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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-FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING
FRIDAY OCTOBER 3 &
SATURDAY OCTOBER 4, 2025
MASON CITY, IOWA

We are pleased to announce that the 24th Annual Meeting of the Walter Burley Griffin Society of America will be held in Mason City, Iowa, on 3-4 October 2025 (Friday and Saturday). The meeting is being organized by board members Nick Mutchler and Peggy Bang and will include visits to the houses of Rock Crest/Rock Glen and a host of additional local sites. This will be the Society’s third visit to this incredible enclave of early twentieth-century modern American architecture, following meetings held in June 2003 and May 2014. The entire Historic Park Inn Hotel (the Wright hotel) has been reserved for the Griffin Society for 2, 3, & 4 October and rooms are now available as first come first served.

Both Friday and Saturday lectures will begin at 9 as usual and will last until noon. They will take place in the Salsbury room on the 2nd level of the Mac- Nider Museum. The Tudor-styled museum building itself is of historic and architectural interest and features many interesting displays of Mason City’s rich brick-and-tile heritage circa 1920. The museum’s collection focuses on American art. Tours of the houses in Rock Crest/Rock Glen, including works by Griffin, Wright, Barry Byrne, and William Drummond, will be held from 1:00 to 5:00 on Friday and Saturday afternoons. Friday evening is free to spend as you wish, while Saturday evening will conclude with a reception at the Blythe house. An informal reception is being considered for those who arrive on Thursday afternoon/evening, as well as an additional site-visit for Sunday morning. Check the website for announcements.

Registration fee of $70 covers both days, including tours of the Historic Park Inn and Stockman House. Optional boxed lunches at $15 per day will be served following lectures at the museum/museum grounds. Here is the Membership/Registration Form for the meeting.

Please register by Sept 15, 2025; Registration is limited to 150 people.

And, of course, you must be a member of the Griffin Society to register for the conference. If you have not renewed your membership, a form has been included with this newsletter.

Speakers include Katie Hurd, director of Cedar Rock Lowell Walter House, Wright’s Usonian house on an 11-acre Iowa State park; Glenda Korporaal, author of “Making Magic,” a biography of Marion Mahony Griffin; Lonnie Lovness, author of “Growing up Wright,” an account of the creation of her parents’ Wright house in Stillwater, Minnesota; Paul Kruty on the genesis of Rock Crest/Rock Glen; master-printer Peter Kruty, who created the stunning posters for the last ten meetings; and Nick Mutchler, craftsman restoring the Melson and Blythe houses in Mason City. See you there!

Check back for additional details on the meeting.

MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS

Once again, please renew your Griffin Society membership for 2025. We have just raised our basic dues of $35 ($30 for seniors and students). We do need our members to renew their membership so we can continue organizing our annual meetings and publishing newsletters as well as sponsor publications and preservation project things possible. Thanks so very much. The membership renewal form can be found here (Membership/Registration Form). Please return the form with your payment to the Society.

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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