Lawrence Tech Hosting Display On Frank Lloyd Wright House
A free exhibit about the Affleck House in Bloomfield Hills designed by Frank Lloyd Wright will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 21-28, at Lawrence Technological University, 21000 W. 10 Mile Road in Southfield.
The exhibit will be in the gallery of the University Technology and Learning Center located near the 10 Mile Road entrance to the campus.
The home designed for Gregor and Elizabeth Affleck was built in 1941 and donated by the family to Lawrence Tech in 1978.
The exhibit includes photographs, design studies of landscape restoration, interiors and furnishings, drawings and sketches, digital images, models, and illustrations. Contributors include noted photographers Balthazar Korab and Harvey Croze, artists, architects, and Lawrence Tech students.
The exhibit catalog contains graphic work and scholarly papers contributed by the noted Wright scholar and Lawrence Tech faculty member Dale Gyure and Lawrence Tech students.
The sale of selected works will benefit Lawrence Tech students and ongoing restoration efforts. Lawrence Tech holds events at the house, which also serves as a valuable teaching tool for students in the College of Architecture and Design.
The 2,350-square-foot Affleck House is one of Wright's smallest commissions in terms of size and was considered a home for a family of modest means. It is on the State and National Registers of Historic Places, and is one of the 50 most significant structures in the state, according to the Michigan Society of Architects.
Wright enjoyed designing houses to fit unique settings and challenged the original owners to "find a site on which no one else can build." The Affleck House is considered a daring solution to the problems presented by the site. Part of the structure is built over a streambed, and a deck is cantilevered over a ravine. A floor well over a pool of water provides natural cooling in the summer.
The house has polished concrete floors and interior and exterior walls clad in ship-lapped cypress and red brick.
For more information on the Affleck House, visit www.ltu.edu/affleck_house/history.asp.
