GB. Frank Lloyd Wright, Some Key Stages of His Life. Part 6. Ramps. (MBGB)
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Gordon Strong Automobile Objective
The automobile, the project’s raison d’être, architecture in motion.
Wright’s architecture proposed a different use of space than the traditional one, in which the automobile had its place. One was a fixed space, the other a moving one. Within his projects, people moved between their spaces, and the car allowed them to navigate their surroundings.
Thus, the automobile became another tool in his projects, both architectural and teaching. This was the character of his caravans that linked both Taliesin projects, traveling 3,500 km from Wisconsin to the Arizona desert.
His first trips reached Ocatillo.
More details about their caravans in https://onlybook.es/blog/frank-lloyd-wright-algunas-etapas-relevantes-de-su-vida-5ta-parte-mb/
Wright said that «the automobile is not just a machine; it is an extension of the individual, a manifestation of freedom.» Its use was intended to allow for a more open life, connected to nature.
In Broadacre City, his approach included the automobile as the primary means of transportation, in a decentralized, horizontal, and personal city.
His houses incorporated storage spaces, many semi-covered, others covered.
In these articles, we see that in these cases too, their vision was far removed from the norm, whether it be service stations, sales showrooms, or recreational spaces.
4- https://onlybook.es/blog/frank-lloyd-wright-algunas-etapas-relevantes-de-su-vida-4ta-parte-mb/
5- https://onlybook.es/blog/22237-2/
In homes, the automobile influenced the layout of entrances, paths, and views.
Wright integrated the automobile into his urban designs, considering it a key element of spatial, as well as social and cultural, transformation.
“The universal mobilization of humankind, by means of the automobile and the airplane, is making the old big city obsolete… Soon we shall be prepared to give all we have to advance toward the well-planned city of our own freedom.”
“A new standard of space measurement—the man seated in his automobile.” F. Ll. Wright, The Disappearing City. 1932
The ramps
“A house should not sit on the ground, but belong to it. Not be in harmony with the landscape, but be a part of it.” F. LL. Wright
The ramps Wright used in Hoffman’s New York showroom are seen again in larger works.
Read the full article on Hoffman’s showroom https://onlybook.es/blog/frank-lloyd-wright-algunas-etapas-relevantes-de-su-vida-4ta-parte-mb/
We detect ramps as a spatial theme in various buildings and projects, including the spiral at Sugarloaf Mountain (Sugarloaf Mountain) Gordon Strohg Automobile Objective. 1924; Broadacre City. 1935; Point Park Civic Center. 1947; Interior of the V.C. Morris Gift Shop in S. Francisco. 1948/9; Hoffman Showroom in NY. 1954; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in NY. 1943/1959; David and Gladys Wright House. 1950/1952; Master Plan for Greater Baghdad. 1957-58.
Gordon Strong Automobile Objective
In the autumn of 1924, Gordon Strong (1869 – 1954) commissioned Wright.
Strong began buying land on Sugarloaf Mountain in 1902, purchasing the mountain with the idea of developing it as a rural retreat with a recreation area, and building a system of roads and lookout points leading up to the summit, where fantastic views could be had.
By 1920, automobile use had become widespread, and Strong wanted his tower to be a destination for local residents, with covered galleries and open terraces for dining and dancing.
In an early letter to Strong, Wright mentioned the idea of the spiral: “One objective of the automobile, I understand, should be to make the machine a novel entertainment for everyday use.”
He proposed the spiral because it was well-suited for that purpose, “allowing the movement of people comfortably seated in their own automobiles… with the entire landscape swirling around them, offering views as if they were in an airplane.” Regarding the dual-ramp system, he added, “The spiral is such a natural and organic form for anything that ascends that I didn’t see why it couldn’t be used and equally available for descent at the same time.”
The project would be a car parking structure at the end of a scenic route through Maryland.
The design was striking; inside there would be a huge domed planetarium; outside, it resembled a circular ziggurat, with concrete ramps for automobiles spiraling upward to the top, from where they spiraled downward.
Strong’s first requirement was “to provide maximum ease of engine access to the structure.” The automobile was the raison d’être of the project. (10)
Upon receiving the project, Strong expressed his deep dissatisfaction, declaring that Wright’s plan was unsuitable for his purpose and his mountain, and wrote to him:
Your proposed «automobile observatory» impresses me precisely for that reason. As a structure of complete unity and independence, unrelated to its surroundings. It seems to me to be designed for use anywhere in the United States, on any hill or simple rise of terrain.
Strong continued his critique by accusing Wright’s design of lacking originality, citing biblical architecture and comparing the Sugarloaf Mountain spiral to the Tower of Babel. «In devising that later type of structure, you have gone right back to the earliest,» and concluded his letter sarcastically, mocking Wright’s belief in the organic integrity of his design and even including a picture of the Tower of Babel.
«Perhaps my particular view of the Tower of Babel is not in your collection… You will notice in the foreground a gentleman who, according to the Bible, lost his voice and, according to the picture, his shirt as well, as he attempted to explain that the structure under construction possessed only one thing: organic integrity. But the more he repeated the phrase, the less his listeners understood him. Finally, their understanding became so confused that they could not understand each other. This was the end of the first attempt at an automotive observatory with an external ramp.»
Wright was stung by Strong’s rejection, and his response showed he could be equally scathing:
Knowing your considerable abilities, I found […] a new one: that of an actor, an actor in love with his own image, standing on a stage of his own construction. I hesitate to divulge the basis of that stage and spoil an ingenious, if superficial, idea.
But why such tiresome precedents (comparing the design of Sugarloaf Mountain to the Tower of Babel) and omit […] the fact that every carpenter who tightens the screw exposes me? I have trouble looking a snail in the eye since I stole the idea from its home, from its back.
Wright continued to attack Strong’s conservative taste, again defending the organic integrity of his design and alluding to the logic behind his concept:
“I have given you a noble and archaic sculptured summit for your mountain. I should have squandered it with platforms, seats, and spittoons for introspective or expectorant businessmen and the young women who harass them, and infested the whole with Italian water pistols and elegant balustrades… leaving the automobiles in which they both live… still parked, betrayed, and abandoned as usual.”
Author J.G. Ballard, introduction by Zadie Smith. Text in English
I have found Wright’s answer in 2 different sources, one in the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation (https://franklloydwright.org/architecture-in-motion-the-gordon-strong-automobile-objective/) and another in the book Crash (1973) by science fiction writer J.G. Ballard (1930 – 2009).
The original phrase in English is:
«I should have squandered it on platforms, seats and spittoons for introspective or expectorating businessmen and the young girls who pester them, and infested the place with Italian water-pistols and elegant balustrades… leaving the cars in which both of them really live still parked, as always, betrayed and abandoned.»
Ballard, in his book Crash, may have ironically referred to Wright’s attitude as an anecdote illustrating his rejection of «vulgar» elements in architecture.
Sugarloaf Project
Historian and professor at the University of Georgia School of Architecture, Mark Reinberger, asserts that the design evidences Wright’s desire to find a new form of architectural expression, a utopian project based on modern technology—in this project’s case, the automobile.
Point Park and Self-Service Garage
Wright became fascinated by the spiral and continued to develop its potential in several subsequent projects. He used a spiral ziggurat with ramps in the Drive-Thru Garage and the Point Park project, both for Pittsburgh (1947). The Point Park project included a spiral drive-thru garage and a monumental civic center. Both projects were commissioned by Edgar J. Kaufmann, his client for the Fallingwater house.
1949
Two years after designing the Pittsburgh Point Park Civic Center project, Wright again worked for Edgar J. Kaufmann, this time to design a large parking lot on land next to Kaufmann’s department store, for use by the store and downtown Pittsburgh. The project was called the Drive-Thru Garage.
Both projects involved the automobile; the park also included a theater, a planetarium, and an aquarium; in reality, it was an enlarged version of Sugarloaf.
If we look at it in detail we will discover that a similar structure had been planned as a community center for Broadacre City.
Notes
9
David Romero is an architect, infographic artist, and history buff. He currently resides in Madrid, where he works in the fields of architecture and architectural visualization. His project «Hooked On The Past,» dedicated to recreating relevant architecture from the past using 3D modeling techniques, has received significant media attention.
Hooked on the Past is a project that aims to preserve architectural masterpieces using modern technology. With this project, he aims to create a kind of time machine that could transport us to another era and allow us to visit the monuments of the past, just as they once were.
See https://www.metalocus.es/es/noticias/hooked-past-recuperando-arquitecturas-desaparecidas
10
Mark Reinberger, Ph.D., is professor emeritus in the College of Environment and Design at the University of Georgia, where he teaches courses in architectural history and preservation. He holds degrees from the University of Virginia and Cornell University in architectural history, art, and urban planning. In addition to numerous articles, he has published Utility and Beauty: Robert Wellford and Compositional Ornament in America (University of Delaware Press, 2003) and, with Elizabeth McLean, The Philadelphia Country House: Architecture and Landscape in Colonial America (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015).
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