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Restoration

Restoration

Restoration By Microscope

This article originally appeared in The Globe and Mail on April 24, 2020. I don’t care what season it actually is, step into the Darwin Martin House in Buffalo (1904-05), and its perpetual fall. Maybe that’s because its architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, worshipped Mother Nature, and fall is when she…
Martin House
April 24, 2020
Restoration

Seven Art Glass Windows Return Home

A Canadian-American Museum Partnership in Celebration of the 150th Anniversaries of Canadian Confederation and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Birth The University of Victoria (UVic) and the Martin House Restoration Corporation (Martin House) announce the historic transfer of seven original art glass panels from the University’s Legacy Art Galleries back to their original…
Martin House
July 13, 2017
Restoration

The Wisteria Mosaic Fireplace

Our restoration process began its final stage when we unveiled the Wisteria Mosaic Fireplace. The beautifully hand-crafted, four-sided, historically-accurate replica of the Martin’s original fireplace acts as our house’s centerpiece, representing more than craftsmanship alone. It’s a symbol of the Martin’s themselves: strong-willed yet graceful, elegant yet modest. The fireplace,…
Martin House
June 29, 2017
Restoration

First Floor is Finished

The Martin House opened its doors to the public for docent-guided tours even before the formation of the Martin House Restoration Corporation in 1992. Visitors today may be touring the complex for their first, third, or even sixth time and have never experienced the multi-residential estate in the same condition…
Martin House
November 17, 2016
Restoration

A Home is Never Truly Complete Without a Kitchen Stove

A home is never truly complete without a kitchen stove, and this sentiment holds true even at the Martin House. Given its prominence on the first floor, the Martin House kitchen seems somewhat unfinished without its stove—historically, the focal point of the south wall of the home’s principal domestic space.…
Martin House
August 22, 2016
Restoration

Restoring the landscape vision at Darwin Martin House

This article orginally appeared in The Buffalo News on April 22, 2015. The Darwin Martin House was once awash in a riot of nature. The English border garden near the house provided thousands of crocuses, forsythias, irises and daffodils. Walking away from the house, visitors would see hundreds of perennials…
Martin House
April 22, 2015
Restoration

The Martin House Art Glass Collection

Frank Lloyd Wright was arguably one of America’s premier designers of art glass. At the Darwin D. Martin House Complex alone, Wright executed nearly 400 examples of decorative glass—windows, doors, skylights, laylights, sidelights, and light fixtures—in sixteen primary patterns, all of which were fabricated by the Linden Glass Company of…
Martin House
January 26, 2015
Restoration

The Martin House and Our Sustainability

Today’s worldwide interest in sustainable energy and architectural principles was foreshadowed by Wright’s life-long appreciation for nature. Wright frequently arrived at sustainable solutions that seem remarkably prescient today. Such innovations as nature-based site planning, interior day lighting, radiant and passive solar heating, the use of indigenous materials, natural evaporative air…
Martin House
March 15, 2013
Restoration

Martin House is Given Rare Carriage House Window

The Martin House Restoration Corporation (MHRC) announces that it has been given a rare art glass window, originally designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for the Carriage House of the Darwin D. Martin House Complex. The Carriage House, once encompassing the garage/stable, chauffeur’s apartment and hayloft, was demolished in 1962, along…
Martin House
July 8, 2011
Restoration

Hunting for Windows in a House by Frank Lloyd Wright

This article originally appeared in The New York Times on July 7, 2011. Darwin D. Martin, a soap-factory executive in Buffalo, was a serial client of Frank Lloyd Wright. Between 1903 and 1928, the charismatic architect designed a half-dozen buildings for Martin’s family, including a carriage house and a mausoleum. Wright…
Martin House
July 7, 2011