Massaro House
Encyclopedia
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
. It is located on the privately-owned Petre Island (sometimes spelled Petra Island) in Lake Mahopac, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, and is named for its owner, Joseph Massaro.
The original plans
In 1949, Wright received a commission from an engineer named A. K. Chahroudi to build a house on the 10 acres (40,468.6 m²) Petre Island, which Chahroudi owned. Chahroudi would later state that during a lunch meeting he had with Wright and Edgar Kaufmann, the owner of Wright’s celebrated FallingwaterFallingwater
Fallingwater or Kaufmann Residence is a house designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh...
, the architect told Kaufmann: "When I finish the house on the island, it will surpass your Fallingwater".
Wright worked on designing a one-story, 5000 square feet (464.5 m²) house for three months, but the project was cancelled when Chahroudi realized he was not able to afford the $50,000 budget that Wright envisioned for the project, nor a second more modest version requested of Wright. Instead, Wright designed a 1200 square feet (111.5 m²) cottage for Chahroudi for the island.
Construction
In 1996, Petre Island was purchased for $700,000 USD by Joseph Massaro, a sheet metalSheet metal
Sheet metal is simply metal formed into thin and flat pieces. It is one of the fundamental forms used in metalworking, and can be cut and bent into a variety of different shapes. Countless everyday objects are constructed of the material...
contractor. Though he had seen the original Wright drawings for the main home years earlier, he initially intended merely to restore the island’s guest cottage. Massaro received those renderings as part of the purchase of the island.
Massaro sold his sheet metal business in 2000 to focus on the creation of the house, the construction phase of which took place between 2003 and 2007.
All that survived of the original Chahroudi commission were five Wright drawings, including a floor plan
Floor plan
In architecture and building engineering, a floor plan, or floorplan, is a diagram, usually to scale, showing a view from above of the relationships between rooms, spaces and other physical features at one level of a structure....
with ideas for built-in and stand-alone furniture, a building section
Cross section (geometry)
In geometry, a cross-section is the intersection of a figure in 2-dimensional space with a line, or of a body in 3-dimensional space with a plane, etc...
, and three elevations. Massaro hired Thomas A. Heinz, an architect and Wright historian, to complete the unfinished design.
Heinz employed 3D CAD/CAM computer software to model aspects of Wright's design not self-evident in the original renderings. His design also provided updated heating and cooling solutions that were not part of the original Wright concept, such as air conditioning and radiant heating
Radiant heating
Radiant heating is a technology for heating indoor and outdoor areas. Heating by radiant energy is observed everyday, the warmth of the sunshine being probably the most commonly observed example. Radiant heating as a technology is typically more narrowly defined...
. It was also determined to add chimney caps, which Wright characteristically demurred, for the home’s six fireplaces.
In common with Fallingwater, the house’s design does not merely accommodate but actually incorporates the island’s topography. A 12 feet (3.7 m)-high, 60 feet (18.3 m)-long rock forms the exterior to the entry and an interior wall, while a smaller rock doubles as a kitchen and bathroom wall. Again, like Fallingwater's signature terraces, the house features a cantilevered deck that stretches 25 feet (7.6 m) over Lake Mahopac. Its 18 feet (5.5 m)-high living area is illuminated with 26 triangular skylights.
Controversy over authenticity
Throughout the construction, Massaro was in conflict with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, which was established by the architect in 1940 to conserve his intellectual propertyIntellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
. Massaro told interviewers that the foundation requested $450,000 to render working drawings from Wright's sketches and supervise construction of the house. After Massaro hired Heinz, the foundation filed a lawsuit, which ended in a settlement that limited Massaro to referring to the structure as being "inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright".
To date, the foundation refuses to recognize Massaro House as an official Frank Lloyd Wright creation. Philip Allsopp, the foundation’s chief executive office, has stated: “It’s not a Frank Lloyd Wright house, because it hasn’t been certified by the foundation.”
Yet in the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, Massaro defended the Wright connection. “You hear these purists that talk about how no unbuilt Frank Lloyd Wright house should ever be built because Frank Lloyd Wright isn’t here anymore,” he said. “And then you take a look at this masterpiece of his – I’m sure Frank would rather have it built than not built at all."
Criticism of design
Critics' concerns center on four details of Massaro's house.- They point to the so-called desert masonry, or decorative ``rubblestone, a Wright trademark. Wright embedded native rocks in the concrete supports of his homes. In most, the rocks were flush with the concrete. In Massaro's home, they stick out.
``That's not the way Wright intended, plain and simple, Storrer said.
Such talk infuriates Massaro. In order to follow building codes, Massaro said, he had to add 4 inches of Styrofoam insulation inside the support posts, making it impossible to embed the odd-shaped granite stones he harvested from the island and still keep the house from collapsing.
``Frank would have changed this, Massaro said. ``He would have had to.
- Flat vs. Domed
Wright purists argue that Massaro's 26 skylights are domed; Wright designed skylights that were flat.
Massaro counters that the flat ones leak.
``So what? Storrer said. ``Modern sealants can prevent leakage. Otherwise, let them leak and be Wrightian, or don't claim to be Wrightian.
- Wright defenders insist that the designs stamped into the home's copper fascia are too shallow.
- They also point to some of Wright's drawings that show a stairway coming off the cantilevered deck.
Massaro said he didn't build the stairs because they would descend into 3 feet of water.
If the purists' objections seem petty, it's because the little things matter a great deal to Wright's fans.
``It's the small details that we'll never know about, said Rich Herber, who owns a Wright house in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
``The outside of the Massaro house is dead-on. When you go inside, it's such a big house, it will be very hard to make the details the way Wright envisioned.
Massaro, however, said he's worked hard to fulfill Wright's vision, searching for craftspeople who could make custom furniture, copper fascia, triangular skylights, angular doorknobs and mahogany ventilation grilles, among other detail work, in an effort to please not Wright's acolytes but the architect himself.
``When Frank says this is what I want, I try to go find it, he said.