Frank Lloyd Wright Trip #1- Walter Rundin House, Madison, WI

insert giant warning here-> I know my fingers are in all of these.. oops!

 

This is the Walter Rudin House, this is actually called a Erdman Prefab House. Marshall Erdman commissioned Wright to design him a house that can be put together in one location & assembled at another. When all was said & done Wright had actually made 2 designs for Mr. Erdman, named Erdman Prefab #1 & Erdman Prefab #2. The Rundin House is actually design #2.

 Research that I've done says that #2 was a square, 2 story home with a 2 story living room. The master bedroom, 1 bathroom, the workspace (aka the kitchen), and utility room were on the ground floor. The second floor had a balcony on two side, 3 bedrooms and a second bathroom.

Because I went in the spring there was not much growing (it gave me a good view of the house), but I guessing the wooded area is beautiful when during the summer.

Frank Lloyd Wright Trip #1- Unitarian Meeting House, Madison, WI

Now that college is over I have time to do the Frank Lloyd Wright road trips I've been dreaming of! It started out being a trip to Madison to meet up with my aunt & uncle to go the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum, and we ended up seen half a dozen Wright buildings! :)

This one is known as the Unitarian Meeting House in Madison. Wright was commissioned to build the meeting house in 1946. Wright constructed the meeting house using native stones, wood, glass and copper. In order to cut cost member of the church hauled the limestone from a local quarry. Wright agreed to take on this project with minimal fees and even aided in fund raising for the building by giving 2 benefit lectures.

This red block is know as a Signature Tile. From what I'm told there are only a handful of buildings that Wright decided to place these on. It is said that Wright received them as a gift from one of his apprentices mothers & decided to distribute them to only his favorite buildings.  The Unitarian Meeting House is one of them, another is Cedar Rock in Iowa (I was actually lucky enough to give tours at this house for 1 summer, and that is where I got my information about the tiles)

These pews are kind of unique, they are hinged at the seat and can be folded down & moved to create more room. When I looked at them I noticed that they are made of veneered plywood (like the chairs at Cedar Rock), I was told Wright like to use the plywood because it was inexpensive & he like the way it looked with the veneer. 

 Wright was said to design the front of the building in this manner to give it the outline of hands folded in prayer.

When we were there they had not started the touring season yet, so hopefully on road trip 2 I get get the full tour :)