mhprospectus2014

America’s most famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed a unique residential complex for wealthy Buffalo businessman Darwin D. Martin and his family. Built between 1903-05, the Martin House Complex is considered to be the most substantial and highly developed of Wright’s Prairie houses in the Eastern United States and ranks as one of the greatest architectural triumphs of his entire career. The complex occupies a 1.5-acre parcel in the city’s historic Parkside neighborhood—a community planned in the late 1800s by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. The site consists of five interconnected buildings designed as a stunning, unified composition consisting of the main Martin House, with connecting pergola, conservatory and carriage house, as well as a smaller house for Mar- tin’s sister and her husband (known as the Barton House). A gardener’s cottage was added in 1909 to complete the estate. The principal structure, the sixteen-room Martin House, is a model of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie House ideal with its cruciform, open-skeletal plan, low profile, layered roofs, broad eaves, massive chimneys, pier and cantilever con- struction and art glass windows. Today, it stands as a National Historic Landmark. MPOSITION