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Frank Lloyd Wright is the best-known and arguably the most influential
American architect of the 20th century. Modest to Mansion presents the
first in-depth exploration of Wright’s residences in the Detroit
area, specifically Oakland and Wayne counties. Designed for a variety
of clients with differing incomes, the houses join projects that range
from automotive workshops to vacation homes to comprise Wright’s
thirty-plus Michigan buildings placing the state third behind Wisconsin
and Illinois for the total number of Wright-designed structures.
As Eliel Saarien (1873-1950) and Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) were
contemporaneous forward-thinking architects based in the Midwest, the
two men naturally came in contact with one another. Although their relationship
can be summarized as one of begrudging mutual respect, letters in Cranbrook
Archives between the two are friendly and casual. Wright lectured at
Cranbrook on three separate occasions between 1935 and 1945 (with his
first lecture attracting over 600 people) and joined the likes of Le
Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Alvar Aalto, and other avant-garde architects
of the day in making Cranbrook one of the leading places to learn about
the latest movements in architecture and design. Additionally, Wright
commissioned Loja Saarinen and Studio Loja Saarinen to weave the rugs
for Edgar Kauffman’s office in his Pittsburgh department store.
Wright’s interest in the Detroit area began independently of the
Saarinens twenty years before visiting Cranbrook. In 1909 auto tycoon
Henry Ford approached Wright to design his country estate, Fair Lane.
This collaboration never came to fruition since Wright left for Europe
that year and closed his Chicago architectural practice.
However, Taylor Wooley, an apprentice to Wright, completed a rendering
for a proposal. Although it is not known if Ford ever saw it, Marion
Mahony Griffin, another of Wright’s apprentices who had gone to
work for the firm of von Holst & Fyfe and who Ford ultimately commissioned
to design Fair Lane, must have known of this rendering as her plans
for Fair Lane have a similar façade. Although much of Griffin’s
plan is evident in the floorplan of the house, the firm of W. H. Van
Tine eventually replaced Von Holst & Fyfe for the completion of
the estate.
Wright’s next housing commission in the area was not until 1940
when he was contacted by Mr. and Mrs. Gregor Affleck. Affleck had long
respected Wright’s work: he grew up near Spring Green, Wisconsin,
and his cousin was employed as Wright’s secretary. Built along
the edge of a small ravine in Bloomfield Hills north of Cranbrook, the
brick and cypress house is a “raised Usonian” with a small
guest room and utility room on a floor below the main living space.
Usonian houses mark what many believe to be the last “great”
segment of Wright’s career. Built to be harmonious with their
sites and characteristic of American homes— and not based on European
architectural models— Usonian houses were designed to be relatively
affordable and reflect growing trends towards informal indoor/outdoor
living. Built up from a concrete mat with gravity heat and no basement
or attic, the Affleck home epitomizes the Usonian model. It contains
a bedroom wing with small rooms and bathrooms connected to a public
wing that has a small, barely functional kitchen and a large living
room/dining room. Glass doors that literally bring the outdoors in surround
the latter room. Home movies from the Afflecks show Wright and his wife
Olgivanna at the Affleck home. This film was perhaps taken when Wright
visited with his apprentice Aaron Greene whom he instructed to saw a
few inches off all the furniture in the house to make it the proper
height.
Wright’s next project began in 1941 for Cooperative Homesteads
in Madison Heights. This was to be his least expensive commission in
the area with each of the planned homes priced about $1,400. The houses
were to be built of berm construction or rammed earth to keep the material
costs low, and, with proper training, Wright anticipated that all work
could be done by the Coop’s members. However, with the onset of
World War II, the construction ended when most of the Coop members were
needed for the war effort and Wright became separated from the commission.
Much controversy still surrounds the project—mostly involving
who contacted whom, who designed what, and why the construction failed—
but there is no doubt that if the project had been completed under Wright’s
guidance, it would have set the standard for well-designed, low-cost,
efficient housing in America.
Also in 1941, recently married Mr. and Mrs. Carl Wall, who were Wright’s
youngest clients, approached Wright to design a house for them in Plymouth
after Carl Wall studied Wright’s architecture in college. Comprised
of a series of hexagons radiating from a central core without any true
right angles, the cypress and brick house came to be known as the Snowflake
House. This was the first use of Wright’s modular diamond structure
in Michigan, a technique he used elsewhere when incorporating a house
into a hillside. The Walls were so pleased with their home that in 1953
the Walls’s neighbor, Lewis Goddard, commissioned Wright to build
a house on the adjacent property. The Goddard house is a more traditional
Usonian with a rectangular shape. Smaller than the neighboring home,
the Goddard house successfully showcases Wright’s talents for
affordable home design.
Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Maxwell Smith commissioned Wright to build their
home as the result of Mr. Smith’s unfaltering desire to one day
live in a house designed by Wright. Their Usonian house, Myhaven, was
completed in 1950 in Bloomfield Hills near Cranbrook. Both school teachers
in Detroit, the Smiths’ dream to build the house was only realized
after a gap of several years between receiving the plans and Smith’s
study of them so he could serve as the house’s contractor. Due
to a lack of funds, Smith also built the house with a combination of
help from family, friends, some part-time hired help and good fortune.
Adding to the house is artwork by Cranbrook students and grounds landscaped
by Thomas Church, designer of the grounds at such places as Stanford
University and the General Motors Technical Center. Like Wright, Church
was a leading proponent of combining the indoors with the outdoors and
felt that gardens should flow naturally from a house. As the Smiths
could not afford his fees, Church exchanged dinner and an overnight
stay for his plans. Wright felt that the Smith home so embodied his
goals in designing a house that he gave it a Cherokee-red signature
plaque thus marking it as one of his best homes.
Wright’s final commission in the area was his only house built
within Detroit city limits. Dorothy Turkel’s home was completed
in 1956 and was the architect’s first two-story “Usonian
Automatic,” a term that refers to its construction. Unlike the
other Usonians he built, this house was not cypress and brick but instead
made of molded cement blocks. It combines aspects of the cement block
houses he designed in the 1920s with aspects of the later Usonians—no
basement or attic, heated pipes in the cement foundation, and small
private rooms and large public areas. Besides the uncompleted Ford estate,
this was Wright’s largest and most expensive home in the area.
Although called exuberantly overpriced and a “rat trap”
in contemporary newspaper articles, Mrs. Turkel seemed pleased with
her home and extant correspondence between her and Wright shows that
she was involved in every step of the design process.
Although used today for varying purposes, these homes still serve to
show the talents of one of the country’s leading architects. The
Affleck home is owned by Lawrence Technological University and used
as an educational resource (although it currently is closed for renovations).
The land that contained the homes eventually built by the residents
of Cooperative Homesteads was redeveloped and is now a Meijer’s
shopping center. The two homes in Plymouth are privately owned and occupied—
the only Wright homes in the Detroit area to still be used as they were
originally intended. The Smith family continues to own Myhaven and opens
it for special tours and events. And finally, the Turkel house is privately
owned but is vacant and empty of the furnishings designed for it. Occupied,
vacant, or only visited occasionally, these houses still serve as reminders
of Detroit’s architectural heritage and show that regardless of
a client’s finances, great architecture is only dependent on the
client and architect’s vision.
Ellen M. Dodington
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