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| Fontana Boathouse |
The Western New York area has one of the largest “collections,”
if you will, of Frank Lloyd Wright “art work”: his beautiful architecture. Most
famous among these “pieces” are Buffalo’s Darwin Martin House and the
Graycliffe Estate in Derby. The Buffalo area is also home to a few recent but
archival Wright builds: the Blue Sky Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Cemetery, the
Filling Station at the Pierce-Arrow Museum and a building I recently visited,
the Fontana Boathouse.
The Fontana Boathouse, located at 1 Rotary Row, is a working
boathouse that is managed and used by the West Side Rowing Club. Wright
originally designed the boathouse for the University of Wisconsin crew team in
1905, giving them a building that blended form and function. That design,
however, was not built until a few years ago in Buffalo.
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| upstairs window |
In 2000, three friends discussed placing this boathouse
design on the Niagara River, near the junction point with Lake Erie. After seven
years, construction of the Fontana Boathouse was completed, and the Buffalo
area had yet another Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece. In 2008, the boathouse was
designated as a US National team development site by US Rowing.
Our docent, Olivia, was very knowledgeable about the boathouse,
taking us through both the design components of the building and the background
of how it went from design to reality.
In addition to being a working boathouse, the Fontana Boathouse is
available for special events and tours, including the All Wright All Day tours
presented by Forest Lawn and the Darwin Martin House. Find out more about the
Fontana Boathouse here, and the more
about the All Wright All Day tours here.
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| the view |
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| upstairs meeting room |
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| the working boathouse |
all photos: paulathompsonfreelance.com
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