FOSSILS, FRACTURES, AND FORESHORE CLIFFS: THE INFLUENCE OF GEOLOGIC FEATURES ON FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT’S TRANSITION FROM PRAIRIE SCHOOL TO ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE AT GRAYCLIFF ON LAKE ERIE, WESTERN NEW YORK STATE, USA

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright used geologic features extensively during his transition from Prairie School to Organic Architecture at Graycliff, on the shore of Lake Erie south of Buffalo, NY. Near the end of his Prairie School period, starting in 1911 Wright used rough-finished local stone in his test bed of organic design at Taliesin in Wisconsin. Some Wright-designed buildings in Japan (1915-1924) included carved, vesicular Ōya tuff. Graycliff (1926-1931) combined elements of Prairie School and organic design. Wright then built many Organic Architecture houses, dozens with significant stone components including his masterpiece of organic design at Fallingwater (1936-1939).

Stone and landscape are fundamental to the organic design of Graycliff. Buildings are oriented parallel to the lakeshore and at the azimuth Wright preferred in organic designs. Windows enable exceptional views of Lake Erie. The lakeshore cliff below Graycliff consists primarily of gray Devonian shale. Erosion and retreat of the cliff left boulders of Tichenor Limestone bedrock and glacial erratic gneisses, granites and metaquartzites on the beach, where they were collected and built into Graycliff walls. The Tichenor Limestone Member of the Moscow Formation is a 1.5 ft (0.5 m) thick bedset of hard, storm-reworked skeletal grainstone to packstone. Tichenor boulders of Graycliff walls prominently display a diverse Middle Devonian marine fossil assemblage including brachiopods, crinoids, colonial and solitary corals, and bryozoans. Wall stones display natural fractures; smooth, beach-rounded edges; or rough, split surfaces. Crystalline erratic boulders are prominent near the front entrance and beside the fireplace of the main house. Weathering of pyrite created rust-colored patinas on Tichenor Limestone boulders on the beach and Graycliff exterior walls. Silurian Medina sandstone slabs with irregular tops and edges were used as pavers on patios and some interior floors.

The diamond shape theme of Graycliff includes a signature diamond window above the front entrance. Wright’s rhomboidal diamond window shapes in some Prairie School houses, Jiyu Gakuen Myonichikan in Japan, and Taliesin that parallel roof lines found a tie to nature at Graycliff. There, intersecting joints yielded Tichenor Limestone boulders that match this shape.