Bloomberg
Rescued Wright House for Soap King Crowns Buffalo Rebirth
By Daniel T. Billy - Oct 2, 2012 12:01 AM ET
When Larkin Soap magnate Darwin D. Martin was ready to build his dream house in Buffalo,New York, he called on the country’s hottest young architect, Frank Lloyd Wright.
Finished in 1905, the 15,000-square-foot residence in the tony Parkside section of town, cost what was then a staggering $175,000 (about $4.32 million today). Wright called it his “domestic symphony.”
The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house
built for Darwin Martin, in Buffalo, New
York, completed in 1905. The Martin
House and several additional dwellings
in the complex are in the final phase of
a $50 million restoration. Photographer:
Bill Henrich/IMG_INK via Bloomberg
I first visited the Martin house nearly 20 years ago, when it was beginning its facelift. News that the work was finally nearing completion and that the house had opened to the public brought me back to Buffalo, which is also dusting itself off after a few sad decades.
“You get a sense of a city on the move,” I was told by native son A. R. Gurney, author of “The Dining Room” and other celebrated plays. “For young people there is a lot of life, lots of little theaters all over town are doing exciting work now.”
This was a prosperous port city at the turn of the 19th century, a commercial gateway between the East Coast and the Midwest.
A portion of the living room in the Darwin
Martin House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
The architect believed in bringing nature indoors
by using a neutral palette of colors, warm
woods and earth-toned textiles. Photographer:
K.C. Krat via Bloomberg
Central Park visionary Frederick Law Olmsted designed gracefully landscaped parks, boulevards and circles. Street lighting came early to the city with enterprising use of hydro- electric power courtesy of Niagara Falls.
Now Buffalo is getting a cultural recharge
The restored reception room of the Darwin
Martin House. Natural light comes in
from a number of art glass windows
specially designed by Frank Lloyd Wright
for the house. Photographer:
Bill Henrich/IMG_INK via Bloomberg
National Landmark
Following Wright’s original drawings and plans, the Martin House Complex is a landscaped grouping of five interconnected buildings. The $50 million restoration began in 1996 and is overseen by the nonprofit Martin House Restoration Corporation.
My guide through the designated National Historic Landmark was the MHRC’s executive director, Mary Roberts.
Our first stop was the Barton House, named for Martin’s sister and brother-in-law and built in 1903 as a “test.” It cost more than twice the estimated budget of $5,000. Even so, Martin was delighted with the results, expressed in a prolific exchange of letters with Wright.
We then went next door to the main residence. Wright designed the sprawling house in his signature Prairie style, with a facade that features yellow brick with a cantilevered glaze-tiled roof, imposing chimneys and massive urns cascading with plants.
A harmonious and elegant 100-foot pergola radiates from the building, connecting to a glowing, glass-roofed conservatory and a carriage house, all faithfully rebuilt (the original structures were razed in 1962).
A detail of a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed
light fixture in the reception room of the
Darwin Martin House. Many elements
throughout the house were reproduced
using original drawings and plans.
Photographer: K.C. Krat via Bloomberg
Art Glass
The warm interior features oak woodwork, custom-made furniture and earth-colored textiles. Art glass windows, doors and skylights fill the house with natural light. A central double-sided hearth will soon be reclad with glass mosaics depicting wisteria vines.
During my visit, a master carpenter was constructing and replacing intricate wood elements throughout the house.
After Martin’s death in 1935, the house, adjacent buildings and gardens were eventually abandoned.
Roberts said “the MHRC has taken the Complex from a once- neglected eyesore to a symbol and rallying point for preservation, cultural tourism and the reinvention of a Rust Belt city.”
The Eleanor and Wilson Greatbatch
Pavilion, which serves as the visitor center
at the Martin House complex. It was
added in 2009 and designed by Japanese
architect Toshiko Mori. Photographer:
Iwan Baan via Bloomberg
Graycliff Estate
From here I headed to Graycliff, finished in 1931, the summer retreat Wright designed for Martin’s wife, Isabelle. Sited high on a bluff overlooking Lake Erie, the estate is an easy 20-minute car ride from Buffalo in Derby, New York.
It is being restored by the Graycliff Conservancy, and also is open to the public. Reine Hauser, the executive director of the nonprofit, led me through the house and gardens. She pointed out recurring design themes, notably the diamond shapes seen in window casements and carried over to light fixtures.
A view facing Lake Erie, which can be seen
through the doors of "Graycliff," the
summer estate designed for the Martin
family by Frank Lloyd Wright, outside of
Buffalo. Photographer: Reine Hauser/
Graycliff via Bloomberg
Joined, corner glass panes anticipate the sophisticated windows Wright created in 1935 for his iconic Fallingwater, outside Pittsburgh.
The rear elevation of Frank Lloyd Wright's
"Graycliff," constructed in 1926-1929
as a summer retreat for the Darwin Martin
family. The estate overlooks Lake Erie, in
Derby, New York. Photographer: Patrick
Mahoney/Graycliff via Bloomberg
The Graycliff restoration is not at the same stage of completion as the Martin House Complex, but I get a strong sense that it’s well along the way.
A window overlooking the pond at "Graycliff,"
designed as a summer retreat for the
Martin family. Frank Lloyd Wright uses
diamond design motifs throughout the
interior and exterior of the house.
Photographer: Ingrid Luongo/Graycliff
via Bloomberg
Architectural Riches
Frank Lloyd Wright wasn’t the only prominent architect at work in Buffalo. A whirlwind afternoon tour brings me to Eliel and Eero Saarinen’s Kleinhans Music Hall, home to the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. That was followed by Louis Sullivan’s terra-cotta-ornamented Prudential (Guaranty) Building, another National Historic Landmark.
We also pass H.H. Richardson’s romanesque Buffalo State Hospital, with its imposing double towers, shuttered behind a chain-link fence and sorely in need of its perennially planned rescue.
My last stop is at one of Buffalo’s most famous buildings, the neo-classical-meets-modernist museum, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. Buffalo architect Gordon Bunshaft designed the 1962 addition to house the modern collection.
In addition to major paintings by Picasso, Matisse and Pollock, the museum, celebrating its 150th anniversary, has acquired over the last decade nearly 1,200 works by more than 450 artists, including Matthew Barney, Jim Hodges, Catherine Opie and Cindy Sherman.
The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, one of the
oldest public arts organizations in the U.S.
and celebrating its 150th anniversary, in
Buffalo, New York. A major exhibition
"Decade: Contemporary Collection 2002-2012"
showcases the museum's key acquisitions
from the last ten years. Photographer:
Tom Loonan via Bloomberg
The Knox building of the Albright-Knox
Art Gallery. The 1962 addition was designed
by Buffalo native Gordon Bunshaft, and
houses the museum's large collection
of modern and contemporary art.
Photographer: Tom Loonan via Bloomberg
e
"Look and See," by Jim Hodges. The enamel
on stainless steel sculture is part of the
permanent collection of the Albright-Knox
Art Gallery in Buffalo. Photographer:
Tom Loonan via Bloomberg
Urban Renewal
Downtown, a stately 110-year hotel has been carefully restored to its former glory. Completed at the cost of $43 million ($14 million coming from N.Y. State tax credits), with elegant shops, ballrooms, bars -- the Hotel at the Lafayette has anchored the once-dodgy neighborhood.
The interior of chef Mike Andrzejewski's
restaurant Mike A's at the Hotel Lafayette,
in downtown Buffalo. The historic hotel,
build in 1911, has undergone a dramatic
$43 million restoration. Photographer:
Jackie Albarella via Bloomberg
At the hotel I had dinner at Mike A’s, run by James Beard Foundation-honored chef Mike Andrzejewski. Order the onion soup croquette as a first course.
A free outdoor concert in the redeveloped
Buffalo district called Larkinville. Larkin
Square has become a hip public space
offering restaurants, retail market stalls
and art displays. Photographer: Joe Cascio via Bloomberg
Another sign of the economic re-birth is evident in a hip emerging area called Larkinville. It’s named for Darwin Martin’s Larkin Soap Company.
Sadly, no rescue awaits Larkin’s business headquarters. The company is long gone and so is its administration building. The fact that it, too, had been designed by Frank Lloyd Wright wasn’t enough to protect it from the wrecker’s ball in 1950.
The Darwin D. Martin House, 125 Jewett Parkway; +1-716-856- 3858; www.darwinmartinhouse.org.
Graycliff, 6472 Old Lake Shore Rd., Derby, N.Y.; +1-716- 947-9217; www.graycliffEstate.org.
“DECADE: Contemporary Collecting 2002-2012,” through Jan. 6, 2013, at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1285 Elmwood Avenue; +1-716-882-8700; www.albrightknox.org.
Mike A Restaurant at the Lafayette Hotel, 391 Washington St.; +1-716-253-6453.
To contact the writer of this column: Daniel Billy
To contact the editor responsible for this column: Manuela Hoelterhoff at .