TOURING The Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park (Kraus House) | This House Tours
hi everyone my name is ken welcome to this house today we are exploring the frank lloyd wright house in ebsworth park in st louis missouri i'm joined by catherine and catherine why don't you tell our audience a little bit about your role here well as ken shared with you my name is catherine felt i'm the executive director of the frank lloyd wright house in edgewood park many of you know it as the kraus house and we're happy to show you around before we go inside of this house we will take a moment to talk about the materials here and the design of the house so catherine there are some really notable features to point out including the pricks and the wood type and even these here can you tell us a little bit about how these elements all come together sure absolutely well it's all about materials and frank lloyd wright um was very deliberate in the materials he chose and what you're seeing here are uh standard red brick and you can see these aren't really standard at all a lot of these have this angle to them and these aren't cut the owners had to find a special mold so ruth krauss who i think is the one of the unsung heroes of this the construction of this house found alton brick made those for someone in st louis is a tidewater red cypress you're seeing red concrete you're seeing glass in the windows and all of these materials are what you're going to be seeing when you get inside the house which is a very unusual approach in the 50s you asked about some of the interesting elements this would be referred to as a vertical gutter so frank lloyd wright does get a little bit of criticism for his flat leaky roofs well this system allows the rain to come and it drains into this released into this this way and when you come and visit us this is a beautiful fall day but when you're here on a rainy day and you stand right about here it's like being in falling water like you're in the middle of a waterfall so there's all sorts of beautiful natural elements and that is really in keeping with frank lloyd wright's desire to create an organic architecture so just sort of building on that if you look behind you ken you'll see that this house was was sighted into the slope of the hill on the rise of the hill not on it you're seeing the geometry everywhere immediately so you're seeing frank lloyd wright chose to focus on the dominant geometric form of the parallelogram and this produces 60 and 120 degree angles which provides beautiful vistas of nature and all sorts of interesting flows from one room to the next as you'll see when we get inside this house was designed in 1951 the design process took quite a while there's a lot of correspondence back and forth from the crosses to right the crosses were very involved in the design of their home they had very specific desires based on russell we're going to be working as an artist in his home and that amount of thoughtfulness has us all eager to see the inside what do you say we go check it out we've just walked inside and immediately we can feel this kind of compression that frank lloyd wright is really known for so of course i'm 6'1 and there's not much room here above my head for the ceiling so let's go ahead and walk on this way and now it's going to start to open up and the ceiling start to soar above us and of course we can see straight through to the end of the house and this really helps to make the space look larger and as we make our way through this house we start to see really these design elements that are called into being by the parallelograms that were used in the geometry so we can go ahead and make our way on through here and this brings us to the main living space and catherine there are just some amazing elements in here and as i understand this is all original to the house correct it is it absolutely is and uh in this room um we can very clearly see the uh geometric form the geometric grid that this house is designed on so you can see the outline of the parallelogram and that informs everything about this house you can see it goes all the way up through the bookcases and all the way up to the board and bat ceiling and this carries through throughout the house as we'll see what you can appreciate it from this vantage point also is um the the influence that japanese architecture design and lifestyle had on frank lloyd wright so you're seeing the built-in low slung seating that's built in origami chairs again all these are the original furnishings designed by frank lloyd wright all this furniture is modular so it can be changed and moved around the room we have an extremely extremely unusual element here which is are the stained glass light panels so in a usonian home because the focus would be on minimizing extra expenses you would not see that and frank lloyd wright had not designed stained glass for a house since hollyhock in los angeles so because russell krauss was a stained glass artist and he had done multiple stainless installations in churches all over the country he presented this design to olgavana frank lloyd wright's widow and it was approved so this is the only sony home that has stained glass some of the other unique elements include the taliesin three lamp right here where in other eustonian homes that have these kind of lights you may see squared off light shades these are elongated hexagons which is as far as i know there's no other version of this that exists and this is actually suspended from the ceiling it's not connected to the table is it it's not this is italian 3 lighting fixture again with that very unique one of a kind elongated hexagon and you can see that it's it's attached at the top so it's not connected with the table and the intention there is for this dining room seating to be able to move to any place in the house again as you pointed out ken you're you're feeling just this cumulative effect of this tidewater red cypress which is giving us a glow it's midday it's a little bit overcast so you have that warmth coming through as i suggested when we're outside you see the the brick and the cherokee red concrete cherokee red was frank lloyd wright's favorite color so that is not a unique element you'll see that a lot in his homes and what we love especially the children when we get to they get to take off their shoes is this is what uh radiant heat what franklin wright would call gravity heat so so the kids get to feel the heat rising from the floor and that's a real treat when we're standing here we left the door open i think we both appreciated that fall breeze and and just the the nature of the turn of the season and of course that was all anticipated and built into the design so frank lloyd wright designed um this house to be sighted into a native persimmon grove so it's right about this time where the trees get heavy with persimmons and they drop and it's just at night time and when the light filters through it's like these beautiful orange orbs that are just sort of circulating outside but again frank lloyd wright wanted the krauses to be able to feel when they were sitting in this room that they were sort of sitting just among nature and and in this grove of trees this is another element this is a mitered window and again frank lloyd wright's wanting to really take as many restrictive elements away from connecting interior and exteriors when we talk about the uniqueness of having all the original furniture another thing i want to point out is these textiles so these are original and a taliesin fellow came to st louis to help the krause's you know put the finishing touches on their homes and so the selection of the seat cushions the the chair cushions all the textiles that you're seeing they're original and designed by a fellow from frank lloyd wright's school of architecture over here on this side of the living room and kind of in the middle of the house is this giant fireplace what can you tell us about the design going on here well of course it's it's it's a dominant part of the room and it was meant to be and you'll see this played out in other usonian homes and in other frank lloyd wright designed homes um you have a special grate here that is informed by the geometry of the house and um you know we in the restoration period chose to leave sort of the the bricks charred and not restore that because we felt that that really was suggested of the intention of this being a fireplace that's used that provides warmth and just an ambiance to the room you know like all the other places uh both outside and inside frank lloyd wright really wanted to present and and promote the horizontal presentation of things so he uh had the masons rake this mortar deeper and then he had this application be flush so that there is a um an emphasis on the horizontal application of the brick and that's the experience you get whether you're outside or inside which is this is very much part of the earth part of the place where it should be nestled into it so that applies to the interior that's that's what influences the interior design as much as the exterior another element of this fireplace is that it's as we stand here clearly it's it's a visual anchor but it also provides very important structural i mean this literally is is the structural support for the entire design of the house so frankly wright understood that the contractors understood that while visitors may just appreciate this magnificent beautiful hearth that's really providing so much more to the overall construction of the house that's amazing and the amount of thoughtfulness that went into the design of this house not only through contextualization but also through kind of pioneering new construction methods and new ways to balance these elements both aesthetically and physically was something that frank lloyd wright is well known for and it's just great to be able to see this example right here really bringing the space all together now passing out of the living room we are beginning to be constricted again there is a beam overhead that starts to really condense the space again before once again opening it up and this actually brings us into the master bedroom well and ken what you didn't have to do and making your way in was open the door so this uh this residence uh really it's obvious that there's no doors between one room again that's by design frank lloyd wright wanted the flow to be easy from one room to the other and the other thing that i'd like to point out is that the walls none of the walls go all the way up to the ceiling so again that's part of promoting easy flow and giving a person accenture in a larger space than you actually are so with further no further ado the real rock star element of this house is the parallelogram bed the geometry forms every aspect of it and this included this is original textiles the other just remarkable remarkable architectural aspect of this is you can really see where the ceiling boards which follow the roof line the complexity on how right here they have to fold into a wood composition origami-like pleat to fit together and we know from the documentation that we have that this was very difficult to achieve so you can look here and you can see we're a little bit off here but the contractor and original owner thought that was that was close enough so um the crosses did want a lanai off of their bedroom and they felt that was an opportunity for stargazing and and just having private space so they had frank lloyd wright design uh taller walls as you can see that there's built-in furniture um we have these built-in closets that have piano hinges and this house was built in the 50s and it's still remarkably relevant actually before it's time with all the built-ins so you have not a lot of you don't have a great need for extra furniture so and we have uh we're pleased to have extra textiles and cushions so it's remarkable that uh this house us says stewards in such good shape with so many original things available that we can share with guests and you mentioned something really interesting about how there wasn't really a need to bring furniture into the space because it was all designed to be part of the house so we have the built-in desk here with shelving and then even over here on the bed we have shelves that go above the bed and then shelves that kind of act as a side table as well or a nightstand that was the intention the krauses told frank lloyd wright that they didn't like a lot of clutter in fact you know frank lloyd wright was all about built-ins just to conceal a lot of the stuff that other homeowners may just have laying around or they may have an abundance of random furniture he really wanted to eliminate that so when frank lloyd wright designed you a house he designed the house he designed the interior he made recommendations on decor elements and if frank lloyd wright was in town and he visited you he may just make some adjustments on where things should be if he didn't agree with where he had it so now passing between the bed and these closets over here we now come into the bathroom and this is a pretty tight space and once again the space is really being released we have a lot of really interesting elements in here there is a porcelain sink and it has the stainless steel surround around it and also there's something really interesting here these cabinets come over here and take a look at this this one you open out and then this one actually slides so that you can reach objects in there now as we look up there is a skylight directly above us and we've noticed that there's no windows in this room but there is just incredible lighting in here and of course there are other elements that really tie it into that mid-century modern style such as these red formica countertops and over here there's a full shower so we can just take a peek inside of here making our way out of the bathroom we will start to travel to the second bedroom that we'll see and of course frank lloyd wright designed in such a way that he dictated how people would experience the space as they pass through it so we can see all of the furniture the walls the different elements really guiding our experience here so let's go ahead and round back through here and this is going to take us into that first hallway that we first entered the house in so come on through here as we round this corner we are now starting to become squeezed again into this space but of course the ceiling it soars overhead at an angle and these are the smaller windows that we saw at first on the outside of the house that still allow light to come in but lend a lot of privacy to the inhabitants so as we make our way down this hallway it will take us to a bedroom but first there is a bathroom off to this side so let's just peek in here now inside of this bathroom once again there are no windows there is a skylight up above us to allow an ample natural light and something really fascinating is that there is no door nor is there a screen on the shower it is just completely open so that's just one of those really interesting details making our way further into the house we are going to terminate in a space down here at the end of the hallway and this will bring us back to catherine who can tell us a little bit about this amazing bedroom well there's uh there's of course the the wonderful surprise of the form of the bed being informed by the geometry of the house so we have a bed that's essentially an elongated hexagon um you're seeing a lot of the same elements that are repeating through the house these interesting angles um we know that originally the intention was to have a closet here frankly wright thought that you know the crosses would need a place for their clothes but they the crosses ultimately decided they wanted that area open as we've talked about before um as a way to cool off these these textiles are a way to do that so these could be these could be drawn so that you know it it minimized the heat coming into the house you know you continue to see the gallery ruth krauss who we haven't talked a lot about she was a one of the first graduates from washington university school of law so she would have had a lot of books um we know that russell uh displayed a lot of his artwork and we're seeing one of russell's early works right here so russell was displaying things they took great use of all of the gallery space that was designed for them what we have just right behind you ken is a special exhibit which features images from the eight properties that were recently inscribed on the world heritage list so we we don't always have something on that wall these because again we like to really showcase the the architectural features of the house making our way out of the bedroom we're now going to go explore the kitchen so let's go ahead and round the corner here and this will bring us rotating around the fireplace and into the actual kitchen there are some interesting attributes of this kitchen um so if you put it in context that this was you know built in 19 late 1950s maybe parts of it early 60s you know you're seeing some things that would be pushing the envelope for that time all of this is original the countertops whereas we've seen all the tidewater red cypress wood in the house when you get into the kitchen or the work room as frank lloyd wright would describe it you're seeing maple countertops and birch cabinet you can see that natural light was always a part of the design philosophy so you're seeing vertical volume skylights two skylights in the kitchen you know what i invite you ken to take a peek out see the persimmon trees so you can imagine ruth krauss and you know making dinner being able to sort of bring the vitality of the outside world inside uh what we know about this kitchen is there's some modifications that were made this right here russell krauss felt like he needed he wanted to pull things out of the oven and have a place which i think is great think about how often we use our large island kitchen island so so that was great now because we have the original plans we we really can understand what creative liberties were taking in the construction phase russell ruth krauss like a lot of other owners of eusonian homes really wanted to stay true to the intention of wright's design the sentiment would be you know who are we to make changes to the greatest architects thinking but some were made just from a practical standpoint so as we move into this room here which appears to be just sort of a twin space to what we just looked at this was designed originally to be a uh utility room and the crosses felt and were advised by lee patterson the contractor that that oil boiler in this space would be noisy smelly just not conducive to you know being so close to the kitchen so at that point they decided to build it out they dug out a small area for the boiler to go frank lloyd wright was not a big fan of addicts or basements i wouldn't call this a true basement but it accomplished what they wanted to put the functionality below and to expand the kitchen more counter space more drawers this is russell and ruth's original refrigerator and uh you know from my estimation i mean it really was a amazing a really insightful change and again you have the skylight bringing the natural light into it and right in the entryway you're seeing those angled bricks so it really all comes together to create a dynamic and functional workspace as a kitchen making our way out of the kitchen we're once again really confined my shoulders i actually have to squeeze them in to pass through this space but come on through here and we are now going to go into the third bathroom and this is just a powder room now it has all of the same finishes that we've been seeing in the bathroom so far but check this out this is really awesome the drawers here are in the shape of a parallelogram and they come out flush with the wall at the same angle as the grid of this house and that's just one of those extra details that just really helps to tie it all together passing out of the bathroom we're now going to walk into the studio and we're back here with katherine and katherine this skylight is amazing this room just really lights up in here yeah this is uh russell's studio and again russell who we have uh photographed here this is russell ruth krauss he was an artist and he made it clear to frank lloyd wright that he would be working you know his he'd have a home office he didn't realize that in 2021 most of us would have a home office but um he made it clear that he wanted his studio to be part of the house so there were some changes made to the original floor plan where the house the tool shed became the shed and then the studio became part of the of the house itself and i love this room because it it just really features so many of the elements that you've seen all over the house you're seeing this skylight and you're seeing a parallelogram you're seeing a triangle you're seeing a trapezoid and you're seeing a hex gun so it really is sort of this culmination of geometry um you're seeing the interesting ceiling boards just dynamic sealing element with the tidewater red cypress again you know i can't emphasize enough call your attention to the fact that the materials that were used on the outside are used again what this wood treatment is it's called reversed board and batten and it's just a much more design focused it offers a really artistic design to the interior of the room you can see that we have a fireplace and a terrace and we know that this was important to russell because in our paper collection where we have the correspondence between the two we knew that that was going to be something he wanted again you know the natural light the mitered windows all designed to bring in natural elements and from an artist's perspective with russell doing his work here uh that really must have promoted creativity and i can imagine it really he really flourished as an artist with um with a place like this to work from i know i know he was very appreciative and a lot of people asked him what of all this like interesting space what was his favorite and he would say you know his studio some of the things you're looking at here were built by um russell krauss he knew what what office furniture loosely defined he would need so we have this table that he used a lot that um you know that the drawers go both ways our visitors find that very interesting so i'm not exactly sure what russell kept in here but what we kept in here is his plan so we share with our guests the plans we've planned the original plans then we bought the house and and and went under a major restoration by john eifler who is a frank lloyd wright leading restoration architect we have both these plans and right here you can really see how this house is based on um intersecting parallelograms and how the geometry really all works together so we have this great space and um you know we like the fact that you know we understand that it was used for so many years to support an artist now we are in a position to use it to sort of make final comments about the art the geometry the architecture the design elements with our guests and you know we have significant uh documentation on on all phases the design construction restoration and so it's just a real delight to have so much of that available because so many other public sites have lost some of that over the years catherine i want to thank you so much for allowing us to film here and for telling us so much about this house absolutely it's uh it's partnerships like this that allow us to create an awareness of the house and really uh promote and inspire people not only about this architecture about sort of the architectural landscape in our in our community and regions so thank you for being here absolutely and you know i've got to ask you can you tell our audience why preservation matters why sites like these matter wow there's a lot to say there but um you know i guess in my role i've been so humbled and it's been such a pleasure to share the story which of this of this property which has so many different chapters and uh the the primary intention of our mission is is to preserve it so that other future generations can can understand the importance of frank lloyd wright's legacy certainly the story of the krauses who were up against uh so much to realize their dream home but the resiliency and the determination to make it happen and um you know this is one of only five frank lloyd wright design homes in missouri and all over the country we're losing this remarkable architecture so i think it's extremely important that you know we here promote the understanding of the value which is this is uh these are histories this tells us about ourselves about how people lived how people um you know uh were able to achieve things that enhance their lives in the lives of the people in their communities so these stories can't be lost and for us it's we're still i feel like uh we really need to uh be more focused on collecting the oral history the people who were part of this story so that we can continue to engage the general public who is just ravenous to understand about frank lloyd wright architecture design and all the other themes and important issues that are around that yep and back to the general public this is open to the public in some regard correct absolutely i mean that's that's why we do what we do i mean um the the krauses in the 50s uh spent a lot of time communicating with frank lloyd wright they pers they persevered in getting the house built in the late 90s a very dedicated tenacious group of preservationists wanted to make sure that developers did not tear it down and it was definitely vulnerable to that and they were able to do that and for the reason of not just preserving it so it doesn't go away but to engage the public in the issues of preservation how do we do this we and anything we do any uh preservation project involved in the house we engage the public of of diver of great diversity not just architects and builders and people who have a professional or interest in the built environment but students we have an extensive student program that allows students elementary age all all through life-long learning age which i would put myself in that category we have programs that allow them to learn about and and be inspired by this property and and so much of the interesting architecture around them because it really has a profound impact to the way we live okay so how can the public come visit you well um we we have public guided tours and we have tours currently uh on wednesdays and then on the weekends saturday and sunday and what you do is you go to our website and you can book online because we have uh we really value people getting a good immersive experience the tours are small so we encourage people to book their tour ahead of time and so we invite people to do that there are some other things that people can do to be part of our work we have a membership program and truly we exist because our members are part of our mission becoming a member starts at 35 and and there's a variety of benefits that are associated to with every level but that allows unlimited to some degree access to the house and other benefits we have a reciprocal membership level that allows people to visit other public sites all around the country and then the other thing i wanted to point out is if people do you know enjoy what we've been talking about maybe they've been here maybe not we have a book that was written and i'm going to give you this as a parting gift but it really does um you know illuminate sort of this process that we've been talking about it includes some pictures so um if anybody's interested in that but mostly go to our website we've got virtual tours we have opportunities to visit special events we have a few items that are available for purchase so i really i really emphasize that if you're whether you're from the community or beyond a visit to the house is is really important because just as you probably feel right now it's a special place but there's also opportunities through virtual experiences and and other things that you can have you can have a sense of how how magical the place is through a virtual tour or experience so we encourage everyone to take advantage of that that's wonderful and i think the mission is just fantastic and everyone watching at home if you would like to visit this house i'm actually going to put the link down in the description so that you can plan a visit here and catherine i want to thank you so much again for opening up the doors here and for allowing us to film it has been an absolute pleasure and just experiencing this in person has been a treasure beyond what any photo or video tour could ever do so thank you so much you
2021-10-09 18:00
