Taliesin Preservation, Inc. - Preservation Programs

current AND RECENT projects

Large or small, there is always a corner of Taliesin® that needs attention. Lately, we have addressed the following issues:

2007-08: Work initiated or completed from the winter of 2007 through the middle of 2008
2007: Click here to read the variety of projects that Taliesin Preservation, Inc. engaged in during the year 2007
2006-07: Further work in Taliesin's Guest Wing, furniture refinishing and repair, landscape work
2006: Hillside re-roofing and repair, return of Chinese Fu Dogs, general maintenance
2005-06: Hillside Bathroom rehabilitation, Entry Bridge rehabilitation, re-roofing at Midway Barns, work in Taliesin's Guest Wing, Taliesin lamp repair

For information regarding projects before the winter of 2005-06, click on "Past Projects", to the left.

2007-08: Taliesin Preservation, Inc. (TPI) is working on, or completed, the following projects since the beginning of the winter, 2007:

At the Hillside School Structure, TPI was able to:
- Repair doors and masonry.
- Re-construct 18 casement windows and 8 (French) door units.
- Repair the Hillside kitchen/pantry floor.
- Repair portions of the Hillside Drafting studio roof.
- Repair and restore Hillside Dining Room chairs.
- Continue pest screening and abatement.
- Repair the floor of the Hillside Dining Room following record snowfalls in Wisconsin during the 2007-08 winter (which led to moisture infiltration).
- Continual repair and maintenance of graded roads and paths.
- Refinish the Hillside Drafting Studio floor following record snowfalls in Wisconsin during the 2007-08 winter (which led to moisture infiltration).
At Taliesin, TPI was able to:
- Continue the building and slope monitoring program.
- Repair stair and paving.
- Upgrade select water supply systems.
- Repair select mechanical systems.
- Construct tour enhancements at Mr. and Mrs. Wright's Bedrooms, which are currently undergoing stabilization (see below).
- Clean and repair select furniture by Frank Lloyd Wright
On the rest of the Taliesin Estate, TPI was able to:
- Make repairs and enhancements to the Frank Lloyd Wright Visitor Center tours and administrative offices.
- Assit in opening of seasonal buildings and spaces.
- Fill collapsed dry well tank in Hillside front lawn.
- Conduct a controlled burn of Romeo and Juliet prairie and Hillside stream bank (under supervision).
- Removed invasive tree species at Midway Farm and conducted site clearing.

Continued work in Taliesin's Guest Wing:
Work continued in Taliesin's Guest Wing (which also includes work in Mr. and Mrs. Wright's bedrooms and bathrooms) throughout the winter. This included structural work, continued historic documentation, and removal of built-in furniture. The furniture, which, for the most part, appears to have been built after Frank Lloyd Wright's lifetime, was still saved in case of future reconstruction in his bedroom.

The specific structural work included:

The removal of a flat, wooden roof in Mrs. Wright's Bedroom that was rotting.
The installation of micro-laminated ("micro-lams") joists and beams with existing joists and beams where Mrs. Wright's flat roof had been; and underneath the hearth in her room. These micro-lams were secured with steel hangers and ¾" bolts.
Floor stabilization underneath the entryway into her room.
The insertion of steel channels underneath a portion of Mrs. Wright's floor and the area where the hipped roof of her room meets the flat roof. These are additional measures that were taken in order to prepare for jacking in area in the future.
Historic research was conducted in order to provide a context and understanding of the area, and in order to provide a basis for any future restoration, preservation, reconstruction or rehabilitation that may be undertaken in this space.
Lastly, the TPI Preservation Crew constructed barriers and temporary flooring in areas of Mr. and Mrs. Wright's Bedroom for tours of Taliesin. The barriers allow people to safely enter the spaces with the guides as they interpret them; and also allow visitors to see some of the work in the area.

2007: TPI worked on or completed the following projects in 2007:
Hillside:

Assembly Hall window sill repairs.
Kitchen roof repairs. These were precipitated by the purchase of a new range hood & fire suppression system in the kitchen, which had never had a range hood before. The purchase of a new range hood brings the kitchen up to current, standard code.
Assembly Hall roof repair, including:
- Framing repairs
- Roofing and flashing
- Balcony facia and soffit repair
- And chimney pier masonry repairs and re-pointing.
Assembly Hall Balcony (looking at Dining Room): urethane roofing.
East wing of the Hillside Drafting Studio: corridor enhancements and roof repairs.
Pool Repairs.
Dining Room floor repairs and shoring.
Hillside Drafting Studio roof repairs.
Dining room chairs repair and restoration.
Hillside Curtain returned to Theater.

The Taliesin residence:

Drainage repairs and stabilization.
Hill Wing sewer repair and replacement, laundry installation.
Work on the floor of the "Big Guest Bedroom" in the main floor of the residence, where Mr. and Mrs. Wright lived. Finish repair and replacement where necessary.
Repaired leaks in plumbing systems that appeared over the 2006-07 winter.
Maintenance of windows outside of Mr. Wright's Drafting Studio at Taliesin.
Taliesin Entry Bridge: installation of shoring to protect original bridge (following bridge rehabilitation in 2005-06).
Stair and paving repairs.
Water supply system upgrades.
Mechanical system repairs.
Lower Court stone wall shoring; shoring of structure below living room.

Landscape and general site:

Landscape:
- Taliesin Preservation, Inc. continues to work with Gary Zimmer, a "biological farmer" and president of Midwest Bio-Ag on converting the arable land on the Taliesin Estate to a sustainable, organic farming operation.
Read about the farmer in a recent article in the on-line magazine for the Environmental Defense Fund.
- A grant from the US Fish and Wildlife Service was renewed for the on-going prairie restoration. Additionally, Taliesin Preservation ahs applied for a grant from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for continued habitat restoration.
Site:
- Tan-y-deri house door and window repairs
- Repair and grade gravel roads
- Replacement of L.P. tanks and fire extinguishers site wide
- Michels Farm well upgrades, and hydrant and stock tank installation
- Michels Farm fencing upgrades for grazing contract

Careful and historically accurate restoration requires the combined talents and specialized expertise of many people. At TPI, part of our job is to make sure the money’s available to fund these vital preservation projects. To do that, we depend on people like you. To find out how you can help, visit the Giving Programs section of this web site.

2006-07: Further work in Taliesin's Guest Wing
Taliesin Preservation, working with restoration architects from Isthmus Architecture (Madison, Wisconsin) continued to work underneath Mrs. Wright's Bedroom during the winter of 2006-07.

Work in this area has been necessary due to a large amount of deflection in Mr. and Mrs. Wright's bedrooms in Taliesin's living quarters. Mrs. Wright's Bedroom had deflected to the point that common wisdom had assumed that this portion of the building was falling away from the surrounding structure. However, it appears that this portion of the structure is deflecting in the middle (over three floors), and kicking out the bottom of the building. This lends the appearance of the structure pulling away.

Over time, the Taliesin Preservation crew has worked in this area to stabilize it. They:

Stabilized a hearth under Mrs. Wright's Bedroom in 2002-03 (which necessitated going into a crawlspace beneath "the Gold Room", one floor below, to provide temporary shoring). This removed 3 inches (7.6 cm) of mid-span deflection under the hearth beam line in her bedroom.
Repaired an area of the terrace outside of Mrs. Wright's bedroom in 2004 (with apprentices from the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture andCustom Metals (Madison, Wisconsin) and 2005.
Removed non-historic finishes in the Gold Room and adjacent "Blue Room" in order to assess the area's stability and provide shoring and restructured floor joists.

From this work, Taliesin Preservation has slowly begun to understand the structural issues in this area.

Mr. and Mrs. Wright's Bedrooms did not exist in the Taliesin I era (1911-1914). A portion of his building was constructed in the beginning of the Taliesin II era (1914-1925); her bedroom and the room below it (the Gold Room) was constructed between 1920-25.

Following the second fire at Taliesin on April 22, 1925, Wright reconstructed this wing. Some of the newly constructed piers were built in the crawlspace under the Gold Room on the ashes from the 1925 fire (we believe that, at that time, Wright simply wanted the structure rebuilt quickly).

Then, in 1933-34, Frank Lloyd Wright added onto the third floor in this wing to provide rooms for his daughter, Iovanna Lloyd Wright. According to former apprentice Curtis Besinger (in his 1995 book, Working with Mr. Wright: What It Was Like ), and others, Wright expanded these rooms in 1943 for the Baroness Hilla Rebay, when she came to Taliesin with Solomon Guggenheim at the time of the Guggenheim Museum commission.

In order to accomodate her, Wright enlarged Iovanna's old bedroom by moving the wall further south. However, the architect did this without providing enough load support underneath. It is likely that the architect simply wanted the room to look good, but was not concerned about future problems (since he was always changing his home). However, this extra weight slowly pushed down the floor, which pushed on the bathrooms below on the main floor, the floor below this, and, finally, into the crawlspace. Onto some of those stone piers that were built on ash.

In late 2006, Taliesin Preservation and Isthmus Architecture made the decision to slowly jack this part of the building up. In order to do so, in December 2006 new concrete piers were poured in place of previously removed stone & temporary piers. The plan was to put steel on top of the concrete in order to accomplish the jacking.

While waiting to afford the steel, Taliesin Preservation crew members removed non-historic finishes and wall material in the remainder of the Guest Wing. This allows for an assessment of the structural issues in this wing. The colors uncovered during the demolition of the non-historic finishes are wildly divergent, and indicate Frank Lloyd Wright's use of Taliesin as an experiment (in this case, in color).

Custom Metals of Madison brought in the steel for the concrete piers, and jacking of this section is planned. At this time, the hope is to jack this part of the building 2 inches (5.08 cm), at the rate of approximately an 1/8 of an inch per week (3.175 mm).

Click here for select photographs of the area, and work.

Furniture Refinishing and Repair

While the TPI preservation crew waited to continue work in Taliesin's Guest Wing, they repaired several pieces of Frank Lloyd Wright furniture. Their work included gentle cleansing, the removal of non-historic glues, and re-assembly in certain cases. Other furniture that was worked on received a stabilization approach. One of these pieces is known as the "Lloyd Lewis table", a coffee table originally designed for the Lloyd Lewis residence (Libertyville, IL, 1939). This piece can be seen on any tour that enters the residence, Taliesin (the Estate Tour, the House Tour, the Highlights Tour, or the Sunset Tour). The table is located in the room known as the Loggia (sometimes known as the Blue Loggia).

Landscape Work

TPI also removed trees or tree limbs that were encroaching on parts of Taliesin, particularly in the most western area of the structure (the portion that was once the agricultural wing). Assisting in this work was TPI's new landscape maintenance employee, who has a history of working with sustainable agriculture (for information on the work to convert Taliesin's fields to organic, see "Landscape", below).

2006: Hillside re-roofing and repair, return of Chinese Fu Dogs, general maintenance

Hillside re-roofing and repair
In late 2005, a portion of the ceiling at the Hillside Theater Foyer fell away due to a persistent leaking problem. Taliesin Preservation crew members had repaired this area twice before, but the leaking persisted.

In the summer of 2006, TPI crew members removed the rotting sections of roof and repaired or replaced the wooden rafters with in-kind materals. Then, metal flashing was added to the area to prevent leaks between this flat roof and a stone pier, and the area where the ceiling had fallen away was replastered.

Finally, Taliesin Preservation crew members coated the Hillside Theater roof with a new waterproofing material that should prevent roof leaks for the foreseeable future.

With this success, members of Taliesin Preservation's board of directors donated the funds necessary to allow the preservation crew to continue the roofing project. Hillside's Theater roof, and the roof of its dining room were waterproofed by early November 2006. The preservation crew plans to continue this project, addressing the roof at HIllside's Assembly Hall (next to the newly waterproofed roofs).

Return of Chinese Fu Dogs:
FU DOGS or FU LIONS are mythical beasts of Chinese folk-religion.

“Fo” is the Chinese word for Lord Buddha, and pairs of fu lions are often found guarding the gateways of Buddhist temples.... They are guardians of the law and protectors of sacred texts.... and are often displayed in children's bedrooms, gardens, and entryways. The male dog is usually playing with a ball, or “chu,” while the female has a puppy under her paw. The earliest traditions of fu-dog iconography date from the Han Dynasty (208 BC to 211 AD) [http://www.liasiagallery.com/foos.html]

Frank Lloyd Wright acquired a pair of metal Fu Dogs/Lions at some point in the 1940s, and placed them on a parking terrace at Taliesin (a photograph of one during Wright's lifetime can be seen in the book, A Way of Life: An Apprenticeship with Frank Lloyd Wright, by Lois Davison Gottleib, p. 43) .

The dogs were removed in 2003 and placed in storage to protect them during the Save America's Treasures work on Taliesin's Lower Parking Court.

During this period of time, Margo Stipe, the Curator and Registrar of Collections at the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives, worked to secure the funding to restore the metal dogs/lions, which had corroded over the years.

The dogs were returned to Taliesin's Lower Parking Court in September 2006. Taliesin Preservation, Inc. worked with Custom Metals (Madison, Wisconsin) to create secure platforms for the newly restored dogs/lions to sit on. More information on the project is available in the fall 2006 issue of the Frank Lloyd Wright Quarterly.

General Maintenance
Other work in 2006 included:

Repairs to the terrace off of Frank Lloyd Wright's Office at Taliesin
Re-roofing at Taliesin's old stable
Waterproofing the roof over the east dormitory wing of the Hillside Drafting Studio
Repairing doors at Hillside's "Dana Gallery" (one of the building's original classrooms from its 1902 design)
Repairing a roof at the adjacent property, known as "The Michel's Farm". This structure is used by TPI for repair work and storage that cannot be done on-site.
Repairing a section of wall off of Taliesin's Hill Wing (the Hill Wing at the residence Taliesin is notable by the fact that it is the tallest part of the building).
Continued landscape rehabilitation

2005-06: Hillside Bathroom rehabilitation, Entry Bridge rehabilitation, re-roofing at Midway Barns, work in Taliesin's Guest Wing, Taliesin lamp repair

Hillside Bathroom rehabilitation
During the winter of 2005-2006, TPI's preservation crew rehabilitated a bathroom in the Theater of Hillside. Wright designed this bathroom in 1952 without foundations. Over five decades of water and ice had seeped under the floor, causing it to buckle. TPI excavated under the bathroom's walls and placed new steel-reinforced concrete foundations under the bathroom. One of the tests of the bathroom's new foundations came in late February of 2006, when an unusual winter rain occurred over the weekend. The bedding sand of the Hillside Theater—where TPI had removed flagstone but had not placed in new foundations—had become saturated with water and froze. Meanwhile, the bedding sand in the area with the new foundations was completely dry.

As the bathroom had been changed after Wright's death and no documentation showed what the bathroom interior design looked like while he was alive, TPI is currently working with architects in the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation to design a new bathroom interior. When complete, this interior can be removed if documentation appears that shows the bathroom's appearance in 1959.

Taliesin Entry Bridge Rehabilitation
The entry bridge leading to the residence deteriorated to a degree where it was deemed unsafe for larger vehicles to cross. The efficiency of the tour program and the safety depends on the strength and viability of this bridge.

Westbrook Associated Engineers devised a plan to span the bridge, rather than dismantle it saving considerable time and money. The plan called for a single slab span over the top of the existing, deteriorating structure. Now in place, the span alleviates stress on the historic structure by diverting loads to abutting piers. The plan also incorporated underpinnings for existing pier footings and a steel bearing support system under the north pier footing and the culvert pipe footing.

All of the repairs called for in Westbrook Engineering's Entry Bridge project plan were carried out and completed within budget. The newly constructed span supports a load rating of HS-20, which meets Wisconsin Department of Transportation requirements for highway bridges. The result is a bridge that has the capacity to carry large vehicular traffic, including that of fire and rescue vehicles. Additionally, the original Entry Bridge still exists underneath the newly constructed span.

Roof Repairs—Midway Barns
The roof on Midway Barns is in serious need of rehabilitation. Members of the TPI preservation crew have been working to repair some of its worst areas by repairing and replacing materials in-kind. It is hoped that this remedial solution with help to protect the building until a comprehensive plan for sections of its foundations can be created and implemented.

Work in Taliesin's Guest Wing
Work continued through the winter in Taliesin's Guest Wing. The Guest Wing is in Taliesin's living quarters, underneath the floor where Mr. and Mrs. Wright lived. The work carried out by Taliesin Preservation's crew was done under a series of rooms underneath Mr. and Mrs. Wright's bedrooms and bathrooms. Specifically, this work entailed the temporary shoring under these rooms; the installation of microlams to shore up the floor joists; and the removal of non-historic finishes.

Further work in the Guest Wing was continued in 2006-07.

Taliesin lamp repair
Three of the lamps that Frank Lloyd Wright designed for Taliesin in 1925 were repaired by a Taliesin Preservation crew member during the winter of 2005-06. The paper lamps shades were damaged or ripped, and the tops of the lamps, which cantilever, were weakening.

The crew member disassembled each lamp, cleaning the wood, and reassembling the lamps with new hardware. In addition, he removed and replaced the lamp shade with a suitable paper substitute that was researched with the on-site collections manager from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. Finally, a new electrical system was installed in the lamps.

The lamps were returned to public display and can be seen on tour at Taliesin (specifically, in Taliesin's living room).