Darwin D. Martin House
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Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), perhaps the most famous architect of the United States, designed the Darwin D. Martin House Complex built between 1903 and 1905 and located at 125 Jewett Parkway in Buffalo, New York. It is considered to be one of the most important projects from Wright's Prairie School era. Wright scholar Robert McCarter said of it:
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"It can be argued that the Martin House Complex ... is the most important house design of the first half of Wright's career, matched only by Fallingwater over 30 years later."
[edit] History
The Martin House Complex was the home of Isabelle and Darwin D. Martin (1865–1935), an entrepreneur in Buffalo, New York. He was instrumental in selecting Wright as the architect for the Larkin Administration Building, Wright's first major commercial project. Martin was the secretary of the Larkin Soap Company and Wright also designed houses for other employees including the William R. Heath Residence and Walter V. Davidson Residence.
The Martin House ranks among Wright's greatest works east of the Prairie, along with the Guggenheim Museum in New York City and Fallingwater in Pennsylvania. The Complex was the only residential project that Wright designed as an integrated composition of connecting buildings, consisting of the main Martin House, a long pergola connecting with a conservatory, and carriage house. A smaller residence, called the Barton House (1903), shared the site and was built for Delta and George Barton, Darwin Martin's sister and brother-in-law.
A gardener was housed in the gardener’s cottage, which was also designed by Wright and built in 1908. Martin was disappointed with the small size of the conservatory, and so in 1905 had a 60-foot-long greenhouse constructed, between the gardener's cottage and the carriage house, to supply flowers and plants for the buildings and grounds. This greenhouse was not designed by Wright (and Martin ignored Wright's offer "to put a little architecture on it".) [1]
Two decades later in 1926 Wright designed a summer home for the Martin family named Graycliff overlooking Lake Erie in nearby Derby, NY.[2] And after nearly a century, the Blue Sky Mausoleum that Wright designed for Martin was installed in 2004 at Buffalo's Forest Lawn Cemetery.
[edit] Design
The design of these buildings exemplifies Wright's Prairie School ideal and is comparable with other works from this period in his career, such as Robie House in Chicago and the Dana-Thomas House in Springfield, Illinois. Wright was especially fond of the Martin House design, referring to it some 50 years as his “opus”, and calling the Complex "a well-nigh perfect composition."
The main motives and indications were: First- To reduce the number of necessary parts of the house and the separate rooms to a minimum, amd make all come together as an enclosed space--so divided that light, air and vista permeated the whole with a sense of unity.
- —FLW [3]
Particularly distinctive are the art glass windows (pictured) that Wright designed for the entire complex, some of which contain over 750 individual pieces of jewel-like iridescent glass, that act as “light screens” to visually connect exterior views with the spaces within. Wright designed more patterns for art glass for the Martin House than for any other of his Prairie Houses.
[edit] Restoration
Following the loss of the family fortune due to the Great Depression and Darwin Martin's death, the family abandoned the house in 1937. For the next two decades, it remained vacant, was considerably vandalized, and began to deteriorate. In the 1950s, the pergola, conservatory, and carriage house were demolished, and a set of apartment buildings were constructed on the site. In 1967, the complex was purchased by the University at Buffalo, for use as the university president's residence.
The Martin House Restoration Corporation (“MHRC”) was incorporated in 1992. The MHRC is a not-for-profit organization with a clearly focused mandate to restore this architectural masterpiece and designated National Historic Landmark and to open it to the world as a public house museum. The restoration process began in 2002, and is scheduled to be completed in 2007. The final stages will include the return or replacement of the art glass, furniture, and furnishings that Wright originally designed for the house. This is the first time that a demolished Wright structure has been rebuilt in the United States.
The MHRC operates docent-guided public tours and presents educational programs for volunteers and the general public.
[edit] References
- ^ Tom Buckham. "Darwin Martin complex to include working greenhouse", The Buffalo News, 2006-06-21, p. B1.
- ^ Frank Lloyd Wright's Graycliff.
- ^ Frank Lloyd Wright: Writings and Buildings, pp. 45
- Darwin D. Martin House, 125 Jewett Parkway, Buffalo, Erie County, NY Historic American Building Survey
[edit] External links
- The Frank Lloyd Wright Darwin D. Martin House Complex
- Frank Lloyd Wright in Buffalo, NY
- Darwin D. Martin House. National Historic Landmarks Program. Retrieved on 2006-09-04.
- PBS Documentary 'Frank Lloyd Wright's Buffalo' to Air Nationwide
