martinhouseclr

14 DARWIN D. MARTIN HOUSE // CULTURAL LANDSCAPE REPORT Located within a late-19 th century garden suburb of Buffalo, New York, at the eastern edge of the Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr.-designed Delaware Park, is an arrangement of unique residential buildings and structures that served as the home of Darwin D and Isabelle R. Martin and their family. Known as the Darwin D. Martin House (or the Martin House Complex), the ‘Prairie Style’ architecture and multiple building complex was designed and constructed between 1903 and 1905 by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The composition is considered one of the most significant works of the famed architect’s career. The house is believed to be the greatest Prairie style-era example of Wright’s idealistic unification of architecture, interior design, and landscape. The historic property is currently owned by the not-for-profit Martin House Restoration Corporation (MHRC) and functions as a house museum open for public tours and programs year-round. The mission of the MHRC organization is to preserve, interpret and promote the architectural work. The house includes adjacent administrative support and visitor center facilities. It is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Buffalo, receiving approximately 30,000 visitors per year, with an expected increase in visitor capacity to between 60,000 and 80,000 per year. The property is listed on the National Register (since 1975) and has received prior preservation treatments over the past several years, including the careful reconstruction of once-demolished buildings. The MHRC, under the guidance of HHL Architects (Buffalo, NY), is currently in the final phases of a decades-long effort and seeks to rehabilitate the once significant designed landscape, which has been altered by prior years of neglect, modification, as well as building restoration efforts. Project Objectives Commissioned by the MHRC in spring of 2014, this cultural landscape report (CLR) is the first comprehensive documentation of the Martin House’s approximately 1.5 acre grounds and has been undertaken to guide the planned rehabilitation of the designed landscape and support its interpretation. The objectives of the CLR are to record the history and existing conditions of the designed landscape and provide analysis of its historic importance in the context of the National Register program criteria. The report will also provide guidance for the future treatment and use of the designed landscape. The primary objectives of this CLR are to: • Perform rigorous research of primary and secondary sources in order to fully document and describe the historical design, development, and characteristics of the property, including changes and alterations over time; • Document and describe the existing conditions and characteristics of the landscape, including an overview of its function and condition; • Analyze and compare the historic and existing conditions findings in order to evaluate the landscape’s potential significance and integrity under the National Register program criteria; • Work with MHRC to develop and outline programmatic guidelines, and management and interpretive goals that may influence the planned rehabilitation and future interpretation of the landscape; and, • Provide recommendations for future treatment, including overarching principles, primary treatment, and prioritized individual treatment recommendations for the property. Methodology Relative to its structural and architectural counterpart, landscape preservation is a nascent historic resource protection and preservation strategy that has attained wide adoption of standards and processes only over the past few decades. The nature of landscape, often including living vegetative features, is not static as that of architectural preservation and has thus made standardization of the methods and processes by which it is documented, analyzed and preserved all the more complex. The methods used for this CLR are based on several publications authored by both the National Project Introduction 1