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.
It can seem strange to think of a Frank Lloyd Wright dwelling as a standard product - something that could be built with interchangeable parts and pieces - but American System-Built Homes were exactly that. One of those pieces was Byrkit Lath.
The March 2021 issue of MKELifestyle is on shelves all over town and features interior and vintage images of Frank Lloyd Wright's Forgotten Elizabeth Murphy House, along with an interview by Don Butler about our upcoming book.
Wright's statement chimney was meant to welcome a visitor like a smoke signal emerging from the heart of the house and saying, "we're home, it's warm in here, and you're invited." But in 1918, it leaked.
Imagine a couple of kids - one hundred years ago - sitting at the table, back to the warm morning sun, sipping milk while one parent flipped breakfast eggs and the other buttered toast and they all planned the weekend. It's not only about seeing things, but about living and being together in an American System-Built 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.
You don't see many pictures of the kitchen in our gallery because we've not yet solved an aesthetically-complex issue: a sight-line destroyed by a modern appliance. We have a fix.
The level of Wright's brilliance and forethought contained on this one page seems stunning - out of this world - to us amateurs.
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.
Upcoming book begins by unravelling a mystery: how might a house designed by the world's most famous architect become lost in the first place?
The Elizabeth Murphy House 