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Wright Studies
Dr. Isadore and Lucille Zimmerman Residence, Manchester, NH (1950) (S.333)
 
There is an abundance of information about the Zimmerman Residence.  In the fall of 2007 I had the opportunity to visit the home and confirm that it truly is a work of art.  From overall design to some of the smallest details.  Designed in 1950, it was completed in 1952.  John Geiger, an apprentice to Wright from 1947 to 1954, supervised the construction and lived with the Zimmerman’s for nearly a year during construction.  He also helped supervise the “Sixty Years of Living Architecture” Wright’s retrospective exhibits in New York and Los Angeles (1953-1954).  (I also had an opportunity to speak to John Geiger.)  There are many classic Wright details.  Wright used matte red brick, cast concrete, Georgian cypress and originally red clay roof tiles.  The Cherokee red poured concrete floors are designed on a four foot grid system, it has a four foot cantilevered roof, and mitered glass windows that eliminate corners.  Five sets of floor to ceiling wood framed glass doors open outward from the Dining Loggia to the Terrace.  Bedroom windows also open outward.  Clerestory windows bring light into the interior Workspace.  The Zimmerman’s used Georgian cypress trim on both the interior and exterior of the house.  There are also differences.  The entrance is not hidden. The distinctive concrete cast window casings provide light and privacy.  But the most unique aspect of this home are the brilliantly designed Garden Windows.  A  

window within a window.  I don’t believe this design appears in any other Wright homes.  The glass windows are imbedded directly into the brick piers and wood ceiling.  The lower pane bisects the planter.  The wood trimmed window within a window frames the surrounding gardens designed by Wright.  Pure genius.
       Tours of the interior are available, but photographing it is not.  There is the large centrally located brick and cast concrete fireplace.  Like many of Wright’s homes, he designed the furniture and dozens of built-ins.  One of the most important piece is the Music Stand.  According to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives, this is one of six quartet stands that are Wright-designed that are known to exist (two are at Taliesin, one is at Taliesin West, one is at the Dallas Public Library, and the sixth at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library in Austin, Texas), the one in the Zimmerman House is a variation of the "design matured with a more structurally sound construction than its predecessors."  But we have located another at the Shavin Residence in Tennessee.  In 1979 the Zimmerman Residence was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.  Dr. Zimmerman past away in 1984.  Four years later Mrs. Zimmerman past away.  They left the house and everything in it, to the Currier Museum of Art in 1988.          September 2007
 
 
Exterior Photographs By Douglas Steiner, September 2007
There are many classic Wright details.  Wright used matte red brick, cast concrete, Georgian cypress and originally red clay roof tiles.  The Cherokee red poured concrete floors are designed on a four foot grid system, it has a four foot cantilevered roof, and mitered glass windows that eliminate corners.  Five sets of floor to ceiling wood framed glass doors open outward from the Dining Loggia to the Terrace.  Bedroom windows also open outward.  Clerestory windows bring light into the interior Workspace.  The Zimmerman’s used Georgian cypress trim on both the interior and exterior of the   house.  There are also differences.  The entrance is not hidden. The distinctive concrete cast window casings provide light and privacy.  But the most unique aspect of this home are the brilliantly designed Garden Windows.  A window within a window.  I don’t believe this design appears in any other Wright homes.  The glass windows are imbedded directly into the brick piers and wood ceiling.  The lower pane bisects the planter.  The wood trimmed window within a window frames the surrounding gardens designed by Wright.  Pure genius.
 
Text and Photographs by Douglas M. Steiner, Copyright 2007
 
 
Interior Images By J. David Bohl
Tours of the interior are available, but photographing it is not.  There is the large centrally located brick and cast concrete fireplace.  Like many of Wright’s homes,   he designed the furniture and dozens of built-ins. These interior photographs are Copyright J. David Bohl and the Currier Museum of Art.
 
 
Floor plan copyright 1993, “The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion”  Storrer, William Allin, page 353.
 
Related Books
"Frank Lloyd Wright: In The Realm of Ideas" Pfeiffer, Nordland, 1988, page 101.
"GI 10: Global Interior #10: Houses by Frank Lloyd Wright 2" Text: Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks; Edited and Photographed: Futagawa, Yukio, 1990, pages 136-141.
"Frank Lloyd Wright Monograph 1942-1950", Text: Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks; Edited and Photographed: Futagawa, Yukio, 1990, page 327-329.
"Frank Lloyd Wright Selected Houses 7", Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks, 1991, page 104-119
"Architectural Monographs No 18: Frank Lloyd Wright" Heinz, 1992, page 120-121.
"Frank Lloyd Wright: A Biography" Secrest, 1992, page 470.
"The Wright Style" Lind, 1992, page 45, 72, 116-117.
"Frank Lloyd Wright: The Masterworks" Larkin, Pfeiffer, 1993, page 240-245.
“The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion”, Storrer, William Allin, 1993, page 353.
"Frank Lloyd Wright East" Heinz, 1993, page 44-47.
"Frank Lloyd Wright and the Meaning of Material" Patterson, 1994, page 23, 96, 107, 207, 213.
"Frank Lloyd Wright’s Dining Rooms" Lind, 1995, page 42-43.
"Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fireplaces" Lind, 1995, page 52-53.
"Frank Lloyd Wright Design" Costantino, 1996, page 108-109.
"Frank Lloyd Wright" Thomson, 1997, page 146-149, 212-213, 217-218.
"The Life & Works of Frank Lloyd Wright" Costantino, 1998, page 117-119, 168.
"Frank Lloyd Wright - A Visual Encyclopedia" Thomson, 1999, page 356-357.
"50 Favorite Furnishings By Frank Lloyd Wright" Maddex, 1999, page 58-59.
"Frank Lloyd Wright Glass" Ehrlich, 2000, page 17, 42, 121.
"The Vision of Frank Lloyd Wright" Heinz, 2000, page 248-249.
"50 Favorite Houses By Frank Lloyd Wright" Maddex, 2000, page 110-111.
"Frank Lloyd Wright: Inside and Out" Maddex, 2001, page 174-175.
"Interiors, Frank Lloyd Wright at a Glance", Moor, Abby, 2001, page 60-63.
"The Wright Space" Hart, 2001, page 78-79, 88-89, 181.
"Frank Lloyd Wright Field Guide" Clayton, 2002, page 281, 284, 286-291.
 
"Frank Lloyd Wright Elegant Houses, GA Traveler 006", Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks, 2002, page 208-227.
"Usonian Houses, Frank Lloyd Wright at a Glance", Ehrlich, Doreen, 2002, page 66-71.
"Wright-Sized Houses", Maddex, Diane, 2003, page 120-127.
"A Work of Art for Kindred Spirits, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Zimmerman House", Levine, Neil; Startup, Hetty; Sundstrom, Kurt J., 2004
"The Wright Experience, A Master Architects Vision" Hunt, 2008, page 15, 92.

 
Related Images and Articles
(Note, due to the fact that the internet is constantly changing, and items that
are posted change, I have copied the text, but give all the credits available.)
A) Interior images by J. David Bohl and the Currier Museum of Art.
B) "Music Stand", By Hetty Startup, Zimmerman House Site Administrator.
C) "Wright's work, the Fellowship and more: An interview with John Geiger", By Mark Hertzberg, July 2, 2007
D) "Small is beautiful in Wright house", By Sacha Pfeiffer, The Boston Globe, October 11, 2007
 

 

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