Darwin D. Martin House

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Darwin D. Martin House

The Darwin D. Martin House was built between 1903 and 1905 and is located at 125, Jewett Parkway in Buffalo , New York . The house was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and is considered one of the most important projects of his Prairie School phase .

"It can be argued that the Martin House Complex ... is the most important house design of the first half of Wright's career, which only has its counterpart through Fallingwater 30 years later."

- Robert McCarter

history

Floor plan of the building complex from 1916

The Martin House Complex was the residence of Isabelle and Darwin D. Martin (1865-1935), an entrepreneur from Buffalo. He was the driving force behind Wright's choice as the architect for the Larkin Administration Building , which was Wright's first major commercial project. Martin was an employee of the Larkin soap factory and Wright designed houses for other employees, including the William R. Heath House and the Walter V. Davidson House .

The Martin House is one of Wright's best works from that period in the eastern United States, along with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City and Fallingwater in Pennsylvania. Wright designed the complex as an integrated composite of connected buildings, the main components of which are the main building, a long pergola , a winter garden and a carriage house . A smaller home, the George Barton House , built in 1903 , is adjacent and was built for Delta and George Barton , Darwin Martin's sister and brother-in-law.

A gardener was housed in a small garden shed, also designed by Wright in 1908. The house owner was disappointed with the small size of the greenhouse, so in 1905 he had an 18 m long greenhouse built between the garden shed and the coach house. This was used to grow plants and flowers for the building and the property. The greenhouse was not designed by Wright, and Martin ignored Wright's suggestion that "add a little architecture". In the garden are two sculptures by Richard Bock , who often worked with Wright.

Wright worked for the family twice more. Two decades later, in 1926, Wright designed a summer home for the Martin family called Graycliff , located in nearby Derby above Lake Erie . Almost a century after its planning, the Blue Sky Mausoleum was built in 2004 in Buffalo's Forest Lawn Cemetery .

design

The design of the building complex is an ideal example of Wright's Prairie School and is comparable to other works from this phase of his career, such as the Robie House in Chicago and the Dana-Thomas House in Springfield , Illinois . Wright was particularly proud of the design of the Martin House Complex. For over fifty years he referred to it as his “opus” and called the complex “an almost perfect composition”.

“The main motives and clues were: Firstly - to reduce the number of necessary parts of the house and the different rooms to a minimum and to combine everything into a unified space - so divided that light, air and view permeate the whole with a sense of unity . "

- Frank Lloyd Wright

Particularly distinctive are the leaded glass windows that Wright created for the entire complex, some of which are composed of more than 750 individual, jewel-like shimmering pieces of glass. These serve as "light discs" to visually connect the outside space with the rooms inside. Wright designed more samples of this art glass for this project than any other of his Prairie Style homes.

restoration

After the Martins lost their fortune due to the global economic crisis and Darwin Martin passed away, the family left the house in 1937. For the next two decades it stood empty, was vandalized and began to deteriorate. In the 1950s, the pergola, winter garden and coach house were demolished and a number of apartment buildings were built on the property. The remainder of the complex was acquired by the University at Buffalo in 1967 to provide a seat for the president of the university.

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and designated a National Historic Landmark in February 1986 .

The pergola, reconstructed in 2006.

The Martin House Restoration Corporation (“MHRC”) was founded in 1992 as a non-profit organization . She is tasked with restoring the house and making it accessible to the public as a museum. The measures began in 1992 when the architecture firm Hamilton Houston Lownie Architects from Buffalo was hired to plan the reconstruction of the roof of the main building that had been preserved. The pergola, winter garden and coach house were reconstructed in 2007. During the reconstruction, the art glazing, furniture, fittings and garden architecture will also be restored to the form Wright originally designed. The project is the first time a previously demolished structure has been rebuilt by Wright in the United States.

The MHRC enables guided tours of the property. The visitor center was designed by Toshiko Mori and is under construction (2008).

Web links

Commons : Darwin D. Martin House  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "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."
  2. ↑ Tom Buckham: Darwin Martin complex to include working greenhouse (English) . In: The Buffalo News , June 21, 2006, p. B1. 
  3. ^ Carla Lind, Frank Lloyd Wright's Furnishings . Retrieved December 6, 2008.
  4. ↑ "The main motives and indications were:
    First - To reduce the number of necessary parts of the house and the separate rooms to a minimum, and make all come together as an enclosed space - so divided that light, air and vista permeated the whole with a sense of unity. ”     In: Frank Lloyd Wright: Writings and Buildings , p. 45
  5. ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: New York. National Park Service , accessed August 19, 2019.
  6. ↑ Carolyn Pitts: National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Darwin D. Martin House ( English , PDF (632 kB)) National Park Service. Undated. Retrieved December 19, 2010. and accompanying photos from 1910 and 1975 (976 kB; PDF file).
  7. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated May 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.darwinmartinhouse.org

Coordinates: 42 ° 56 ′ 9.9 "  N , 78 ° 50 ′ 52.8"  W.