When three Wrights don't make a wrong
He was indeed a one-of-a-kind character. Just read the recent historical novel, Nancy Horan’s “Loving Frank”, to read about another dimension of his life, his blazing affair with married socialite Mamah Borthwick Cheney. Architect extraordinaire Frank Lloyd Wright, however, will always be known for his landmark prairie-style buildings. He was not a fan of Los Angeles which he called a “desert of shallow effects", but he held out more hope for San Francisco stating in his autobiography that “only a city as beautiful as San Francisco could survive what you people are doing to it". The smugness of his comment belies the three classic Wright buildings that still stand and remain open to the public in the Bay Area.
MARIN COUNTY CIVIC CENTER (San Rafael)
Located in San Rafael, the most famous of the trio was actually his last commission, the Marin County Civic Center, which Wright designed in 1957, two years before his death. At the time, the Marin County Board of Supervisors selected the 90-year-old legend by a 4-1 vote to design a home for its county government. A detractor on the board ridiculed the design as “two fried eggs Buck Rogers was planning to have for breakfast". But it remains a stunning work which shows the architect’s visual sensitivity to the surrounding hills. With an eighty-foot-wide dome as its focal point, the structure is crowned with a 172-foot gold tower. Wright used much symbolism in the design to embody his philosophy of government. Especially impressive are the long indoor walkways under a bubbled skylight.
LOCATION: 3501 Civic Center Drive, San Rafael, (415) 499-7009. It’s about 20 miles north of San Francisco on US Hwy 101. Guided tours are given weekly and the facility is fully open only on weekdays.
V.C. Morris Gift Shop (Photo: Ed Uyeshima)
V.C. MORRIS GIFT SHOP (Union Square)
Just off Union Square on posh Maiden Lane, the V.C. Morris gift shop's distinctive arched brickwork was designed by Wright in 1948 to provide a reason for shoppers to stop and peek inside. With the unusually thin bricks forming a curvilinear pattern, the exterior is just as intricate as his first prairie-style homes. He added a nice touch with a horizontal row of lighted glass blocks along the sidewalk and a tunnel-like entryway to lend anticipation in seeing the airy interior. The design will likely remind you of New York’s Guggenheim Museum, which opened about eleven years later. The soft shape of the dominant spiral ramp shape is repeated in the display cases, tables and other furnishings. Now occupied by Xanadu Gallery, whose owners are intent in preserving Wright’s legacy, this structure is recognized by the American Institute of Architects as one of the seventeen Wright buildings that best represent his contribution to American culture.
LOCATION: 140 Maiden Lane, San Francisco, (415) 392-9999. No formal tours are given, but visitors are welcome.
Interior of the V.C. Morris Gift Shop (Photo: www.wikipedia.org)
Lighted glass blocks in front (Photo: Ed Uyeshima)
HANNA HOUSE (Stanford)
Built against a hillside and hidden by old oak trees, Hanna House was designed by Wright for Stanford University professor Paul Hanna, his wife Jean and their five children in 1936. What makes this residence significant is the way Wright laid out rooms shaped by hexagons around a black chimney rather than at right angles. The result allows spaces to flow together, and with the glassy outer wall’s horizontal panes held in place by thin redwood frames, it’s as though the house and landscape are one. The Hannas asked Wright to design the house for $15,000, but it ended up costing over twice as much. It was the architect's first design based on non-rectangular forms, which is why it is often called the “Honeycomb House". Generally considered to be one of Wright's Usonian designs created for middle-income families, it was dubbed by the Hannas as "the loveliest shelter we have ever seen." The house was the Hanna family's home until 1975, when it was donated to Stanford University. It served as the provost's home until the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, when it was severely damaged and subsequently closed for almost a decade for a seismic retrofit.
LOCATION: 737 Frenchman’s Road, Stanford, (650) 725-8352. It’s about 30 miles south of San Francisco off I-280. Tours are available by reservation only.
There are five other Frank Lloyd Wright houses located in the Bay Area but none are open to the public at the present time.
Every great architect is - necessarily - a great poet. He must be a great original interpreter of his time, his day, his time.
--Frank Lloyd Wright
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When three Wrights don't make a wrong
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