Frank Lloyd Wright's German Warehouse

Frank Lloyd Wright's monolithic German Warehouse stands forlornly on the corner of S. Church and E. Haseltine in Richland Center, WI. I've watched that building now for almost half a century. Highway 14 used to run right through town and the warehouse was on the left, exactly where we always turned right to get to my grandma's house when I was growing up.  I was back there recently and got another look. The old Warehouse is looking worse--it actually looks abandoned:

German Warehouse, northern facade and back

German Warehouse, eastern facade detail 

German Warehouse, rear portico

German Warehouse, rear portico

German Warehouse, service entrance

German Warehouse, loading dock 

German Warehouse, decay in 2012 

German Warehouse, decay in 2012 (detail)

I'd like to know who owns it and more about the problems associated with keeping it intact. I did not get a look inside--it's probably pretty awful--Wright's roofs were notoriously leaky and the German Warehouse had a flat one--a worst case scenario in Wisconsin winters.

Wright designed the building as a warehouse with some small retail space, but it never caught on. What could it be used for today? Not for its original purpose--storing stuff.  Practically anything Wright-related not nailed down is already owned and safely housed somewhere else so a new museum of his "stuff" would probably not fly. Richland Center is not exactly a tourist destination. And yet it could be something--it must be something...*

When I was in Richland Center, I drove my kids and my mom around town, letting her free associate about her past: who, what, where, & when. Wright was born in that town in 1867 and my mom can still point to the house which she knew growing up as "his," but she admits that it's always been controversial. Wright left Richland Center early on for Madison, only returning there after the First World War to build the Warehouse for a client named A.D. German. Things never went well. The people of Richland Center never fully embraced their native son. I still heard the echos growing up in the 1960s: "The Warehouse is different" ("different" is Wisconsin code for ugly); "he never paid his debts" or "he ran that coed school over in Spring Green"--that's code for scandalous.  But times change.

My mom also showed me a tiny cemetery outside of Richland Center where four of her sisters lie buried. They bracketed her in age but three died as young children and their graves lay hidden and forgotten for 70 years--much like their stories--until she finally bought them a decent tombstone this year. She showed me where. I know that there is a Wright somewhere back in my mom's genealogy and I noticed the name "Wright" on a nearby gravestone so I wonder if we're related--she didn't know but I'm tempted to find out.

If only the people who cared about Wright's legacy could unite around this particular building and help transform it. Perhaps people who care don't even know the problems that this building faces, and so I can spread that word at least--for now. I'd do much more if I had the means.
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*...what after all are these buildings now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of Frank Lloyd Wright?

Flying Backwards East

From the air, landscapes assume character larger than is apparent at ground level. East of the Mississippi, luxuriant, deciduous growth once covered the entire surface, veined by coursing and meandering blue rivers, and puddled with countless lakes. When the farmers came from further East, they carefully trimmed and shaved the swaths of trees. Vast tracts of indigenous trees slowly gave way to farms as the settlers moved westward. Slaves and freemen clear-cut the forests and made the land farm-ready.

From the air, it's easier to see where whole groves of trees were left standing, usually covering non-arable land such as mountains and hills. The trees remaining survived as second or third growth native species, mostly confined to hills and river bottoms. Diligent fingers and machines kept the trees in check for generations. 

Later on, urban and especially suburban growth supplanted the farms and competed for topographical dominance -- especially around cities. New types of trees encroached, commingling with native species. Of course some people wanted to live in the woodland forests too, but those enclaves were always either exclusive and more expensive to construct, or were too poor to make much impact.

Flying low into Dulles airport recently, I noticed how some landscape was reverting back to trees. From the air, I distinguished not just forest from farms, but working farmland from fallow land. Here and there I could also see multi-acre spreads, some with newer homes planted in the middle and surrounded by acres of buffer land. I could tell that this land had once been plowed. I say that the land was receding back to forest because a farmer would never let stray trees sprout in a field. The lands surrounding these mansionettes were dotted with clumps of new old growth -- some of it deliberate to be sure-- but some looking like a slow reseeding of the land.

Urban Reclamation: Help Wanted-None

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

Spuren Noch Zwei

Cleveland (1984)

Urban Reclamation: Gardens On The Tracks

Cleveland Flats (1984)

That photo is for Jason (the commenter) who likes photos of weeds growing where you least expect them.

Urban Reclamation

     Cleveland Flats (1984)

Suburban Reclamation

Taken somewhere in Cleveland (1984)

Il Ponte Rotto (Cleveland)

A photo I took of a broken bridge across (or near) the Cuyahoga river in 1984:

A photo of the original Ponte Rotto in Rome along with its history can be found here.

Update:  I found some recent photographs of the Jefferson Avenue Bridge here and here

And: This is my favorite photo of the Ponte Rotto:

Notice how close the modern trastevere travesity comes to the old Ponte Rotto.