Wrighting the wrong of downtown renovations
The terrace at Kentuck Knob features hexagonal skylights / Photo by Deborah Lynch 6/4/16
My neighborhood has been blowing up around me over the past five years. Formerly cute brick capes and ranchers are morphing into two-story giants or are torn down so a development-style and -sized home can replace it. Along with the houses, trees are cut down and gardens bulldozed over to make way for larger abodes. The charm and integrity of my downtown is disappearing.A tour of the quirky Kentuck Knob, a Frank Lloyd Wright grand Usonian situated near Fallingwater south of Pittsburgh reminded me that people can have what they want without destroying their lots and neighborhoods. Despite some well documented flaws in his designs, Wright’s genius survives and should be revisited by many of our country’s nouveau riche who think bigger is better.
“The good building is not one that hurts the landscape, but one which makes the landscape more beautiful than it was before the building was built.”
No one doubts Wright’s architectural prowess, yet even geniuses need realists to help make the beauty stand up to the elements. Fallingwater is still the crown jewel as its cantilevered levels flow over the waterfall as naturally as if nature had placed it there itself. Yet, it has had structural issues from insufficient steel support beams, which if they hadn’t been shored up in 2001, engineers predicted would have led the terrace to fall into Bear Creek below. Fallingwater also had water damage and needed waterproofing restoration as well as water treatment and sewage improvements. The restorations cost more than $11.5 million. At Kentuck Knob, a local builder prevented similar problems with Wright’s design at the onset. The home features hexagons throughout the design, including cutouts as skylights in an overhang over the terrace that wraps around the back of the home. They were to have glass in them, but the builder said the wind and snow of the area would eventually pull the copper roof off the house or collapse it, so he suggested leaving the hexagon cutouts empty, which would help to mute the wind and give the snow a place to fall through. The roof has survived.Wright, who had three wives, seven children, and scandalous affairs, did not lack in confidence. “When questioned about his vanity, Wright justified himself by saying: ‘Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility; I chose honest arrogance.’ " He was difficult to work with and he gave his clients little freedom to change his ideas for their living.I.N. and Bernardine Hagan, who commissioned Kentuck Knob in Wright’s later years, seem to have had the gift of Wright’s busyness and perhaps mellowness of age because they were able to convince the architect to make several changes to his design to better fit their needs and desires, such as a 4-foot-wide door to a basement where they could have a pantry and a large freezer to store the ice cream they made for a living. He shunned both basements and attics, but after Wright died -- three years after the home was completed -- the Hagans could take a little creative license. Wright may have hated clutter, but what home owner doesn’t have “stuff,” the things of daily living that need storage – the rakes, mixers, decorations, crafts, games, etc. that don’t add beauty anywhere when left sitting around? The Hagans had someone install a crawl space between their bedroom and the guest room that would have had the architect rolling in his grave had he known.Inside the house, the living room with a wall of glass also features an eye-catching mountain stone fireplace. Its beauty is its only selling feature as the first time the owners lit a fire in it in the winter, it sucked all of the heat out of the house. When the owners complained to Wright, he retaliated that they must not have built a proper fire.
What I see out my back door in Hershey, PA / Photo by Deborah Lynch
Vain though he was, Wright was a visionary who recognized the importance of organic architecture. Visiting his masterpieces like Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob remind me of what is disappearing around me. When I look out my back door, I see a formerly stately field stone home with grand gardens and a greenhouse being bulldozed into a downtown development-like home with thousands of extra square footage squeezed onto the original home, eating up the gardens and lot with static form. Everywhere I turn, local zoning fails to address older homes torn down and replaced by oversized generic modern homes that eat up the lots and don’t match the neighborhoods.Wright respected nature and surroundings. According to Wright, “The good building is not one that hurts the landscape, but one which makes the landscape more beautiful than it was before the building was built.” Communities and individuals need to take these words to heart before they destroy the character and the land of our towns and countryside. Local zoning boards and residents can work together to save the integrity of their communities. Rather than seeking to have the house that stands out for the number of roof lines, varying materials or most square footage, builders and homeowners need to embrace Wright’s designs for fewer, larger rooms, and lower roofs that match their environments. As Wright proved so well, less can be more.
Works Consulted
Field, Marcus. “Architect of Desire: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Private Life Was Even More Unforgettable Than His Buildings.” Independent. Independent Digital News and Media. 7 March 2009. Web. 5 June. 2016.Lowry, Patricia. “Restoration of Drooping Fallingwater Uncovers Flaw Amid Genius.” Post-Gazette.com. P-G Publishing Company. 8 Dec. 2011. Web. 5 June 2016.Mihai. “10 Great Architectural Lessons from Frank Lloyd Wright.” Freshome. Freshome. 3 Sept. 2012. Web. 5 June 2016.