On his own

de Paul Kruty

The latest book published by the Walter Burley Griffin Society of America presents detailed histories of the Harry V. Peters house, built in 1906-07 in Chicago?s Mayfair neighborhood, and the Ralph D. Griffin house, designed in 1906 and constructed in 1910 in Edwardsville, Illinois. Forays into the stories of the clients, social and aesthetic contexts for the houses, and close analysis of historical photographs, contribute to a clearer understanding of two of Griffin?s most important buildings. 0By focusing on Griffin?s first two years of independent practice, Kruty reveals Griffin?s initial experimentation with the gabled roof, a form that was to preoccupy him, despite his precocious use of flat roofs, for the rest of his life: ?The two buildings are part of an initial creative endeavor that flowed from Griffin?s imagination, pent-up as it was during the last year of his fraught relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright.? As Kruty elaborates, ?Two other designs, which remained unbuilt projects, complete a quartet of compositions comprising Griffin?s first foray into a completely self-controlled design vocabulary? which ?show the young architect striving to develop a new vocabulary of form employing symmetrical designs composed of two rectangular masses crossed at right angles, covered with gabled roofs producing raised ceilings and diamond windows, and an inventive used of open, flowing interior space.?