Dead Men Tales: Heating and Horror at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin

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Heating and Horror at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin

In this episode, Dan Holohan tells us about Frank Lloyd Wright’s unique heating system at Taliesin and how a horrific 1914 event took its toll on the home and its inhabitants.

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bucksnort

I don't think there's one house or building that Wright designed that didn't have a bunch of pails as standard equipment to catch the rain leaking through every crevice. If he was still alive each new home would have a room from day 1 that would just store a supply of 5 gallon plastic Homer buckets.

JUGHNE

He just had visions that good silicon caulking would someday be available.
In his mind, technology had not caught up with his designs.

bucksnort

JUGHNE said:

He just had visions that good silicon caulking would someday be available.
In his mind, technology had not caught up with his designs.

Way ahead I agree. but he didn't care that the recipients of his ideas would need buckets when it rained or roasted in one room or froze to death in another. I've been to Taliesin. It's 40 miles away. While the designs are interesting, when I get home I like to sit and read the newspaper without needing a raincoat.

scott w.

A historic architectural treasure like Taliesin is left to freeze in the winter? Is that still happening? That is just unbelievable!!!!! Everyone knows temperature swings, high humidity, and freezing over time will just destroy that place. Its hard to fathom the group that runs the place can't find funds to repair or replace a heating system!

jeant

Thank you for sharing this intimate bit of history so deeply with all of us.

mattmia2

I don't think this will be one where they refused to let you pay to see the heating system then will later pay you to look at it.

bucksnort

You have to understand the philosophy of the Taliesin complex. They refuse to acknowledge that yes, the design was light years ahead but the mechanicals suck. They won't do anything dramatic because it would ruin their temple. Just get more buckets and a pail of tar approach.
Taliesin from the outside looks stunning. Inside my opinion is I'm standing in a dirt floor crawlspace with sandstone walls with a lot of leaky windows with barn siding walls with spaces between the boards. The roof reminds me of the times as kids we shot pigeons in the barn with .22's and sometimes missed.
We have a Wright inspired convention center in Madison. It's referred to as the "Mistake on the lake".

fastd

I was a fan of Wright a long time ago when I knew little about construction. Over the years I have come to have less and less respect for the man and his work. He was a control freak who designed everything in his buildings, most of it poorly. As others have commented, his buildings all leaked, and had myriad other problems. I've sat in replicas of his chairs: some of the least comfortable I've ever experienced. He never applied his "form follows function" mantra to himself.

bucksnort

fastd said:

I was a fan of Wright a long time ago when I knew little about construction. Over the years I have come to have less and less respect for the man and his work. He was a control freak who designed everything in his buildings, most of it poorly. As others have commented, his buildings all leaked, and had myriad other problems. I've sat in replicas of his chairs: some of the least comfortable I've ever experienced. He never applied his "form follows function" mantra to himself.

His moral problems were the scourge around here if you go by accounts of his cheating and such. He wasn't well liked by the area around Spring Green residents of the time because they lived opposite of Wright. He probably ditched Taliesin and fled to Arizona because who wants to live in a damp, cold crawl space during Wisconsin's long, cold winter?

geoffhazel

What a grim story. I had imagined it would have something to do with a catastrophe in the heating system.

ChicagoCooperator

Dan - loved this story!

FLW was really, well, arrogant, especially about heating and mechanicals. He didn't believe in double-glazing, etc. There really is a cult at the school (I think I just read that they either were closing or had lost accreditation or both) about him and his houses.

I've heard the Hib Johnson story ("well, move your chair") at Wingspread where it happened. It's a great, very funny, story as told by his son.

I can't remember which house it was, one of the early Usonian houses in Madison, where the radiant and solar was insufficient (FLW did believe in ceiling insulation, but not much else) in the dead of winter where the only room that was warm enough was the bathroom where a free-standing radiator had been added - the whole family congregated there. The funny thing is, in the Chicago area, Keck & Keck (two brothers from Wisconsin who became architects) were designing passive solar houses at the same time with no such heating trouble or comfort problems. Their houses had site-sealed thermopane windows, radiant heat (floor and ceiling sometimes) and comfortable environments, so it certainly wasn't beyond the technology of the era.

The Robie House is also interesting from a heating pov. It has passive solar elements, yet was also reputedly hard to heat. Reynor Banham controversially talks about the system of ventilation in the house which appears may have been unintentional or misunderstood - essentially it worked via convection from concealing lighting along the perimeter of the house. Also, under the south facing living room windows was a trough with a steam pipe, but no convectors, which would have washed the windows with heat, yet was never fully utilized.

SomeTradesJack

I'm a bit of an aficionado of his visual design style (but not his lifestyle). A bit of an aside, but I HIGHLY recommend touring the Robie House in Chicago, the Dana Thomas House in Springfield IL, or the Meyer May House in Grand Rapids. All very interesting. The Usonian houses are less my cup of tea. Oak Park IL and Pasadena CA are wonderful for walking tours.

fixitguy

Great story. I recommend reading a book called "The Women" by T Coraghessen Boyle. A sort of biography of FLW. Incredibly entertaining and informative at the same time.

Steamfighter49

Dan
Always enjoy your talks. Here in Buffalo we have several FLW houses and they are all kept up or have been carefully and historically renovated back to their original design. Although not necessarily the heating system. Except for parts that were part of the project, they wouldn’t let me look at the systems either.
Though now finished I might be able to get you in touch with the organization that rebuilt them.
They now give tours and Buffalo is much closer to the Isle of Long. Drop me a line.

Steamfighter49

After reading all the comments, I guess we screwed up in the historical renovations and rebuilds. We didn’t include the leaky roofs and windows or the lousy heating systems. Guess we’ve lived here too long. We include heating out habit.

DanHolohan

Thanks to all of you for the additional background. Learning every day! And I'm glad you enjoyed this one. It moves me to tears.