JESSICA MARTINEZ UNDERGRADUATE PORTFOLIO
JESSICA MARTINEZ UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON THIRD YEAR ARCHITECTURE STUDENT
TABLE OF CONTENTS USONIAN HOME STUDY USONIAN CLERESTORY HANNA HOUSE WALL ON GRID GRID WALL MODEL AULDBRASS STUDIES AULDBRASS ABSTRACTS GUEST COTTAGE VISITOR CENTER
GRID, PLAN, FACADE WALL ON GRID
ARCHITECTURAL COMPOSITION OF WALL
Materials: Prismacolors
WALL ON GRID MODEL
WALL WALL ON GRID
THIRD FLOOR PLAN
SECOND FLOOR PLAN
FIRST FLOOR PLAN
WALL ON GRID AXONOMETRICS
WALL ADDITIONS MODEL
USONIAN HOME USONIAN HOME STUDY
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT HANNA HOUSE GRID
USONIAN CLERESTORY FRAME
Materials: Pen and Watercolor
SMALL HOUSE POWERPOINT FARNSWORTH HOUSE MIES VAN DER ROHE
MY WORKSPACE
CONCEPT OF DWELLING VERSUS LIVING (09.21.2020)
LIVING · Arlington, Texas is my hometown, I lived there for 11 years before moving to Fort Worth and I’ve been living here for almost 7 years. · We are a family of five, I am a middle child with two brothers. My parents have been married for 27 years. · I grew up in a home of 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, a living room and kitchen for 11 years of my life. · In that home, we rarely were inside, but we would watch whatever my mom or dad had on, usually my dad had car shows on or we’d get lucky so my siblings and I watched HGTV or cartoons. o Most of the time, my brothers and I were playing outside with our neighborhood friends. Three times out of the week, my older brother and I were at taekwondo practice. I was active for about 6 to 7 years. o Saturdays were for cleaning early in the morning with Spanish music blasting in the living room. Some dancing and singing sessions as we cleaned the house. o Sometimes we’d help my dad do small car jobs, like preparing for painting, cleaning, or passing him tools he’d need. We had a wall full of cars and he keeps collecting. There is no day without car talk. · I shared a room with my brothers where we slept on bunk beds. I did share a shelf with my brother for our trophies. The fridge held any academic achievements or frames on the living room bookshelf. · Every night we would eat whatever my mom cooked together at the table. So, we ate Mexican food every night. As we’ve grown the table has come down to three of us together. We would occasionally eat out for special occasions or to go out with family in the area. o We would discuss how our day at school was or what we learned. This was especially important at young ages because none of us spoke English very well. We learned through TV or talking to our friends. Our parents definitely tried to teach us what they didn’t know. This is also where taekwondo gave us opportunities. o Many nights of homework were full of frustration due to our lack of understanding so my parents would get a variety of books on all subjects for us to read. DWELLING As a woman, future wife, mother and hopefully architect, I would want my children to feel they have a safe space. Home should be a place to discuss how they would be different, our values to persevere, and that they will always have a supportive family. · The interior spaces would be painted white or some material can act as natural ornament. · Cooking would be a prominent feature of my future household. I’d hope to have a big kitchen where everyone could pitch in to cook, my future husband and children, as I associate certain foods with very fond memories of my childhood. o Cooking is an ideal form of love. o There’d need to be a big indoor dining room and/or exterior space for when family visits to celebrate or for company. Guest rooms would be important or the children’s rooms would be used as well. · A time for learning their culture through language, books, music, and art. Education being important from the start. · Each of their rooms filled with their interests, easy to take care of plants or plant, books, and their achievements. · A room where everyone can enjoy each other’s company whether to talk or to work. There would also be individual spaces to work alone, if needed.
AULDBRASS STUDY
Materials: Prismacolor, Watercolor
AULDBRASS ABSTRACTS
AULDBRASS STUDY
Jessica Martinez. 09/14/2020 ARCH 3553 Michael Malone Sitting in South Carolina, the Auldbrass was the last project Frank Lloyd Wright worked on until his death in 1959. The project had begun in 1938 when C. Leigh Stevens had requested Wright to a challenge by designing a “new kind of plantation...that would address issues of contemporary use and economics while remaining strongly evocative of its southern location.” (22) Due to many complications, Wright would see to only partial completion of the site. Construction began in 1940, but would soon face its first setback with the outbreak World War II. Development was delayed for years and with there being a material shortage, the project would prove to be difficult. Other problems arose, Stevens struggled both financially and personally and asked for changes or additions to the site that Wright accepted. The estate had been left unfinished when Frank Lloyd Wright died in 1959 and with Stevens’ death following 3 years later. After their deaths, Stevens’ daughter, Jessica Stevens Loring, and son-in-law, Stanton D. Loring, had maintained the house. Following owners would later fail to properly preserve the home, abandoning it and letting it get overrun by time. It wasn’t until a new owner moved in, Joel Silver, that the home would be rescued from its unfortunate state. Joel Silver carried on Frank Lloyd Wright and Stevens’ vision for the home and plans for restoration began. The creation of this book for Auldbrass was brought to the author, David G. De Long’s, attention by Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., who had apprenticed with Wright in the early 1930s and continued to study Wright’s work. Wright had respected Kaufmann as they had worked on publications before and another Wright scholar, Henry-Russell Hitchcock, who “wrote the first scholarly account of Wright’s work, published in 1942 as In the Nature of Materials.” The author was able to visit Auldbrass with Kaufmann in 1987 through Victoria Newhouse’s help, a head of the Architectural History Foundation. When he had arrived the home appeared ruined, as it had been worked on by someone who had not understood Wright’s style of design, “adding to the sense of desolation by recalling past days of splendor.” Joel Silver was able to get into contact with Eric Lloyd Wright, the grandson of Frank Lloyd Wright, for massive restorations on Auldbrass. Eric had been able to outline what needed to be restored and rebuilt for Auldbrass to connect to the southern image Wright had anticipated. The only people who had understood Wright’s architectural vision for Auldbrass was the original client, C. Leigh Stevens, his daughter and son-in-law, Jessica Stevens Loring & Stanton D. Loring, and the current owner, Joel Silver. Joel Silver had taken key part in allowing unrestricted access to Auldbrass and archives with color photography and record photographs for the making of this book. For the author to be able to meet with Steven’s daughter and son-in-law, he was able to receive some knowledge of Auldbrass and see the family archive of documents and photographs of the design and construction. Eric Lloyd Wright also provided a “perceptive understanding of Auldbrass” and with Joel Silver, was able to complete a final image. Frank Lloyd Wright Archives at Taliesin West also provided a great amount of Wright’s original drawings and letters for publication. By having this access, there was full disclosure on how Wright would have wanted to complete Auldbrass, helping out those involved in restoring it while keeping it true to the design elements an connecting it to the southern environment.
Jessica Martinez 09/16/2020 ARCH 3553 Michael Malone The designing of Auldbrass began 1938, when forty-three-year-old C. Leigh Stevens asked Frank Lloyd Wright, who was in his early seventies. It’s interesting to see how relevant Wright managed to be while being “a full generation older than Stevens,” who was one of his last clients to experience Wright’s genius. Of course, there could be no doubt Stevens knew how important Wright was to the architecture community, with buildings designed around the time he was born that gave birth to the idea of modern design. Both men were successful at young ages, this would seem to be a way they could connect as they were both strong-willed. It is important to recognize that Wright had gone through a period of “ostracism” after being in an affair with a wife of his client, but it did not stop Wright from exploring different advancements towards architecture. In fact, this period perhaps gave Wright a push towards new designs, especially after suffering a tragic loss of extended family who were murdered by arson, in his home Taliesin. Thus, the 1920s proved to be a time Wright would work on prototypes, “[explore] unusual technologies and untried geometries, and effecting unparalleled unifications of buildings, roadways, and terrain, so that a new landscape emerged, one in which the underlying patterns of each setting were revealed through human intervention.” This phase of Wright’s life would prove advantageous, as he discovered new ideas that would now be considered masterpieces. It is important to note that at the time Wright and his last wife, Olgivanna Milanoff, established Taliesin Fellowship in 1932, he had begun designing affordable homes for the broader population. It was not until Wright designed a vacation home for Edgar Kaufmann in 1935, Fallingwater, and in 1936 the S.C. Johnson Administration Building, that he would once again become an important architect to commission. It is fascinating to think that Auldbrass could have been what Wright would have similarly designed for himself, had he decided to live in such an environment, especially after building Taliesin West. As mentioned, “Leigh Stevens treated him with deference as they worked together to realize Auldbrass,” which no less would have been expected as Wright became a legendary architect with fame unlike other architects of that period. Although, Stevens had surprisingly never revealed as to why he had chosen Wright, it is clear that Stevens had completely trusted Wright in designing the best plantation home for him that would be “a kind of refuge from the pressures and cares of the world…a place of rest and work.” This seems like a juxtaposition considering all the negative connotations associated with the word “plantation,” nevertheless, Stevens would entrust Wright with experimenting on “an efficient and profitable” design for a southern home. Stevens proved to be knowledgeable of Wright’s work suggesting that he would want his home to be “fitted into the country” like the Wisconsin home Wright designed. Stevens even provided books on plantations “to show what he did not want,” as mentioned before, the neoclassical style of the Tara plantation in Gone with the Wind. He would hope Wright to strive for something exclusive and Wright would only use the idea of “their sense of an open, permeable perimeter.” Wright would use a hexagonal grid for the plan of the home tied together with the “roadways… [that would] augment the hexagonal geometry and complete the loosely unified composition,” which Wright would not change throughout the development of Auldbrass. Wright’s “drawings [would also] indicate future modifications” noting this for his apprentices the same with the plans that they would further develop. It is interesting and expected to note how well Wright paid “attention to client’s requests” through various drawings diagramming the program elements. The cost of Auldbrass was thought to be $50,000, but it is odd that Stevens would choose not to record the amounts after spending about $250,000. Wright noted Stevens request to make the home fit the site, as the plans were made in relation to the shoreline of the “swamp.” It’s fascinating how Wright decides to have “angled walls [supporting] broad overhangs…each corner [having]… a richly detailed copper downspout [hovering] above the flat surface…so the entire roof seems almost to float.” Wright works the hexagonal grid for the guest house so well, that there are differences and “a range of spatial qualities.” It’s interesting to see
DeLong, D. (2003). Auldbrass: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Southern plantation. New York, NY: Rizzoli International Publications.
Jessica Martinez 09/23/2020 ARCH 3553 Michael Malone The Auldbrass was to be like a southern plantation, but without having the typical and easily identifiable elements. Wright was successful in dissociating its image from a southern plantation by avoiding symmetry and “a visibly dominating position.” Wright designed it to sit within the landscape at a smaller scale with “multiple axes that defined no center” relating it to the surrounding farm buildings that would “provide for its economic support.” There is no grand entrance, instead Wright created “variously angled driveways of changing direction” approaching the farm buildings that would frame the views of the main house beyond. There is “no single, obvious entrance” allowing others to arrive having to explore the rest of area before entering the main house, making social order more relaxed. With no large-scale plantings, Wright would plan to have local species restricted to “small, geometrically defined beds arranged to form a transitional band between large, open areas surrounding the house and the house itself.” The beds “within their boundaries [would] augment the sense of continuous, informal unity” following the demands that Stevens had previously mentioned that he wanted to avoid the typical look of a southern plantation. Where the plantation would be more private, the Auldbrass would be more humane following Wright’s theory of organic architecture. He believed that architecture or buildings are an extension of humans therefore should be connected to nature rather than opposed. He thought “universality was sought through linkages of humankind to place” so then nature would be reflected upon the architecture. Wright would manipulate the geometries for unity and Auldbrass is a great example of his manipulation of simple modular shapes. It is interesting that Wright’s exploration of various shapes can be related to his mother giving him Froebel toys that he had to arrange the block-like elements on a grid in unifying patterns. From a young age, Wright had the insight of Euclidian shapes creating other shapes and that “all forms in nature could be reduced to simple geometries.” His inspiration deriving from Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-Le-Duc, who said the equilateral triangle “most satisfies the eye” believing that its line, angle, and relationship to the hexagon…through superimposition, subdivides the circumference of the circle into six equal parts” fulfills the conditions of stability and regularity. An example close to Wright’s exploitation of triangular geometries is the Domus Aurea of Nero built during the Roman Empire where “there is no visible attempt to order space…instead, elements were brusquely juxtaposed without the more flowing quality that Wright would develop in the twentieth century.” Another project similar to Wright’s geometrical explorations was his unbuilt design of a compound for A.M. Johnson that was “more conventionally planned…with angled relationships through rotation rather than internally angled walls” like that of Auldbrass, but similar to Auldbrass it was related to a central pivot that was an octagonal chapel instead of hexagonal aviary. The Auldbrass had a composition of buildings meant to define the open and unshaped place and local materials. Wright would use the hexagonal grid or “honeycomb system” because it seemed more flexible or “natural to human movement.” It is interesting that Wright possibly got inspired from an apprentice Cornelia Brierly who was said to have used the hexagonal grid for an aunt’s house and was noticed by Wright. Wright “emphasized the more relaxed, more flowing sense of space that such gentle angles could engender, angle that he felt more responsive to human use,” which is noticeable as the angles are too restricting and are more open than any acute angle. The hexagonal grid in the use for Auldbrass, “compares with two alignments and one angle in a strictly orthogonal layout, and four alignments and three angles with square units superimposed over an octagonal grid” and it allows Wright to “reinforce the importance of the main house.”
Abstract Report 4 10.12.2020 Wright faced challenges due to his unfamiliarity with the site bringing a setback to progress for Auldbrass. Many other complications like the angled plans, the inward sloped walls, the system of wood frame construction and details became struggles for local builders. Fences were located ten feet from the road to account for “suitable planting.” Other complications such as material shortages called for a substitution of materials that even Stevens could not solve with his connections. Wright was very cautious with the materials used in Auldbrass and demanded that no aluminum roofs be used if copper foil was to be replaced. It’s clear in many of his projects that Wright took pride in the materials he chose in order for the project to integrate itself within its environment. Wright wasn’t too flexible in changing materials, but suggested that if cypress was not available for the wide boards, the six-inch boards could be used on the exterior while a cheaper grade in wide boards would be used on the interior. Although, Stevens would choose to go against Wright’s suggestion of using a cheaper grade by using the narrower boards of cypress, but Wright adapted to the idea of ten-inch boards compromising the design. There were scarce quantities of twelve-inch boards that achieved Wright’s design. Another issue were the canvas panels, or flaps, Wright chose in place of glass doors to open up to adjoining terraces and exterior views, that gave Stevens uncertainties they’d work. Supervisor of the construction, T.F Haddock would also face issues with the framing of interconnecting roofs heights as Wright desired they’d all maintain a low proportion and even line to preserve the “domestic proportion of [the] scheme,” which he did by adjusting floor levels. In the aerial perspective it’s clear that if the floor levels weren’t adjusted the “low-slung, triangular trusses…for the machinery shed,” there wouldn’t have been head room while maintaining low proportions. It seems that with Wright not being able to visit and supervise the project on site, many problems would arise due to his very detailed, unique designs. Stevens being demanding, as mentioned before, would succeed in getting his glass doors instead of canvas. The glass doors would have angled muntins and mullions used for the main house and farm buildings while the staff cabins used canvas flaps. Wright had thought to solve for the inclusion of screens on the glass doors by having angled and parallel screens running from the top down on metal tracks. Unfortunately, wood-framed sliding doors were used. An additional large porch for the main house along the side solved the insect problem made of metal pipe with its top and sides filled with screen, Wright had also designed the tables, beds, and chairs angled like the walls. Wright had reversed the plot plan of the main and guest house after deciding to “correct his imperfect knowledge of the site.” The main house “closer to the center of the overall composition and guest house, together with its covered parking, moved further away.” The general position of the main house was to be parallel to the caretaker’s cottage while respecting the location of the trees. Spanish moss framed views. In fall of 1941, only farm buildings were complete and only the “formwork with radiant heating coils” was placed for the main house. The two staff cabins had “built-in sofas and a dining table with angled, hexagonal stools.” The caretaker’s house had a narrow corridor with “an open ventilating panel at the base of the wall, providing an unexpected vista.” After an offensive report of the Auldbrass being a “Crazy Plantation” describing it as an “angled crazy house,” Stevens demanded a gate to keep out visitors. Wright designed a gate meeting the entrance driveway with an informal axis at a sixty-degree angle with angled boards enclosing a triangular entrance court. Finally, it seems that the workers were able to build the main house much quicker after having built the farm buildings first. The main house seemed simpler, “the boards were screwed to stanchions or to each other, with no other framing members, no insulation, a simple system of wiring…” The “screening was added to the breezeway linking the house to its detached kitchen” that would be “hung from the outer edge of the roof overhangs and gathered in at the base,” which unfortunately was never done. Wright had chosen to put “clear, liquid creosote…producing the rich, honey-toned color desired.” Wright had contracted John T. Lyman, of Montclair, New Jersey to build the doors, windows, and furniture for the house, as they were uniquely designed. The windows causing trouble for being sloped inwards, the dining table’s projecting edge made Lyman question whether it’d be comfortable for a person’s arms, but the design was kept.
DeLong, D. (2003). Auldbrass: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Southern plantation. New York, NY: Rizzoli International Publications.
GUEST COTTAGE AULDBRASS STUDY
GUEST COTTAGE AXONOMETRICS
GUEST COTTAGE MODEL
VISITOR CENTER AULDBRASS STUDY
TERRACE
EXHIBIT SPACE
RESEARCH LIBRARY/ARCHIVES
STAIRS (6'X8')
CIRCULATION/ MECHANICAL 20% W/ ROOF TOP TERRACE WILL REQUIRE STAIRS & ELEVATORS ELEVATOR (9'x8')
STAFF OFFICE W/ 2 DESKS
OUTDOOR DINING
OFFICE FOR ARCHIVIST
CAFE W/ KITCHEN & STORAGE
ENTRY AREA MEN'S RESTROOM
WOMEN'S RESTROOM
GIFT SHOP/ RETAIL AREA W/ STORAGE
AUDITORIUM W/ TECH ROOM
TERRACE
STAIRS EXHIBIT SPACE
ELEVATOR (9'x8')
EXHIBIT SPACE
AUDITORIUM W/ TECH ROOM
RESEARCH LIBRARY/ARCHIVES CIRCULATION/ MECHANICAL 20% W/ ROOF TOP TERRACE WILL REQUIRE STAIRS & ELEVATORS
STAFF OFFICE W/ 2 DESKS
OUTDOOR DINING
CAFE W/ KITCHEN & STORAGE
MEN'S RESTROOM
WOMEN'S RESTROOM GIFT SHOP/ RETAIL AREA W/ STORAGE
ENTRY AREA
OFFICE FOR ARCHIVIST
CRAIG THOMAS GRAND TETON VISITOR’S CENTER
AULDBRASS SITE PLAN
KEY:
WIND PATH
SITE BOUNDARY
PROTECTED AREA PEDESTRIAN ACCESS
VEHICLE ACCESS SURROUNDING BUILDINGS
PUBLIC ACCESS BUILDINGS
PRIVATE ACCESS PEOPLE
AULDBRASS SITE ANALYSIS POWERPOINT
VISITOR’S CENTER SITE PLAN
VISITOR CENTER ELEVATIONS
VISITOR’S CENTER SECIONS
0
1
4
8
VISITOR’S CENTER WALL SECTION
VISITOR’S CENTER SECTION PERSPECTIVES
VISITOR’S CENTER MODEL
VISITOR’S CENTER MODEL
EXHIBIT PLAN, SECTIONS, ELEVATIONS
EXHIBIT SECTION PERSPECTIVES & INTERIOR VIEWS
EXHIBIT SECTION PERSPECTIVES & INTERIOR VIEWS
VISITOR’S CENTER EXHIBIT MODEL