The Robie House story
A
service of the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference and its website
www.hydepark.org and Preservation and Development/Zoning task force. Join
the Conference: your dues support our work.
Wright
houses in Hyde Park-Kenwood views (part of Around
Hyde Park-Kenwood tour series).
History
and Historic Preservation home. Wright
Plus website.
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The Robie House storyA
service of the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference and its website
www.hydepark.org and Preservation and Development/Zoning task force. Join
the Conference: your dues support our work. |
Views of Robie and Heller Houses (with Heller House story).
Join the Wright Team, the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust. Lead tours, help visitors in Oak Park of at Hyde Park's Robie House. Fall training class forming. wrightplus.org, volunteer@wrightplus.org, 708 848-1976.
Programs range from regular tours to Wright3 junior tours with local school children to period happenings. Architrek. Tours and Wine.
Robie House is one of 25 finalists in a contest by the National Trust and American Express to provided up to $1 million dollars to tht historic site voted most worthy. You can vote every day through Octobe 10. Visit http://www.partnersinpreservation.com.
At a November 22 2005 press conference, the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust officially launched its drive to finish the interior of the 1909 structure widely called the "most important residence in American Architectural history." This will wrap up the effort launched in 1997 by then-Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and owner University of Chicago. The announcement was made by Wright Trust President Joan Mercuri.
What's to be done (More description below)? Return the 2nd story dining room prow to its original look, including custom-made brass sconces. Reproduce the square breakfast table. restore the inglenook around the fireplace. Redo wall plaster, paint, lights.
Governor Blagojevich has promised to turn over the final $200,000 of $2 million, according to State Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie.
Hyde Park Herald, August 15, 2007. By Georgia Geis. Three-year trek marks tart of journey
After avoiding the wrecking ball twice in its 97-year existence, Hyde Park's Robie House, 5757 S. Woodlawn Ave., may be included in an international heritage list, which includes such sites as the Grand Canyon, Yosemite National Park and the Everglades.
Only the first formal step has been completed towards placing a dozen structures representative of Frank Lloyd Wright's career, which includes the Robie House and the Unity Temple of Oak Park, on the internationally renown United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) World Heritage List of historic sites.
"The Robie House represents the birth of modern architecture," said founding member and head of Preservation Chicago, Jonathan Fine. Whether Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie School-pioneering Robie House makes the famed list or not, it has clearly been established as a national historic landmark and an architectural masterpiece, named one of the 10 most significant buildings of the 20th century by the American Institute of Architecture. Further, amidst these accumulating accolades, the Robie House is also well on its way to being restored to its original glory.
Last year, the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust completed a $5 million exterior restoration of the home. The restoration include having custom tiles made for t he roof, copper gutters installed, tuck-pointing, an exact match to the original grout and repairing the structure from termite damage. Some features that were not present originally were added to protect the structure, like the water and ice shield placed under the tile roof.
"It has been a painstaking restoration effort which has involved a lot of research," said Joan Mercuri, president and CEO of the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust.
Now the effort has shifted to a complete interior restoration, estimated to cost even more than the exterior at $5.5 million. Restoration will mean finding all the original fabrics, colors and materials used in the h ome down to an exact match for the surface plaster. A model of the interior restoration is now on display for the public in the home's dining room.
When reflecting on the Robie House's colorful pasts, Mercuri said retired alderman Leon Despres was "instrumental in saving the house and we are grateful."
Longtime Hyde Parker Despres said he can remember the morning in 1957 when the head of Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS) told him they were going to tear the Robie House down. "I was horrified," said Despres. "I had no idea it was endangered."
Despres as alderman at the time waged a full campaign to save what he refer to as "a leading architectural gem for Hyde Park." Despres is still actively involved in Robie House preservation, now by raising funds for the restoration project.
Mercuri has worked with the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy for three years preparing the well-documented application for nomination to be placed on the UNESCO list. Founded in 1945, UNESCO seeks to promote peace through education.
Much like the long process to win the Olympic bid, it will take years to find out if the home wright envisioned almost a hundred years ago will be placed in the ranks of the Grand Canyon. "Thank goodness the Robie House was saved. People from all over the world come to see it," said Despres.
Robie House was considered by Frank Lloyd Wright his quintessential Prairie School creation, a work of both art and spirituality. The house is generally considered a turning point in modern residential architecture and has been voted one of the ten most important buildings in America- in its structure, as design, as integration of materials, as design for domestic life and layout of living space, as integration of structure and furnishings. All this can be learned in many books or in resources of the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio and its managing arm, the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust, or Wright Plus--visit their website. The Robie House preservation fight in the 1950s was the spark behind the city's first landmark protection ordinance.
When built in 1909-10 for bicycle manufacturer Frederick C. Robie, one could look all the way to Frederick Law Olmsted-designed Midway Plaisance a block to the south and to the University of Chicago's emerging campus a block to the west. There was a scattering of frame house on lands that had belonged to, among others, Marshall Field, and beginnings of a row of mansions on Woodlawn, "professor's row" houses, and other grand houses.
Frederick Robie went bankrupt a couple of years after construction, and the house quickly fell on poor times. In 1926, the Chicago Theological Seminary turned it into a dormitory. It's proposed demolition in 1941 was prevented by a (first) Committee for the Preservation of Robie House.
In 1956-7, the Seminary again proposed to replace it with a high-rise dorm. Wright visited and gave a much-quoted statement: "To destroy it would be like destroying a great piece of sculpture or a great work of art. It would never be permitted in Europe. It could only happen in America, and it is particularly sad that professional religionists should be the executioners...It all goes to show the danger of entrusting anything spiritual to the clergy."
Soon after, the City's new Commission on Architectural Landmarks named Robie House its first "honorary" landmark, although the commission lacked power. The Seminary's response was to suggest giving Robie to the city if the city would relocate it or to build a model in a museum.
Robie House was rescued (likely through the ingenuity of Julian Levi and arranged at a meeting in Mayor Daley's office) by the New York firm overseeing much of the Urban Renewal work in Hyde Park, Webb and Knapp, led by William Zeckendorf, for $125,000. Many Hyde Parkers, including newly-elected alderman Leon Despres and his wife Marian (Auditorium Theater, Glesner House), worked diligently for preservation and eventual restoration. Robie House was used as Webb and Knapp's construction office until they gave it to the University of Chicago in 1963. Two successive and notable uses were as the Adlai Stevenson Institute for International Peace and the Alumni Office. Both users took major, although unintended, toll on the building (as did misguided attempts to stabilize and tuck point the structure and Wright homes' notorious problems with leaks and collapsing cantilevered roofs). Robie House nevertheless became an international tourist and architecture/history-buff mecca and hopes remained for eventual restoration.
In 1997, the University, the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, agreed that the latter two would assume control and responsibility to raise over $4 million for restoration and operation as a museum. In fact, sole responsibility, including raising 4-8 million dollars, has rested with the F.L.W Preservation Trust. Most of the exterior restoration is complete and planning and pilot-project work proceeds on the interior. Regular house and neighborhood tours are given and there is a fine shop in the former garage. Director of Restoration is Karen Sweney.
The House has recently gained attention as the locale of Blue Balliet's mystery, The Wright 3.
The Trust calls for volunteer docents, of which the Trust has too few at present. Contact Angela at 708 848-1976 x223 or volunteer@wrightplus.org. There are regular training programs available.
Tour schedule: (detailed information 773 834-1847) (interior only except the vicinity tour. Last about 45 minutes.
Weekdays 11 am, 1 pm, 3 pm. Weekends every 45 minutes 11 am-3:30 pm.
Vicinity tour Fridays and Saturdays 2 pm. Certain weekends: Junior Architect interior tours by trained junior high students (reduced cost.)
Report from the November 4, 2004 HPKCC Board meeting by board member Nancy Baum. More detail in following section.
Good news for Hyde Parker! We are invited to participate in the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust's program for learning by becoming "interpreters," or guides at the world-renowned Frederick C. Robie House located at 5757 S. Woodlawn Ave. It sound like a wonderful opportunity to meet people and show off a neighborhood of which we are justly proud.
At the November 4, 2004, meeting of the HPKCC, a group of volunteers from the Frank Lloyd wright Preservation Trust spoke about the ongoing restoration project at Robie House. The Vice President of Development, Marshall Jacobson, introduced the other members of the group: Jeff Grip, Chairman of the Board of the FLWPT, and Michael Rosen and Sue Freehling, both members of the Trust Board and prominent Hyde Park residents. Beth Haydon, a Robie House staff member, explained the details of the exterior restoration, completed at the cost of 4 million dollars, and outlined future interior restoration projects that will cost an additional four million. The completed project will yield a museum-quality structure which, when completed with the original furniture, presently housed in various other museums, will preserve this architectural gem for future generations. The house has remained open to visitors during the entire restoration project. It is slated to be returned to its 1910 splendor by 2007. The group appealed to the Conference because of our interest in public transportation, hoping that through our leadership we might suggest ways to facilitate transportation to the site. Also, the group hopes to encourage more Hyde Parkers to become members of the Trust and donate money and time.
Robie House tracts thousands of visitors to Hyde Park each year. Tours of the famous building are conducted daily. On Friday and Saturday the tour includes a walking tour of the surrounding area. Hyde Parkers are urgently needed to become volunteer tour guides.
People interested in becoming guides should call Angela at 708 848-1976 x223 or email volunteer@wright plus.org.
By Gary Ossewaarde
Members of the Trust presented at the November 2004 HPKCC Board meeting. They pointed out that the site remains fully open during restoration, uses its store to full advantage to raise funds, and wants to do more extensive fundraising in the area. Among HPKCC Board suggestions considered after the presentation were improved transportation from downtown, signage at key roadway points, packaging/marketing a suite of Wright and other architectural treasures in the neighborhood, for example in a flyer, and other promotion (including for docent recruitment) including on our website, more combined cultural marketing and networking, and improvements to user friendliness at Robie House.
As explained to the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference Board:
"The goal of the Robie House restoration is to return the building to its 1910 appearance. In order to fully represent the architect's vision for the building, non-extant built-in furniture, carpeting, linens, and artwork, etc. will need to be found or restored. None of this existing work can be completed until we have sufficient funds in hand to complete the project.
"Total cost: Site Development + Interior Restoration...........................$4,000,000
"Breakdown: The following major area still need to bd completed:
Art Glass - A total of 174 art glass windows nee to be conserved. Weather-stripping must be restored and wood sash refinished. Art Glass for the Front Door must be recreated according to architectural drawings.
Gates - Per the original designs, one set of Garage Court gates and smaller gates for the Play Yard and West Porch must be recreated and installed.
Light Fixtures - Thirty-nine reproductions of bare bulb square-type fixtures and 25 dome-type fixtures need to be created, an 32 vintage sconces currently onsite must be conserved.
Floors - Maple and bare wood floors must be assessed for condition and treatment befdore refinishing and replacing damaged or missing floorboards.
Exterior Bricks - Due to very poor previous tuck pointing, the bricks in some area have extra mortar on them. As the mortar is too hard to be removed without damaging the original bricks, this non-original mortar will be stained on the brick faces to match the original brick color.
Walls and Ceiling - Heavily cracked plaster panels need to be replaced with plaster matching the original composition and texture. Contemporary paint needs to be stripped, and paint matching the original paint scheme needs to be applied. Wood trim needs to be refinished according to historic surface coating.
Carpentry - Cabinetry units need to be recreated according to the original design. Period hardware and fixtures mus also be procured and installed. Casework to be fabricated includes several doors, shelving, bookshelves, closets, and screen walls.
In addition to the above areas, there is much to be done regarding electrical, mechanical, plumbing, masonry, fencing, lighting, hardscaping, landscaping, and site signage. a detailed cost breakdown for any of these areas can be provided."
We were told that when funds are generated for interior work , a pilot project will be undertaken on a small part of a main room to be sure of what they are dealing with underneath the surface and that restoration methods are fully appropriate. The most expensive part of that phase will be the art glass. First, however, must come more exterior hardscape. In a brochure, the Trust continues:
"But now this urgent preservation project has come to a halt, only halfway complete. Without a minimum of $4 million in further funding, visitors of all ages will never fully experience how Wright's distinctly American ingenuity transformed the way we think about space, shelter and design.
"When the Preservation's Trust work on the Robie House got underway, it quickly became clear that the house's condition was calamitous, with extensive water damage, termite destruction, and irreparable brick and plaster erosion. After nearly 18 months of restoration and more than $4 million in public and private support, this icon of modern design has reemerged from decades of decay--but the Trust's work has just begun.
"The highlight of the next immediate phase will be reproducing and installing the steel gates Wright designed to link the restored garden walls. Other "hardscaping"--installing pavers and storm drainage, returning concrete to its original configuration--may seem lacking in glamour, but it is essential to maintaining the house's integrity. In fact, interior work cannot commence until this phase is completed. Cost: $1 million.
"To restore the spectacular integrated spaces, the Trust will conserve the original woodwork and finishes, restore 174 art glass windows and sashes, and reproduce built-in furnishings, hardware and fixtures--including 70 brass sconces. Cost: $3 million. As funding permits, we hope to further acquire, reproduce, and secure for long-term loan as many furnishings, textiles, and decorative objects as possible--fully recreating Wright's revolutionary vision.
"Wright paid close attention to the relationship between the Robie House and the surrounding natural world. To recapture his synergy, the Trust will recreate the original landscape by planting three disease-resistant elm trees, replacing grass and bushes, and filling the built-in flower boxes with the greenery depicted in the famous Wasmuth Portfolio plate of 1910. A new irrigation system will sustain the beauty of the site. Cost: $50,000."
To the Editor, Hyde Park Herald, July 21, 2004. By Michael B. Rosen, architect
About twenty-five years ago, shortly after moving to Hyde Park, I was at a dinner party in my new neighborhood. Our hostess asked me if I liked Hyde Park. I said yes, very much. What do you like about it, she asked? I told her I liked the fact that whenever I felt like it, I could walk or drive by the Robie House.
Now that the house's exterior has been restored to its original 1909 freshness, walking or driving by is even more exhilarating. For this painstakingly exact restoration of the exterior we can thank the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust, which looks after the house, conducts tours, and is planning its next step, the restoration of the interior.
The Robie House is a masterpiece by, arguably, the greatest architect who ever lived. It is our community's greatest work of art, right in view, and open to the public.
As from the special retrospective edition of the Hyde Park Herald, July 21, 2004.
The surprising savior of Wright's Robie House
Crowds linger outside Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House, 5757 S. Woodlawn Ave., waiting for one of three daily tours. Gift shop cashiers ring up Robie House posters, Robie House refillable pens and Robie House metal sconces. Volunteers request no one take flash pictures or touch the furniture. Strollers pause near the front of the house and inspect the plaque marking the masterpiece of Wright's Prairie style.
But the house was nearly town down 50 years ago. Only a determined and brilliant campaign led by a hastily formed committee of Hyde Parkers, including the Herald and then-5th Ward Ald. Leon Despres, saved the residence now considered by architects to be one of the 20th century's most significant structures.
In February 1957, the same month that Architectural Record magazine named the Robie House "the most important home in the country," the Herald caught the rumor that then-owner Chicago Theological Seminary planned to demolish the structure.
"One evening I got a call from the head of the Chicago Theological Seminary, Arthur McGiffert," recalled Despres. "He said he would like to see me first thing in the morning. So at 8 o'clock the next morning I went to his office, which was in the Robie House and he told me that the Chicago Theological Seminary had decided to tear down the Robie House and build a dormitory. Well I was deeply shocked. I thought, what an awful thing that is...And so we began a campaign to protect Robie House."
The parade of articles and editorials in the Herald began immediately. Feb. 13, 1957: "Rumors Circulate: Robie House Will Go." March 6, 1957: "Form Committee to Save Robie House." March 20, 1957: "Wright Visits Robie House." An editorial titled "Robie Fans Won't Shut Up" ran in May; the week after an article asked the U.S. government to intervene.
Then, December 25, 1957, only nine months after the campaign began, a headline announcing the rescue of the Robie House marched across all five columns on the front page, with a story about a surprising savior.
Previously a private residence for Frederick C. Robie, a bicycle manufacturer who paid $35,000 ford the house in 1909, the Chicago Theological Seminary bought the Robie House in 1926. The school turned it into a women's dormitory and by the mid-1950's was using it as a conference center and to house administrative offices.
Several Hyde Parkers, including Thomas Stauffer, Despres and Herald publisher Bruce Sagan, led by William B. McDonald, formed a committee to fight the demolition of the building. The committee launched a campaign to save the Robie House. The committee also began working to create a City Council commission to protect architectural landmarks in Chicago. Included in the commission's first list of landmarks was the Robie House.
The seminary hired the well-known firm of Holabird & Root to build the dorms that would replace the Robie House. Despres pointed out to the Mayor and the Herald that Holabird & Root had recently testified to the City Council in favor of the new landmarks commission and singled out the Robie House for its architectural significance. In a subsequent interview with the Herald, the Holabird & Root architect said he "couldn't remember" his testimony.
The committee brought the 90-year-old famous architect to Hyde Park. ("Wright," that article noted, "demonstrating his well-known humility, called the house 'a corner stone of American architecture.'")
And they encouraged a letter-writing campaign, asking everyone to write the Seminary and--importantly--the University of Chicago to save the Robie House. "We started a worldwide campaign," said Sagan. "Every time we said anything, we said, 'The Chicago Theological Seminary at the University of Chicago.' This was technically true. The seminary is an independent school with its own funding, but it is part of the allied religious schools. The U. of C. president then began to get letters from academic institutions asking how could he participate in the destruction of this important architectural monument. It must have been difficult and tiresome to try to explain to your peers around the world that it really was not you," said Sagan.
A Dec. 25th, 1957 front-page article noted, "The Herald learned this week that one of the leading architectural magazines of Germany, Werk & Zeut" printed an article in a recent issue which dealt with the importance of preserving Robie House. The strategy of getting continental architects involved was, said Despres, crucial to the campaign. "What tipped it was...the heavy response from other countries, particularly Europe. And so after awhile it created a great disturbance, the destruction of this great treasure of Chicago." The committee's decision to link the university to the controversy was a brilliant strategy, recalls Sagan.
Urban Renewal was just beginning when the Seminary announced its plans to demolish the Robie House. The developer chosen to develop the massive Hyde Park "A" and "B" plans--essentially the redevelopment of 55th Street--were New York's Webb & Knapp, Inc., headed by William Zeckendorff. In December, 1957, Zenckendorf offered to buy the Robie House for $102,000. The offer came in a meeting held in the office of Mayor Daley and attended by seminary president McGiffert, the Mayor, etc. (Daley was well-known for solving disputes by calling all the parties together in his office.)
Zeckendorff would use the Robie House as his headquarters during the 55th Street development. Then, according to the agreement, the seminary reserved the right to pass on any future change of ownership. The University of Chicago made a separate agreement with the seminary to allow it to use university property adjoining Robie House to the north on Woodlawn Avenue. The seminary's four-story stone and brick building, at 5751 S. Woodlawn Ave., can be seen today.
"We do not know who thought of Webb and Knapp but our guess is that it was another of Julian Levi's remarkable solutions to problems. The university gets Webb and Knapp to buy it, use it while they rebuild 55th Street, and then give it to the university when they are finished," said Sagan. "We did not save it, just created the conditions which made saving it necessary."
In early 1963, after the developers had finished the 55th Street work, a formal ceremony was held to hand over the Robie House deed to University of Chicago president George W. Beadle. It has since been loaned to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and opened to the public.
The Herald's early articles and editorials stood in contrast to much of the city's reaction, recalls Despres. "What was striking about the whole thing was that there were a lot of people perfectly willing to have the Robie House destroyed," he said. "People should have known better." Fortunately, a group of Hyde Parkers and the Herald did.