THE GEIGER DATABASE


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FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT COMMISSIONS

CONTRIBUTING SPECIALIZATIONS:
Supervising Apprentice

One of the most encompassing approaches by John Geiger to the study of Frank Lloyd Wright commissions was the creation of 10 data tables that provided places to record project coordinator, preliminary drawing coordinator, working drawings coordinator, specifications writer, structural engineer, mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, landscape design, supervising apprentice during construction, and building contractor. Then, drawings for the commission were listed. While such level of detail was usually not available to Geiger, this search represents a refined model for the study of the design and building process that other researchers may want to carry forward. Only Wright commissions having information recorded for these categories of contribution are returned in this search, showing a total of 299 records.

Project Information

Administration Building for the Larkin Company [Buffalo, New York] (1903)

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: Larkin Company.

Sobriquet or alternative place name: Larkin Building.

Design Status (as of 2011): Executed.

Occupancy form or use: COMMERCIAL/Office/office building.

Principal building materials: MASONRY/Brick.

Number of drawings for this project detailed in the database: 54.

Drawing Number and Description

0403.??1     Ground floor plan and perspective for ABEFLW, 1910, P. XXXIII(a)
0403.??2     Perspective freehand sketch of reception desk
0403.??2     Muli-level foor plans and perpective (in Ausgefurte Bauten, 1910), XXXIII(b)
0403.??5     Perspective of atrium (in Ausgefurte Bauten, 1910)
0403.??7     Axonometric of fifth floor, conservatory and balcony levels
0403.??8     Seneca Street elevation, first set of preliminaries
0403.??8     Seneca Street elevations, second set of preliminary drawings
0403.??9     Frist floor plan, first set of preliminary drawings
0403.?10     Transverse cross section, first set of preliminary drawings
0403.?11     Transverse cross section, second set of preliminary drawings
0403.?12     Third and fourth floor plans, second set of preliminary drawings
0403.?13     First floor plan, third set of preliminary drawing
0403.?14     Basement floor plan
0403.?15     First story steel framing plan
0403.?16     Basement ventilating ducts
0403.?17     Interior eleavation of the East wall of the annex, fireplace
0403.?18     Perspective at entrance and first floor plan
0403.001     Perspective of entrance and inset perspective of entrance.
0403.002     Perspective from the far right of the entrance and partial plan.
0403.003     Perspective from just right of entrance center line/partial plan.
0403.004     Perspective from left with horse drawn wagon and trolley car
0403.005     Perspective of metal arm chair,three legs/four feet, Larkin Bldg
0403.006     Perspective of pier capitals; not executed design
0403.006     Elevation, section, and plan of desk
0403.007     Perspective from extreme right of entrance. Black and White
0403.009     Perspective of pier capitals
0403.022     Perspective from rear showing arch entrance to lower level
0403.023     Perspective from left, pedestrians in street, church at right
0403.026     Desk, design for continuous desk
0403.028     Table and desk for first floor court
0403.031     Light fixtures beside fire place and beneathe bridge in conservat
0403.033     Wood furiture, bench
0403.034     Wood table, chair, and reclining chair
0403.041     Isometric of light fixture at entrance
0403.047     Isometric view of bracket light at entrance
0403.065     Ground floor plan for furniture layout
0403.068     Second floor plan, also showing annex locker plans
0403.069     Floor plan third floor
0403.070     Fourth floor plan
0403.071     Fifth floor plan
0403.072     Half sixth floor and half roof plan, with dimensions
0403.074     Swan street elevation
0403.075     New York Central Elevation
0403.076     Seneca street elevation
0403.078     Lateral cross section
0403.079     Longitudinal cross section
0403.081     Plan of heating and ventilating systems
0403.084     Cross section at dining area showing skylight and end wall
0403.087     Cross section of fifth and sixth floors at center line of bldg.
0403.089     Cross section indicating some leaded glass windows
0403.115     Light fixture at top of column
0403.116     Light fixture, free standing with four lights
0403.120     Steel framing plan for first floor
0403.163     Perspective from right rear and partial upper levels plan

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.

Klumb, Henry
Okami, Takehiko
Wright, Frank Lloyd
Project Coordinator: Griffin, Walter Burley
Working drawings coordinator: Drummond, William
Specifications writer: Mueller, Paul F. P.
Structural engineering: Reidpath, R. J.
Construction supervision: Griffin, Walter Burley

Roof pattern type: 0302 Cruciform/Rectangle/one level

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

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.

Working drawings date: 4/1/1904.

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. 27. Marty #2, p. 33.

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. In the Cause of Architecture: (#0007 Life work of the American Architec (#0006 ditti above)
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.
Kaufmann, Jr., Edgar. Frank Lloyd Wright: Drawings for a Living Architecture. New York: Horizon Press.
Manson, Grant Carpenter. Frank Lloyd Wright to 1910: The First Golden Age. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold and Company. [ISBN2: 0-442-26130-6].
Manson, Grant Carpenter. Frank Lloyd Wright to 1910: The First Golden Age. Reinhold Publishing Corp..
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 1902-1906 (Volume 2). Tokyo: A. D. A. Edita. [ISBN: 4-87140-513-3].
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].
Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Treasures of Taliesin: Seventy-Six Unbuilt Designs. Southern Illinois University Press. [ISBN: 0-8093-1235-2].
Quinan, Jack. Frank Lloyd Wright''s: Larkin Building Myth and Fact. Princeton, New Jersey: MIT Press. [ISBN: 0-262-17004-3].
Riley, Terence and Reed, Peter (editors). Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. [ISBN: 0-87070-642-X].
Siry, Joseph M.. Unity Temple: Frank Lloyd Wright and Architecture for Liberal Religion. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. [ISBN: 0-521-49542-3].
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. Ausgeführte Bauten und Entwürfe von Frank Lloyd Wright. Berlin: Verlegt bei Ernest Wasmuth A. G..
Wright, Frank Lloyd. Buildings, Plans and Designs. New York: Horizon Press. [ISBN: 0790979667].
Wright, Frank Lloyd. Early Work by Frank Lloyd Wright. New York: Bramhall House.
Wright, Frank Lloyd. Frank Lloyd Wright: Collected Writings Volume 1, 1894-1930. New York: Rizzoli. [ISBN: 0-8478-1546-3].
Wright, Frank Lloyd. Frank Lloyd Wright: Drawings and Plans of Frank Lloyd Wright, The Early Period (1893-1909). New York: Dover Publications, Inc.. [ISBN: 0-486-24457-1].
Wright, Frank Lloyd. Frank Lloyd Wright: Ausgeführte Bauten . Berlin: Verlegt bei Ernest Wasmuth A. G..