Untitled Document
One need only look at the roof of the Dana-Thomas
House, with its upturned corners, to see Japan’s influence on
architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
“Even though [Wright] hadn’t been in
Japan, he was already very aware and had been studying Japanese
architecture for about 10 years before he built the Dana-Thomas
House,” says Dr. Donald Hallmark, longtime site director of the
Springfield landmark — but the house was more than just a fresh
canvas for his inspired designs. Wright’s large commission from the
home afforded him the opportunity to go to Japan in 1905, says Regina
Albanese, executive director of the Dana-Thomas House Foundation. When he
returned from his travels, he bore gifts in the form of Japanese woodblock
prints.
The Dana-Thomas House Foundation recently acquired
some of the prints given by Wright to the home’s owner, Susan
Lawrence Dana. The addition of the collection — donated to the site
by R-Lou Barker — prompted the foundation to host a showing of the
documentary Magnificent Obsession, a film about Wright’s work in Japan.
A five-year labor of love by Koichi Mori and Chicago
native Karen Severns, the documentary shows how Wright’s aesthetic
and Japanese design came together in what Hallmark calls Wright’s
greatest Japanese accomplishment: the Imperial Hotel. Although there is a great deal of interest in
preserving Wright’s work in Japan, as in the United States, the
renowned hotel was demolished. “His greatest building was in a really urban
area, and the land value became so high that it led to the demise of the
building,” Hallmark says. “His other buildings that
weren’t built in such high-use urban areas have all survived, and
they are all revered.”
Magnificent Obsession features
interviews with surviving members of the architect’s team,
apprentices, and historians with previously unreleased archives that
provide a fresh look into the legacy of America’s most celebrated
architect.
Magnificent Obsession will
be screened in the Thorne Deuel Auditorium, at the Illinois State Museum
(502 S. Spring St.), at 1 p.m. Saturday, June 30. For information, call the
Dana-Thomas House Foundation office (217-788-9452). Admission is free.
Contact Marissa Monson at mmonson@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Jun 21-27, 2007.
