Tag Archives: concept architecture

Unbuilt Visions and Architectural Narratives of Frank Lloyd Wright in Southwestern Pennsylvania

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Photo Credit: THE NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM

Saturday, April 13, marked the grand opening of “Frank Lloyd Wright’s Southwestern Pennsylvania” at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. This collaborative effort between The Westmoreland Museum of American Art and Fallingwater, guided by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, showcases a detailed exploration of Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural vision through both his realized and unrealized projects.

Designer: Frank Lloyd Wright

Photo Credit: THE NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM

The exhibition, curated by Scott W. Perkins and Jeremiah William McCarthy, who are recognized for their expertise in American art preservation and curation, provides an intricate look at Wright’s proposals from the 1930s through the 1950s, considering their potential impacts across various landscapes. Noteworthy are the animated reconstructions of five projects that were conceived but never executed. These include innovative designs such as the transformation of the Point in 1947, a futuristic self-service garage at Kaufmann’s Department Store in 1949, and the Point View Residences planned in 1952 for the Edgar J. Kaufmann Charitable Trust.

Photo Credit: THE NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM

Enhanced by state-of-the-art three-dimensional rendering technologies that parallel those used in contemporary cinema, these animations by Skyline Ink Animators + Illustrators bring Wright’s unrealized ideas to life. The experience is augmented in a dedicated viewing theater, complete with a specially composed musical score by Daniel May and Marty Ashby, which accentuates Wright’s meticulous attention to material detail, textures, and the interplay of light and shadow.

Photo Credit: THE NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM

Aileen Fuchs, the president and executive director of the National Building Museum, expressed her enthusiasm for the exhibition, noting its fit with the museum’s dedication to showcasing innovative and inspiring works. The exhibit highlights Wright’s architectural genius and encourages visitors to explore the ‘what might have been’ of his unrealized projects.

Photo Credit: THE NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM

The exhibition also underscores Wright’s significant influence in Pittsburgh, a connection initiated by Edgar J. Kaufmann, Sr., who introduced Wright to the city in 1934 and advocated for his involvement in various civic projects. This partnership often aligned with the goals of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, which aimed to tackle urban challenges and enhance the city’s cultural landscape.

Photo Credit: THE NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM

“Frank Lloyd Wright’s Southwestern Pennsylvania” will continue to engage visitors until March 17, 2025. It enjoys the support of The Heinz Endowments, The Hillman Exhibition Fund of The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, and donors like Wendy and David Barensfeld. Contributions from The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library at Columbia University further enrich the exhibition.

This display commemorates Wright’s architectural legacy and functions as an educational platform. It merges historical context with contemporary technological displays to invite visitors to appreciate the blend of artistic expression and architectural innovation.

The post Unbuilt Visions and Architectural Narratives of Frank Lloyd Wright in Southwestern Pennsylvania first appeared on Yanko Design.

Concrete ribbons define this unusual concept house’s architecture

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We are all dreaming of vacations and making post-quarantine bucket lists. Where I live right now it is extremely hot and humid, so all I want is to go and live in a big house in the mountains for a while once the pandemic ends. The digital artists at TABARQ have breathed life into my vision with their DESI House and I have never seen a house that looks like the result of architectural quilling.

The conceptual DESI House is imagined to be set in the serene Austrian Alps with expansive windows that truly add another dimension to the panoramic views. What stands out is the shape of its exterior, it looks like someone rolled a sheet of concrete around a pencil for a crafts class! There seems to be a main tall cylindrical structure with a shorter one enveloping it and “rays” moving from there in different directions that probably divide the mansion into different wings. The detailed 3D renderings show the luxurious features of the house like the infinity lap pool with a jacuzzi and a local vegetation garden that makes the roof come alive – literally. Even the sweeping windows arent in any primary shape form, they look like someone erased the concrete with strokes of a brush to reveal the Alps. The concrete is paired well with the wooden interior which is, of course, subject to change based on the imaginary residents of this house.

Can’t help but think of the beautiful drive that will lead to this manor. Pinning it to my dream house list!

Designer: TABARQ

These renders of Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs take you to an imaginary world!

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Frank Lloyd Wright is an icon in the design and architecture world. His career spans over 70 years during which he had 532 completed structures and more than 1114 designs that continue to inspire creators even today. In fact, it is his unfinished concept designs that spark more imagination and Spanish architect, David Romero, has been influenced by just that.

Romero took the 600 designs that Wright left behind and created ultra-realistic 3D renderings of what they would look like today. He even digitally restored some demolished projects. Romero has showcased his art on his website, Hooked on the Past, where he has taken upon himself to complete most of Wright’s unfinished design dreams like the E.A. Smith house, Trinity Chapel, Butterfly Bridge, and the Larkin Administration Building. He uses existing blueprints, plans, elevations, photographs and perspectives from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation to guide him as he models structures in AutoCAD and then completing it with finer details using Autodesk 3ds Max.

It is not easy to capture and recreate Wright’s work because most of the plans are from a high point of view. It is a challenge to imagine it from a perspective of someone standing on the street but Romero has a gift to be able to envision a structure and render it with just bits and pieces of the original blueprint. He added details like picturing the Gordon Strong Automobile Objective at night because it was also meant to serve as a planetarium, so he added stars and electric car trails to the image. His attention to detail is seen in the render as he chose to add era-appropriate cars. Romero successfully creates an emotional connection to a building that the audience has never been to but still relates to because of his precise renderings.

“I would love to model all of Wright’s work, but it is immense,” says architect David Romero, a pure Wright fan. “I do not know if during all my life I will have time.” Romero’s work has gone beyond the architecture community and has become relatable to various digital artists like graphic designers and photographers because his renders are so good that they can be considered as contemporary art. While we are all confined to our homes, Romero’s imaginative skills coupled with Wright’s design visions give us the digital window of escape that we can all use right now.

Designers: David Romero