ says the company. 

Three of these unrealised gems were selected to be digitally reconstructed, including Mrs David Devin House (Chicago, 1896), Cottage Studio for Ayn Rand (Connecticut, 1946), and Lake Tahoe Lodge (Lake Tahoe, California, 1923). To transform Wright’s expert and beautiful architectural drawings into photorealistic renders, Angi worked with creative studio NeoMam Studios. The London-based experts went through the architect’s archive sketches, plans and notes, while undertaking thorough research in order to compose a series of images that offer a tangible feel of what the buildings might have looked like, if realised. 

‘The most inspiring part of this project was seeing Frank Llyod Wright's forgotten sketches come to life using modern technology. In particular, the plans of Mrs. David Devin House (Chicago, 1896) caught our team's eye because the plans were much more unusual than FLW's other plans and houses - that one became our favourite because it stands out as different to the typical style that FLW is known for,' says the team at NeoMam.

Unbuilt Frank Lloyd Wright houses rendered in 3D

The selected projects range in style and scope, displaying Wright’s extensive breadth of work. The Devlin House is an early concept, which employs unusual shapes and expressive ornamentation as the architect was exploring approaches, while other works, such as the Cottage Studio, bring to mind later work – especially the Kaufmann family’s famous Fallingwater. Yet they are all born of the architect’s highly crafted, detailed floorplans and sketches.  

‘The most challenging part was designing the floor plans. The design team followed the plans and sketches as closely as possible, but some parts required additional research and an understanding of how existing FLW houses are built. With regards to the interiors, the research team took inspiration from famous FLW buildings, like Taliesin West and Hollyhock House,' the NeoMam team adds. 

The trilogy’s third design, the home in Lake Tahoe, in particular, celebrates the value of unbuilt work. The architect has written on it: ‘The best [buildings] had life only on paper,’ wrote Wright in the early 1940s. ‘The most interesting and vital stories might belong to these children of imagination were they ever to encounter the field. Say, the Lake Tahoe project…’

The lodge design feels like a fantasy, utopian settlement, an ode to architecture and passion, a speculative project without a client, flagging up the power that these unrealised Frank Lloyd Wright houses have to fuel our imagination.

INFORMATION

angi.com

At the end of the 19th century, the architect who would later be known as Frank Lloyd Wright was still seeking his architectural voice. A new exhibit at the Elmhurst Art Museum, by City of Chicago cultural historian Tim Samuelson, titled ‘Wright Before the ‘Lloyd'', chronicles how Frank Lloyd Wright was influenced by early mentorships with architects J. Lyman Silsbee and Louis Sullivan and other design disciplines in the development of his own distinctive style.

Samuelson assembled the exhibit from his private collection of photographs, computer-aided reproductions and material scraps, several of which were rescued from demolition sites or the dumpster. The exhibit is mounted in three adjoining galleries, beginning with Wright’s childhood in Wisconsin and progressing chronologically to conclude with the first designs signed as ‘Frank Lloyd Wright'.

‘You could see his work evolving, then there is a period (between 1896 and 97), and he turns 30 years old. He figured out where he wants to be... but you can still find the essences of all those other influences if you know where to look,' Samuelson says.

Much of the exhibit focuses on Frank Lloyd Wright's collaborations with Louis Sullivan, with whom the architect shared a special gift, he says. ‘He was able to synthesize a solution drawn from all of those things just the way Google works. It's an unusual comparison to make but it absolutely works perfectly,' he adds.

Wright also had a special ability to think in three dimensions and visualize space, giving his buildings a dynamic effect, Samuelson says: ‘The idea of how a human being can experience three-dimensional space by moving through it. He knew how to orchestrate this. The buildings were functionally efficient but they were inspiring, and you would get the sense of smaller spaces opening into large spaces. Light became part of his palette where it would penetrate the spaces.'

‘Wright before the ‘Lloyd'' runs through to 14 February 2021 and is free with museum admission.

INFORMATION

elmhurstartmuseum.org

The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, in partnership with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and Unity Temple Restoration Foundation, has launched a series of weekly virtual tours to your favourite Frank-Lloyd-Wright-designed buildings. While the tours focus on bringing education and escape to a global audience, for the Conservancy they are also an important appeal for support during the Covid-19 crisis.

Along with other institutions such as art galleries and libraries, many Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, of which many are UNESCO World Heritage sites, are now closed to the public, presenting the modern landmark’s with financial pressures and fears of being unable to resume operations post-crisis. While closures are absolutely crucial to the health of the public, the cultural loss during this period of time, and quite probably its aftermath, requires attention.

In a recent statement UNESCO has described the importance of culture to physiological health: ‘At a time when billions of people are physically separated from one another, culture brings us together. It provides comfort, inspiration and hope at a time of enormous anxiety and uncertainty.’

Barbara Gordon, executive director, Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, said: ‘It is precisely at this time, when so many are shut inside, that we need to experience beauty and inspiration. Wright’s works bring people together in harmony with the natural world, reminding us that we are all connected, even when we’re apart.’

While virtual tours, and platforms such as the UNESCO World Heritage Journeys in Europe, are important for the digital experience of architectural landmarks from anywhere in the world, the physical experience of architecture is unparalleled and crucial for the education of architects, students and the public.

There is a pressing demand for funding support across the cultural industries. In the US, institutions such as the Getty Trust, Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts have stepped up to provide grants across the arts sector. In the UK, the National Lottery Heritage Fund has launched a £50 million emergency fund and put all new grant applications on hold, while the Architectural Heritage Fund is continuing to stand by it's deadlines for existing grants.

So while these virtual tours are uplifting cultural journeys now democratically available to all to experience, they are also campaigns for these architectural treasures to stay in the cultural spotlight.

INFORMATION

See full list of participating sites at savewright.org.

Beth Sholom Congregation in Elkins Park, just outside of Philadelphia, was one of the last buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright before his death in 1959. Similar to New York’s Guggenheim Museum – arguably, the most iconic of Wrights – the Mayan era-inspired structure is a building that challenges its utilitarian raison d’être, putting manner and immersion before function.

Under a pyramidal roof in the light-filled main hall hangs a floating Plexiglass chandelier designed by Wright himself (he called it a ‘light basket’), flecked with bright green, blue, yellow and red glass. Auditorium seats clad in brown leather hark to the heyday of mid-century design. The seats observe a stage that reflects Wright at his most flamboyant, relishing a theatrical composition dominated by gold curtains and edgy decorative details.

When David Hartt was invited to inaugurate an exhibition programme at the 60-year-old building, the Philadelphia-based artist and his New York-based curator Cole Akers reflected on an intervention that would stand out from Wright’s dramatic architecture and engage the synagogue’s frequent visitors with its own narrative and visual sprit.

The result is Hartt’s ‘The Histories (Le Mancenillier)’, a subtly captivating installation of moving image, tapestry, sound and objects, occupying the building’s entrance floor and the main ceremony hall. At the core of the artist’s statement lies a parallel between the Black and Jewish diasporas, defined by mobility, adaption and survival. This message is embodied in the installation by music from the 19th-century New Orleans composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk, whose Jewish and Creole heritage is reflected in his eclectic compositions.

Hartt tells Wallpaper*, ‘I’ve been thinking about the building’s potential future as an architectural ruin and wanted to commemorate that aspect in relation to community-building,’ adding that he borrowed Wright’s understanding of consistency in design for his own work. Known for his visually discreet yet thematically piercing multidisciplinary interventions, the artist has brought nature inside the abashedly glamorous interior, enticing visitors to reflect on equilibrium and transcendence, on par with the building’s spiritual function.

‘The contrasting media that make up the installation create an ambient environment throughout the synagogue’s interior, renegotiating the audience’s experience of the space and the histories that unfold,’ explains Ackers, who is partial to architectural legacies and holds a curatorial position at Philip Johnson’s The Glass House in Connecticut. ‘Rather than focus on the authorship of the building, David was drawn instead to the broader history of the congregation and its ability to shelter a generous and porous concept of community.’

Hartt replaced faux decorative plants with locally-sourced flowers that now live under light metal fixtures he personally designed to spotlight their graceful beauty. In the synagogue’s women’s section, a custom-made Belgian tapestry is emblazoned with a horizontal orchid, blown up larger than life. An adjacent screen streams Hartt’s silent shots of the Caribbean flora. A dazzling flicker of light pulled from the film decorates another tapestry in the men’s section, where a piano is occasionally activated by a line-up of musicians organised by Haitian-born and Pennsylvania-based baritone, Jean Bernard Cerin, to play Jewish and Caribbean music from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Elsewhere, 170 orchids, each in a transparent pot, populate the seating area in the main hall, which is permeated by recordings of Ethiopian pianist Girma Yifrashewa’s interpretation of Gottschalk. Orchids, famous for their easily adaptable nature, are silent stand-ins for the displaced, honouring the lives uprooted in the face of colonialism or Holocaust. In Hartt’s nuanced placement, they seem human, each singularly unique in its own beauty, yet collectively a manifestation of unison and strength, elevated by Yifrashewa’s mellow tunes.

A handful of plants sit isolated from two main arrangements on either side of the stage, dotted around the carpeted floor or occasionally perching on a seat. As poetic as it seems, the inspiration for the placement came out of necessity and beautifies the plastic buckets that the staff otherwise uses to collect leaking rainwater: a striking marriage between the rhythm of Wright’s building with Hartt’s orchestration of orchids, sounds, and memories

Information

‘David Hartt: The Histories (Le Mancenillier)’, until 19 December, Beth Sholom Congregation. bethsholompreservation.org

Address

Beth Sholom Congregation
8231 Old York Road
Elkins Park
Philadelphia

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Although Frank Lloyd Wright died more than half a century ago (his 150th birthday would have been on 8 June), he remains the most famous architect in the world. It’s easy to see why when you explore the Museum of Modern Art’s new exhibition, ‘Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive’.

The sprawling show features almost 400 works by the American master, ranging from drawings, models, furniture and print media all the way to tableware and pieces of buildings. It was sparked by the herculean task of ushering the archive’s more than 55,000 drawings, 125,000 photos, and much more from Taliesen West to MoMA.

But much more than that, describes curator Barry Bergdoll, it’s about bringing in new voices to examine the work and impact of this most impactful of architects. Bergdoll invited more than a dozen scholars and conservators to unpack (as per the show’s title – a double entendre) varied themes around Wright’s work. What they’ve found reveals that the archive, as Bergdoll puts it, continues to ‘unfold new experiments’, and will continue to do so for generations.

Revelation comes regularly as you explore the 12 divided sections of the show – focusing on drawings and abstract representations over photographs –  from his well-documented experiments in ornament, structure, and building systems to his relatively unknown research in urbanism and farming. Other galleries touch on landscape, the Native American-inspired Nakoma Golf Club near Madison, Wicsonsin, and his proposed blade-like mile high tower for Chicago, meant to shore up his bonifides as he lobbied to take part in the city’s building boom.

As you chew on the seemingly endless themes, it’s impossible not to marvel at the skill and seduction of the drawings and artifacts, from a surprising neoclassical competition rendering for the Milwaukee Public Library in the 1890s to the space aged, dome and bubble concoctions of the 1950s. Everything is art: elaborate and colorful architectural sections and plans are just as much artwork as the intricate stained glass windows, hexagonal chairs, and concentric-sphere murals nearby. All is unified, wondrously held together through Wright’s organic ideals and his commitment to (whether his clients liked it or not) total design.

And while the architect was light years ahead of his time, exploring complex technological and formal systems that most around him couldn’t keep up with (which explains, to a point, all the cracks and leaks), he was able to create spaces, systems, and pieces that almost anyone could appreciate. Wright’s work is universal both in its ability to hold together in all its variation, and in its ability to seamlessly connect to the world at large.

This combination of complexity and accessibility, the show drives home, continues to mesmerise the general public. Perhaps even more than the architectural establishment. The show, says Bergdoll, is basically a billboard to encourage scholars and visitors alike to continue to tease out lessons from it all.

‘The goal here is to announce that the archive is here and open to new questions and new people,’ says Bergdoll. For Wright, the quintessential self-promoter, all this broadcasting, and yes, fame, would have been just fine.

INFORMATION

‘Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive’ is on view until 1 October. For more information, visit the MoMA website

ADDRESS

MoMA
11 W 53rd Street
New York

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When former HouseBeautiful editor Elizabeth Gordon introduced Frank Lloyd Wright to Schumacher decades ago, it was clear a collaboration was imminent. With a shared passion for transformational design, the father of modernism and décor company created a line of geometric fabrics in 1955.

Fast forward 50-something years, when Dara Caponigro, Schumacher’s creative director, unearthed remnants of the collection shortly after she joined the company in 2013. ‘It became clear it was a very important collection that had the imprint of one of the most — probably the most – important American architect,’ she said. Schumacher’s team reached out to Wright’s foundation and again, collaboration ensued.

In honour of the 150th anniversary of Wright’s birth, Schumacher resurrected its collaboration with the famed architect and designer. Here, old and new come together to pay homage to Wright’s trailblazing career. While the hand-drawn designs and most of the linens and hybrid fabrics used are true to the inaugural collection, Schumacher’s using a new colour palette to give the revival a timely twist. ‘The colours that were used for the original collection speak to that time,’ Caponigro said. ‘But the designs themselves are completely transcendent, so pure, and timeless.’

Warm reds, greens, and browns of yesteryear are replaced with a subtler colour palette full of charcoals, taupes, and blues. Contemporary, but still aligned with Wright’s vision. ‘We used colours that still speak to the Frank Lloyd Wright aesthetic, but are more clear in tone,’ said Pamela Marshall, Schumacher’s director of design. ‘The grounds are cleaner and whiter, [which] immediately freshened the look.’ Schumacher and Frank Lloyd Wright’s updated collection is permanently available to the trade from this week.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Frank Lloyd Wright website, and the Schumacher website.

'With this house, we have a second story, and that's unusual,' says Scott Eccleston, director of operations at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. He's gesturing to the upstairs level of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Usonian house that now sits on two acres of the museum's vast Ozark woodland site, but could just as easily be speaking metaphorically. Having been transplanted - in trucks full of carefully catalogued pieces - some 1,250 miles from its original site in Millstone, New Jersey and meticulously reconstructed in Bentonville, Wright's Bachman-Wilson house has started a second life nearly sixty years after it was first built. 

'We've had continuous questions about architecture since we opened,' says Niki Stewart, who serves as chief engagement officer at Crystal Bridges. Conceived by Walmart heiress Alice Walton and endowed mightily by the Walton Family Foundation, the museum debuted in November 2011 in a stunning building designed by Moshe Safdie. The 201,000 sq ft structure, with cedar-limned concrete walls and two glass-walled bridges capped by carapaces of copper, unfolds among ponds and sculpture-studded trails at the base of a natural ravine. 'Now we have a direct line from Frank Lloyd Wright to his protégé Fay Jones [an Arkansas native] to Safdie - his design for Crystal Bridges was inspired by Jones,' notes Stewart. 'It creates a new layer of what we do here.'

That layer began two years ago with a call to the museum from Lawrence and Sharon Tarantino, the architect couple who were the fourth owners of the house, designed by Wright in 1954 for Abraham and Gloria Wilson (née Bachman). After acquiring it in 1988, the Tarantinos restored the 1,700 sq ft, open-floor-plan structure to its original splendor - Philippine mahogany woodwork, clerestory windows framed by perforations of stylized Sycamore pods, concrete in Wright's signature 'Cherokee red,' nautically scaled hallways and bedrooms that give way to expansive, double-height living spaces - but were endlessly challenged by their beautiful yet menacing next-door neighbour: the Millstone River.

'The house had flooded a few times, all the way up to the second story, so it was a matter of preservation, and a pretty urgent one,' says Eccleston, who led the reconstruction project with architect Ron Shelby and contractor Bill Faber. In putting the house back together, opportunities to take shortcuts emerged around every mitered corner. All were eschewed, down to the decision to thread nails through the original 1956 holes and to bring a local mason out of retirement to match Wright's old-school concrete mix for the block wall that fronts the home in a cool contrast to the open-to-nature back, now positioned to overlook the natural water source of Crystal Spring.

'People always emphasize horizontality when they describe Wright's work, but he punctuates it with vertical elements,' says Dylan Turk, a curatorial assistant at Crystal Bridges. 'He reveals his structure so wonderfully.' That process of revelation - gradual, deliberate, and with a distinctive flair - has been embraced by Crystal Bridges. When the house opens to the public on 11 November (tickets are free, but reservations are required), visitors will reach the elevated site by passing through a pavilion designed by fifth-year students at the Fay Jones School of Architecture at the University of Arkansas. One exits the structure primed to experience the house and positioned as if at the end of its beautifully landscaped driveway.

'As you walk up, you're walking back in time, into a neighborhood,' says Eccleston. 'It's about how we can inspire people. That's the great thing about Crystal Bridges-many come for the art. Some come for the nature. Think about the new group that is coming for the architecture.'

INFORMATION

The Bachman-Wilson House will be open to visitors from 11 November 2015

Photography: Nancy Nolan. Courtesy of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas

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. 

FLW used to be a mainstay of the architectural publishing industry. In the pre-digital era, before the monograph became the calling card of the emerging practice and not a studious look back at a lengthy career, the most popular architect in the ‘design’ section was the irascible, foppish, arrogant but eternally creative Frank Lloyd Wright, a man whose career spanned seven decades and over 500 buildings.

Wright’s enduring popularity is down to many factors, his quality of work notwithstanding. He was a skilled self-publicist, the author of many books. He cultured a guru-like following amongst his staff and students, especially at the Taliesin schools he established. His ‘total work of art’ approach extended down to the smallest detail, creating houses of such visual richness, craftsmanship and invention that they stand apart from the art movements that may or may not have influenced them. And his presentation was second to none. In addition to 500 completed works, there were as many unbuilt, all surviving in the characteristically beautiful drawings and watercolours that he used to seduce clients and historians alike.

Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer is our era’s pre-eminent Wright specialist, having begun his career as Wright’s apprentice. Now archives director at Taliesin West, he has access to hundreds of thousands of documents, allowing this monograph to be a masterful summation of FLW’s long career. Compiled from Taschen’s vast three-volume oeuvre complète, this single volume is a greatest hits and more, covering everything from the elegant houses built around Chicago’s Oak Park, with their long, low ‘Prairie Style’ proportions and elaborate detailing, through to the pioneering Larkin Administration Building – oft cited as the world’s first modern office block – and the more expressive, space age futurism of his later work. There is more than enough here to make this the ultimate compact work on a definitive character in architectural history.

INFORMATION

Photography: Hanna Pasanen

In 1929, while lecturing in Buenos Aires, Le Corbusier deftly sketched some classical references - a broken pediment; orders Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian; an approximation of the Parthenon - and then crossed them out with a big red "X." 'Ceci n'est pas l'architecture,' he scrawled below, in downward sloping cursive. 'Ce sont les styles.'

That drawing, created in the same year as René Magritte's famous painterly protest of a pipe, is among the first works that visitors encounter in the Museum of Modern Art's invigorating and incisive survey of modern architecture in Latin America, and it acts as a kind of opening bell for a 25-year, 11-country (Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico) bout of old versus new in which innovation, complexity and radical originality emerge on top.  

Corbusier's sketch does more than set the tone for a regional rethinking of academic tradition and the Beaux-Arts legacy of city planning, explains MoMA curator Barry Bergdoll. Bergdoll has organised the exhibition over the last seven years, with Patricio del Real, Jorge Francisco Liernur, and Carlos Eduardo Comas. 'It points to the fact that Le Corbusier had gone to South America in 1929 - he only visited North America for the first time in 1935 - and Frank Lloyd Wright in 1931, yet no Latin American buildings were included in that seminal defining [MoMA] show, The International Style, which was anything but international!'

This ambitious survey picks up where yet another landmark MoMA show - Latin American Architecture Since 1945 - left off. 'The 1955 exhibition was a photographic field report on contemporary architecture of the previous decade,' says Bergdoll. 'This is a historical inquiry into a quarter century that ended thirty-five years ago.'

Visitors are plunged into 'a region in motion', with the help of a seven-screen installation that plays 693 precisely coordinated excerpts of archival footage that reveal the rapidly changing rhythms of life in major cities such as Montevideo, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro amidst Latin America's spectacular post-1945 urbanisation. 'These archival films…allow a view of the work in human context of how a building is birthed, how it lives, and how it may even fade to dust,' notes Joey Forsyte, who researched and edited the mega-anthology.

A myriad of approaches to the ideal future city come into focus through approximately 500 original works, from newly commissioned large-scale models and a portfolio by Brazilian photographer Leonardo Finotti to original drawings and ephemera. Set against a vast yellow timeline wall of key historical events, thematic sections tackle topics such as campus design and the ciudad universitaria (university city), the modernist dream fulfilled of Brasília, and the global export of Latin American urban planning models. The result is a rich network of ideas, influences, and collaborators including Alexander Calder, whose 'acoustic clouds' float in the auditorium of Carlos Raúl Villanueva's Aula Magna at La Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas. Notable too is Louis Kahn, who tapped Luis Barragán for help on the decidedly non-tropical court of the Salk Institute in California.

If the density, pace and sheer range of such a show sounds like it could overwhelm, well, that's by design. Bergdoll expects visitors to leave surprised by 'the sheer quantity of excellent architecture, the breathtaking speed of urban transformations and the vast variety of innovations and explorations,' along with plenty of individual discoveries. 'A building like the Banco de Londres in Buenos Aires, or the Torres del Parque in Bogota should be as famous as Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater or Guggenheim for example,' he adds, 'and Lina Bo Bardi's SESC Pompeii is a built utopia.

Address

MoMA
11 West 53 Street
New York, NY 10019-5497

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TELEPHONE

212.708 9400

In a city as transient and disparate as Los Angeles, the Ace Hotel has scored top honours - and a Wallpaper* Design Award for Best Musical Bolt-hole - with its latest edition, an ambitious heritage property located in the heart of the city’s evolving Downtown neighbourhood. Opened this week, Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles inhabits the once famous United Artists theatre, an evocative Spanish Gothic-style building erected in 1927.

Under the Ace group's watchful eye, the spacious building has been lovingly restored to its original theatrical grandeur, while utilitarian décor and specially commissioned pieces from a checklist of local artists and designers - such as the Haas brothers, Tanya Aguiñiga and Robert Lewis - secure its place firmly in the 21st century.

With 182 rooms and 16 suites, a restaurant, performance space and then a swimming pool and terrace bar on the roof, the hotel is undoubtedly Atelier Ace’s largest project to date. Yet great effort has been made to ensure the accommodations are as liveable as possible because of the nature of Los Angeles’ numerous creative visitors, many of whom may stay at a hotel for weeks or months on end.

In addition to Ace Hotel’s usual arsenal of top notch food, coffee and drinks (by restaurateur Jud Mongell and chef Ken Addington of Brooklyn’s cult eatery Five Leaves), the newest iteration introduces a focus on music – a decree that was initiated by the group’s late founder Alex Calderwood, and would satiate musicians and music fans alike.

Adjacent to the hotel, the United Artists’ marquis theatre has been transformed into a dynamic and decadent performance space. Brimming over with ornate details that include intricate stone spires, colourful murals and a dramatic vaulted ceiling decorated with tiny mirrors, the theatre is well-suited to host the premieres, screenings, conferences and other creative gatherings that proliferate Los Angeles. Each of the 1,600 theatre seats has been reclaimed and reupholstered. Even an Art Deco-inspired ticket booth, which operates as a newsstand during the day, awaits visitors at the entrance.

In the suites, a similar musical theme is echoed throughout. Although each of the 16 suites has been treated a little differently, Ace x Rega RP1 turntables and a curated collection of vinyl records come as standard issue. Selected suites boast a Martin acoustic guitar and a ceiling spotlight, under which amateur and professional musicians can throw an intimate gig at a moment’s notice.

Around the corner, an elegant bar is equipped with booze, mixers, implements and fresh citrus in the fridge so that the creative juices can get flowing just as quickly. With furniture that has been selected, conceived or commissioned by local outfit Commune Design (a recurring Ace collaborator and brains of the hotel’s interiors), the cosy, utilitarian suite is the perfect bolt-hole for long-term guests who might want to host their own visitors.

Although swimming pools are a mainstay of every Los Angeles hotel, the Ace has created one with a difference. Aesthetically, the rooftop’s indoor/outdoor space is a hybrid of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House and Hollywood’s legendary Les Deux Café. To complement the concrete pool - which was inspired by Donald Judd’s pool in Marfa - the rooftop also features a bunker-like bar with a lighting installation by Michael Schmidt and a courtyard space lined with steel-framed windows and canopies by artist Alia Penner. While boughs of flowing red bougainvillea and vines of ivy and fig bring the garden to life, it is the Naked Coral tree taking pride of place in the middle of the rooftop lounge that adds a unique foil to the dense urban view.  

With Downtown LA’s Broadway revival now in full swing, the hotel is hitting all the high notes. The latest property is not just another notch on the belt for the group’s well-honed portfolio, but also a beautiful tribute to the late Alex Calderwood and his pioneering spirit.

ADDRESS

Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles
929 S Broadway
Los Angeles

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All legends were once follies. Nothing so well describes conceptual artist Piero Golia's latest venture. Hidden amid Hollywood Boulevard's storefronts hawking exotic costumes, tourist tchotchkes and overpriced luxury nightclubs, the Chalet is a creative meeting place where unforgettable nights unfold for a whole year.

Opened in September, the Chalet's guests have thus far included a former Beverly Hills ambassador; the women of LA Ladies Choir, who nourish successful careers in art, fashion, literature and theatre; and choreographer and creative consultant (to the Rolling Stones, among others) Stephen Galloway. 'I've always dreamed of a place where you can invite artists, actors, scientists - where they all meet and everything is free and beautiful,' says the Naples-born Golia of his utopian project, which took three years and two bankruptcies to get off the ground.

Golia worked with architect Edwin Chan (previously of Gehry Partners for over 25 years) on the design of the gesamtkunstwerk, repurposing an abandoned storage area and transforming it into a low-lit, intimate space for invited members that blends the aesthetics of cabaret and a European mountain getaway.

One-armed leather seats topped with copper-accented throws by LA fashion label Libertine are interspersed with low-slung lamps that give off a soft light. And Chalet members can share their favourite refreshments with their guests from their own drinks cabinet, custom-designed by Chan. Everything about the space invites you to linger and see where the moment takes you, because all too soon the night will only be a memory.

In the tradition of Craftsman architecture, every piece in the ephemeral space tells a story. The lighting, wall installations and furnishings are made of eight-by-eight white oak beams, specially milled from a forest in Pennsylvania purchased by Golia especially for the project. In the amphitheater, a Mark Grotjahn painting faces a piano, handed down through generations at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and lent by artist Christopher Williams. Meanwhile, next door - visible through a cutout in the wall - is the lounge where Pierre Huyghe's aquarium dominates, creating a natural centre for social interaction and conversation. Even the hallway boasts a major Jeff Wall photograph from 2000. With such an array of artwork it's no wonder that Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) is arranging monthly tours of the Chalet.

We caught up with Piero Golia - whose work has been shown everywhere from the Gagosian Gallery and Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, to Amsterdam's Stedelijk and Rome's Maxxi museums - to find out more about his new creative venture.

How did you conceive of the idea for the Chalet?
Three years ago, for the first time in my life, I made some money. I thought I should spend it in a wise way. At the time, I wanted to open a place where I could invite all my friends. Los Angeles has been built for people not to meet in reality, but I think meeting is always a good idea. I wanted a place for special people to meet hoping great things will happen.

What was behind the name 'Chalet'?
The name came courtesy of a museum in Paris called Palais de Tokyo. It used to do a group show abroad called Chalet de Tokyo. Marc-Olivier Wahler asked me to collaborate and we spoke a lot, but unfortunately they were never able to fund-raise for this. I kept the name Chalet because it fits the spirit of that home in the mountain. It's a place where you invite your friend and your friend's friend and your friend's friend's friend, hoping that they will be very happy.

What role does architecture play in the Chalet?
Architecture is very important to create something exciting. I've known Edwin Chan for a long time and have always been a fan of the way his architecture develops around the scope of it. I asked Edwin for what I call the 'Frank Lloyd Wright package', which means the architect comes in and designs everything, from the doormat to the chandeliers. He completely took me at my word, understanding and amplifying the idea I had of what the Chalet would be.

How do the furnishings complement your vision for the space?
The modular white oak furnishings guide you through the Chalet but leave you enough freedom to establish your own situation in the space. Everything has been designed for a reason. An extruded piece, for example, can be used as a table or a throne, but it's also a way to prevent people from banging into the painting.

How did you choose the artworks that appear in the Chalet?
I dreamed the Chalet would become a monument for people in Los Angeles and I felt I should include very important artworks. For this I have to thank the generosity of the artists. I have always loved Mark Grotjahn's paintings; I believe they are amazing. And I am obsessed with Pierre Huyghe's aquarium. Christopher Williams' piano is an important historical piece, coming from Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Somebody told me Joseph Beuys himself once played on it. The photograph in the hallway is by Jeff Wall. It depicts a sapling supported by a post. I think it summarises perfectly the idea behind the Chalet: the youngest growing strong with the support of the older. It's about learning.

What was the most difficult part of this project?
There were many difficulties, but first and foremost was money. We had to stop construction twice because of cash flow. But in the end I was really lucky. I have many friends who have helped me and now we're open.

Getting to the Chalet on the right night is also part of the challenge. We heard about the special coins that you created for the Chalet, which act like Willy Wonka's Golden Tickets. Can you tell us about them?
Lots of friends really helped build [the Chalet]. I couldn't pay them for what they're worth, but I could pay them in solid silver. The idea is you can keep the silver coin or you can decide to come to the Chalet one night and it'll cost you your coin. There is a choice between the object and the experience.

What is your barometer for success at the Chalet?
I dream for the Chalet to be a legend in LA, celebrated in the tourist guides, because that would truly make it public art. I dream that people will love the Chalet and they will remember it forever.

Even though it'll disappear after just one year?
Do you remember your first love? It's like that. There are things in life you never forget.

Golia has created a limited-edition silver coin for the Chalet, which grants access like a Willy Wonka Golden Ticket. 'The idea is you can keep the silver coin or you can decide to come to the Chalet one night and it'll cost you your coin,' says the artist, who has handed some to friends who collaborated on the project as a thank you. 'There is a choice between the object and the experience'

Like many progressive seats of higher education, the University of Chicago presents visitors with an enviable spread of architecture. Building Ideas is the first dedicated guide to a century’s worth of architectural accumulation since the modern era, a programme that shows no sign of abating. The University began with a template of solid, soaring Gothic, in hopeful imitation of the great European universities, most notably Oxford. Over time, this has given way to tough collegiate Brutalism – usually the most inventive and well cared for examples of pure concrete architecture – and refined American high tech.

The University of Chicago was originally founded via a donation from John D. Rockefeller (he later called it ‘the best investment I ever made in my life’), on a site that was once part of the famed World’s Columbian Exhibition of 1893. Today, the campus extends to include Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House, one of the icons of American modernism. The university has always embraced new architecture, commissioning Mies van der Rohe, Eero Saarinen and SOM after the war.

Contemporary architects who have contributed to the campus in the modern era include Cesar Pelli, Ricardo Legorreta, Rafael Vinoly and Murphy/Jahn. Tod Williams Billie Tsien’s Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts is one of the most recent and graceful structures to grace the campus, and a recently announced dorm by Studio Gang Architects looks set to continue a great tradition of innovative educational design.

The late great Arthur Erickson, Canada's most renowned architect, was a jetsetter and a world traveller. He had an impressive list of international clients and hobnobbed with the likes of Pierre Trudeau, Margot Fonteyn and the Royal Family. But the place in his native Vancouver he called home - now under threat unless sufficient funds are raised to ensure its restoration - was a relatively understated abode in a bucolic, residential neighbourhood, where raccoons and sparrows were just as likely to turn up as any grander visitors.

A converted garage on a double lot he purchased in 1957, and transformed into an elegantly executed contemplative space, was really more of an appendage to his rather extraordinary garden.

Although his garden parties were legendary, 4195 West 14th Avenue was above all a sanctuary for Erickson, who would return from LA or Baghdad and stay cocooned in his small green paradise, contemplating his next project.

Simon Scott, an architectural photographer who worked with Erickson and is a director of the Arthur Erickson Foundation, remembers in the late 1970's, when Erickson began designing projects in the Middle East, 'Gulf sheikhs pulling up in big black limousines and being astounded at the simplicity of his home.'

And yet the 90 sq m house and 650 sq m garden are seminal to understanding Erickson's work; glimpses of his buildings can be seen at every turn in tiny, micro gestures - a raw concrete leg of a garden bench that recalls a wall at his magnificent Simon Fraser University, or the pond with moon viewing platform that resonates with water elements at the Museum of Anthropology. A chrome-plated, mirror-like post inside his residence brings to mind his steel heavy Eppich house, while tendrils of ferns dripping over a kitchen skylight evoke his use of light and greenery at his Robson Square courthouse.

This is where it all began, where his ideas and sketches were born and even where deals were made, performances hatched and celebrations had. Margaret Mead did a reading here, Rudolf Nureyev danced in the garden around a pond filled with black swans, as Erickson and his life partner Francisco Kripacz remained impeccable if eccentric hosts to a moveable feast of artists, designers, writers, actors and politicians.

And yet, despite Erickson's iconic status as Canada's answer to Frank Lloyd Wright (who inspired a young Erickson's move from painting to architecture), the historic house and garden remain in jeopardy. Unless funding is found for a necessary million-dollar restoration and the mortgage (paid to a private lender after Erickson was forced into bankruptcy in 1992 and the bank put the property up for sale), the large double lot could end up bulldozed and transformed into a lucrative residential development. 

As Vancouver's residential real estate prices continue to be amongst the highest in the world, there are new pressures on this small footprint wonderland that housed Canada's finest modernist.

Liz Watts, a landscape architect and board member of the AEF, helped sound the alarm when the Erickson property was put up for sale in 1992. Watts, who lives a few blocks away, was told by a local estate agent that an intriguing double lot property was on the market. 'When I discovered it was Arthur's house I was shocked,' she recounts. 'I remember an agent speaking to a potential buyer on his mobile phone saying "yes of course the trees are a problem but they can all be cleared."'

Watts galvanized a group of local designers and gradually with national media exposure and the assistance of cultural heavyweights like Phyllis Lambert, current head of the CCA (Canadian Centre for Architecture) and chair of the AEF, stopped the house and garden from being sold.

But after Erickson's death in 2009 and a restructuring of the foundation to include his wider legacy, a renewed emphasis has begun on securing national heritage status for 4195 West 14th and on paying off the still onerous mortgage. 'Even with heritage status, there's still no guarantee of preservation,' notes Watts.

Phyllis Lambert notes that in Montreal, Moshe Safdie's apartment built for Expo 67 has heritage status, but that British Columbian provincial law is less aggressive about protecting modernist architecture.

And while Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West has become a teaching facility/office/museum, Erickson's old abode remains vulnerable.

Still, its value as an historical cultural landscape remains undeniable. Entering the place, hidden by towering cedar hedges, laurel and fir, through an unassuming wooden side gate - is like walking into Erickson's mind.

As you come inside, you notice the little house to the North, its back to the laneway, but the big reveal is the garden. It unfolds with a Japanese sense of amplified space, often unfurling itself in a shape and scale-shifting manner.

To make the space feel larger than it was, Erickson used the trick of layered horizontal lines - a common one in Asia where the architect spent much of WWII working for British intelligence and preferring long conversations with Japanese POW's about Zen to actual interrogations.

And the garden - filled with many native plants that Erickson sourced himself from riverbanks and nurseries - exemplifies the concept of wabi sabi, the merging of the rough and the smooth, the wild and the refined. A micro-climate, it features ten different species of bamboo, zebra grass, Himalayan Rhododendrons, planted persimmon trees and native fir, cedars and arbutus trees, their textures layered against one another to great effect.

With the original fussy English garden leveled by the architect, and a berm and pond thick with lily pads and ornamental grasses created, the genius loci of the place is really a kind of clearing in the forest; a celebration of West Coast wilderness with a Zen sensibility. As you walk along the clockwise circular path, framed views and contemplative spots reveal themselves like small green epiphanies.

Inside the tiny house, a kind of wabi sabi is evidenced in the mix of materials: a simple wash of concealed incandescent lighting illuminates living room walls covered in sumptuous beige suede, Thai silk adorns walls sitting on a primitive wood foundation, and in the bathroom a black fiberglass shower stands opposite mahogany cabinets and leather clad walls. Erickson's tiny bed - a loft accessed via a childlike ladder- overlooks an arboretum that opens up to garden views and sits under a skylight with a silk covered baffle.

One can only imagine what sort of dreams he had in this place: ones that should rightly be preserved for Canada's next generation of architects, and not erased forever in the name of property values.

Frank Lloyd Wright could not have found a more perfect spot than the leafy suburb of Rockford, Illinois, to stage his much under-rated Kenneth Laurent House - about to go under the hammer with Chicago-based auction house, Wright.

A single-storey structure of timber and Chicago Common Brick, the house at 4646 Spring Brook Road is set back from the quiet road behind a long driveway, on a 1.3 acre plot that's cocooned by tall trees and shrubbery. Blending effortlessly into the setting, the house nevertheless anchors the eye in a way that reminds you of Wright's masterpiece, Fallingwater.

After reading about Wright in 'House Beautiful', Phyllis Laurent decided to ask him to build a home for her and her wheelchair bound husband, Kenneth, a World War 2 veteran with a spinal cord injury.

Completed in 1952 at a cost of $35,000, the three bedroom, two bathroom, 2,500 sq ft house has barely changed in the ensuing fifty years, the Laurents keeping everything from the built-in furniture to the furnishings more or less as they were the day they first moved in.

The severe façade gives little away, reserving its quietly triumphant a-ha moment for the rear - a gentle crescent swoop that curves around, and draws the bucolic greenery into the interior spaces, comprising warm, light-washed rooms, with exposed brickwork and original custom-made furnishings designed by Wright. The architect's wife, Olgivanna, designed the dining table.

The Kenneth Laurent House was also the only residence Wright designed that was accessible for the handicapped. Not that you could tell. There are no ramps nor obvious rails anywhere in the house - just wide hallways, level thresholds at all entry points, commanding rooms with low set windows and a perspective that makes complete sense when viewed from a seated position.

Wright was so fond of the house that its design and innovative features - including floors heated by hidden water-pipes - eventually became the core DNA for his future work. To friends, he called it a 'serene masterpiece' and his 'little gem'.

And now the Laurents are finally moving out, putting the house up for sale with Wright as part of its biannual Important Design auction on 15 December. The home and original furnishings - including barrel chairs, hassocks, wrought iron fireplace grills, decorative screens and wall lights - are estimated at $500,000 and $700,000.

Given the Laurents' fidelity to the house over the years, it's a rare opportunity to find a Frank Lloyd Wright house in such mint condition. Not surprisingly, local preservationists are scrambling to raise funds, their goal to turn the house into a museum.

The home and original furnishings - including barrel chairs, hassocks, wrought iron fireplace grills, decorative screens and wall lights - are estimated at $500,000 and $700,000. All have been kept in mint condition by owners Kenneth and Phyllis Laurent

Wright was so fond of the house that its design and innovative features - including floors heated by hidden water-pipes - eventually became the core DNA for his future work. The property was also the only residence Wright designed that was accessible for the handicapped, featuring wide hallways, level thresholds at all entry points, and commanding rooms with low set windows

Update: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Laurent House is available to visit – read our 2025 article and take a tour

It might be the generation of architects that followed - from Le Corbusier, to Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright - that usually steal the spotlight when it comes to great architecture masters namedropping, however were it not for Moravia-born architect Adolf Loos (1870-1933), today’s design history books may have looked very different indeed.

Germany-educated Loos led the way towards the International Style with several built projects and essays, like his seminal 1908 work ‘Ornament and Crime’. In Le Corbusier’s own words: 'Loos swept right beneath our feet, and it was a Homeric cleansing -- precise, philosophical and logical. In this Loos has had a decisive influence on the destiny of architecture.'

Paying tribute to this architecture pioneer, the RIBA, together with the City of Prague Museum, the Czech Centre London and the Austrian Cultural Forum London, is hosting a large-scale exhibition at its London headquarters, opening this week. The show leads the visitor from the architect’s designs in the cities of Prague, Pilsen and Brno, through to his works in Austria, where he lived for many years, as well as the more recent restoration works at his iconic Villa Müller (1928-30).

Feast your eyes on some of the Czech architect’s best creations; from famous villas, like the Villa Müller and the house for Josef Winternitz (1931-32), to furniture designs such as the 'Modernista' chaise-longue, and his beautifully detailed interiors – examples are the Café Museum and the Kartner (American) Bar. Drawings, models and original furniture, never seen before in Britain, will be gracing both RIBA exhibition galleries, while previously unseen material from the RIBA collections (who contributed to the Adolf Loos Archive) will also take centre stage.

From lesser-known facts for the history buffs, to great photography and, of course, iconic architectural design in abundance, this exhibition will have something for everybody.

ADDRESS

Galleries 1& 2 and RIBA Library
RIBA, 66 Portland Place
London, W1

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Marking the celebrations of the now 50-year old iconic museum, a new exhibition, titled From Within Outward, just opened in the Guggenheim in New York, showcasing over 60 works of the museum’s famous creator; none other, than American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

The exhibits range from drawings and archive photographs to the architect’s own sketches, and include privately commissioned residences, civic, government, religious, performance buildings, as well as a number of some of the architect’s larger-scale unrealized designs; all promising an inspiring time for the architecture-hungry visitor. Over 200 original drawings teamed up with newly commissioned models and short films, while animations are set to enhance the experience and help the visitor get into the mind of one of the most important representatives of 20th century architecture.

The Guggenheim’s Golden anniversary is 'not exactly a retrospective', as President and CEO of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Phil Allsopp says. The exhibition will focus on the way Wright’s work evolved and how his vision was expressed in different building types and various commissions, from more unknown works, to the well-known classics.

Visit the show, not just to brush-up on the great architect’s considerable body of work. Highlights also include an exploded model version of the Herbert Jacobs House and a mirrored model of Unity Temple, as well as special animations of unbuilt and now demolished works, which will help us look at Wright’s work in a fresh new way.

ADDRESS

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Avenue
New York

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