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Welcome to the Walter Burley Griffin Society of America web site. Our mission is to preserve the legacy of architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin and the Prairie School of Architecture.

Please enjoy our site.

 

TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING
SATURDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER, 2024
LAKE GENEVA, WISCONSIN

We are pleased to announce that the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Walter Burley Griffin Society of America will be held on Saturday, 14 September, investigating the architecture around the picturesque summer retreats of Geneva Lake and Delavan Lake in southern Wisconsin. The Saturday morning session and lunch will take place at the Lake Geneva Country Club, on the south shore of Geneva Lake at W3398 S. Lakeshore Drive, Lake Geneva. Designed by Spencer & Powers in 1915, the concrete-block clubhouse remains much as it was constructed, magnificently sited. There is plenty of parking on the grounds. As usual, the meeting will begin at 9:00am. Lecture topics include the organic architecture of John Randal McDonald of Racine, by Dave Erickson; a recently restored Wright System-Built house in Shorewood, Wisconsin, by Nicholas Hayes; and the Summer Houses of the Prairie School, by Paul Kruty.

At the conclusion of the lectures, lunch will be served at the clubhouse. Following visits to several sites around Geneva and Delavan lakes, including Spencer & Powers’ Horticultural Hall and Henry Ives Cobb’s Yerkes Observatory, we will end at Frank Lloyd Wright’s spectacular Jones estate, “Penwern,” at 3335 South Shore Drive, Lake Delavan, an ensemble of structures from 1900 to 1903. There will be a reception with light refreshments. The day will end at approximately 5:00pm.

For those of you who are staying overnight, if you haven’t done so already, we recommend booking accommodations as soon as possible. And, of course, check the Griffin website for updates.

Please complete the registration form for the meeting (and renew your membership if it has lapsed). Hope to see you all there!

MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS

Once again, please renew your Griffin Society membership for 2024. Again, we have not raised our basic dues of $25 over the life of the organization and yet have been able to host the meetings and newsletters as well as sponsor publications and preservation projects. But we do need our members to renew to continue making these things possible. Thanks so very much. The membership renewal form can be found here (Membership Form). Please return the form with your payment to the Society.

GRIFFIN HOUSE FOR SALE

A Griffin house in the Rock Crest, Rock Glen area of Mason City, Iowa is for sale. Details about the house can be found HERE.

The Walter Burley Griffin Society of America
is proud to announce
...

GRIFFIN SOCIETY POSTERS

The Griffin Society is pleased to make its set of conference posters available for purchase. For the past six years the Society has commissioned commemorative posters for its annual meetings from the Brooklyn Studio of Peter Kruty and Sayre Gaydos. Hand printed with fine inks on handmade papers in limited editions, they are artworks in themselves and make excellent additions to the collections of architecture aficionados, Griffin followers, or anyone looking for an affordable and unique gift. The Society is offering these elegant prints for the modest price of $35 apiece including postage and handling (within the United States).

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Peter Kruty is a master printer and, together with his partner Sayre Gaydos, is the proprietor of Peter Kruty Editions, a fine art and commercial letterpress studio located in a charming two-story former horse stable in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Peter trained under Richard-Gabriel Rummonds at The University of Alabama and has graduate degrees in both letterpress and printmaking. The studio, now in its twenty-fourth year, collaborates with numerous contemporary artists and designers, including Lesley Dill, Louise Lawler, Eliza Kentridge, and Walton Ford. Its productions are widely collected both privately and by museums and libraries. Peter has taught book arts extensively in the United States and currently instructs letterpress at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn. Peter and Sayre also teach a letterpress workshop at the renowned Tipoteca Italiana Fondazione in Cornuda, Italy.

As an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, Peter studied architectural history under Paul Sprague, developing an early interest in the Prairie School and Walter Burley Griffin. He attends the meetings of the Griffin Society as his schedule permits and has been pleased to offer his services in producing the conference posters for the last six meetings. Peter and Sayre have created the posters at little more than cost and have donated all proceeds to the Griffin Society.

Peter Kruty
365 40th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11232
peterkrutyeditions@peterkrutyeditions.com

See the Publications page for pricing and ordering information.

 

 
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