The house near the Four Presidents monument in South Dakota, shown in Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" is, in its long shot view, only a model. The clue is those triangular aluminum supports where Wright would have used a pure cantilever.
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The Amberg house in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The work is that of Marion Mahoney (pronounced by the family as MAH-honey) with possible help from Walter Burley Griffin. The house bears comparison to the Henry Ford Fairlane Estate projects in Dearborn, Michigan.
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The Amberg house (top and bottom) and Mueller house. |
Shorewinds Motel, Palm Beach, Florida. This is by Walter Burley Griffin.
The Moe house, Gary, Indiana, is most certainly a variation of Wright's Charles A Brown house, S.110, by Marion Mahoney. Wright was in Italy, Germany and France with son Lloyd at the time Mahoney defeated Wright's porch cantilever and replaced wood siding with stucco.
Do you see the OBVIOUS difference? Not the stucco versus board
& batten, but the supporting element for the porch roof of the
Moe house? One of the most basic principles of Wrightean Prairie-era
design was the cantilever. The Brown house porch features a 10 foot
cantilever. Whomever stole Wright's plan and altered it for Gary did
not understand how to anchor the cantilever, so put in the"
unnecessary" support. Perhaps one of Wright's office helpers? Or the
local builder altering a Wright tract-house plan on his own
cognizance? Since the exact date of construction and a construction
permit is not available, we do not know who it might be. Mr Wright
would never have approved a plan including this support.
This house, the Charles A. Brown house
(S.110), in Evanston, Illinois, is by Frank Lloyd Wright.
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The fact that a number of reputable institutions have sanctioned
the Moe house in Gary, Indiana, as havng been designed by Frank Lloyd
Wright does not mean that this is so.
A former chancelor of Long Island University (C W Post College,
Brooklyn College, Southampton College) said the Sullivan Cottage
(S.005) in Ocean Springs, Mississippi was not by Wright. That did not
make it so. My researches proved that Wright had designed it under
Sullivan's order.
A former and certainly well-respected president of the Society of
Architectural Historians said that the Amberg house in Grand Rapids,
Michigan and the Mueller house in Decatur, Illinois were by Wright.
This did not make it so, despite his high reputation and scholarly
credentials. I doubted the Amberg as soon as I saw it, and noted the
similarity of style with the Mueller as well as some features shared
with the unbuilt house for Henry Ford in my hometown, Dearborn.
Eventually I was able to come up with a correct plan of the Amberg,
did a quick geometric analysis, and determined that it could not be
by Wright. Further research proved it and the Mueller to be by Marion
Mahoney.
I am also the only person to have drawn a distinction between what
Wright designed, and what Louis Sullivan designed, in the Charnley
house (S.009) in Chicago.
So people may continue to argue that the Moe house is by Wright
despite the fact that, tho it uses a basic plan copied from Wright's
Charles A Brown house (S.110) in Evanston, it is of different
materials and the porch roof is utterly different, requiring a
support that is not needed in the properly cantilevered Brown unit.
If people want to reveal their lack of understanding of Wrightean
design principles that is their perogative . Until proof can be
brought to me that Wright sanctioned these differences, I cannot
consider the Moe building to be a legitimate Frank Lloyd Wright
structure.
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The Clubhouse at the Howe Military Academy, Howe, Indiana. Again, most certainly by Marion Mahoney while Wright was out of the office traveling in Italy, Germany and France, and a fine building for which she deserves credit. |