| Page 2 of 3 < > |
For Purists, N.Y. House Is Just Not Wright
Joe Massaro's new home is based on a Frank Lloyd Wright design.
(J. Gregory Raymond - Bloomberg News)
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
The entrance to the single-story structure is seven feet high, but in typical Wright fashion the claustrophobic dimness gives way to an 18-foot-high living area made bright by 26 triangular skylights.
Seamless Concrete
Massaro poured 150 tons of concrete to make the floors, ceilings and some of the walls. In order to cart the material from the mainland, he waited until the lake froze over and dragged the ingredients across the ice behind six-wheeled, all-terrain vehicles called gators. It took 36 straight hours of pouring, because the structure's stability requires the concrete to be seamless.
The house's most arresting feature is the cantilevered deck, which juts more than 25 feet over the lake.
"The extent of the cantilever is mind-boggling," Twombly said.
Massaro, who lives with his wife, Barbara, on the mainland, a 10-minute boat ride from the island, won't divulge how much he's spent, joking that costs have exceeded the original $50,000 budget. "If I'd known how much trouble it would be, I never would have started," Massaro said. "But now that we're this far along, I'm glad I did it."
Dod Chahroudi gave Massaro copies of Wright's drawings when Massaro bought Petra Island in 1995. After a subsequent visit to Fallingwater in Mill Run, Pa., Massaro said he knew he had to build the house.
'In Love With Frank'
"I started falling in love with Frank," Massaro said.
Massaro tried to enlist the help of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, established in 1940 to conserve the architect's work. Massaro said the foundation wanted $450,000 to supervise construction and a guarantee that the home would be built.
That didn't sit well with Massaro, who got into business right out of high school and sold his company, Elmsford Sheet Metal Works Inc., in 2000. So he hired Wright scholar and architect Thomas A. Heinz to help.
The foundation sued Massaro, who agreed in a settlement to limit the use of Wright's name in connection with the house to the phrase "inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright."
Philip Allsopp, chief executive of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, declined to speak about the Massaro settlement. He did say that he was concerned about bastardizing Wright's style.
"If he were alive today, he'd be supervising" construction of the Massaro house, Allsopp said. "No one who is not Frank Lloyd Wright could do that."
