Solving Problems #1

I said before that the plans and elevations from the Wendingen don't really match up, and I found an example today. I started working on the second floor of the Belvedere and, when I measured it from the section, found that it was only about 6'-0" high. This is remarkably low, even for Wright. While he was fond of low ceilings and even lower doors, I can't think of any examples of buildings where the ceiling of an entire room was that low (not that I'm a Wright expert). At his own home and studio in Oak Park, the hallway is very narrow and short, but the rooms themselves are comfortable. Being over 6' tall myself, I simply can't imagine going to a public building, even in 1914, and finding that I am taller than the ceilings.

However, upon further examination, I think the 6'-0" height is a mistake for two reasons. First, if you look at the section, there is an archway beyond. This archway is drawn so that it clearly overlaps the ceiling. It seems impossible that this is correct and I think it may just be a drafting error. The second reason is the more telling. I took the exterior elevation of the Belvedere and, in AutoCAD, drew in the second floor. I know that the tall narrow windows in the Belvedere go all the way up to the second floor ceiling, and when I measured from my drawn-in floor to the top of the window, I ended up with a whole foot more. Thus, the second floor of the belvedere is going to have a 7'-0" ceiling. I don't know how this is going to affect things in the second floor promenade, but that is something I will have to deal with later.

While this may not be a problem, I had an interesting discovery while working on the model. I was taking the patterned walls on the upper portion of the Belvedere back into the corner and found that they intersected at the interior column. You can see what I'm talking about here:



At first I was bummed because I felt I'd made a mistake, but now I don't think that I did. I went and looked back at all the photos I have that show this corner condition, and none of them were helpful. This is because there is another element that is located at the corner and puts what I'm showing into shadow (sorry if this isn't making sense, but if you look at the pictures I think you can follow).



The reason I don't think it's a mistake is because of the Wendingen drawings. If you look at both the plans and elevations, the columns would extend past that corner. It is also a good structural solution. What really surprised me, though, is that the pattern of the decorative blocks exactly ends at the column on both sides. I didn't plan that, it just happened.

I haven't ruled out the notion that the column may have been cut back at the corner, but for now I'm going to leave it the way it is. I kind of like the interpenetration of forms.

Recent Renderings

I wanted to post some of my most recent renderings. I think that the Belvedere is going really well. I'm constantly having to make adjustments-moving things a single brick length here and there, but I feel like I have the overall structure locked down at this point. Sorry that the renderings are small and that they have my copyright all over them, but in this day and age I want credit for my work.

I had sent some renderings to my friend Matt, and he had a few questions that I thought I should answer publicly. His biggest question was how accurate the colors are. Honestly, I'm not sure, but I'm not just randomly picking them either. I know that the bricks were yellow. Kruty describes them as 'cream-yellow' and he should know; he actually has a dozen Midway Gardens bricks that he dug up from the original site (p. 18). Elsewhere he also mentions that the concrete was gray and that the floor tiles were black and white. Midway Gardens was meant to be very colorful, and this was at a time when Wright was expanding his palette. Just two years before Midway Gardens he made the windows for the Coonley Playhouse which use bright, primary colors instead of the subdued autumnal tones of his Prairie years.



I think that the windows for Midway Gardens would have been similarly colored, and we know that the murals would have been brightly colored as well. As for the rest, it's hard to say, and I may just have to use my own judgement. For example, I decided to make the gates to the building Cherokee red because it was Wright's favorite color. Besides, its a lot nicer than just having them be black.

Matt also made the comment that he couldn't belive I was drawing every brick. Well, I am and I am not. For every wall I create two rows of bricks and make it a Sketchup component. I then stack these as necessary. This makes changes easier along the way as well. It saved me a few weeks ago when I decided to change the brick size. Despite what Kruty said in his book, I decided to make the bricks slightly larger than he suggested. Big mistake. It worked out fine at first, but when I got to portions of the building where I had good photographs showing the exact number of bricks, stuff wasn't working out. I spent an entire week changing them to the 8.5x4 that Kruty mentions. Like I said, he actually has some so he should know. Kruty did not, however, mention how tall the bricks are, so I decided to make them 2.5". I did this based on observation.



The photo above has been very helpful to me. It's great because it shows elements in almost true elevation. The columns on either side of the entrance are two bricks wide, with a 1/2" mortar joint. It also appears that this width is equal to six rows of bricks, so about 2 1/2" per row. It may not be exact (and probably isn't) but if the overall model is about a foot or two off of reality, I'm not too worried. I can't be. Besides, the heights I'm coming up with work out nicely with what I'm scaling from the Wendingen drawings, so I can't be off by that much.

Note: With the exception of my own renderings, the photos on this blog have come from the internet. And, with the exception of the book cover, depict objects that are over 80 years old and should be outside of US copyright. This includes the historic images of Midway Gardens. But, if anyone has a problem with anything I post, let me know and we'll work something out.

Tools I Am Using

Creating Midway Gardens is a huge task. I would not have been able to do it without the help of Prof. Paul Kruty's comprehensive book 'Frank Lloyd Wright and Midway Gardens'.



Considering the vast size of the building, that it was built during a transitional point in Wright's career and life, and that it was one of his most complicated spaces, it is astonishing that so little has been written about Midway Gardens. Kruty's book reconstructs the building in words and images, letting it live again. I intend to contact Prof. Kruty as soon as I have enough done that I feel it would justify his attention. Hopefully he will be able to give me valuable imput.

Unfortunately, the book is hard to get a hold of and has been out of print for several years. If you want a copy, be prepared to shell out a good deal of money for it. I had been curious to read the book for a long time, but it wasn't until I was able to get a copy for around $70 on ebay that I felt I wasn't being ripped off. Most copies sell for around $120 for one that isn't in very good shape and can sell for over $200 for a good quality edition. However, it contains photos and drawings that can be found nowhere else, including the only published second floor plan. If you are interested, it is definitely worth it.

The second book I am relying heavily upon is the Wendingen edition of Wright's work. It has many photos of Midway Gardens (most, if not all, of which are in Kruty's book, but they are reproduced much larger) and also has a large format plan. It is not the same plan in FLW&MG, which Kruty drew himself, and has more detail to it. What Prof. Kruty drew tried to approximate what was actually built, whereas I am trying to create Midway Gardens as it should have been.

Unfortunately, there are no dimensions on the plan. While Kruty provides a scale for his plans, it is difficult to reconcile the two. However, Kruty noted in his book that the floor of the Winter Garden (the indoor restaurant) was made out of black and white floor tiles that were laid in 2'x2' squares. By comparing photos of the interior with the grid shown on the floor plan, I realized it was the same number of tiles. This gave me the scale I needed. In order to measure everything else, I inserted the Wendingen plan, elevations, and sections into AutoCAD. I scaled the plans based on the floor tiles and then scaled everything else based on the plans. This enabled me to measure as necessary.

In doing this I have found numerous inconsistencies between the plans and elevations/sections. Just looking at the plan you find that there are different amounts of steps on one side of the building as the other. I do not believe this was actually the case. Also, many things do not line up, causing me plenty of problems.

Lastly, as I mentioned in the last post, I am using Sketchup to create my model. While this is not necessarily the best modeling tool out there, it is extremely easy to use and it's free. It also makes rendering the model very simple as I have installed IDX Renditioner, which lets me make renderings directly from Sketchup. The effect is not photo realistic, but that may be more due to user ignorance than anything to do with the program. The renderings I've done so far are realistic enough to give an excellent idea of what the building was like, which is my ultimate goal.

Note: While I would love to post the Wendingen plan and elevations, I have not found them anywhere else on the internet and am not sure that they are in the public domain. If I find out they are, I'll put them up.

The Reconstruction of Midway Gardens

About two months ago I read Paul Kruty's fantastic book 'Frank Lloyd Wright and Midway Gardens', which chronicles the creation and destruction of one of Wright's greatest masterpieces. I was so moved that I decided to try and reconstruct the building in Sketchup. My goal is to be as detailed as I possibly can. Knowing myself, I have no idea whether I will really finish it or not. It may take years, and I might just give up, but I hope not! So far I have worked for two months and am still going strong.

This blog is really more for myself to chronicle my successes/failures with this project as well as to answer why I did certain things certain ways. I've been keeping notes to this effect for some time, and I plan on incorporating them into future posts.

If anyone has any questions on my project, please feel free to leave a comment and I will respond as best I can.