You can buy a home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright -- one's for sale at $1.65 million in Missouri -- or you can support Oregon's only Wright structure, the 1957 Gordon House in Silverton, by taking a tour ($20) or becoming a member (starting at $45; $30 for seniors; thegordonhouse.org; kathryn@thegordonhouse.org).
If you're looking for a gift for an appreciator of architecture and Oregon history, a $599 contribution will get you a night's stay for four people in the well-preserved home that showcases the famous architect's inspired solutions to easier indoor-outdoor living, claustrophobic kitchens and dark, boring rooms.
--Janet Eastman | 503-294-4072
jeastman@oregonian.com
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"It's an experience like no other and an opportunity to help preserve an architectural treasure," says Kathryn Burton, director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Gordon House Conservancy, a nonprofit that supports the property's preservation and ongoing renovation. "What better way to educate oneself about Wright and his architectural principles than to experience it firsthand. Not many people can say they've stayed the night in a Wright house." [Wright's classic horizontal designs and indoor-outdoor features are evident at the Gordon House.]
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The new membership, called "Night With Wright," allows four people to stay overnight at the house in Wright-designed beds and receive four tickets to the Oregon Garden, where the Gordon House was relocated to save it from being demolished. (Contact director Kathryn Burton directly at kathryn@thegordonhouse.org)
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Burton says the fund-raising effort to match a pending $25,000 gift is "a win-win for all because the house will benefit from the funds and guests will benefit from the experience." [Wright created a living room with a high ceiling and good acoustics. Innovative for its time, the modern house had an early version of an entertainment center in the library seating area. There was also built-in storage for records and a slide-out shelf for the stereo-radio set.]
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All new memberships, at any level, before June 30, 2019 will be added to the Site Manager Matching Funds Appeal, which has received $25,000 to fund a part-time position for one year. If the Conservancy can raise an additional $25,000, donors will match it. "The initial gift, our match and the donors' additional gift would mean the staffing changes remain in effect for a minimum of three years; a move we hope will help us grow the organization," says Burton in a news release. "We need help to reach our goal." [Although encased in floor-to-ceiling windows, there was still plenty of wall space for original owner Evelyn Gordon's well-known contemporary art collection.]
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Coincidentally, the Gordon House was estimated to cost $25,000 to design and build. The dwelling was intended as an example of Wright's Usonian vision of affordable suburban housing. The craftsmanship and details, however, inflated the construction price beyond its budget. [Frank Lloyd Wright designed unique fretwork for each house. This pattern, repeated in the Gordon House, is represented in the nonprofit conservancy's logo.]
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Sixty custom Usonian homes were constructed across the country between 1936 and Wright's death in 1959. The term "Usonia" stands for living in harmony with the land in the United States of North America (USONA). Wright described his dwellings as having an organic appearance as if they rose "out of the ground and into the light."
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Wright was 90 years old when he designed the western redcedar-and-concrete-block two-story house in 1957 for Conrad and Evelyn Gordon. Construction took place from 1963 to 1964 on their farm on the banks of the Willamette River. [Evelyn Gordon's loom area is at the top of the stairs on the second floor. Evelyn was a weaver and artist who saw her home as an accommodating sequence of galleries to display her paintings, prints and sculptures.]
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The living room has walls of glass and rooms flow from one to another in Wright's inventive open floor plan. Another breakthrough idea: Radiant-heat concrete floors that reduce energy costs.
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The kitchen is considered by experts to be one of Wright's best. Paneled refrigerator doors, under-cabinet lighting and the idea that the cook doesn't want to be stuck in a closed-off room away from family and friends are some of Frank Lloyd Wright's ideas that continue to influence kitchen design today.
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A light-well illuminates the kitchen. Wright called the kitchen the "workroom" of the house and his designs for cooking efficiency, comfort and speed continue to be seen in modern kitchens.
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The Gordon House kitchen shows original built-in appliances, including a frost-free Revco Gourmet refrigerator that was the first to have the freezer on the bottom. There is also a Jenn Air double oven and a downdraft range top.
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An 11-foot-square concrete core that rises from the basement to the kitchen ceiling skylight draws heat from the subterranean boiler and cool air from the earth-cooled basement. The tower and a wall fan keep the smell of smoke, fish and fried food from lingering in what Wright called the "workspace" of the house.
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Original elements in the kitchen include this Kernerator waste incinerator embedded in the cinder block core. Waste was sent into a bin in the basement.
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After Evelyn Gordon died in 1997, the home fell into disrepair. [The second-floor hallway leads to a bedroom once used by the Gordon children and now by members of the Gordon House Conservancy and volunteers.]
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When the riverfront property near Wilsonville was sold, preservationists and architecture fans -- some of whom would become members of the Gordon House Conservancy -- had the home dismantled and moved 24 miles to land outside the Oregon Garden. [The second-floor bedroom opens to a porch area.]
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The house, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was reconstructed and opened to the public in March 2002. [The home's distinctive fretwork is mirrored in a second floor bathroom.]
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Conrad Gordon had office space on the main floor to run his farm business.
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Wright designed every room, even this one now used as a lecture space, to be filled with light. Notice the red concrete floors, one of Wright's signature features.
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Visitors watch a documentary about Wright and listen to the docent in a room on the main floor off the entry.
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Here, the fretwork laces a window. The house is constructed of cedar and painted cinder block and continues Wright's tradition of custom patterned wood cutout window lattice known as fretwork.
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Wright designed furniture for his houses, too, like this small side table.
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More than 100,000 visitors have walked through the three-bedroom, three-bathroom house and explored Wright's concepts of great rooms and passive energy. The Gordon House is the only publicly accessible Wright residence in the Pacific Northwest. Exploring the house during the course of the day allows visitors to see how the architecture responds to sunlight.
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Frank Lloyd Wright, who designed this house in 1957 when he was 90, believed entrances should be small but open to expansive interior spaces.
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Overnight stays at the Gordon House are typically $750 a night. Throughout the year, the house and gardens can also be rented for events, from weddings to concerts.
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Cutouts and skylights along with floor-to-ceiling windows allow natural light into the house.
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Visitors can tour the restored, two-story Gordon House and see its architectural features up close.
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Visitors can walk around the exterior. Guided tours of the interior of the Gordon House at 869 W. Main St. in Silverton are at noon, 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. daily with reservations (503-874-6006, gordonhouse1957@frontier.com). Tickets are $20 (children 18 and younger are free when accompanied by an adult).
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Oregon Garden visitors are surprised to see a Frank Lloyd Wright house adjacent to the 80-acre garden.
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Exterior fretwork greets visitors who can tour the restored home.
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Preservation efforts continue at the Gordon House.
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Evelyn and Conrad Gordon's house is surrounded by maturing landscaping, making it appear as if Wright designed it for this new site.
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Every part of the Gordon House, including the unique wood fretwork, was taken apart and reassembled in 2002 near the Oregon Garden.
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The Gordon House fretwork was installed inside and out.
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