Description:

Frank Lloyd Wright
Taliesin, WI, July 11, 1951
Frank Lloyd Wright on the Della Walker House: "Mrs. Walker's roof is a disappointment..."
Archive
Fine content typed letter signed with an unusual variant of his signature "F. Ll. Wright", one page, 10.5" x 8.5", Taliesin, July 11, 1951. On his Taliesin letterhead to Aaron Green, Wright's representative in San Francisco and who is overseeing the construction of the Della Walker house in Carmel. Accompanied by nine retained letters to and from Wright's employees regarding the issues in constructing the house and, in this particular case, the roof. Overall very good condition.

Wright writes, in part: "…Mrs. Walker's roof is a disappointment and I am afraid the enamel will be too glaring unless a matt [sic] surface can be contrived. The contractor for David's roof did a good job and it carries a five year guarantee. I don't believe the salt-water would do much harm to the pigment - if every five years the thing had to be refreshed that is not so bad? Reproached for delay, she ["Mrs. W" added in holograph] wrote and said delay was yours. I do not understand the fear of leaks in the overlapping or standing seams. Whatever you decide will do…".

Wright had been contracted to design and build his one and only oceanfront home for Della Walker in 1945. Situated in Carmel-on-the-Sea, the single-story house was completed in 1952. A widow at the time, Walker told Wright that she wanted a house "…as protection from the wind and privacy from the road and a house as enduring as the rocks but as transparent and charming as the waves and delicate as the seashore. You are the only man who can do this—will you help me?"

The Walker project moved forward satisfactorily, but issues with the roof — a green-blue tile construction designed to mimic the ocean around the home — seems to have been endemic. In the ten letters accompanying the lot, written to both Wright himself and between his trained architects at Taliesin, the roof is mentioned multiple times over the course of nearly five years, from September 1951 to May 1956.

In September 1951, Wright rep Aaron Green scrambled to find alternatives to the copper roof Wright wanted to use, a quest which continues into October 1951. In November 1951, issues arise with the glaze Wright wishes to use due to its inclusion of government restricted cobalt. Eight months later, in July 1952, Aaron laments to Wright: "…I know you will be very distressed that Mrs. Walker's roof is not on. This time it isn't her fault. I had left it all in the hands of this reputable company since they claimed they could manufacture and install according to your details…I was dismayed to learn that they had practically given up on the project…Their main difficulties were concerned with warpage of panel edges and bends…I finally had to console them…Mrs. Walker is still off on a tangent about the color…I believe I can get her back in line…".

More than a year later, September 1953, Green writes to his client about her "roof situation": "…We expected there might be some moisture accumulated at your roof facie due to condensation but I cannot understand why it stays there…Your roof should be watertight…".

As of 1956, at last the Walker roof seems sound, and the final three letters indicate that information is being sought about it…but for seemingly benign purposes of gathering information, not condemnation.

Wright designed the Walker house as a "cabin on the rocks," to blend in with the sea scape in which it sits, and placed the bedrooms in the back for the privacy Mrs. Walker requested. In keeping with his philosophy that architecture should mimic and blend-in with the scenery around it, the house has seemingly-unbroken horizontal lines of the casement windows that face the ocean and "Cherokee-red" painted ribbons of steel that frame them, together with a blue-green tile roof that clearly references the ocean. In fact, the ocean takes center stage as the inspiration and symbol for the home's architecture, with almost all rooms having a view of the water, including the primary bedroom that was added in 1956. Of the home Wright would say, in 1954: "The overall effect is quiet and the long white surf lines of the sea seem to join the lines of the house to make a natural melody."

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 10.5" x 8.6"
  • Medium: Archive

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