It's not unusual for Allen Gaw to stand in the front yard of his Bunker Hill home and see complete strangers peeking through the iron bars of his gated lot.
Some just wave; others ask if they can come in and look around. It's not quite a tourist attraction, but as Houston's only home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, it certainly gets attention.
Every home designed by the man considered one of the most influential architects in the world is getting another look right now as we approach June 8, the 150th anniversary of Wright's birth. He was 91 when he died in 1959.
Wright, known for his imperious nature and demanding standards, was one of the country's most prolific architects during a 70-year career, designing homes, offices, churches, schools, skyscrapers and museums all over the world.
He was a leader in Prairie-style architecture, known for its horizontal lines, flat roofs and broad eaves. After World War II, he was a proponent of Usonian architecture, as in Gaw's home, which carries "Usonian" traits of being small, single floor and without a garage.
- Born: June 8, 1867, in Wisconsin
- Died: April 9, 1959, in Phoenix, Ariz.
- Married to: Catherine (Tobin) Wright (1889-1922); Maude (Noel) Wright (1923-27) and Olga (Lazovich) Wright (1928 through his death in 1959).
- Prairie style: Wright wanted this architecture to become an indigenous style for American homes.
- Usonian style: After World War II, he turned to the design of simple and affordable housing that he dubbed "Usonian" architecture.
- Japanese influence: Though Japanese architecture had some effect on Wright, it was really the country's art and culture that captivated him.
- Work: Throughout his 70-year career, he designed 1,114 buildings, of which 532 were realized.
- Well-known work: Among his most famous projects are Fallingwater in Pennsylvania, Taliesin in Wisconsin, Taliesen West in Arizona and the Guggenheim in New York.
Frank Lloyd Wright trivia
- Frank Lloyd Wright's son, John Lloyd Wright, invented Lincoln Logs in 1918.
- Oscar-winning actress Anne Baxter was Frank Lloyd Wright's granddaughter.
- After the death of his step-daughter Svetlana, her widower, William Wesley Peters, was briefly married to the daughter of Joseph Stalin.
- In 1909, Wright and the Mamah Cheney, the wife of a client and neighbor, abandoned their families and fled to Europe, where they lived for two years.
- Mamah Cheney and several others were murdered in 1914 by an angry domestic worker at their home, Taliesin, Wisc. Wright was working elsewhere at the time.
- Wright and his lover, Olgivanna, were arrested in Wisconsin for violating the Mann Act, which made it illegal to transport women across state lines for any "immoral" act. She later became his third wife and they remained married to his death.
- Wright coined the term "carport" during his Usonian work.
- Musician Paul Simon wrote a song about him, "So long, Frank Lloyd Wright" that was released on Simon & Garfunkel's 1970 album, "Bridge Over Troubled Water." In addition to references to the architect, the song also referenced the soon-to-happen breakup of the duo.
More important, though, Wright influenced many younger architects - keepers of the flame, so to speak - who continued his work and adapted his aesthetic into their own.
In Houston, perhaps the most significant Wright disciple was Karl Kamrath, of the MacKie and Kamrath architecture firm, said Stephen Fox, an architectural historian who is a fellow of the Anchorage Foundation of Texas and an adjunct lecturer at Rice University and the University of Houston.
Fox cited Kamrath as Texas' "most talented interpreter" of Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian aesthetic - with "Usonian" being the term Wright made up for this style of modern architecture meant to be functional and affordable.
Wright himself had little affection for Houston, visiting the city only a few times - once in 1949 when the AIA national convention was held here and the group awarded him its Gold Medal.
About the same time, Glenn McCarthy's glitzy Shamrock Hotel opened, and Wright paid a brief visit. His summation was sharp and witty: "I see the sham, but where is the rock?"
And of Houston, he said: "It's a great broad pavement with skyscrapers at one end and at the other, downtown and a medical center. In between, out in the mud, are the people," Fox recalled.
Kamrath designed homes all over Houston, including a cluster on Tiel Way in River Oaks. One he built for himself still stands, but many others have been demolished to make way for newer and bigger homes.
His own home had classic Wrightian features: long rafter tails, a cantilevered room, lots of built-in furniture and a carport, a term coined by Wright. The roof is flat, and redwood plays a big role inside and out.
Fox considers these homes masterpieces. Kamrath's one-time residence, is now owned by a retired opthalmologist. Another, a beautifully restored and respectfully expanded example, is the home of Ty and Lynn Kelly. A third is vacant and is expected to be demolished soon.
Though MacKie and Kamrath were best known for their residential work, they also earned praise for their design of Temple Emanu El in 1949 and the M.D. Anderson Hospital in 1954.
"MacKie and Kamrath made a strong case for the adaptability of Usonian architecture to Houston," Fox said, noting that by the 1950s MacKie and Kamrath had become the most published architects in the city.
John S. Chase was another noted architect in the style of Wright and Kamrath. The first African American registered to practice architecture in Texas and the first to graduate from the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin, Chase was known for his myriad designs, including many homes for middle-class African Americans as well as churches along the Gulf Coast, including St. Luke the Evangelist Episcopal Church on Wheeler.
On the Texas Southern University campus are more examples of his work: the Martin Luther King Humanities Center, the Thurgood Marshall School of Law and the school's administration building.
Another follower was Bruce Goff, who took the style in almost a science-fiction direction for "eccentric but extraordinary" homes, according to Fox. Goff follower Herb Greene designed the building at 3333 Fannin in Midtown, originally for Southwestern Bell and later occupied by Uniroyal in the 1960s and '70s. It's still there, its top painted black to look like tire treads.
Alden Dow, whose father founded Dow Chemical, was a proponent of Wright's work and designed the town of Lake Jackson in Brazoria County in the 1940s for the company's employees there.
The work of Goff and Dow don't necessarily carry common Wrightian touches you'd identify by sight. Instead, they adhere to his principals and precepts such as simple and functional design and being in tune with the environment.
The legend of Wright's work can be found all over the area, in part because of MacKie and Kamrath, Fox said.
"MacKie and Kamrath set the bar high. Karl Kamrath was a very, very good architect," Fox said. "It was carrying out the principles of Frank Lloyd Wright, and his buildings looked like Frank Lloyd Wright's work - not the notion of copying but being very fluent in his design language."
Jeff Carowitz's parents loved to visit homes and buildings designed by their favorite architect, Wright. They took their son with them, so whether he liked it or not, his childhood was steeped in architecture.
In 2007, Carowitz moved from California to Houston, excited that he could actually afford to own a home, he said.
He gave his real estate agent a list of criteria, and when her recommendations included a home designed by Kamrath, his decision was easy.
"She wasn't sure who MacKie and Kamrath were, but I knew," said Carowitz, still an architecture fan and an active member of Houston Mod. "I said, 'I don't need any information; how soon can we look at it?' I dropped everything and went to see the house that afternoon. I knew I wanted to place an offer."
He describes the highlights of his home exactly the way Wright and Kamrath would likely appreciate: Its low, horizontal profile includes a flat roof but with a pitch in the center for a cathedral ceiling. Nature, or at least natural light, is welcomed into the home through seven skylights scattered throughout. Made of brick and redwood, it boasts geometric forms inside and out.
Though many Kamrath designs have gotten landmark status for protection from the wrecking ball, Carowitz laments the destruction of so many others. His home was built in 1969, and he'll pursue that status when it hits the 50-year mark.
"It's a unique experience to live in a house designed by Karl Kamrath. I feel blessed to have the experience," he said.
The 'holy grail'
Gaw, now a semi-retired pediatric dentist, bought his home in 1991. He said the home had made the news because there were threats that a developer would tear it down and subdivide its 1.2-acre lot. He and his then-wife, Betty Law, went to look at it.
The home was built in 1954 by insurance executive William Thaxton, who dreamed of being a developer and wanted to create an upscale community "out in the sticks" in what is now Bunker Hill, Gaw said of the residence he is now trying to sell.
His business plan fell through, so Thaxton moved into the home that he thought could lure buyers because it was built by the most famous architect in the country, Gaw said.
Through the years, the home had other owners who updated it badly, adding mirrors onto walls and painting the striking redwood paneling any number of colors.
"I'm going to be honest, it was in really bad shape," Gaw said. "But I'm typical of most husbands; the wife wanted it, so we bought it."
It was her "holy grail" and she wanted to save it, he said. They gutted all 1,600 square feet of it, renovating and modernizing it. They also hired Kirksey Architecture, which designed an addition to nearly wrap around the home, leaving the original part seen from the street and a spacious courtyard with a pool in the middle.
When they were done, the home had expanded to more than 8,000 square feet. Kirksey paid tribute to the home's provenance but made the back part more usable. Bedrooms, bathrooms, the living room and kitchen: Everything there was bigger.
In fact, Gaw's two kids roller-skated up and down the hallway that runs through the whole addition.
To be sure, the Wright side of the house is funky, and would be difficult to live in today. He believed that bedrooms were just for sleeping, so they were small. Families, he thought, should be out in the living room together.
The front entry has a low roof that tucks you in, then a step into the living room reveals an unusual vaulted ceiling that makes the space seem large. A built-in sofa runs the full length of this long, skinny room.
"The most common thing people ask me is, 'How does it feel living in a Frank Lloyd Wright house?' I've thought about it. It's like owning a painting or a masterpiece. It's is an emotional feeling. If you sit here for a little bit and you're quiet, even in a room with nothing in it, you feel the peace and serenity and calmness," Gaw said of his home, which is listed with Greenwood King Properties for $2,595,000.
"My kids have moved away and it's just me. It's time for another family to make their memories here."