All Wright All Day

Constructed between 1903 and 1905 as the home of Darwin and Isabelle Martin, the Martin House exemplifies Frank Lloyd Wright's "Prairie House" ideal and ranks as one of his finest residential works. Tours at the Martin House underscore how Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural genius is illustrated in timeless themes evident in his remarkable design: family, friendship, the meaning of home, and the American spirit as told through the story of Darwin D. Martin's patronage of America's greatest architect. The Darwin Martin House, located in the Frederick Law Olmsted-designed Parkside neighborhood, is considered one of the finest examples of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie-style design, and features a 1.5 acre campus landscape, designed by Wright and landscape architect Walter Burley Griffin.The historic landscape represents an important contributing feature to the overall significance of the estate. Wright developed an integrated design approach unifying buildings, interior decorative elements and exterior landscape in an organic style, deriving inspiration from the natural world. The Martin House landscape plan combines formal aspects of the English Garden tradition and informal landscape elements. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House is a memorable and architecturally significant site to host your next event! We have a variety of spaces available depending on the size and needs of your gathering.

In 1910, at the age of 43, Frank Lloyd Wright traveled to Europe to present what would become his most beloved collection of structure illustrations: the Wasmuth Portfolio. One of these famous drawings was something Wright called "Boathouse for the University of Wisconsin Boat Club." Twenty years later, the architect included this same boathouse in an international exhibition of six of his greatest works. The boathouse idea was obviously a favorite of Wright's, featuring design elements seen in other local treasures like the Martin House and the Larkin Building - large vertical piers supporting horizontal planes. Sadly, it was never constructed. It was one of Frank Lloyd Wright's most significant projects that had never come to fruition - until now. Completed in 2007, the Rowing Boathouse is open to the public for tours and available for rent for special events and meetings.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Filling Station was completed posthumously in 2014. Designed in the 1920s, the filling station was planned for a Buffalo oil company, but was never built. Today it stands as an exhibit in the recently expanded Buffalo Transportation Pierce-Arrow Museum at Michigan Avenue and Seneca Street in downtown Buffalo. The two-story, 1,600-square-foot filling station is built to Wright’s specifications and topped with authentic Tydol Oil signs. The station features a second story observation room with a fireplace, restrooms, an extensive copper roof, two 45-foot poles that Wright called “totems,” red and white painted concrete, and overhead gravity fed tanks. Wright referred to this design as “an ornament to the pavement.” The Filling Station beautifully complements the Buffalo Transportation Pierce-Arrow Museum’s mission of focusing on the impact of the automobile on modern America and is an unexpected and popular discovery for visitors, especially those unfamiliar with Wright’s Buffalo legacy. It joins two other Wright-designed structures completed posthumously after 2000—the Fontana Rowing Boathouse and Blue Sky Mausoleum. For Wright enthusiasts, these structures are the newest must-see treasures of a legendary American icon.

Set high on a cliff with sweeping views over Lake Erie, Graycliff stands as an architectural jewel awaiting your discovery. Built between 1926 and 1931, Graycliff was designed by the renowned American architect Frank Lloyd Wright for Isabelle R. Martin and her husband, Larkin Company executive Darwin D. Martin. Graycliff served as the Martin summer home from 1927 to the mid-1940s. It is a complex of three buildings that includes the small Heat Hut, the 3,100 square-foot Foster House and the 5,800 square-foot Isabelle R. Martin House, all set amidst eight and a half acres of rolling lawns and gardens also designed by Wright. Broadly cantilevered balconies open the buildings to the soft lake air. On the Isabelle R. Martin House, the second floor floats over a terrace and garden below. Another balcony soars, suspended above a sunken garden. Yet a third balcony overlooks the lake itself, and the spray of Niagara Falls in the far distance. Ribbons of glass windows and doors admit the lake breezes. They also frame views of the lake seen - ingeniously - directly through the house itself.

Blue Sky Mausoleum is located in Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, New York – the cemetery for which it was designed. This venerable yet vital organization owns a distinctive place in American history and has long been regarded as a visionary leader among its peers.