Frank Lloyd Wright Week (part 2)

One of my favorite Frank Lloyd Wright-designed buildings is the Society Meeting House in Madison, Wisconsin.

The drawing above is a sketch I did while sitting on the church lawn sometime in 2001. Follow the links for a two-part photo essay.

Unitarian Meeting House (part 1)
Unitarian Meeting House (part 2)

And as a bonus, click here to see Frank Lloyd Wright's only built gas station in Cloquet, Minnesota. This building sprang out of Mr. Wright's ideas for Broadacre City.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Unitarian Meeting House

Last year I posted a series of photos of the Unitarian Meeting House in Madison.

http://newamericanvillage.blogspot.com/2008/07/organic-architecture-in-wisconsin.html
http://newamericanvillage.blogspot.com/2008/07/more-organic-architecture-frank-lloyd.html

In my ambitious space clearing project of the past few days, I found this decade-old drawing in one of my old sketchbooks.

Besides being one of my favorite FLlW buildings, the Meeting House turned out to be one of the most copied (almost always badly) of Mr. Wright's compositions. (He called his buildings "symphonies in stone.") Look at the prow; think of how many churches you've seen with an extended ridge at on the front, some with stained glass in some configuration, some with a solid front.

Frank Lloyd Wright preached the gospel of organic architecture. I've asked many apprentices who studied under America's great Architect about the meaning of organic architecture and, as with Mr. Wright's writing, the answer is almost always different.

"The whole is to the part as the part is to the whole."

"Emulate, but never imitate Nature (Frank Lloyd Wright always capitalized the word)."

And "the building should have its own Nature; it should have a soul!"

This building certainly does have all of that.

More Organic Architecture - Frank Lloyd Wright's Meeting House in Madison

Here are a few more photos of the First Unitarian Society Meeting House in Madison, Wisconsin.

When construction bids came in "too high" for the church's budget, Frank Lloyd Wright went to a young contractor - Marshall Erdman - and promised to make him famous if he would build the building for $75,000.

Erdman accepted the challenge.

And true to his word, Wright talked Erdman up, gave him some additional work, and within the next few decades, Erdman would go on to be the largest constructor of medical clinics in America.

Erdman carried out several ingenious ideas over his career (he died in 1995 at the age of 72). To create synergy within his construction company, he started a line of component furniture that his stable of carpenters put together when they were not building cabinetry for their construction projects, insuring the continuous year-round employment for his over-1000-person construction team.

He also acquired the largest private collection of art in Wisconsin by making it a part of his business plan. Original art was purchased at healthy prices from local artists along with reproduction rights. Erdman ran off a series of prints from each art piece, and sold them to the clinics he built. Their art director puts together a custom package for each job.

Brilliant!

Organic Architecture in Wisconsin

Wow. Just back from a whirlwind trip to Wisconsin where I visited (and revisited) some of Frank Lloyd Wright's buildings including this Madison gem - the First Unitarian Society Meeting House.

Constructed for $75,000 in the early 50's, the Meeting House became the iconic model for modern church architecture. Notice the extended brow. How many churches over the past 50 years have co-opted that dynamic architectural element? Unfortunately, the knock-offs usually have no understanding of "philosophy"; only a crude attempt to copy the "style," albeit in a stripped-down fashion. And, in a bit of humorous irony, many extended-brow churches sport a steeple on top - the opposite of the concept for the original building. I call those parodies "Frankenstein Buildings."

Frank Lloyd Wright made use of natural geometries - he urged designers to draw from Nature and not copy other buildings - and the Meeting House is a fine example. Notice the 30-60 degree triangles that show up in the composition, even in the shadows. Nature is full of 30-60-120 degree geometries. Look closely at the structure of stems and flowers next time you take a walk in the woods.

Church members pitched in to pull stone out of a local quarry to meet the budget. Using local materials is a basic tenant of sustainable architecture. Mr. Wright called it "organic architecture."

Find out more about the Meeting House at:

http://www.fusmadison.org/mh/mhistory.shtml