GB. Wright, Davidson House and Midway Park, Part 6. (MBgb)

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Comes from https://onlybook.es/blog/gb-rochester-kahn-first-unitarian-church-wright-boynton-house-part-5/

Walter V. Davidson House

57 Tillinghast Place, Buffalo, New York. 1908
I was leaving Buffalo for Rochester (102 km) very early, it was 5:15 a.m., and while I was looking for a way out of the city, I asked myself,

– «Are you going to leave without stopping by the Davidson House?»

I hadn’t been there before because I knew they didn’t accept visitors; it’s a private home, one of the few not owned by museums or organizations.

My mobile phone says I took the photos on Saturday, July 27th, at 5:39 a.m. It was relatively dark. I did the rest while processing the photos. It was difficult to take photos because there were so many parked cars, and at that time of the morning, I didn’t want to be hanging around the house.

From experience, I know that you leave certain places and never return. Buffalo is one of them. I loved visiting the city for the amount of architecture I saw, but the city itself had little impact on me. They have a beautiful river that runs along the Canadian border, where they’ve built a multi-lane highway on each side. So you can see the river at 80 km/h, or through some tunnels that are who knows where. I deduced this because I saw some people on bikes and others fishing, but I have no idea how they got there.

I wasn’t that attracted to being so close to Niagara Falls (33 km), either, I told myself.

-«Those unforgettable days you spent at Iguazu Falls were enough.»

The return trip through Toronto (it’s 160 km away) prevented me from going to Rochester, and I wanted to see Louis Kahn’s Unitarian temple, so here is the Davidson house, from the outside, very early.

In 1908, Walter Davidson joined the Larkin Company of Buffalo as advertising manager, and became friends with Darwin Martin and William Heath, two of its managing partners.

Martin and Heath already had their houses completed by this time, and a few months after joining the Larkin Company, Martin introduced Davidson to Architect Wright at a social gathering.

Davidson did not hesitate to commission Wright to design a modest house in the city’s Parkside East Historic District, a neighborhood that had been platted in 1908 by Frederick Law Olmsted (1822–1903). (1)

The house had a lower budget compared to Martin’s and Heath’s houses. Today it is privately owned and as I wrote, uninvited visits are not allowed.

The Darwin Martin House, as well as the Larkin Building and the Edwin Cheney House, are listed in the Wasmuth Portfolio, among Wright’s most famous designs.

The Fontana Boat House, also in Buffalo, although he was unable to build it during his lifetime, is also featured in the Wasmuth Portfolio, a testament to Wright’s pride in the boat nursery’s design.

The exterior, with its flat, stepped roofs and linear bands of wood slats and leaded-glass windows, appears to be composed of a series of intersecting geometric planes. Wright integrates nature into the building’s structure by including low planters that project from the driveway and rear porch.

The house features a two-story living room that ends in a dramatic window with tall, narrow panes of clear glass separated by thick mullions (which support a window’s vertical glazing). The elongated diamond-shaped pattern in the glass is simple yet bold. It carries over to many of the house’s other windows, of which there are many.

***©TASCHEN GmbH y por la Fundación Frank Lloyd Wright (2009)***

In the 1930s, the residence was remodeled. The kitchen was modernized and adapted, and a master suite was created over the garage. One of the original bedrooms was reduced in size, and a closet was removed to make way for a hallway leading to the new suite, which consists of a dressing room, a bathroom, and a bedroom.

The addition incorporated the same diamond-shaped leaded-glass casement windows as the rest of the house.

Metropolitan. MET

Midway Gardens (2)

Arquitecto Frank Lloyd Wright. Ubicación Chicago, Illinois. 1913/14.

***Cottage Grove location on 60th Street, Chicago. See map S 180 below. (3)***

***Painted Concrete Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John T. Steele, 1979***

Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) and Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) Sprite, Chicago, Illinois, ca. 1914.

Sprite was originally part of a larger sculptural program for Wright’s Midway Gardens in Chicago.

Built for Edward C. Waller Jr. and Oscar Friedman in 1914, the Gardens were designed as an entertainment center.

Strongly tectonic in character, the figure is composed of motifs common in Wright’s architectural ornament. The facetization of the face is closely linked to Cubism, a movement that had gained international influence by 1914.

There were arguments between Wright and Iannelli over the authorship of the Sprites, which cost them both years of friendship and shared work. Iannelli eventually became recognized for his poster designs, as well as his architectural and decorative sculpture.

Introduction (4)

Chicago’s Midway Gardens, opened in 1914, was Wright’s last Prairie-style construction and the beginning of his next phase of architectural experimentation through ornamentation, a period that lasted five years.

Edward C. Waller Jr. owned an entertainment complex, Sans Souci Amusement Park, which featured a skating rink, a theater, a casino, and a dance hall. In late 1913, Waller commissioned Wright to expand the building and create a small-scale but luxurious beer garden surrounded by palatial gardens.

The gardens’ modernist architecture was based on strict geometric forms. A large central open-air area, filled with tables and chairs, was surrounded by a series of three-story buildings with indoor spaces for dancing and other activities, as well as cantilevered balconies with overhanging roofs. There were terraced gardens, swimming pools, and a music pavilion and stage.

The building itself was made of yellow brick and stamped concrete blocks. It featured intricate ornamentation and many geometric sculptures, which Frank Lloyd Wright called «sprites» and which were designed in collaboration with Alfonso Ianelli. Some of these sculptures were saved from demolition and can be found elsewhere. In keeping with Wright’s style, the building also featured rows of windows and hidden entrances, meaning that part of the building had to be enclosed.

The interior was also intricately ornamented and filled with Wright-designed furniture and fixtures, including napkin rings.

Waller’s father, Edward Waller Sr., had commissioned an apartment building from Wright in 1985, the Waller Apartments. It is located between 2840 and 2858 West Walnut Street in Chicago. (5)

Midway Gardens was a luxurious indoor-outdoor entertainment center intended to function as a beer hall, concert hall, and dance hall, featuring bands such as the Midway Gardens Orchestra. (6)

Max Bendix and the National Symphony Orchestra frequented the concert section as the «house band.» Ballet dancer Anna Pavlova also performed numerous times.

Frank Lloyd Wright brought in popular entertainers to sing, dance, and play music, which created a bourgeois atmosphere. However, after it became Edelweiss Gardens, the upper-class atmosphere changed to one of vaudeville, ragtime, and cabaret. In the early 1920s, a young clarinetist, Benny Goodman, played in the house band.

It was also accessible to spectators without great resources (the books refer to «common people»). The official opening was on June 27, 1914.

1914

Wright’s son, John Lloyd Wright, supervised the construction. Paul Mueller was in charge of its construction.

Ten days after the start of World War I, on August 14, 1914, Wright, while reviewing the details of Midway Gardens, received news of the disaster at his home in Wisconsin.

The cook Julian Carlton had set fire to the Taliesin home and killed his partner, Mamah Bouton Borthwick (1869–1914), their two children, ages 12 and 4, and four members of Wright’s staff. (7)

Wright immediately returned to Wisconsin. His personal tragedy and the reconstruction of the Taliesin homes became his priorities. He left Midway Gardens to be completed by trusted craftsmen and architects Sullivan and Adler, who completed the project in 1914.

See https://onlybook.es/blog/las-obras-de-frank-lloyd-wright-parte-5/

1916

In 1916, Midway Gardens was sold to the Edelweiss Brewery and renamed «Edelweiss Gardens.»

At that time, it still retained its character and attracted customers.

Numerous changes were made to the architecture and decor, such as painting the «Sprites,» and the building also became a garden, eliminating the leisure complex.

These changes, coupled with the Prohibition and anti-German sentiments due to the war, led to its failure.

1921

In 1921, the property was sold to the owners of the C.E. Dietrich Automobile Midway Tire and Supply Company and became the “Midway Gardens Dancing Hall.”

After extensive renovations, they converted the building into a dance hall.

Dancing was all the rage in the late 1920s, and jazz and swing dance music were very popular.

Location

The property where Midway Gardens was built was centrally located in Hyde Park, a recreational area highly valued by the German community living in the area.

It is very close to Lake Michigan in south Chicago, specifically at the southwest corner of Cottage Grove Avenue and 60th Street, where Midway Plaisance meets Washington Park.

Those sites—Washington Park, the University of Chicago, and Midway Plaisance—were the sites of the Colombian Pavilions at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.

See https://onlybook.es/blog/the-chicago-school-2nd-part-works-mbgb/

An entire block was enclosed by the structure, while the inner courtyard, the Summer Garden, an area for dining and dancing, was open. Low arcades lined the sides, also used for dining and dancing, with a pavilion where the band played.

The Winter Garden, on the opposite side, closed for year-round activities, was four stories high, its covered area similar to that of the Summer Garden. The first floor was surrounded by three terraces. Surrounding the main floor area, the structure was crowned by a roof garden. The kitchen was located in the basement, closer to the areas it served. Sculptures by Alfonso Iannelli adorned the structure. His architectural expression was exceptional, enclosing the main floor area with concrete blocks and decorative bricks.

Its finale

Prohibition (8) was just one of the many factors that destroyed the Midway Gardens pleasure palace. World War I also caused revenues to fall below the break-even point.

As we’ve discussed, just two years after its opening, it was acquired by the Edelweiss Brewing Company and converted to serve a clientele unaccustomed to its refined surroundings. However, the complex degraded into a common beer garden within just two years of its opening. It was finally demolished in 1929.

Concept

The concept was to create an open-air bar with a concert stage for the upper-middle-class leisure-goer.

In 1900, nearly 500,000 German immigrants lived in Chicago, most of them skilled professionals who were forced to emigrate due to the economic and/or political instability of their home countries. As immigrants, they lived in small, cramped quarters, socializing outdoors, attending cultural events or amusement parks, always in family groups or with their immigrant friends, and reminiscing about their customs, such as drinking beer in outdoor restaurants, reminiscent of their homeland.

Wright’s intentions with the gardens were to bring the culture of the area’s established German clientele closer to that of Chicago and to transform the Sans Souce gardens into a beer garden, a concert garden where all the arts, including concerts and classical music, would be combined, along with entertainment and gourmet restaurants in the gardens.
To achieve his goals, Wright convinced Waller of the need to raise funds for the construction. These funds were obtained through the sale of stock, which allowed the project to be built and the establishment to move forward.

Description

Midway Gardens consisted of a quadrangle measuring 183 meters on each side. It was primarily an outdoor entertainment facility, with a large central area on different levels housing various food stands and a stage at the front with an orchestra or performances for diners to enjoy.

Two levels with walls and roofed arcades were located on either side of the central open summer area. Activities were also held during the winter and summer inside the towers, where different sections were connected on five levels.

Spaces

The winter garden opened into the building. It featured a lobby, a casino, a tavern, and two viewing platforms with magnificent views, private banquet rooms, concert halls, cigar and newspaper stands, two swimming pools, a dance floor, cantilevered balconies, changing rooms, and large landscaped terraces for both indoor and outdoor strolls. The complex’s variety of areas contributed to the gardens’ sophisticated and enchanting atmosphere.

The winter garden terraces were close to the dance floor, and the viewing platforms were shaded by the arches of the five porches.

Design and Materials

Wright designed the building and everything associated with it, including tables, plates, and other utensils. In addition to the principles of cantilevering, he used yellow brick and gray reinforced concrete blocks, with reliefs reminiscent of the decorated friezes of pre-Columbian Central American cultures. These blocks were sculpted while the concrete was wet. He also designed the enormous geometric mural on the interior wall and two of the 100 concrete sculptures called «Sprites» placed throughout the complex. Most of the «Sprites» looked down, searching for customers.

Sprites

These architecturally geometric statues were conceived in 1914 with the specific purpose of adorning and watching over Midway Gardens.

The Sprites are traditional German ornaments. Along with their familiar design, Wright brought the idea of the «abstract» to them, with more geometric forms.

Under Wright’s supervision, Alfonso Iannelli and Richard Bock designed all but two of the sculptures, designed by the architect and cast by artisan and cement expert Ezio Orlandi.

The interior of the building was richly decorated with painted glass, concrete designs, and oddly shaped lights. The bricks were brightly colored, combined with tiled walls and carpets. A chandelier, also designed by Wright, hung in each corner. Midway Gardens was a 350,000-square-foot indoor-outdoor entertainment center.

History

Although business initially went well, Waller never had sufficient funds to finance the construction and maintenance of Midway Gardens and declared bankruptcy in March 1916. At that time, Midway Gardens was purchased by the Schoenhofen Brewing Company and renamed «Edelweiss Gardens» (after the brewery’s primary beer brand). Wright, who generally exercised strong creative control over his finished projects, was displeased with the aesthetic changes the new owner made to the gardens. He wrote that Edelweiss had added «unsightly features» and that the entire effect of «the proud Midway Gardens had been cheapened to suit a cordial bourgeois taste.» Cordial in Wright’s mouth when his projects were defaced was anything but cordial.

Edelweiss Gardens continued through the war years (closing briefly in 1918) and remained open as a dry establishment during Prohibition, so as I’ve written, the gardens lost some of their entertainment value.

Notes

In Buffalo, I toured the parks designed by Frederick Law Olmsted (1822–1903), the father of landscape architecture, whose work included Central Park and Prospect Park in New York City and Franklin Park in Boston.

Other landmark works he completed included the Niagara Falls Reservoir in New York City; Mont-Royal Park in Montreal; the Emerald Necklace in Boston; Cherokee Park (and the parkway system) in Louisville; as well as Jackson Park, Washington Park, and the Midway Plaisance for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago; part of Belle Isle Park in Detroit; the gardens of the United States Capitol; and George Washington Vanderbilt II’s building, the Biltmore Estate, in North Carolina.

See https://onlybook.es/blog/wright-larkin-complejo-darwin-martin-midway-gardens/

William Allin Storrer. The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. A complete Catalog. The University of Chicago Press. Chicago and London. 1427 E. 60th Street Chicago, IL 60637. ISBN 0 226 77623 9.

Texts and photographs by Wiki Arquitectura.

He was a prominent Chicago real estate developer after the fire of 1871. Waller and Wright collaborated on the “Waller” and “Francisco Terrace” apartments to implement Waller’s pioneering idea of subsidizing low-income housing.

Each apartment was designed with a living room, commode (bedroom), dining room, kitchen, bathroom, and closets. Some of the oldest buildings used for subsidized housing in Chicago were granted Historic Landmark status by the Chicago Landmark Association on March 2, 1994.

Texts and photographs by Wikipedia

Paul Hendrickson writes, “The architect was far away and returned in haste… his train journey was harrowing… the message he had been given was brief to prevent further harm: ‘Taliesin, consumed by flames.’ When he arrived, completely distraught and incredulous, he sat down at the piano and began to play Bach.”

“The flames were extinguished as best they could, but the losses were considerable, including part of the artist’s collection of Asian art. Without his lover and with his house, which he called “the bungalow of love,” damaged, Wright had to pick himself up again. They say he was never the same, that his character became more sullen, and that his life was much more introspective.” She suffered from sleep disturbances and frequent nightmares.”

In addition to Mamah and her children, four studio collaborators were killed. Three others were able to escape and seek help: Billy Weston, David, and Fritz.

In 1917, Congress passed a resolution in favor of the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibited the sale, importation, exportation, manufacture, and transportation of alcoholic beverages throughout the United States. The law was vetoed by President Woodrow Wilson, largely on technical grounds, since the law also covered wartime prohibition. The veto was overridden by Congress on October 28, 1919, and the law was enacted.

Continued on https://onlybook.es/blog/wright-met-casa-francis-y-mary-little-7ma-parte/

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