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Jeffrey Syken
It seems somehow innocuous that a product as mundane and utilitarian as floor wax would be the catalyst for the creation of one of the greatest buildings of the 20th Century, by one of the greatest architects of any century: Frank Lloyd Wright, but that’s exactly what happened. It was the quintessential Wright building, with the “scoundrel genius” at his very best - and worst. What made it all possible was a product called “Glo-Coat” – a self-polishing floor wax introduced by S.C. Johnson & Son in the early 1930s. Its commercial success (at the height of the Great Depression) would allow the grandson of the founder – Hibbard F. Johnson, to pursue his ideals of enlightened capitalism by creating the “greatest office building in the world” for his employees. To do that, he would need the “greatest architect in the world.” Indeed, to understand the creation of the Johnson Wax Administration Building and, a decade later a Research Tower, the opus must be examined through the lens of the master architect’s complex life and prolific body of work.
When Wright first saw the site in the industrial South-side of Racine, Wisconsin, he was not impressed. He called it “worthless” and tried to convince Johnson to move to the countryside and build there a model corporate campus surrounded by worker’s housing; akin to his cherished Broadacre City “Decentralization” scheme. But Hib Johnson was adamant and Wright’s wife warned him that if he didn’t oblige his client, he would lose the all-important commission. He conceded, but in his design for the building he turned everything inward, shutting out the ugliness of the surroundings and allowing only “the light of heaven” in through an innovative but technically deficient system of Pyrex glass-tube “sunbands” and skylights. In true Wrightian fashion, the building would come in many fold over budget and take three years (rather than the one year predicted) to build – and the roof inevitably leaked; a Wright trademark flaw. But that’s what happens when you leave a work of art out in the rain.
For Wright, the Johnson Wax project came at a critical juncture in his life and career. Nearing seventy, it seemed his best years were behind him, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s maxim that: “There are no second acts in American lives,” seemed especially true in his case. In 1932 he and his third wife Oglivanna founded the Taliesin Fellowship. The first few years were barren of architectural work and the focus was on establishing the Fellowship, but by 1935 things would change. Edgar Kaufman, Sr. – the wealthy father of an apprentice, asked Wright to design for him a country house in southwestern Pennsylvania. The result was Fallingwater, the greatest building of the 20th Century (according to the American Institute of Architects). On its heels (in 1936) came Johnson Wax – a building with 250 employees and a never-ending stream of visitors, even to the present day. Frank Lloyd Wright’s second act had begun.
This course includes a multiple-choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of the course materials.
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