cc  >> Good afternoon and welcome  to another session  of History Sandwiched In.  Today we are fortunate because  our speaker is Virginia Terry  Boyd who is a professor of  design studies at UW.  And she's going to speak to you  about Frank Lloyd Wright, how  his ideas were made into his art  and architecture.  So please welcome to History  Sandwiched In, professor Boyd.  >> Hi.  Thank you for coming today.  This is a big day in our history  and it's actually rather  difficult to be on a podium  right after you've all heard, or  many of you have heard Barack  Obama.  So I'm going to do my best to  follow his wonderful example.  Today we're going to talk about  Frank Lloyd Wright but not so  much from the point of view of  his architecture but ideas  behind it, concepts behind what  emerges in form.  And what is really interesting  to me is how a person moves from  ideas into something quite  physical. 

 The title of the presentation  and Frank Lloyd Wright:  Designing an American Way of  Living.  When we speak of the house I  think most of us automatically  think of the home.  Our definition of home includes  of myriad ways that we come to  inhabit spaces and implies our  unique world of things, of  behaviors and activities that  are constructed mostly for  ourselves, for our comfort and  for our psyche.  The home is not just a place but  it is a way to be.  And those are terms that Wright  used.  A home is a way to be.  This concept of home and house  may be so familiar to us as to  be unremarkable in many ways.  But it developed over time and  Wright devoted considerable  thought to understanding how to  translate the idea of the way of  living into actual physical form  and in a uniquely American way.  These are his words.  "I think organic architecture  should begin in the American  home, the homes in which our  American people dwell. 

 There is the place where the  idea of something integral of  life, and not on it, begins."  In his organic architecture he  shaped a vision of a  contemporary ideal.  And his vision remained  remarkably consistent over the  five decades of his career and  remained relevant even as  American society changed in  fundamental ways during that  period.  We're going to explore ways that  Wright moved back and forth  between his ideas about an  appropriate way of living for  American families and how those  ideas should be transformed into  the physical design of houses.  I think that there are three  characteristics that were  integral and constant to his  ideal home for Americans.  First, was a thoroughly modern  house that had an entirely new  arrangement of interior space  responsive to new patterns of  living.  Secondly, the new house form  expressed the new era through a  new modern aesthetic, breaking  away from past styles.  And lastly, the new house form  had to be accessible to all  essential in a truly democratic  society.  And I want to go through those  three areas, those three  characteristics in a little more  depth.  First, the new approach to  space.  Wright's early houses in the  1890s through 1950 that we now  know as the prairie houses,  proposed fundamental changes in  the designs from the standard  late Victorian house such as the  house on the left, contemporary  to those that Wright was  building, his house on the  right, particularly in the  allocation and arrangement of  interior space. 

 Victorian houses adapted  architectural styles,  predominately European in origin  such as -- and gothic and  Italianate.  Interior space was divided into  layers horizontally beginning  with a basement, main floor,  more private floors above and  the attic.  Further compartmentalization was  obtained by dividing each floor  into increasingly smaller rooms  devoted to highly specialized  functions and activities such as  butlers, pantries, library,  sewing rooms, parlors kitchens,  servant rooms a many, many more.  Such spatial distinctions  reinforced less visual but  powerful social and role  distinctions.  The family occupied spaces  separate from servants, parent  spaces were separate from  children's, women's and men's  spaces were demarcated.  Wright responded by rethinking  such ill-fitting house plans.  With his belief that  architecture was principally  about the shaping the space  rather than configuring the form  that enclosed it, it's not  surprising that rethinking the  design of house form he would  begin with a fundamental  reshaping of the interior space  of the house.  He sought to reduce social and  role distinctions to support  less prescribed and looser, more  informal interactions befitting  American life less bound by  rigid class, social, gender and  generational divisions.  Therefore, he allocated the  majority of the interior space  to a single expansive living  space conceived as the heart of  the house, the symbolic hearth  of the family.  It was to serve multiple and  overlapping functions including  living, dining, intimate reading  and conversation and festive  public entertaining. 

 He described the space in the  following way: "As big a living  room with as much vista and  garden coming in as we can  afford.  With fireplace in it and open  bookshelves, a dining table in  the alcove, benches and living  room tables built in.  A quiet rug on the floor,  convenient cooking and dining  space adjacent to if not part of  the room."  Use of this central space was  intended to be flexible adapted  to activities of the moment.  Private space for bedrooms and  baths and specialized service  areas including kitchen and  storage were much more compact  in size.  This approach, to be begin with  a large open space and organize  diverse activities and flexible  zones within it, would be  considered novel much later in  the 1950s.  Though Wright had by then been  using it for almost 50 years.  Glass was critical to Wright's  new approach to space.  The material provided Wright to  connect the house with, to him,  one of the most potent forces of  nature: Light.  To a great extent, light  permitted his goal of opening up  the enclosed volume of space to  find by the exterior walls of  then contemporary houses and  interior rooms closed with walls  and ceilings.  His early houses, such as Edward  Boynton house on the left and  the Hannah house for later on  the right, give indication of  ways Wright would extend his  experimentation with light and  glass in the future. 

 The here to for box that limited  the space of the room was  abandoned and replaced was a  composition of vertical and  horizontal plains of glass  alternating with narrower solid  panels, virtually eliminating  the traditional wall.  And panels of indirect  artificial light on the ceiling  eliminated a flat enclosed  effect opening the upper area of  the room.  As large floor-to-ceiling panels  of glass became readily  available, the material realized  Wright's goal of then  uninterrupted connection between  the spaces of the interior and  that of the natural world  outside.  Over the years, Wright continued  to clarify his vision for an  ideal American house form.  The fundamental ideas about  interior space remained intact  but refined to an essence.  Wright named the -- the Usonian  house after Usonia, his name for  the United States saying the  house must be a pattern for more  simplified and, at the same  time, more gracious living.  Necessarily new suitable to  living conditions as they might  so well be in the country we  live in today.  Overall, the refinements focused  even more on a more single  central space for living.  A masonry core containing the  fireplace was expanded to  include all mechanical systems  for the house and plumbing for  kitchen and bath and heating.  Thus clustering those rooms  together in the middle of the  house reducing construction  costs and leaving livable space  facing outside walls. 

 As many of the furnishings as  possible were constructed of the  building within it, further  enlarging livable space,  reducing or eliminating the  buildup of clutter.  Wright was ingeniously creative  at blurring the boundary between  building structure and  functional furnishings in order  to enlarge that central space of  the house, the location of most  daily activities.  The second characteristic of his  transition of ideas into actual  form was a modern aesthetic.  Wright's intellectual concepts  about an ideal house for  Americans had to be translated  into decisions about how the  house should look.  How does one go from the desire  for a sense of beauty to a color  for the wall?  In his book title The Natural  House, Wright describes this as  the application of a grammar to  the house.  Applying a constant character  for all of the elements, the  shapes, the colors, the  textures, the patterns that can  articulate an over-arching  architectural idea.  These are the words that when  combined according to principles  of grammar, in this case the  architect's idea, permit the  house to speak in a language  understandable and appealing to  the client.  For Wright, an unwavering  requirement of his language was  that it be composed of a limited  set of elements used throughout  all parts of the project from  the shaping of the landscape,  through the organization of the  space of the house, the patterns  of the glass and the furnishings  themselves.  Wright avoided the term  decoration to describe this  language of form, preferring  instead either integral pattern  or organic ornament.  To emphasize that the visual  character was the structure  manifested in all of its parts. 

 A style though, even though he  wouldn't use that term, the  style of Wright is abstract  largely devoid of subject matter  or motif.  It is a vocabulary of pure  linear geometric forms.  And most important, as an  abstract language was a look  that expressed a new modern  world.  And that world was increasingly  using the language of  abstraction as its form of  expression.  Think just immediately of the  actual, the art movement of  abstract expressionism.  It is that same power of  abstraction that was sweeping  through American cultural forms  at the time.  Certain materials and objects  brought Wright's innate sense of  visual enrichment all using the  same aesthetic vocabulary.  Examples such as the patterning  of light, both natural and  artificial, in lights greens  such as these.  And at this point notice that  this is how he creates the  pattern within stain glass and  that particular material.  And the effect of it. 

 A very rich, visual material,  visually rich effect.  This is the way he would create  a very similar effect, a whole  wall of patterns, essentially,  and light but in a very  inexpensive way.  This is done with plywood, two  pieces of plywood that are cut  with an abstract pattern, a  piece of glass put in between  them and then that mounted in  the wall.  And on the right I think you see  the effect that the whole wall  literally now is a pattern of  light.  Very similar to the stain glass  earlier in his life but now done  in a much more economical but  very effective way.  Light fixtures themselves were  opportunities for the modern  aesthetic.  And very often the light  fixtures, you really have to see  them on and if you have the  opportunity always ask if you  can turn them on because very  often the light shines through a  pattern that's part of the  fixture so that the pattern is  reflected on the floor or the  ceiling or the wall around that  fixture.  The pattern moves through with  the light into the room as a  whole.  Decorative accessories of  various different kinds of  metals, materials provide  opportunities of this new  aesthetic.  On the left, one of his iconic  pieces a tall slender vase,  originally made in copper and in  this case these very sleek,  elegant attenuated concave  surfaces. 

 Later he would come back to that  form on the right in wood and,  in this case, the sleek concave  surfaces have now changed to  this much more sort of crisp,  faceted, crystalline kind of  effect.  But the linear element is really  kind of similar in two very  different materials with very  different characteristics.  Furnishings were another  opportunity for the introduction  of this new aesthetic.  And again though the furnishings  were integral to the whole.  So I put a chair in not a  context that it was originally  designed for but another house  and I think you can just see how  you could move this chair easily  into that space.  The look, the structural basis  for it is just so consistent.  Chairs were a wonderful  opportunity for experimenting  with this new visual vocabulary.  In this case, in the back of the  chair with this very simple  pattern but very visually strong  pattern of repeated vertical  spindles that just have a -- on  the top and the bottom that give  a very strong visual effect a  decorative effect which again a  term he would hate to use.  But the visual coming through  that structure very strongly.  This for me is just a wonderful  example of this just incredibly  organized integrated way that  the structure and the visual  effect expressed, were one and  expressed this new modernism. 

 This is the David Wright house  in Scottsdale and you see a plan  for it on the right.  The basic element of the design  is clearly a circle.  And there's just nothing in this  house that does not reflect,  interpret, expand, enhance that  design.  And for me the wonder of this is  when you look at the plan, look  at the colored penciled areas,  that's the carpet for the house.  And so from the very beginning  of this design, the carpet was  clearly in his mind.  He had it completely worked out  integral to, as important to him  as the structure itself.  And this is the final  implementation of that.  Almost an homage to a circle in  many ways.  So all of the materials and the  objects and the structures  provided forms to shape and  surfaces to enhance his new  visual language of geometry and  line.  A new language for the modern  period. 

 The last characteristic is I  think particularly important,  and that was his commitment  throughout his career that his  design, this house for Americans  be accessible to everybody.  From the very beginning he was  committed to designing a  moderately priced house.  It was consistent with his view  that a truly democratic America  should make opportunities and  advantages available so that  everyone could reach their full  potential including access to a  modern living environment.  As the century progressed and  the rapid growth the of the  middle-class changed American  society in multiple fundamental  ways, the sheer size of this  group gave individuals within it  power to affect social change.  This population was potentially  receptive to Wright's ideas  believing that the home was a  supportive refuge in place of  comfort and particularly  leisure.  Somehow though, Wright had to  get his ideas to this wide body  of individuals.  And he adopted several  strategies which were not often  used, some of which were not  often used by major architects  which he was at the time.  He used frequent articles about  his work in home magazines in  ladies magazines.  He illustrated his ideas in  temporary exhibition houses and  designed manufactured home  furnishing products.  And we're going to look at each  of those individually. 

 In their early history, women's  home magazines were influential  voices in the discussion of  social and political issues of  the day discussing housing  reform, women's rights and  domestic reform, health and  nutrition, the effects of  urbanism and industrialization.  As they evolved, as the  magazines evolved the focus  shifted to the more intimate  domestic scene in terms of  topics.  The area of interest, intense  interest of the Wright.  Early in his career Wright  worked with Ladies' Home Journal  and these are two issues from  1906 and 1907 quite early in his  career.  And you notice on the left, this  is one of the first major, major  meaning wide, exposure  introduction of the ideas of the  prairie house to the American  public in this very widely  subscribed to magazine.  On the right, you see this idea  right in the headlines.  A small house with lots of room  in it and that lots of room is  that main living space.  That's how he got that sense of  expansiveness that he wanted.  The architect had a more  involved relationship with the  magazine House Beautiful.  Particularly after World War II. 

 Then editor, Elizabeth Gordon,  who you see here, was as  passionately committed to making  available to her readers the  best and most current ideas in  housing as Wright was committed  to designing such, to creating  such designs.  The most extensive collaboration  was evident in the November 1955  issue, which you see here,  dedicated to Wright.  Beginning a cover photograph of  Wright's house, Taliesin, near  here.  And the cover legend reads  "Frank Lloyd Wright, his  contribution to the beauty of  American life."  And the issue emphasized  living, not architectural style.  The architectural style was in  support of this broader idea.  And in it Wright shared his own  way of living with the readers.  But Wright needed ways to make  it possible for larger number of  individuals to actually  experience his principles of  organic architecture firsthand.  An early attempt of the American  system built houses developed by  Wright and the Milwaukee Arthur  L.  Richards Company.  The company was to manufacturer  service contractor and  distributor of the houses  designed as systems with some  parts preassembled at the  factory and some precut and  assembled onsite. 

 But the project never gained the  necessary momentum.  Although there was an elaborate  promotional affect including the  advertisement that you see on  the left.  And its use in a full page  advertisement in the Sunday  Chicago Tribune in 1917.  And again, notice the headline  for the advertisement, which  reinforces his idea that he's  trying to provide something  uniquely American and you too,  all of us, have access to it.  He's not saying buy a Frank  Lloyd Wright home.  Another approach to get his  ideas about an American house  out to average people was a  temporary exhibition house which  permitted even more people to  actually experience such a  space.  With the message again that it  was something to which they  could aspire.  The most widely known exhibition  house was included in the  exhibition of 40 years of living  architecture, the work of Frank  Lloyd Wright which opened in New  York City November 1953 on the  site of the up coming Guggenheim  exhibition which Wright was in  the process of designing.  In the late 1950s, then in his  80s, Wright began an entirely  new approach to forwarding his  ideas about American living to  the public through manufactured,  mass-produced home furnishing  products.  Wright worked with three  manufacturers to develop  products for the home. 

 All coordinated across the  manufactures, which was  difficult to do, and named the  Taliesin line.  Wright's intent was to give the  buyer the means or the tools, in  the form of furniture, fabrics,  wall paper and paints, with  which to create an organic space  within the confines of an  existing nonorganic space or  basically a box.  First the heritage -- furniture  which you see here.  Recognizing that most  individuals were likely going to  continue living in a box, he  designed furnishings in such a  way that the furniture would  become essentially the  structural architectural  elements with which to build an  organic space and organizing it  into the flexible functional  areas that he was doing into the  full houses.  And you can see this, I think a  little bit.  I couldn't show you sort of the  whole range of the heritage --  line but it was basically what  we would now call modular  furniture.  Pieces that you could configure  and reassemble that were  designed to work together.  So you could build essentially  walls of cabinets and shelves  that would divide up space which  would create functional areas.  And you see one of those pieces  in the background.  And you also see in the  foreground the dining room set  which is very reminiscent of  those early in his career but  with some major changes. 

 A wider, deeper seat.  It's upholstered now.  And the chair back was a little  softer and its line also  upholstered.  And the heritage -- was wanting  to sell and knew what the market  needed and wanted and so worked  with Wright and Taliesin in  making those kinds of changes.  The second manufacture was F.  Schumacher and Company a  prominent textile manufacturer.  Many of the fabrics in the  Taliesin line were intended as  drapery creating and intending  to create literally floor to  ceiling installations which were  meant to essentially open up  that wall through pattern and  color.  And I think if you can see that  desired effect up here.  Think back now to the stain  glass windows where you had this  wall of pattern and here is that  same idea that the drapery wall,  the walls of drapery created an  illusion of the interior space  expanding beyond the wall.  These are some of the other  textiles that were part of the  Taliesin line. 

 The last manufacturer was Martin  Senour Paints which provided the  means, through paint, to  integrate the furnishings, the  textiles and the surrounding  wall surfaces through the  element of color.  So the three products together  again were the tools in which an  average person could create as  much as possible and organic  space within a box.  It's kind of hard to see the  Martin Senour Paints because  they're translated now through a  number of different  technologies.  But I think on the upper left  you see some of the more organic  colors that we associate with  Wright but look at the rest of  the pallet.  Here are olive greens and aquas  and oranges, the colors of the  50s.  This was a real attempt to bring  these ideas, to market them into  the everyday average American.  House Beautiful magazine, again,  worked with Wright in bringing  these ideas to the American  market.  They had a special edition of  the magazine devoted to him.  And showing off all of the new  products and how they might be  used.  This is one page from that. 

 Was Frank Lloyd Wright's  approach to the design of an  American house that provided  sustenance to the soul, not just  a fashionable house, successful?  Providing a new approach to  space in relation to new ways of  living, a new modern aesthetic,  and an attempt it make it  available to everyone.  Perhaps each of us must answer  this question.  Following Wright's death in  1959, House Beautiful composed  another special issue dedicated  to Wright.  And this was their answer.  "Your legacy from Frank Lloyd  Wright, a richer way of life."  Thank you.  [APPLAUSE]  Yeah?  >> I heard someone described  flank Lloyd Wright's career as  two major periods and the middle  period being the period when he  did a lot of his housing.  Do you think his interest in  housing and his way of life grew  out of an absence of public  commissions and larger  commissions or do you think he  was genuinely interested.  >> No.  That's a question when I sort of  became interested in this idea  and I try to sort of show that  here in that early in his career  he was working with Ladies' Home  Journal.  That's 1906. 

 And as I followed through the  houses and his writings, this  idea is consistent all the way  through.  There were periods when the  public building were the major  commissions but even during that  time you still heard him  committed to this goal of his  which became almost a, not an  obsession, but just an  incredible sustained commitment  that he wanted to provide the  average person, and I know it  sounds like such a cliche, but  it was part of him all the way  through.  Sometimes because of commissions  it didn't appear as much, but I  think it was there all the way  through.  Yeah?  >> About furniture, I know the  word organic comes up a lot and  used and you were using it but  some of that furniture when I  think about organic furniture  I think about the lazy boy.  [LAUGHTER]  It's good for the organism.  So much of this furniture just  looks uncomfortable to me.  Was it?  >> Well, see you have to  remember that this individual  lived, his career was developed  within the Victorian period and  he died in the 1950s.  And you have to just think of  the huge changes in the way  people lived, operated during  that time.  When he came into his  architectural practice, think of  the way women, in particular,  were dressed.  They were dressed in corsets. 

 They would not stand what the  way I'm standing, they would  stand with much better posture  and posture that was very  delimited in terms of its  movements.  You needed furniture that  accommodated that kind of, men  were in very stiff collars, they  were always dressed in very  formal ways.  At home that opened up a little  bit, relaxed a little bit but it  was a very formal lifestyle.  So now I think if you gave them  a lazy boy that would have been,  they would have been very uneasy  about it because the mannerisms,  the way they lived was a much  more formal life.  I think they would have felt  very uncomfortable slouching the  way we do.  But when you looked the a the  heritage -- pieces, and that's  also why I was commenting that  those were wider and deeper and  upholstered and this is the  1950s now and we're in this,  we're in -- and that, I think  the lazy boy was there at that  point or something very similar  to it and things have changed.  And piece changing.  And if you look at his furniture  in the 1950s particular that  that's built in, it's low, it's  wide, it's deep, coffee tables  are now part of it.  The center of gravity for his  design, his furniture is much  more consistent with lazy boy.  I never saw lazy boy and if it  is something similar to that. 

 But I think he was more attune  to I would say he had antenna  out there on how people liked to  live.  And I think he was amazingly  adaptive as times changed.  Yeah?  >> You mentioned that the main  space is very large and that the  bedrooms and the kitchens were  very small.  And as I recall, the kitchen in  Taliesin is minute.  Didn't women rebel?  >> Early on there were servants  in the house, in these houses.  So the women weren't rebelling  because they had help.  But as this way of thinking  about the space developed, and  in the quotation that I gave you  remember he was talking about  the kitchens and the eating area  being part of that space and I  think we think about it now sort  of the great room where we have  dining and you can see into the  kitchen, the kitchen is just  part of that large space.  And that was really the idea.  There's a whole larger issue  sort of changing roles and  expectations that women have  during this period which are  undergoing fundamental changes  and again though I think this  architecture was not so much  behind the ball in terms of  moving from very conscribed  kitchens that were separate to  smaller spaces for kitchens but  those spaces were part of this  larger, more informal whole.  And it was the woman that was  then, the wife, the mother, who  was in that kitchen. 

 There was another hand?  >> When you said commercially  successful his furniture line  was.  I was a bride in that era and I  never could have afforded it.  >> It was a little more  expensive, depending on one's  means a lot more expense of.  First of all, the furniture  didn't sell very well.  Textile sold the best.  Paints anyone could use the  paints so it's kind of hard to  tell whether they were buying  Frank Lloyd Wright's paints or  because they liked a particular  color in general.  One of the reasons the furniture  didn't seem to sell was that  because it was modular to see  how it worked you had to have it  all together in a showroom and  if you think about the way  department stores in the late  '40s and '50s laid out furniture  they put all the chairs from all  the manufacturers in one space  and they put the tables here and  they put the case pieces here so  you couldn't really see how this  all sort of worked together.  And it looked, Scandinavian  modernism was just coming in so  we didn't really have a lot of  experience with that kind of  modularity.  But it was a little bit more  expensive.  I tend to think that's probably  why the fabric sold better  because if you couldn't afford  the furniture, but you wanted  something of Wright's, you could  afford a yardage of fabric and  you could do something with  that. 

 But, in general, I think it was  kind of ahead of its time and  some of the fabric, because of  intent of it was to create these  big walls of fabric, those are  really larger patterns and you  can't do an awful lot, I mean  you can't make dresses out of  that.  So it was kind of conscribed  too.  Thank you for coming.  [APPLAUSE]