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Anthony Butler

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Frank Lloyd Wright and the School of Minimalism
« on: February 27, 2009, 02:13:37 PM »
While out in Arizona this week, I had the pleasure of visiting Taliesin West in Scottsdale, the winter home and Arizona outpost of Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture school headquartered outside Madison, Wisconsin.

FLW started teaching architecture during the depression when his wife suggested they needed the income to supplement the lack of incoming projects. The school continued even after FLW's fortunes improved after WW II and today Taliesin students still spend the winter and spring semester in Arizona.

After looking at many of the gargantuan and gaudy 5,000 square ft. homes in Scottsdale, I was struck by the fact that when you're at Taliesin it feels like you are camping out in the desert. It's been there for 80 years, but you felt like you could pack the place up and move it out on a couple of days notice... which FLW periodically threatened to do when the City or State did something to annoy him. To reinforce this point, Taliesin students are required to build their accommodations when they come down to Arizona and strike them after the spring semester. Practically every building material used in the original structure was sourced from within 5 miles of the campus. This applies to a lot of FLW designs around the country, particularly his residential buildings.

The next day, I went to Dove Mountain and as much as this course is an impressive piece of construction in a remote piece of desert, it feels like it was imposed on the land. And somewhat out of keeping with what will now be our more modest circumstances.

It would be interesting to hear from the architects on this site how much people like Frank Lloyd Wright–and his extensive philosophies on the modern built world–play a role in the way they think about design and construction. In some ways he was more of a 'minimalist' than people like Ross, MacKenzie etc... because he actively chose not to use many of the building technologies and materials at his disposal.



« Last Edit: February 27, 2009, 03:12:30 PM by Anthony Butler »
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Carl Johnson

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Re: Frank Lloyd Wright and the School of Minimalism
« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2009, 04:40:40 PM »
I don't want to start a building architecture debate, but I'm not sure I'd put Wright in a strictly minimalist category (compared with the international school Wright's designs could be fussy), and he was a pioneer in modern building techniques.  Here's a random quote from the web:

"From the beginning Wright practiced radical innovation both as to structure and aesthetics, and many of his methods have since become internationally current. At a time when poured reinforced concrete and steel cantilevers were generally confined to commercial structures, Wright did pioneer work in integrating machine methods and materials into a true architectural expression. He was the first architect in the United States to produce open planning in houses, in a break from the traditional closed volume, and to achieve a fluidity of interior space by his frequent elimination of confining walls between rooms. For the Millard house (1923) at Pasadena, Calif., he worked out a new method, known as textile-block slab construction, consisting of double walls of precast concrete blocks tied together with steel reinforcing rods set into both the vertical and the horizontal joints."

Fallingwater (in southwest Pennsylvania), his most famous private house, radically pioneered the use of concrete in residential construction.

All that aside, I'd like to suggest an additional analogy relevant to golf course architecture, and that is to Wright's interest in fitting his structures into the existing landscape.  Fallingwater, again, is a perfect example.  Although the land around the house was modified somewhat during construction, today the house and land speak as one.  The top of a central boulder on which house sits forms the living room fireplace hearth . . . kind of like having the sheep build your bunkers naturally as part of the links (just dig a hole, no extra sand needed).

It may well be that Anthony and I are really talking about the same thing, but just coming at it from a different perspective.

Tom Dunne

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Re: Frank Lloyd Wright and the School of Minimalism
« Reply #2 on: February 27, 2009, 04:49:09 PM »
Anthony,

I wrote a piece on *precisely* this topic for the current volume of Paul Daley's Golf Architecture series (Vol. 4). It's interesting that you took the glass half-full outlook to Taliesin West--I felt it was more uncomfortably hemmed-in by the Phoenix sprawl than it should be. So did FLW, for that matter--in the living room of the main house, the windows were meant to be floor-to-ceiling, but by the 50s Wright had come to despise the spread of the telephone lines so much that he constructed a low wall of sorts so that they wouldn't be visible when you're sitting down.

I don't think it's posted online, but if you're interested I'm sure I could find a way to get you a copy.

 Edit: Oh, and the golf course discussed in the piece is C&C's We-Ko-Pa Saguaro...

« Last Edit: February 27, 2009, 04:52:55 PM by Tom Dunne »

Jason McNamara

Re: Frank Lloyd Wright and the School of Minimalism
« Reply #3 on: February 27, 2009, 04:57:32 PM »
Carl, maybe there should be a distinction drawn between the truly minimalist Usonian house sitting anonymously in Oak Park, and (say) the Guggenheim or the Price Tower?

This is a great topic, and I always enjoy when it comes up.  Thanks Anthony.

Dan Moore

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Re: Frank Lloyd Wright and the School of Minimalism
« Reply #4 on: February 27, 2009, 06:04:15 PM »
Wright is to minimalist building architecture as Charles Blair Macdonald is to minimalist golf course architecture.  Rather than minimalism, I prefer to see the similarity of Wright and GCA as it relates to the ability to harmonically integrate a building/golf course into the surrounding landscape. 
"Is there any other game which produces in the human mind such enviable insanity."  Bernard Darwin

Carl Johnson

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Re: Frank Lloyd Wright and the School of Minimalism
« Reply #5 on: February 27, 2009, 07:57:30 PM »
Jason, point well taken.  I'm generally aware of Wright's Usonian period, but I've never really gotten interested enough to look into it.  One thing about these really bright guys, they do lots of different things, over time.  If I may digress, back to Dale's thread about A.V. Macan.

Tom Doak: "If you are confident you know what his original bunkers at Royal Colwood were like, why do you CARE what he built anywhere else?"

Ian Andrew: "You have wonderful old photos of the work at your own course - so why do you need to look at other courses? Other courses reflect other periods of a very long career where he may have tried different ideas or worked in different styles."

Neil Crafter: "I have to agree with Ian and Tom on this. It reminds me of Titirangi in New Zealand where they have 'restored' their Mackenzie bunkering with a lace edged style that was never used originally and is from a later period. In my view this is being less than honest. You should not create bunkering for your course that is some sort of amalgam of Macan's later bunkering works. My 20c."

So, where does that take us?  What Wright period(s) do we limit ourselves to?  Or, what good are limits anyway?  This could get confusing.  Building architects compared with golf architects, same period or cross-periods?

Well, I do want to take a look a Tom Dunne's "piece" in Paul Daley's Golf Architecture series (vol. 4).  I'm not familiar with that work, but that's why I'm here.




Carl Rogers

Re: Frank Lloyd Wright and the School of Minimalism
« Reply #6 on: February 28, 2009, 08:16:19 AM »
I am not sure there is an analogous relationship except to say that both FLW and the minimalist school of GCA seek an a final expression that can be some up this way:  "The design on this site looks like it has always been there."  (Contrast this with the fast food approach).

FLW had a real pre-occupation with creating an internal geometric logic through out his life.  To me the minimal school of GCA really does not.

I do find it very interesting when people bring up his Usonian work every once and a while, because once you strip away his stylistic diversions there is a core essence that will be relevant forever.  As the housing (McMansion) industry re-trenches, there is a lot to re-learn.

Carl Rogers NCARB

Anthony Butler

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Re: Frank Lloyd Wright and the School of Minimalism
« Reply #7 on: February 28, 2009, 09:55:11 PM »
Carl-Perhaps you could also say 'it looks like it belongs there'. Wright would tell you it was an example of 'organic' architecture. The perfect melding between the site, the structure and the needs of the client. Put together they make up a philosophy that is close to how one of the 'minimalist' GCAs might describe a project. I'll bet that people like Tom Doak don't often self-describe as minimalist. BTW-I found it interesting that Taliesin claims Wright was the first person to consistently describe things as 'organic' that had nothing to do with the science of plants and animals.

Tom– Wright said; "... if you couldn't see at least 10 years into the future, you couldn't call yourself an architect." I'm not sure even he could have foreseen how far Scottsdale (which didn't exist when he died in 1959) has stretched eastward. During most of the years he lived at Taliesin West, the nearest phone was 6 miles away.

Looking through the list of his commissions, I found it odd that not one golf club founder asked Wright to design a clubhouse. Can you imagine how cool Prairie Dunes, Cypress Point or the Valley Club in Montecito would look like with a FLW clubhouse? I wonder if he would have had a meeting of the minds with Alister MacKenzie or the room would be too small to hold their egos?

About the only 19th hole that sort of looks like a Wright design is Medinah, which would only be true if FLW had spent the previous year in Istanbul smoking the local product.

« Last Edit: February 28, 2009, 10:39:02 PM by Anthony Butler »
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Richard Choi

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Re: Frank Lloyd Wright and the School of Minimalism
« Reply #8 on: February 28, 2009, 11:42:34 PM »
We've had a similar discussion on FLW before and I still think it would be erroneous to label FLW as "minimalist". I would agree that his designs have "organic" features, but anybody who designs a building like this certainly cannot be labeled a minimalist



Frank Lloyd Wright's equivalent golf course architect would Jim Engh, not Tom Doak.

In architecture, minimalistic design is more like this:

« Last Edit: February 28, 2009, 11:46:36 PM by Richard Choi »

Carl Rogers

Re: Frank Lloyd Wright and the School of Minimalism
« Reply #9 on: March 01, 2009, 08:58:13 AM »
If it were possible to look at GCA as Building Architecture or other design fields, Engh would be late Baroque or Rococco.

If FLW were to put a residence on the Johnson (glass house) property, he would put down the hill toward the lake and half sink into the side of the hill.  Both overall ideas could work well as a clubhouse.

If I had to catogorize 3 overall ideas that would make a good clubhouse, they would be:
- (1)iconicly regional
- (2)blend or melt into the larger landscape ... or its opposite...
- (3)pristinely contrast the natural world

Anthony Butler

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Re: Frank Lloyd Wright and the School of Minimalism
« Reply #10 on: March 01, 2009, 04:46:37 PM »
We've had a similar discussion on FLW before and I still think it would be erroneous to label FLW as "minimalist". I would agree that his designs have "organic" features, but anybody who designs a building like this certainly cannot be labeled a minimalist



Frank Lloyd Wright's equivalent golf course architect would Jim Engh, not Tom Doak.

In architecture, minimalistic design is more like this:



Richard,

As mentioned in my previous post, I don't think any architect golf–or otherwise–self describes as a minimalist. That is why I used inverted commas in my original post. On the other hand, your example of Phillip Johnson as the prototypical minimalist could easily be answered by the photo below.



Seriously though, even if you have 'minimalist' tendencies New York City is not exactly the place to use them in your building. After all, FLW's last major building was the Guggenheim on 5th Avenue.
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Tom Dunne

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Re: Frank Lloyd Wright and the School of Minimalism
« Reply #11 on: March 01, 2009, 07:37:56 PM »
Anthony,

FLW did design a clubhouse, though it wasn't built in his lifetime.

http://www.architecturaldigest.com/homes/hotels/archive/hotels_nakoma_article_112002

I think he designed another clubhouse in the Chicago area, though I'm not remembering where at the moment.


Greg Ross

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Re: Frank Lloyd Wright and the School of Minimalism
« Reply #12 on: March 01, 2009, 10:38:44 PM »
Just returned from Hawaii and here's another...
http://www.kamehamehagolf.com/clubhouse/index.asp
It's all about the fellowship.

Anthony Butler

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Frank Lloyd Wright and the School of Minimalism
« Reply #13 on: March 02, 2009, 11:52:02 AM »
Interesting finds... I guess these are not listed amongst his 'buildings' because they were not constructed or in the process of being constructed during his lifetime.

On the tour of Taleisin West, they mentioned some of the architects who had graduated and played a prominent role in the architecture profession, which in the eyes of Taleisin meant adhering to and reinforcing FLW's principles. The entire industry of unearthing his plans and making something else out of it, by changing the dimensions, seems to be a subject they don't like to cover in too much detail. I'm not sure what the 'royalty' rate on these types of projects are, but I bet the terms are more favorable if you're a Taliesin alum. The supersized house that acts as the clubhouse at King Kamehameha actually looks like scaled down version of what Wright was contemplating for the Marin Civic Center around the same time.
 


The most interesting thing about the history of this club, is they claim the 'economic downturn' of 1999 caused the closure of course. I seem to remember things were pretty good that year. What will happen to this club now there is an economic meltdown... 

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Tom Dunne

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Re: Frank Lloyd Wright and the School of Minimalism
« Reply #14 on: March 02, 2009, 12:59:58 PM »
Anthony,

I don't know a ton of details about King Kamehameha, but I believe the downturn they're referring to was the Asian one that occurred toward the end of that decade. KKGC was Japanese-owned and very much catered to a high-end Japanese clientele.

Rich Goodale

Re: Frank Lloyd Wright and the School of Minimalism
« Reply #15 on: March 02, 2009, 01:05:57 PM »
I seem to remember that there was a FLW building at or near Pasadera Golf Club near Carmel.  Neal Meagher will know, and maybe he can chip in.

Anthony Butler

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Re: Frank Lloyd Wright and the School of Minimalism
« Reply #16 on: March 02, 2009, 01:21:55 PM »
Anthony,

I don't know a ton of details about King Kamehameha, but I believe the downturn they're referring to was the Asian one that occurred toward the end of that decade. KKGC was Japanese-owned and very much catered to a high-end Japanese clientele.

Ah yes, the "lost decade". Will be interesting to see how many golf clubs are left when we finish ours in 2019. Mind you, on my two visits to Japan, the cratering economy didn't seem to affect the price of things.

(Japan actually had a bubble economy in golf club memberships. A friend who did business in Japan said at one stage in the early 90s, the market capitalization of golf club memberships being traded in Japan was worth more than the entire Australian stock market.)
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