Jack Randall: Preservation on Principle

On an early October 1973 Saturday morning, as someone new to the Buffalo area, I was exploring downtown Buffalo for the first time. As soon as I spotted the Prudential Building, I had to take a closer look at the building had seen only in books on Louis Sullivan. Its color and the details in the ornament stood out like no other building I had ever seen. I went into the lobby and viewed the brilliantly conceived decorative marble mosaic tile frieze in spaces then compromised by a bland modernization the decade before.

Coming off the elevator on the second floor, there was a hammering and talking off to my left in a small room at the west end of the corridor. As I walked in that direction, an older, athletic-looking man in a white T-shirt greeted me in a friendly way and told me what was going on. He introduced himself as "Jack Randall," and introduced me to two other men who were helping him attach various pieces of Sullivan-designed ornament to the walls.

To read more of Jason Aronoff's story, see page 6 of the Fall 2006 Heritage Magazine. Suscribe now!

Frank Lloyd Wright's Heath House

Western New Yorkers have long considered Buffalo to be a treasure trove of American architectural form. One of its crowning jewels is the venerable 1904 William R. Heath House, located at 76 Soldiers Place at the intersection of Bird Avenue and Soldiers Circle in Buffalo, NY. It is privately owned.

This masterwork of Frank Lloyd Wright's early "Prairie Period" is characterized by dramatic, continuous flowing horizontal lines of brick and concrete organized along a single elongated axis. The house is sited closed to the street, parallel to and above the sidewalk. The north elevation, facade of the house, containing the entrance, presents a massive 192-foot exposure along Bird Avenue. The entrance is indicated by a single colossal circular urn set off against a stark blank brick wall. The urn projects forward and upward as a symbol of welcome and hospitality.

To view the rest of this story by Joseph A. Blatz, see page 28 in the Fall 2006 Heritage Magazine. Subscribe now!

 

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