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Frank Lloyd Wright Goes Camping!

Back Story

 

While visiting the Phoenix area, my wife and I decided to see Taliesin West. As a lover of most things related to architecture, it was a “no brainer.” It’s also a “must see” if you are interested in Frank Lloyd Wright, and if you have followed this blog in the past, you know that I am afflicted with “Frank Fever.”

 

Having lived most of my life in the Midwest, I have seen many of Wright’s architectural projects. Mason City, Iowa, is close to where I grew up, and my parents made me aware of the Stockman House and the Park Inn Hotel as Wright designs. I’ve been to Taliesin in Spring Green, and visited and photographed many other Wright buildings and viewed examples of his furniture and other assorted designs in museums so I really wanted to see Taliesin West!

 

Finding the place made me very thankful for Google Maps. While one might think that simply getting on Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard in Scottsdale is a simple solution to getting there, it’s only part of the story. You actually have to turn off onto a small road called Taliesin Drive, and the Taliesin signage is not very visible. However, it wasn’t a problem for us because Google Maps had it right, and I just followed the little blue dot!

 

Most of the structures are not easily seen from Taliesin Drive. It’s a combination of Wright’s organic architecture (things are designed to coexist with the land they are on) and the growth of desert vegetation since the buildings were originally constructed. We were directed to a parking spot and then walked a short ways to the bookstore where we purchased tickets for one of the 90-minute tours that begin every half hour. (Tour information at http://www.franklloydwright.org/taliesin-west/plan-a-visit.html).

 

Wright first visited Arizona to consult on the design and construction of the Arizona Biltmore in 1927. The architect of record, Albert Chase McArthur, hired him as a consultant because of his work with the “textile block” construction method. Chase ultimately employed a variation of this technique, the Biltmore Block, and there is an air of Frank Lloyd Wright about the building because of it. I believe that Wright’s four month stint in the Sonoran Desert opened up a new world of possibilities to him at a time when he was greatly in need of a fresh start.

 

Wright was always a controversial figure. Intelligent and head strong, he tended to do things his way, and his battles with clients and peers are well know as was his penchant for romantic affairs. Beginning in 1911 with the construction of the original Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin, an especially tumultuous series of events rocked his life. His paramour, Mahma Cheney, her children and several others were murdered at Taliesin East and a fire tied to the event destroyed part of the structure. The early 1920s were marked by two divorces and the death of his beloved mother, a new affair with a married woman that resulted in an arrest for violation of the Mann Act, another fire at Taliesin East and an assortment of business problems. It seemed as if Wright’s life was due for a remodel – enter Arizona!

 

While I have no factual evidence that a light bulb went off in Wright’s head once he saw the Sonoran Desert during the Biltmore consultancy, I think there is a real probability that he saw the area as an attractive venue for a fresh start. Wright had gone to new territories before to regenerate, and the desert certainly presented a very diverse set of challenges and opportunities compared to the Midwest. It was a blank canvas of sand and rock where he could try out his organic theory of architecture and see how it fit with a desert environment, and he could do it in a place that was relatively free from the press and public scrutiny.

 

Wright married Olgivanna Lazovich in 1928, and they honeymooned in Phoenix. Olgivanna was a key player in the formation of the Fellowship and the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. 1932 was the first year of the Fellowship and shortly thereafter they began wintering in the Phoenix area in makeshift accommodations. By 1937 Wright purchased the land where Taliesin West now sits on the west edge of Scottsdale.

 

For the first few years, Wright, Olgivanna and the members of the Fellowship were basically camping out in the desert. They would travel by caravan from Wisconsin, erect canvas structures in the desert and camp. They would spend the days studying and once the land was purchased, erecting more permanent structures that would eventually become Taliesin West. Even though members of the Fellowship were paying a substantial sum to learn from the master, they were expected to work hard as laborers as well as participate in everyday chores like food preparation, site maintenance, etc. It couldn’t have been an easy existence! In the spring they would pack everything up and return to Wisconsin for the summer.

 

Taliesin West Today

 

The buildings of Taliesin West do have a flavor of “camping out” about them. For many years the buildings had canvas for a roofing material. Wright made this material choice because the white canvas would let in light. Eventually, the canvas was covered with translucent white acrylic panels. Today there is an ongoing debate as to what to do with the roofs.

 

The buildings have definite similarities to the majority of Wright’s creations: they are low-slung, they are meant to blend in with the land on which they reside, and they are composed of native materials. In some sense they would not be unfamiliar to native populations that inhabited the Southwest hundreds of years ago.   One of the buildings in even referred to as the “Kiva”. Another factor that visitors to other Wright sites would find familiar is the compressed entryways of some of the buildings. They seem almost “claustrophobic” as you pass through, but they lead into large, open areas that feel like a breath of fresh air. I think this is exactly what Wright wanted visitors and occupants to experience!

 

The docents giving the tours are extremely knowledgeable, and there is much to see and a great deal to learn about Wright, Olgivanna, the Fellowship and Taliesin West. From the ancient petroglyph carved into a rock that Wright adapted into the “Clasped Hands” logo for the Fellowship to the amazing acoustics of the Cabaret Theater, there is a great deal to learn and much to enjoy at Wright’s desert oasis called Taliesin West.

 

Weep Screeds and Halloween

There actually is a connection between the most commonly used weep screeds and Halloween — they both can involve some scary outcomes!  The purpose of a weep screed in thin veneer wall is to provide drainage at the bottom of the thin veneer wall. Unfortunately, the manufacturer’s literature often states that this drainage space will come from the formation of a shrinkage crack. This is neither a predictable nor adequate solution for providing the necessary drainage of moisture at the bottom of a thin veneer wall.

A paradigm shift is needed when it comes to draining thin veneer walls. Most architects and builders now recognize the need for a drainage plane (commonly referred to in the industry as a drainage mat) behind thin veneers. These products create a space behind the veneer that acts as a capillary break and a transport mechanism to move water that gets into the building envelope down to the bottom of the wall. The problem arises when that moisture reaches the base of the wall; the most commonly employed weep screeds restrict the flow out of the wall because of that pesky shrinkage crack! And no, those tiny little holes are not for drainage. Again citing the manufacturer’s literature, they are for “attachment purposes (not weeping).

Moisture-related failure of walls is not as much about volume of water in walls as it is about the time that some moisture is allowed to remain in that wall. If an adequate opening isn’t available at the bottom of the wall for moisture to exit and adequate airflow to occur, the wall is ripe for failure.

I prefer to remain optimistic about the building industry, but I recently read an article in a national building trades publication on the correct installation of adhered masonry veneers that set my optimism back a bit. As many of you know, adhered concrete masonry veneers have experienced a large number of moisture-related issues when not installed properly. Many articles have been written about this issue including “Best Practices: Adhered Concrete Masonry Veneer” by Mark Parlee that appeared in the Journal of Light Construction. Parlee, who is a builder as well as a forensics expert, notes in his article that ACMV walls have now become a trigger for inspections because of the large number of moisture-related failures they have experienced. He goes on to state that the solution is “drainage.”

Back to the article I read. It implied that drainage was necessary, but it referenced the use of two layers of WRB to create that drainage. That is a very old technique, proven by testing to retard the rapid transport of moisture out of walls. It does not provide the minimum drainage space specified by respected scientists like Dr. Joseph Lstiburek. In his article Mind the Gap, Eh! a minimum 1/8” gap or void needs to be present to create a capillary break and an effective drainage mechanism.

The building trades magazine article also mentioned the use of a weep screed, but it did not indicate what to look for in an effective product. Remember, the holes are for attachment, and a shrinkage crack isn’t predictable. I am disappointed that while we seem to embrace the goal of better buildings, we still employ old, outdated techniques even though many of the new materials we build with don’t work with the old way of doing things.  We need that paradigm shift!

You need to look for a weep screed that provides frequent, large openings for drainage. They do exist. Without “real” drainage space behind the veneer and “real” openings at the bottom of walls, you will wind up with a moisture “trick” rather than the “treat” of a beautiful, long-lasting building. Happy Halloween, hope you get a treat!

*For more information about weep screeds and weeps at the bottom of walls, download the MTI article “MTI-014: Getting to the Bottom of Moisture Management” in the MTI Library at http://www.MTIdry.com.

This photo shows a moisture-related ACMV wall failure in a Midwest hotel.

Beautiful Public Buildings Preserved on the Plains

My wife and I recently took a motorcycle trip with some friends through parts of the Great Plains Region.  We saw a great deal of Nature’s beautiful handiwork from glacier-created lakes in western Iowa to the sacred pipestone quarries in western Minnesota, to sweeping expanses of grasslands that once teemed with buffalo (more correctly referred to as the American bison).  These natural wonders caused us to park the bikes and spend some time exploring.  What I didn’t expect, however, was experiencing that same sense of awe and appreciation over some man-made wonders!  Even more amazing, the buildings that gave us pause were county courthouses from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The Rock County Courthouse, Luverne, MN.

The first courthouse that pulled us in was the Rock County Courthouse in Luverne, Minnesota.  According to their website, “[This] three-story Romanesque building was built in 1888 of Sioux quartz rock mined from a quarry located in nearby Blue Mound State Park (one of the natural wonders I mentioned earlier).  It was renovated to its current condition in 1988 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.”

This beautiful building adorns a square two blocks north of the main business district.  Next to it, and also built with Sioux quartz, is the Veterans Memorial Center.  The Veterans Memorial building houses the Chamber of Commerce/Visitors’ Information Center and Brandenburg Gallery (home to many original works by National Geographic photographer and native son, Jim Brandenburg) along with a Veterans Museum (with artifacts and videos covering the Civil War to WWII).  We spent an entire morning feasting on these two beautiful architectural wonders and their historical and cultural contents.  View Slideshow of Both Buildings

Our other courthouse stop was about two hours south and east in the city of Spencer, Iowa.  The Clay County Courthouse has some similarities to Rock County’s.  Both buildings have a reddish hue, and both buildings feature a dome or tower with an open viewing area beneath their domes.  Like many buildings from this era, they also feature quality workmanship and beautiful architectural details.

The architectural styles, however, are different.  Clay County’s building, built twelve years later (begun in 1900), is Classic Revival while Rock County’s is Romanesque.  And unlike the Rock County Courthouse that still houses county offices, the Clay County Courthouse is only used for court cases and related judicial offices.  Since no cases were being held at the time we were there, we were able to tour the building and see the beautiful interior details such as stained glass windows, decorative ceilings, wonderful woodwork details, tile floors and other architectural touches that are often missing in today’s buildings (or are not done with the same quality of craftsmanship or materials).

There are several takeaways here.  Both these communities care about preserving the past.  Also, quality of craftsmanship, quality of design and material quality equal sustainable buildings that can still be functional and beautiful more than one hundred years later.  Finally, beautiful architecture is not confined to major metropolitan areas.  View Slideshow

Rigid Boardstock Insulation Moisture Management Issues

Rigid Boardstock Insulation: Friend or Foe?

“When the message is absolutely critical, and not heeding the message increases the likelihood that a disastrous outcome will occur, then repeating the message is (or should be) a professional imperative! This has never been more true than with the issue of specifying and installing rigid boardstock insulation exterior of WRB’s and exterior sheathing on the exterior building envelope.”

The preceding paragraph is from the introduction to John Koester’s new white paper on potential moisture management issues architects, contractors and building owners face when they choose to use rigid boardstock insulation directly behind the exterior veneer of the building envelope (see image below). Normally, we release these articles after they have been published in industry-related magazines; however, this one addresses a topic that is so timely, we are going to release it immediately via our electronic newsletter, our website www.MTIdry.com and our social media sites. There is absolutely no charge nor are there any other conditions to access this article. It is immediately available as a PDF document via the link at the end of this article.

The following are some highlights from the “Exterior Rigid Boardstock Insulation Moisture Management Issues” article.

• Most boardstock rigid insulation has some moisture-resistant characteristics.

• When layered against a weather-resistant barrier (WRB) on exterior sheathing, an undrained cavity/void will be created that may entrap moisture.

• Installing a thickness of rigid boardstock insulation over WRBs and exterior sheathing may have an impact on the fastening patterns and/or structural requirements to secure thin veneers (stucco, adhered thin stone and thin brick and various other siding systems).

• Rigid boardstock insulation may have dynamics of its own.

• Installing a thickness of rigid boardstock insulation over WRBs and exterior sheathing will impact exterior building envelope rough openings…

The article goes far beyond simply pointing out problems. Through the use of text and numerous detailed drawings (17) it shows how to solve or avoid the problems. We hope you find this information helpful, as well as timely. MTI believes that too much time is spent on the energy-saving side of the building envelope detail while often ignoring the moisture management side of the equation.

Building envelope moisture management must be equally involved in the building envelope detail if sustainability and energy efficiency are the goal!

Download the Rigid Boardstock White Paper