The Martin House is presented as a true American masterpiece and a quintessential example of Frank Lloyd Wright's interplay of architecture, design, and landscape. Built in the Prairie style, it is a multi-residential estate with six complementary buildings, interior and exterior gardens, and a collection of art glass and furnishings designed by Wright and crafted as a unified composition. The estate includes three dwellings for Darwin D. Martin, Martin's sister Delta Martin Barton, and a gardener, linked by a pergola, conservatory, and carriage house within a carefully designed landscape that Wright called a "domestic symphony." The principal Martin House is marked by a low profile, cruciform plan, spatial openness, pronounced horizontality, dramatic pier and cantilever construction, and a natural palette of materials. Art glass is central to Wright's vision here, with more than 400 "light screens" in sixteen unique patterns conceived as geometric abstractions inspired by nature; the best-known design is the Tree of Life, and one standard "tree" contains about 750 pieces of clear, gold, and iridescent glass. Wright also created custom furnishings for the interior, producing a total aesthetic through free-standing and built-in furniture; among the most notable is the barrel chair, first designed for the Martins and later adapted for other projects.

Photo: William Fischer, Jr.

Photo: William Fischer, Jr.

Photo: William Fischer, Jr.

Photo: William Fischer, Jr.

Buffalo, New York · USA