Antonin Raymond and Rudolph Schindler escaped Frank Lloyd Wright's wrath when the American System-Built Program was summarily cancelled and covered up in 1917. Russell Barr Williamson did not.
Three contemporaneous Wright draftsmen, three fates
Correcting a Wrightian mistake – but at a cost
It is not a spoiler alert to say that after Frank Lloyd Wright sued Richards and cancelled the ASBH program in 1917, Richards and Williamson continued designing and selling Prairie Style homes around Milwaukee. Distinguishing those homes from Wright's ASBH work can be difficult. Here is a clue.
Plywood in a Wright-designed American System-Built Home, before “plywood” was a thing
Wright and Richards were exploring ways to ensure quality while lowering costs in the American System. So cabinet doors were built of "ply" fifteen years before "plywood" became a thing.
Taliesin’s Catherine Boldt to join conversation about “Frank Lloyd Wright’s Forgotten House”
The Shorewood Historical Society and Boswell Book Company will co-host an evening with Nicholas D Hayes and Taliesin's Catherine Boldt (Educational Outreach Docent) as they discuss Hayes' findings in the new book FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT'S FORGOTTEN HOUSE: How an Omission Transformed the Architect's Legacy.
ASBH owners organize and invite others to join in stewardship
A group of ASBH owners have been meeting and collaborating in the last few years (first physically and then virtually), sharing ideas, tours, parts and pieces and pictures to study, and have even been purchasing materials for renovations in bulk to ensure affordability and continuity. Six of the homes are represented!
ASBH Window Study Reveals a Cost-for-Quality Decision made by Wright and Richards
As we assembled the proper tools and processes to make Frank Lloyd Wright's window sashes as Arthur Richard’s factory might have made them, we uncovered evidence of a decision to slow production in order to ensure quality, made a century ago.
On the hunt for a long-lost ASBH? This could help.
If you, like many fans of Frank Lloyd Wright, are on the hunt for a long-lost American System-Built Home, here is a simple tool that you can use in your field work and that may tell you if you're warm.
Arthur Richards had a different idea than Frank Lloyd Wright
For Wright, American System-Built Homes met a complex design challenge: to create affordable beautiful modest homes. But for Richards, the ASBH program was one item on vast menu of real estate products he could offer.
Elizabeth Murphy and the End of Frank Lloyd Wright’s American System-Built Experiment
While the historic Burnham Block represents the optimistic beginning of Frank Lloyd Wright’s first attempt to design modest homes, the Elizabeth Murphy House at 2106 East Newton in Shorewood, Wisconsin, marks the tumultuous end of the American System-Built idea.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Elizabeth Murphy House to be featured in 2019 OSHER presentation
Learn more about The Elizabeth Murphy House and its place in Frank Lloyd Wright's work and legacy, by attending a presentation on Friday, 6/14/2019 at 12:30pm at the Hefter Center at UWM.
