Frank Lloyd Wright in Racine, Chicago and Madison

Racine's Journal Times ran a story this week about  Bob Hartmann and Frank Lloyd Wright: Wright in Racine

Bob Hartmann’s fascination with Frank Lloyd Wright’s work started in 1950, when his father packed the family in their gray 1947 Buick Roadmaster sedan, and headed to Racine to see the new SC Johnson Research Tower. His father made weekly, work-related trips to Racine from their suburban Milwaukee home, and had decided that the family should see this new building....


Hartmann: “From then on, I was just hooked, and I started picking up books. I remember the book which I absolutely loved, but which I could not afford, Frank Lloyd Wright and 60 Years of Living Architecture (New York, Horizon Press, 1959). I would look at it in the Milwaukee Public Library, when I was beginning to develop my design skills. I was fascinated with his drawings. It seemed to be that was the way things should be designed, but they were not.”


The highlight of his time in Madison came in the late 1960s, when there was yet another attempt to build Frank Lloyd Wright’s fabled Monona Terrace design...

...“[We] went up to Taliesin on a cold November day in 1971,” Hartmann recalls. An apprentice showed perspective drawings he had made. “I said, ‘I can turn these into presentation drawings, for newspaper, storefronts, and spot ads for local TV. I made three color renderings of first phase of the proposal.

“I recall the night that Wesley Peters came in from Spring Green to make a presentation to the city council. He was extremely complimentary of my drawings. He made a presentation to the city fathers, and they were unbelievably rude and cantankerous, with the exception of then-Alderman Paul Soglin. When the item came up on the referendum it was overwhelmingly defeated. Then the entire project went back on hiatus. It did not come back until Soglin was mayor [in the 1990s]...

Hartmann's drawing of the Civic Auditorium was published in the newspaper December 7, 1971..
Photos (c) Mark Hertzberg

It is nice of Bill Hartmann to separate me from the other participants at that rancorous meeting, though Ali Ashman, Eugene Parks, Dennis McGilligan, and Jan Wheeler were most cordial and respectful that evening. 

I grew up a few blocks from Robie House in Chicago.  Whenever our family drove by, there was a certain reverence and awe that filled the 1952 green Chevrolet.  When I attended Hyde Park High School our walk from school back home through the University of Chicago campus took us by Robie House.  When no one was looking we hoisted ourselves up on the south wall to get a better look at the courtyard and the interior.

When we moved to Highland Park, I was exposed to more of Wright.

In Madison, I was astounded by the proximity to Wright's legacy, accompanied by the disdain for him, and ultimately the downright meanness and ignorance of some of my colleagues on the Common Council.  I was twenty-six years old at the time; most of my colleagues were over forty and some well into their sixties.  The meeting was a joke. A brilliant architect, Wesley Peters, affording the city what many believed to be the last hope to build one of Wright's greatest works, was ridiculed by Neanderthals who could not distinguish an auditorium from a basketball court, and who argued about the width of seats.

Eventually, Wright, Peters, Montooth and Tony Putnam prevailed as the city came to its senses.

Wright designed a boathouse for Madison around 1906.  The site at the foot of King Street at Lake Monona is still available for its construction.

Maybe the recent decision to restore the Wright-designed home on Butler Street will provide the necessary impetus as Ron McCrea wrote Saturday, January 21, 2006.                  

A Boost For A Wright House

One of Madison's hidden architectural landmarks, the 1903 Lamp House at 22 N. Butler St. designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright for his chum Robert "Robie" Lamp, has changed hands and may gain a much-needed restoration if the stars of downtown development line up.

The house, tucked behind other buildings on Butler Street, is a diamond in the rough. The courtyard in which it sits is overgrown, the pavement and terrace buckled, the brick exterior covered with dingy white paint.

And there is a third-floor enclosure plopped on top of the original roof garden that Wright designed for Lamp's enjoyment. Lamp, one of Madison's first travel agents and insurance agents, liked to sail and he could see both lakes from the garden.

Comments

[John]

It is hard to believe that there were people who wouldnt do anything to try and keep Wright's work alive and prospering.

My god, this genius and his many buildings are all so awe inspiring. I have heard of some of his arcitechture being torn down through the years. What a waste.
This man was so far ahead of his time.

I live in Racine and every time I drive past the SCJohnson Building or Wingspread or the few other examples of his work here in Racine I am taken back by the wonderful detail and futuristic look of everything he did.

I never knew that Madison had such gems by Wright. I may need to take a day trip to explore things one of these days.

Thank you for the wonderful article.

[shant sherbetdjian]

Yes, wright was truly a genius. This is quite the gem and anyone in that area should take the time to view such works of art. I'm shant sherbetdjian, and I'm definitely planning to myself!