THE GEIGER DATABASE

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Frank Lloyd Wright commissions

Frank Lloyd Wright Commission Titles

The information presented here exhibits the extent to which John Geiger considered many points of reference related to a given Frank Lloyd Wright project. Aside from basic information such as title, location, and project date, Geiger extended his interests to types of floor and roof plans, types of construction and building purpose, and where possible the dates of the various stages of development in the design process and construction. Geiger often included citations for bibliographic references as sources for the recorded information in an elaborate but unevenly developed series of attributions.

Project Information

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum [New York, New York] (1944)

Note: The following information concerning this project represents original research and analysis by John Geiger, and is based in his long and detailed study of the Frank Lloyd Wright literature as well as personal contacts with members of the Taliesin Fellowship and architectural historians. In addition, he added his own categories of building type and compositional form, as well as other points of consideration that he deemed important to understanding of the design. As with any primary archival source material, the references and sources of attribution should be consulted where possible to affirm the data provided. Sometimes there is an indication of attribution for which there is no matching footnote recorded. Some understanding of the intended source may be discovered in remaining notes or frequently cited publications which appear in the comment field.

Name of client: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.

Sobriquet or alternative place name: None.

Design Status (as of 2011): Executed.

Occupancy form or use: CIVIC/Museum.

Principal building materials: CONCRETE/Poured in place.

Number of drawings for this project detailed in the database: 74.

Drawing Number and Description

4305.??1     Reflected ceiling plan, cross section of skylight Aug.55-April56
4305.??3     Cross section showing coffered suspended inner dome
4305.??4     Cross section of final scheme
4305.003     Floor plan at upper level of hexagonal scheme
4305.004     Elevation; early version but with the drum on the right
4305.005     Elevation
4305.006     Elevation; hexagonal plan, vertical walls
4305.007     Elevation with the drum tapering in
4305.008     Perspective from north corner, left hand version. early
4305.009     Perspective from the front north
4305.009     Perspective from the front
4305.010     Interior perspective of galleries
4305.011     Interior perspective of galleries
4305.012     Interior perspective of galleries
4305.013     Interior perspective of galleries
4305.014     Section/elevation by FLLW
4305.014     Cross Section
4305.015     Perspective from North, drum on the left
4305.016     Perspective from straight on at the entrance
4305.017     Perspective from the North, rotunda on the south, right
4305.018     Floor plan of ground floor
4305.025     Elevation rendered in white
4305.026     Cross section, very early
4305.027     Perspective from 5th Avenue, rotunda left
4305.035     Cross sections
4305.055     Floor plan of ground level
4305.056     Floor plan at lecture room level
4305.057     First level above ground level
4305.058     Floor plan of second level
4305.060     Floor plan of fourth level
4305.061     Cross section A-A
4305.062     Perspective from 5th Ave at 89th Street at night
4305.069     Cross section, rotunda on right
4305.069     Cross section with rotunda on right
4305.074     Elevation of inward spiral with rotunda on right
4305.076     Elevation, rotunda on right inward sloping
4305.092     Interior perspective of central space
4305.114     Floor plan ground floor, rotunda left
4305.116     Main floor plan, rotunda left
4305.119     First (not main) floor plan, rotunda left
4305.122     Second floor plan, rotunda left
4305.123     Floor plan third floor, rotunda left
4305.128     Floor plan fifth floor, rotunda left
4305.130     Floor plan sixth floor, rotunda left
4305.132     Floor plan seventh floor, rotunda left
4305.136     Elevation from 5th Avenue, rotunda left
4305.140     Cross section of rotunda, rotunda left
4305.141     Cross setion of rotunda, rotunda left
4305.142     Cross sections not rotunda, rotundaleft
4305.437     Floor plan, basement
4305.439     Floor plan, ground floor
4305.440     Floor plan, first floor
4305.441     Floor plan, second floor
4305.442     Floor plan, third floor
4305.443     Floor plan, fourth floor
4305.444     Floor plan, fifth floor
4305.447     Evevation 5th Avenue rutunda right
4305.451     Cross section of rotunda
4305.583     Perspective
4305.585     Ground floor plan. rotunda on right
4305.585     Ground floor plan, rotunda on left
4305.587     Detail of glass skylight on ramp
4305.627     Heavily rendered 5th Avenue elevation; drum on left
4305.649     Gate details
4305.698     Structural plan
4305.725     Cross sectionof rotunda on left
4305.730     Detail of glass skylight at rotunda
4305.733     Floor plan. early with rotunda on left
4305.735     Section through main gallery and large South gallery
4305.745     Perspective, rotunda on right, rendered in rose marble
4305.746     Perspedtive from corner, rotunda on right
4305.747     Perspective: rotunda, inward spiral, on right; in rose marble
4305.748     Pespective of blue hexegonal scheme, rotunda on right
4305.749     Perspective; rotunda on right, rendered in white marble

Individuals recorded as contributing to project:

Note: Not everyone who contributed to a project may be named; only those whose participation has been confirmed from a source appear above. Occasionally names presented as contributors to a project may seem chronologically anomalous. This usually occurs when an individual prepared drawings for publicity, exhibition, or publication long after the original date of a commission.

Individuals recorded as producing drawings for this project:
Berndtson, Peter
Davison, Allen Lape
Howe, John
Po, Ling
Wiehle, Louis
Wright, Frank Lloyd

Specifications writer: Cohen, George
Structural engineering: Peters, William Wesley
Structural engineering: Glickman, Mendel
Structural engineering: Polivka, Jaroslav J.

Project Drawing Date Range

Note: Dates for preliminary and working drawings, as well as the start and completion of construction, appear here only when present in the database. Through careful study of original, reproduced, or published Wright drawings, John Geiger developed an elaborate granulation for design process dates and their attributions. Such information is largely available only for Wright projects dating from the mid-1930s until 1959.

Date recorded by John Geiger for chronological sorting: 7/27/1944.

Preliminary drawings date: 7/27/1944.

Notes and References

Comments by John Geiger and/or sources of attribution: Quinan, Jack. "Engineering the Organic: The Partnership of Jaroslav J. Polivka and Frank Lloyd Wright" (Buffalo and Erie Historical Society, 2001), p. 30.

Note: The information shown above is collected from a series of data table columns intended originally to record not only comments or notes, but also to cite sources of attribution for dates assigned to the various stages of drawing preparation in the design process. As with any primary archival source material, the references and sources of attribution shown here should be consulted where possible to affirm the data provided.

This commission is referenced and/or illustrated in the following publications:

Alofsin, Anthony. Frank Lloyd Wright: Europe and Beyond. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. [ISBN: 0-520-21116-2].
Cleary, Richard (editor). Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward. New York: Skira/ Rizzoli. [ISBN: 978-0-8478-3262-0].
Drexler, Arthur. The Drawings of Frank Lloyd Wright. New York: Horizon Press. [ISBN: 0-8180-0019-8].
Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. Frank Lloyd Wright Quarterly: 2009, Vol. 20, No. 3. Phoenix, Arizona: Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
Levine, Neil. The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. Princeton, New Jersery: Princeton University Press. [ISBN: 0-691-03371-4].
Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Frank Lloyd Wright: The Masterworks. New York: Rizzoli. [ISBN: 0-8478-1715-6].
Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Frank Lloyd Wright Drawings: Masterworks from the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives. New York: Harry H. Abrams Inc.. [ISBN: 0-8108-1773-4].
Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Frank Lloyd Wright Monograph 1942-1950 (Volume 7). Tokyo: A. D. A. Edita. [ISBN: 4-87140-518-4].
Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Frank Lloyd Wright Monograph Preliminary Studies, 1933-1959 (Volume 11). Tokyo: A. D. A. Edita. [ISBN: 4-87140-522-2].
Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Frank Lloyd Wright Monograph, In His Renderings 1887-1959 (Volume 12). Tokyo: A. D. A. Edita. [ISBN: 4-87140-523-0].
Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Frank Lloyd Wright, The Heroic Years: 1920-1932. New York: Rizzoli. [ISBN: 978-8478-3174-6].
Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Frank Lloyd Wright: The Complete Works 1943-1959 (Volume 3). Cologne, Germany: Taschen. [ISBN: 978-8228-5770-0].
Protetch, Max. The Drawings of Frank Lloyd Wright: 5 May through 6 June, 1987. New York: Max Protech Gallery.
Riley, Terence and Reed, Peter (editors). Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. [ISBN: 0-87070-642-X].
Sloan, Julie L.. Light Screens: The Complete Leaded-Glass Windows of Frank Lloyd Wright. New York: Rizzoli. [ISBN: 0-8478-2306-7].
Wright, Frank Lloyd. Frank Lloyd Wright: Collected Writings Volume 4, 1939-1349. New York: Rizzoli. [ISBN: 0-8478-1803-9].
Wright, Frank Lloyd. Frank Lloyd Wright: Collected Writings Volume 5, 1949-1959. New York: Rizzoli. [ISBN: 0-8478-1854-3].
Wright, Frank Lloyd. The Disappearing City. William Farquahar Payson.