THE GEIGER DATABASE


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FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT PROJECT DRAWINGS

DESIGN EVALUATIONS

John Geiger applied a rating system to 714 Frank Lloyd Wright commissions using a numerical range of 10 (highest importance) to 2 (lowest importance), stepped in increments of .5, to express his view of the importance of the designs. Only projects with an evaluation number appear in this search.

Project Information

Research Laboratory for S. C. Johnson and Son Company, "Heliolaboratory" [Racine, Wisconsin] (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: Johnson, S. C. and Son Company.

Sobriquet or alternative place name: Heliolaboratory.

Design Status (as of 2011): Executed.

Occupancy form or use: COMMERCIAL/Research laboratory.

Principal building materials: CONCRETE/Poured in place.

Number of drawings for this project detailed in the database: 16.

Drawing Number and Description

4401.003     Plan, elevation and section
4401.011     North elevation, scheme C
4401.053     Ground floor plan
4401.054     Floor plan. second floor
4401.055     Floor plan, thirf floor
4401.062     Elevation, south
4401.065     Cross sections, three
4401.094     Section of Tower
4401.099     Elevation and cross section

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
Wright, Frank Lloyd

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: 1/1/1944.

Notes and References

Comments by John Geiger and/or sources of attribution: (a) "I'm under the impression that most dwgs @ Taliesin were done by Peter Berndtson (#1361). I did very little work on the Research Tower - mostly supplementary dwgs during const." Curtis W. Besinger record.;Ringstrom email 08*09/08.

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:

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: 2004, Vol. 15, No. 3. Phoenix, Arizona: Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
Kaufmann, Jr., Edgar. Frank Lloyd Wright: Drawings for a Living Architecture. New York: Horizon Press.
Lipman, Jonathan, and Levine, Neil. The Wright State: Frank Lloyd Wright In Wisconsin. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Milwaukee Art Museum.
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, In His Renderings 1887-1959 (Volume 12). Tokyo: A. D. A. Edita. [ISBN: 4-87140-523-0].
Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Frank Lloyd Wright: The Complete Works 1943-1959 (Volume 3). Cologne, Germany: Taschen. [ISBN: 978-8228-5770-0].
Riley, Terence and Reed, Peter (editors). Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. [ISBN: 0-87070-642-X].