Capture: about FLWright buildings From: Mark Darrall Captured at the Design-l mail-list Howard, >There's a big ugly parking lot at The Johnson Wax Building by FLlW in Racine, Wisconsin. That's (W)right; part of it is buried under the building, isn't it? But that's better than a sea of asphalt out of doors, and isn't it screened off from everything else? >Part of the introversion in his design is due to the terrible visual environment of that neighborhood. Even the esterior of the building contributes little to that environment. This is ol' Frank's big failure of this design. Hib Johnson, as the big Cheese in Racine, had the opportunity (dare say the obligation?) to do something to improve the urban setting there, and instead, he let Wright turn his back to the idea. Now, it can be somewhat---and only somewhat--- justified by their notion of providing a place where outside distractions are minimized, but from all the photos I've seen, the building is just sealed off completely---a fortress. Wright, in his designs for commercial buildings and schools, had typically turned attention inward to force concentration on what's going on inside, especially where the outdoors could be distracting. The Larkin building's main workroom only had skylighting and clerestory-height windows---the exterior walls at that level, in fact, were lined with filing cabinets! Even Unity Temple follows that scheme: that intersection in Oak Park was busy and noisy even then, so Wright turned the building inside out to focus the congregation on the service. The high clerestories and skylight provide soft light and separate the roof from the rest of the structure. The total effect is good for the bulding and the users, but bad for the urban environment. It's a delicate balancing act, and Wright, I feel, had varying degrees of success with this inside/out interaction in urban settings (allowing that he didn't build all that much in what could be described as an urban setting). The Robie house is probably exemplar of the best balance. Mark Darrall, providing better living through Organic Design---one day. 5th Year B. Arch. Ball State University Muncie, IN 00mtdarrall@bsu.edu mdarrall@iquest.net http://www.iquest.net/~mdarrall +++++++++++++++++++++++++ Web Architecture Magazine email: wam@arch-mag.com http://web.arch-mag.com +++++++++++++++++++++++++