Show Explores the Wright Frame of Mind

SAN DIEGO —  Frank Lloyd Wright poses an architectural anomaly.

An American iconoclast, he flung open the doors to the design and construction possibilities offered by the Machine Age and developed his concept of “organic architecture,” based on his genius for building structures that seemed to sprout from the land.

Oddly, Wright spawned no dominating school of architecture, such as the “less is more” urbane office cubes of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe that today dot cities across the country.

A double dropout--Wright finished neither high school nor college--he attracted plenty of criticism from architects who sniped at his grand schemes, his “pompous showmanship.”

Wright’s innovative and influential house designs received mixed reviews--bedrooms were often too small, relegated to second-class status in his focus on the living and dining areas.

Despite decades spent training dozens of young architects, he was criticized for leaving no disciples behind whose creativity even approached his own.

And yet his name is a household word for innovation and style, for an original thinker who had the skill to successfully wed modern with traditional, rectangular planes with the natural lay of the land.

He was “the greatest architect of the 20th Century, though some thought he was the greatest of the 19th Century, while he himself asked, ‘What about the 21st?’ ” says the essay on Wright in “Three Centuries of Notable American Architects,” American Heritage Publishing Co.

Wright, who said he chose “honest arrogance” over “hypocritical humility,” is the subject of an hourlong slide show to be presented at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Sunday and next Sunday at Words & Music Bookstore, 3806 4th Ave. in Hillcrest.

The show, titled “Frank Lloyd Wright . . . Architecture as a Quality of Mind,” is narrated by the architect himself via audio tapes made before his death in 1959.

Prepared by Spencer Lake, a local architect and fan of Wright, the slide program incorporates hundreds of images featuring more than 50 of Wright’s houses, buildings and churches.

“I like to think of it as the best look at Frank Lloyd Wright you’ll get in 60 minutes,” Lake said.

It is also a chance to expose San Diegans to the thoughts of an architectural genius. San Diego, Lake believes, has a scarcity of exciting buildings and could use some

architectural zip.

“One of the biggest problems we face in this city now is that the buildings are self-contained” and do not relate to their surroundings, Lake said. I think that is a lack of expectation on the part of the public. If they expected more, they would get it.”

Wright’s innovations include his attack on symmetry, his compulsive use of the cantilever and, with several other architects at the turn of the century, the development of the Prairie house, a design that stressed comfort and spacious living areas and broke from the traditional house plan of “boxes within boxes,” a bane to Wright.

Lake, 43, has created similar presentations on local architects such as Sim Bruce Richards, John Lautner, Ken Kellogg and James Hubbell.

Lake made the photographs of Wright’s buildings during extensive cross-country treks over the past three years.

“His buildings are life itself,” Lake said of the 600 structures actually built from Wright’s more than 1,000 designs.

The buildings range from the Kaufmann home, Fallingwater, set in a dense forest in Bear Run, Pa., to the controversial, circular Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, criticized because the architecture upstaged the art.

Fallingwater, with its jutting crossed terraces and built against a forest spring, has become a classic example of successful modern architecture.

In the slide show narration, Wright, a charismatic raconteur, comments on women’s fashions, television, children, education and, of course, his architecture. Lake intercuts the commentary with comments from Wright’s critics and supporters, which Lake reads himself.

“I encourage people to question what they see when they see Frank Lloyd Wright,” he said. “After all, this is the age of skepticism. (Wright’s) ideas should be able to stand on their own merit.”

Given their innovative qualities and the nature of his clients, Wright’s designs were lucky to be built at all, Lake noted. The clients were often businessmen who felt more comfortable with traditional designs.

Architect and client frequently found themselves pitted against each other during the design and construction phase, although the completed building usually healed any wounds, Lake said.

“The Johnson’s Wax Building in Racine, Wisconsin, was a gigantic ordeal,” Lake said. “Johnson didn’t know what he was getting, but he dearly loved what he got.”

Reservations for the four performances of “Architecture as a Quality of Mind” can be made by calling 297-6300.--