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From the CBC: www.cbc.ca/story/arts/nat...house.html
Buffalo group restoring Frank Lloyd Wright house
More than a century after Frank Lloyd Wright designed it, and years after it fell into disrepair, an architectural treasure is being brought back to life in Buffalo, N.Y.
Efforts are underway to rebuild and restore the Darwin D. Martin House complex — made up of an eight-bedroom house, two-storey conservatory, carriage house and open walkway —designed at the start of the 20th century by Wright, the famed American architect.
"We've looked at these buildings in photographs for so long. They've been missing for over 40 years," Mary Roberts, who is heading the restoration project, told CBC News. "And to see them come to life, back into place, is just amazing."
The main building is called the Darwin Martin House after the man who commissioned it. An executive with the Larkin Soap Company in the early 1900s, Martin was a captain of industry during Buffalo's heyday as a manufacturing town on the shores of Lake Erie, just upriver from power-generating Niagara Falls.
"Darwin Martin, when he lived here, was a very wealthy individual," Roberts said. "He was essentially a millionaire when they were like a needle in a haystack."
No expense spared
Following their marriage, Martin and his wife, Isabelle, were looking for designs for a new home when Martin's brother told the couple about an up-and-coming young architect working out of a Chicago suburb. Martin liked what he saw and gave the job to Frank Lloyd Wright.
The bulk of the construction was done between 1903 and 1905 as the ambitious Wright spared no expense.
"Essentially Frank Lloyd Wright wasn't given an unlimited budget, but he took one," Roberts said. "The entire complex cost in excess of $175,000 [US] when it was originally built, and at the time you could build a brand-new, beautiful arts and crafts bungalow home for under $10,000."
The sprawling house, built amid a stately Buffalo neighbourhood in Wright's soon-to-be famous low Prairie style, was considered a masterpiece by the great architect himself.
The complex, though, fell into disrepair after Martin's death in 1935, and sat empty for almost two decades. Many of its prized art glass windows were removed and the once-glorious structure became an eyesore.
Painstaking restoration
In the 1950s an architect purchased the property but, in order to secure the funds to preserve the main house, was forced to sell the property behind it. The pergola, conservatory and carriage house were demolished to make room for apartment buildings.
It wasn't until the 1990s that a local group decided to buy and resurrect the property. The apartment buildings were razed and designers began the task of restoring the original buildings by painstakingly pouring over old photographs and letters sent by Wright to Martin in order to determine what the structures originally looked like.
The process has been a costly one. The group responsible for the restoration has raised about $35 million US so far and say they'll need another $10 million to complete the project, which is estimated to take another three years.
For a fee, visitors can tour the complex, and Roberts said she hopes the finished product will attract tourists to Buffalo in the way that Wright's masterpiece, Fallingwater, has brought thousands of people to its location in rural Pennsylvania.
Buffalo group restoring Frank Lloyd Wright house
More than a century after Frank Lloyd Wright designed it, and years after it fell into disrepair, an architectural treasure is being brought back to life in Buffalo, N.Y.
Efforts are underway to rebuild and restore the Darwin D. Martin House complex — made up of an eight-bedroom house, two-storey conservatory, carriage house and open walkway —designed at the start of the 20th century by Wright, the famed American architect.
"We've looked at these buildings in photographs for so long. They've been missing for over 40 years," Mary Roberts, who is heading the restoration project, told CBC News. "And to see them come to life, back into place, is just amazing."
The main building is called the Darwin Martin House after the man who commissioned it. An executive with the Larkin Soap Company in the early 1900s, Martin was a captain of industry during Buffalo's heyday as a manufacturing town on the shores of Lake Erie, just upriver from power-generating Niagara Falls.
"Darwin Martin, when he lived here, was a very wealthy individual," Roberts said. "He was essentially a millionaire when they were like a needle in a haystack."
No expense spared
Following their marriage, Martin and his wife, Isabelle, were looking for designs for a new home when Martin's brother told the couple about an up-and-coming young architect working out of a Chicago suburb. Martin liked what he saw and gave the job to Frank Lloyd Wright.
The bulk of the construction was done between 1903 and 1905 as the ambitious Wright spared no expense.
"Essentially Frank Lloyd Wright wasn't given an unlimited budget, but he took one," Roberts said. "The entire complex cost in excess of $175,000 [US] when it was originally built, and at the time you could build a brand-new, beautiful arts and crafts bungalow home for under $10,000."
The sprawling house, built amid a stately Buffalo neighbourhood in Wright's soon-to-be famous low Prairie style, was considered a masterpiece by the great architect himself.
The complex, though, fell into disrepair after Martin's death in 1935, and sat empty for almost two decades. Many of its prized art glass windows were removed and the once-glorious structure became an eyesore.
Painstaking restoration
In the 1950s an architect purchased the property but, in order to secure the funds to preserve the main house, was forced to sell the property behind it. The pergola, conservatory and carriage house were demolished to make room for apartment buildings.
It wasn't until the 1990s that a local group decided to buy and resurrect the property. The apartment buildings were razed and designers began the task of restoring the original buildings by painstakingly pouring over old photographs and letters sent by Wright to Martin in order to determine what the structures originally looked like.
The process has been a costly one. The group responsible for the restoration has raised about $35 million US so far and say they'll need another $10 million to complete the project, which is estimated to take another three years.
For a fee, visitors can tour the complex, and Roberts said she hopes the finished product will attract tourists to Buffalo in the way that Wright's masterpiece, Fallingwater, has brought thousands of people to its location in rural Pennsylvania.