New Wright Attraction Headed To Wisconsin

Wisconsinites consider their state to be architect Frank Lloyd Wright's home. After all, it's where Wright built and lived in his world-famous home and studio Taliesin and where he moved shortly after leaving his first wife and house in Oak Park.

Now one of Wright's Wisconsin masterpieces, Johnson Wax Headquarters in Racine, will exhibit Wright artifacts and memorabilia showcasing the architect's vision for interior home design.

The long-term exhibit, set to open in spring 2012, will “explore Wright's influence throughout his career,” said David Goldenberg, spokesperson for the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.

Featured home objects will range in period from Wright's early fin-de-siecle style up to his famed 1950s work.

Included are an 1895 reception chair from Wright's Oak Park studio and a 1899 remodeled library table from River Forest's Edward C. Waller House. Other home furnishings, including a never-before-shown pieces from Wright's Plaza Hotel suite, will also be on display. 

The exhibit will be housed in an office building, Fortaleza Hall, on the campus of S.C. Johnson Company's global headquarters. The hall includes a Frank Lloyd Wright Library and Reading Room with some 800 Wright-related items, among them drawings, blueprints and letters.

Goldenberg connected S.C. Johnson's office-building exhibit of Wright's home interior work with the corporation's own production of household brands.

S.C. Johnson's history with Wright dates back to the company's commissioning the architect to design two buildings: the Johnson Wax Administration Building (built 1936-1939), and the Administration Building and Research Tower (1944-1951).

The former is renowned for its Pyrex glass tubing that lets in soft light, and dendriform, or tree-shaped columns.

The exhibit's location in Racine, Wisc. will add a tourist destination between Wright's homes in Oak Park and Taliesin.

“It's a natural pilgrimage to go from Oak Park to Taliesin,” Goldenberg said, adding that the exhibit will likely draw many of the thousands of Wright enthusiasts who drive between both sites each year.

Other popular Wright attractions in the Midwest include Chicago's Robie House, Milwaukee's Burnham Street, and Madison's Jacobs House.

As to the question of whether Wright's true home was in Wisconsin or Illinois, Goldenberg says only this: “The fact that states fight over him is a clear testament to his ingenuity, his influence over architecture and American culture."

The exhibit will be free of charge and open to the public.