Darwin D. Martin House Complex- Table of Contents

2001 Photographs - Interior
Darwin D. Martin House Complex

125 Jewett Parkway, Buffalo, NY

Visitor Information

TEXT Beneath Illustrations


Click on photos for larger size and further information

Entry hall

Entry hall

Entry hall

Entry hall

Reception room

Reception room fireplace

Reception room fireplace.

Bursar's office art glass window.

Living room and dining room

Living room fireplace

Architect's sketch of the "wisteria" design

Contemporary model

Living room

Second floor balcony

Close-up of ceiling glass

Living room.

Living room

Living room

Living room

Same window

Casement window

Library

Library

Library.

Detail of previous illustration

Library ceiling

Library ceiling

Library ceiling

Library. Tree of Life pattern.

Dining room

Dining room

Dining room.

Architect's drawings

Wisteria

Dining room window shade.

Staircase - second floor

Staircase. Tree of Life design

Bedroom art glass

Bedroom art glass

Architect's drawing

Bedroom. Tree of Life design.

Tree of Life detail

View from bedroom

Tree of Life window at Albright-Knox Art Gallery




The term "art glass" was coined and the item produced in the Midwest during the late 1880s, in conjunction with a building boom that spawned a retailing invention, the mail-order catalog. By 1910, mail-order catalogs like those from Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward offered "art glass" windows in every style, from Art Nouveau to Prairie to Gothic Revival.

In contemporary writings about Frank Lloyd Wright's buildings and in Wright's own writings, including correspondence, specifications, and working drawings, the term "art glass" was rarely used. Instead, Wright's windows were almost universally called "leaded glass" by art critics. Wright's own term for his windows was "light screens." Bands of windows - or strip fenestration - replaced the single hole-in-the-wall window.

The casement, which opens by means of hinges at the sides, like a door, was preferable because it brought the outside in more effectively than the double hung sash, in Wright's opinion. Critical to the success of Wright's ornamental window patterns, the casement window was a single panel from sill to lintel, uninterrupted by the meeting rails of the double hung sash.

The single open expanse provided by the casement became the canvas - and light was the medium - for Wright to create ornament. Using the vocabulary conceived in his studio windows to enhance the fenestrational pattern, Wright created the Prairie Window.


Sources:


Special thanks to Margie Stehlik, Director of Volunteers for the Martin Complex, for her cooperation and patience.

Photos and their arrangement © 2001 Chuck LaChiusa
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