Frank Lloyd Wright

Two 20x20x120 cubit towers designed by Frank Lloyd Wright were the Price Tower and the Johnson Museum Headquarters.

Unity Temple:

Inline image 1

Johnson Wax Headquarters in Wisconsin:

Inline image 2

Two intersecting 30 cubit diameter circles create a 20 cubit long vesica piscis Jesus fish (knights templar Chartres Cathedral). After a 40 cubit long sanctuary we enter a 60 cubit tall 30 cubit diameter cylinder. In the book of Kings, Solomon’s temple was 60x30 cubits. And once again using 20.4 inches as the cubit, these dimensions are exact:


Inline image 2


Inline image 1

Ezekiel 41:
"And there was an enlarging, and a winding about still upward to the side chambers: for the winding about of the house went still upward round about the house: therefore the breadth of the house was still upward, and so increased from the lowest chamber to the highest by the midst"

Wright loves the 20/40/60 cubit vesica piscis. This is evident in some of his later houses, i.e. the Wilbur Pearce House and the Rayward House.. The bottom of the Guggenheim spiral tower has a diameter of exactly 60 cubits. 1 Kings 6 says there were chambers that extended up round about the temple. The top side chambers were 7 cubits wide, so we can calculate that the top of the spiral should be 74 cubits (60+7+7) which is 125.8 feet. Google maps has the width of the top of the spiral at 125.76 feet.

Wright designed his living rooms to have a grand fireplace, just like Richardson, in a 20-by-20-cubit room. All of Wright’s houses are 60x20, 40x20 and 20x20 cubit blocks in different arrangements. Wright promoted prefab construction because the Bible says no tools were used at the construction site of Solomon’s Temple. The Bible says that the temple’s winding got wider as the height increased. I think that was the thought behind the unique design for the Guggenheim. Wright was asked to build The Spirit of the Temple. Did that mean Solomon’s Temple? The Guggenheim’s main cylinder has a height of 60 cubits and a diameter of 60 cubits. The bottom of the spiral is five cubits wide and finishes seven cubits wide with the exact spiraling as described in the book of Kings.


Epstein House:

Inline image 1

Tracy House:

Inline image 2

Seamore Shavin Residence

Inline image 3

Zimmerman House in NH

Inline image 4

Ames Free Library (Richardson)

Inline image 6

Memorial Hall is tricky without a floor plan but you get the idea scaled off google.

Inline image 5

Louis Sullivan's jewel box banks:

Inline image 7


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Winn Memorial Library

Image
Winn Memorial  Library, H.H. Richardson designed  a 60 cubit long and 40 cubit wide cross like he did for Trinity Church but the location of the holy of holies is different. Instead of stacking it on top, he attached it to the end of the 60x20 long end of the cross. It’s 20x20x20 but it’s an octagon. 2x2x2=8 sides. This is a theory on why the dome of the rock, where Solomon’s temple used to be, is 8 sided. Maimonides of the 12 th  century had some commentary on the temple. He writes about 3 cubit projections into the temple sanctuary spaced apart. “Each cell had three entrances: one to the cell on the right, one to the cell above it, one to the winding stairwell, one towards the cell with the wicket, and one to the temple.” I have a floor plan for Winn and the projections are exactly 3 cubits (5 feet).   Using the stacked cells to fit out a  library  is clever, Richardson used this same concept at  Ames   Free  Library (North Easton) and...
Read more

Allegheny County Courthouse

Image
Ezekiel-temple.com and Isaac Newton have similar temple designs which are based on the book of Ezekiel. Richardson used the temple descriptions from Exodus, Kings, Chronicles, and Ezekiel. II Chronicles throws a curveball when it says the porch in front is 120 cubits high (204 feet). The Jewish Historian Josephus claims that the temple was 120 cubits tall. So was it 30 cubits tall or 120 cubits tall? Coincidentally the towers for the Allegheny County Courthouse in Pittsburgh and the Albany City Hall are 20x20 cubit squares and 120 cubits tall. There are pretty good drawings of the ACC online and the tower is definitely 20x20 cubits and the base is 60x20 cubits. The ACC includes the two pillars Jachin and Boaz and the three gates to get into the inner court. Each entrance is 10 cubits wide (17 feet), the same distance as the gate of the Ames Gate Lodge. The distance from the east gate to the "temple" is exactly 100 cubits (170 feet). The courtyard doesn't contain the altar...
Read more

Harvard's Austin Hall

Image
  Ephippas carrying the column Austin Hall has all the details of Solomon's Temple from the Bible. The interesting detail though is the column to the left of the entrance. I believe this to be inspired by the Testament of Solomon. Ephippas carrying the pillar out of the Red Sea, topped by Obizuth, the demon with no body and wild hair. 55. "But in the place where thou sittest, O King Solomon, standeth a column in the air, of purple...1 The demon called Ephippas hath brought [it] up from the Red Sea, from inner Arabia. He it is that shall be shut up in a skin-bottle and brought before thee. But at the entrance of the Temple, which thou hast begun to build, O King Solomon, lies stored much gold, which dig thou up and carry off." And I Solomon sent my servant, and found it to be as the demon told me. And I sealed him with my ring, and praised the Lord God." 56. So I said to him: "What art thou called?" And the demon said: "I am the crest of dragons." ...
Read more