THE GEIGER DATABASE


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FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT PROJECT DRAWINGS

SOBRIQUETS

More than 100 Frank Lloyd Wright commissions have special place names (e.g. "Hollyhock House" or "Fallingwater"). These titles were often bestowed by Wright on his designs but some were applied by clients. Only Wright projects with nicknames appear in this search.

Alternative placename: "The Ardmore Experiment"

Suntop Homes for Otto Tod Mallery of Tod Company, "The Ardmore Experiment" [Ardmore, Pennsylvania] (1938)

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.

Name of client: Mallery, Otto Tod.

Sobriquet or alternative place name: The Ardmore Experiment.

Design Status (as of 2011): Executed.

Occupancy form or use: HOUSING/Residential/Fourplex.

Principal building materials: MASONRY/Brick, lapped boards.

Number of drawings for this project detailed in the database: 12.

Drawing Number and Description

3906.001     Perspective of two, four unit, buildings
3906.001     Perspective of two buildings
3906.002     Aerial perspective of four buildings
3906.003     Site plan of four, four unit, buildings
3906.004     Floor plans of four levels and a cross section
3906.005     PLot plan of one building
3906.008     Cutaway interior perspective
3906.008     Elevation, probably originial with many notes by Wright
3906.010     Floor plans at several levels by Wright
3906.029     Cross section showing plumbing layout
3906.036     Ground floor/heating plan, mezzanine plan, and one elevation
3906.040     Detail cross sections; stairway, seat and closet, 'lantern'

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.

Howe, John

Roof type: Flat.

Note: Records a category devised by Geiger to classify the types of roof structure found in Frank Lloyd Wright projects. These terms were applied consistently through a choice list on Column [ROOFTYPE] in Table MMTFDRAWINGS FILE, and may be searched.

Notes And References

Comments by John Geiger and/or sources of attribution (a) The working drawing sheets are titled "Ardmore 'Sundecks' for the Todd Company". Geiger 05/09/96 (b) McCarter, Robert. Frank Lloyd Wright (London: Phaidon Press, 1997), p. 351.

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:

Aguar, Charles E. and Berdeanna. Wrightscapes: Frank Lloyd Wright''s Landscape Designs. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Drexler, Arthur. The Drawings of Frank Lloyd Wright. New York: Horizon Press. [ISBN: 0-8180-0019-8].
Hitchcock, Henry-Russell. In the Nature of Materials: The Buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright 1887-1941. Boston, Mass.: Da Capo Press.
Hitchcock, Henry-Russell. In the Nature of Materials: The Buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright 1887-1941. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce.
Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Frank Lloyd Wright Monograph 1936-1941 (Volume 6). Tokyo: A. D. A. Edita. [ISBN: 4-87140-517-6].
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: The Complete Works 1917-1942 (Volume 2). Cologne, Germany: Taschen. [ISBN: 978-3-8365-0926-8].
Wright, Frank Lloyd. Frank Lloyd Wright: Collected Writings Volume 4, 1939-1349. New York: Rizzoli. [ISBN: 0-8478-1803-9].