THE GEIGER DATABASE


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FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT COMMISSIONS

CONTRIBUTING SPECIALIZATIONS:
Mechanical Engineer

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

House for Toufic H. and Mildred Kalil [Manchester, New Hampshire] (1955)

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: Kalil, Dr. Toufic H. and Mildred.

Sobriquet or alternative place name: None.

Design Status (as of 2011): Executed.

Occupancy form or use: HOUSING/Residential/Single Family.

Principal building materials: MASONRY/Concrete block, usonian automatic.

Number of drawings for this project detailed in the database: 4.

Drawing Number and Description

5506.001     Perspective
5506.002     Site and floor plan
5506.003     Elevations
5506.010     Floor 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.

Besinger, Curtis
Preliminary working drawings coordinator: Besinger, Curtis
Working drawings coordinator: Besinger, Curtis
Mechanical engineering: Besinger, Curtis
Construction supervision: Delson, Morton

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) "House for Dr. Toufic Kalil preliminary design C. B. , working drgs (sic) - C.B." Curtis W. Besinger record. (b) This house ws designed by Besinger #0038. Besinger, Working With Wright, #1195, p. 286. Geiger 01/28/98; Besinger, p. 286;Besinger, p. 286.

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:

Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Frank Lloyd Wright Monograph 1951-1959 (Volume 8). Tokyo: A. D. A. Edita. [ISBN: 4-87140-519-2].
Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Frank Lloyd Wright: The Complete Works 1943-1959 (Volume 3). Cologne, Germany: Taschen. [ISBN: 978-8228-5770-0].