martinhouseclr

31 2 // SITE HISTORY & EVOLUTION show naturalistic tree and shrub plantings at the western periphery of the property, the intersection of the pergola and Barton House wall, and notably (and heavily), in both the front yard areas for the Barton House and Martin House. However, the Martin front plantings are shown confined to the driveway area. The remaining Martin front yard area along Jewett Parkway is either unfinished in the plan or intended to be open lawn. The former appears to be more likely, as there are light pencil markings in other areas of the property. Still, in terms of planting massing, the plan closely resembles the correspondence sketch of May 1903, including the open front lawn and verandah open to the street. If Wright did not originally intend to surround the verandah or separate the house from the street corner with plantings, based on the May 1903 sketch, then the light pencil markings on the drawing signify that he was changing his mind or the design was responding to the realities of the public realm and latent views from the verandah and unit room. The light pencil markings notably include a half-circle band surrounding the Martin verandah, with light scribbles drawn within the band’s two arcs, and more scribbles on the outside of the arcs – seemingly representing plantings and the important envisioned verandah terminal views and buffering to the public street at the corner of Jewett and Summit. 54 54 The half-circle arrangement, referred to as the “hemi-cycle,” then, later in the design process, as the “Floricycle,” first appeared in Wright’s work in two planting plan sketches for the Ward W. Willits house (1901), Highland Park, Illinois. The planting plans were designed and drawn in Wright’s studio by Walter Burley Griffin. They are similar in scale, arrangement One of the drawing’s more conspicuous elements is the formal interior courtyard garden. 55 Wright’s prior sketch in May 1903 of the complex layout included rough indication and a notation about its intended use as a garden space and this later drawing shows how that feature’s design had advanced through 1903. The courtyard garden in the drawing shows a long formal arrangement with paths and planting areas, bounded on the south end by the house and on the north end by a wall and what appears to be a half-circle fountain, which separates it from the garage entry area. The arrangement includes several orthogonal rows of formal plantings beds with a large planting bed or, more consistently with the eventual constructed design, a large rectangular lawn space in the center. Similar to many features of Wright’s Martin composition as a whole, the courtyard garden plan shown is highly axial, with the garden, the wall and presumed fountain feature, and the garage footprint placed on one axis. However, the spatial interior layout, and even the potential view from the house’s kitchen as drawn, does not relate to the garden in an axial fashion. The fountain or water feature design shown in the plan at the northern terminus of the formal courtyard garden does not represent the final design, however, the width and scale of the and plant material to the original 1905 hemi-cycle design at the Martin House. See Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives, Avery Architectural Library, Columbia University (FLWFA-CU), drawing reference numbers 0208.15 and 0208.018. 55 The interior courtyard garden is commonly referred to by the MHRC and docents as the “Kitchen Garden.” feature, along with the half-circle arc associated with it may relate to a never-realized and undated “garden light” detail drawing. [Fig. 16 &17] The puzzling drawing, held within the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives, includes a fairly complete detail for a garden light. Though fairly finely-detailed, the garden light drawing includes a rough pencil sketch in the margin showing the relationship of the light to what appears to be a fountain and low horizontal wall or pool coping wall. The noted height of the light pole details and the size and scale of the horizontal wall coping sketch seem to match up with the feature in the pool at the axial terminus of the courtyard garden shown within the Preliminary first floor plan drawing. This would date the drawings to the same time and illuminate the observable relationship between the half-circle fountain and the half-circle created by the joining of the two light poles. Furthermore, the entire fountain and wall feature, both in plan and vertically with the light poles, would have also corresponded to the half-circle wall of the stables at the rear of the garage. It is conceivable that Wright was using a detailed drawing of a garden feature to help explain and visualize the grander scheme of the plan to Martin – or they were associated ideas that never left the office. Nonetheless, there is no additional evidence that explains the circumstance of the garden light drawing and it may have not even have been drawn for Darwin D. Martin. 56 56 Other than the title “garden light” written on the drawing (FLWF #0405.93), the remaining drawing titles only state “Details for Martin” – which presents the possibility that it could have been designed by Wright for the William E. Martin house, Fig. 15, next page Preliminary First Floor Plan, Frank Lloyd Wright.