In the print edition of the Reader this page is occupied by a Chris Ware comic. At his request, we do not make his work available online.

CHICAGO READER | SEPTEMBER 23, 2005 | SECTION ONE 19

K evin Howells was shovel-ing snow in front of hisnew house in Rogers Park

when some neighbors rumblingby in a silver SUV stopped to askwhether he knew about the cele-brated architect who had livedthere. He had to admit he didn’t.

Actually, Howells’s house, onthe 1900 block of West Estes,was once home to two architects:Walter Burley Gri∞n and hiswife, Marion Mahony. But whileGri∞n is readily acknowledgedas a luminary of the Prairie style,Mahony’s role in the movementhas been vigorously debated fordecades. Some scholars say shewas denied proper credit for herpart in designing some of themost important pieces of theperiod—the Robie House, UnityTemple—while others, includingher former boss Frank LloydWright, characterize her only asa “capable assistant.”

Yet at least one thing is certain,as an exhibition that opensFriday at the Block Museum ofArt shows: “She did the drawingspeople think of when they thinkof Frank Lloyd Wright,” sayscurator Debora Wood. “We canspeculate till time’s end what

impact she had on the architec-ture—we know she did the art.”

Mahony grew up in Winnetka,where her family took refuge afterthe Great Chicago Fire. “Always atomboy,” she wrote in an unpub-lished autobiography, “The Magicof America,” she took daily walksto the lakeshore through the brushand flora. In her teens Mahonyspent long hours “absorbing thescientific fundaments of our time.”A family friend arranged to sendher to MIT, where in 1894 shebecame the second woman tograduate from the architectureprogram. Her thesis, “The Houseand Studio of a Painter,” articu-lates design elements that wouldbecome hallmarks of the Prairiestyle—“rooms freely communicat-ing with each other,” lit by largegroups of windows, with a work-space attached to the same axis asthe house and courtyard. “Mythought has been to arrange aconvenient and elegant home foran artist who, if not great, is at anyrate very fashionable,” she wrote.

At the time female architectswere few and obscure, and theirdesigns were primarily collabora-tive efforts. Sophia Hayden, whograduated four years ahead of

Mahony, couldn’t find a job untilshe won the competition todesign the Women’s Building forthe World’s ColumbianExposition. She was paid a frac-tion of what her male colleaguesmade, saw little of her visioncome to fruition, and collapsedunder the pressure. “The newspa-pers wrote that she had a nervousbreakdown. She didn’t completeany projects after that,” saysJennifer Masengarb, an educa-tion specialist at the ChicagoArchitecture Foundation.

Mahony had a smoother entryinto the business. The week aftergraduation she began working asa “cub draftsman” for her cousin,fellow MIT grad Dwight Perkins,helping with interior details forSteinway Hall, an 11-story edificePerkins was designing on VanBuren. Perkins moved his ownpractice into the building whenit was done and was soon joinedby an old MIT pal, RobertSpencer. Spencer brought in hisclose friend Wright, who’d partedways with Louis Sullivan a fewyears earlier. Walter BurleyGri∞n joined the group in 1899.

When business slowed and

Mahony’s drawings for Griffin’s G.B. Cooley house in Louisiana and Frank Pallma house in Kenilworth; her Eucalyptus Urnigera Tasmania / Scarlet Bark, Sunset, done in ink on silk circa 1919

Marion Mahony in the 1890s

We know her ravishing renderings helped Frank Lloyd Wright and other PrairieSchool architects make their mark. But Marion Mahony’s other contributions tothe movement are still being revealed more than 40 years after her death.

The Invisible Architect

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By Sarah Downey

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Mahony

Perkins could no longer affordMahony’s $6 a week salary,Wright hired her to work withhim at his new Oak Park studio.She had a talent for freehanddrawing and for setting buildingsin harmony with nature—anotherhallmark of the Prairie style. Onat least one occasion, recalledarchitect Barry Byrne, who got hisstart under Wright, her work wasdeclared superior to the master’s.

The two worked together for 14years, but it was a volatile relation-ship. She later claimed he’d takencredit for her work on the Dana-Thomas House in Oak Park andfor many of her drawings in theWasmuth Portfolio, whichlaunched his international reputa-tion when it was published inGermany in 1910. Her time at thedrafting table resulted in just onesolo commission, for the Churchof All Souls in Evanston, run by afamily friend. The September 1912issue of the prestigious WesternArchitect featured its exteriorstonework, tall gable roof, andskylights, but by 1960 All Soulshad been razed for a parking lot.

As Wright prepared to go toEurope with his mistress in 1909,he asked Mahony to continuedesigning for his clients. For rea-sons that have never been ascer-tained, she refused. Wright thenturned to Herman von Holst,who turned to Mahony—whoagreed to help him “on a definitearrangement that I should havecontrol of the designing.” PrairieSchool scholars credit Mahonywith both designing and render-ing the Robert and AdolphMueller houses in Decatur duringthis time. Although Wright haddone little more than secure thecommissions, writes ElizabethBirmingham, a Mahony biogra-pher and professor at NorthDakota State University, “after hereturned from Europe, he tookcredit for them and exhibited

them under his name.”Gri∞n, who by this time had

his own practice at SteinwayHall, handled the landscapedesign on the Mueller project asa favor to Mahony. In “TheMagic of America,” she writes, “Iwas first swept off my feet by mydelight in his achievements inmy profession, then through acommon bond of interests innature and intellectual pursuits,and then with the man himself.It was by no means a case of loveat first sight, but it was a mad-ness when it struck.”

The two married in 1911 andmoved to the house on Estes.

Less than a year later, Mahony’srenderings helped Gri∞n winthe international competition todesign Canberra, the new capitalcity of Australia. The entry wasunder his name, but Americancolleagues widely understoodthat while the planning conceptswere Gri∞n’s, the presentationdrawings that so ideally set thecity within the native flora camefrom her hand.

Mahony’s adoration for herhusband precluded her fromdemanding her share of the cred-it. She continued to sketch forhim in Australia, but began toreserve more of her monogramsfor paintings that reflected her

fascination with the native plantlife. In the essay that accompa-nies the Mahony exhibition cata-log, professor ChristopherVernon of the University ofWestern Australia writes “It ledher to invent a highly personalgenre of botanical illustrationthat she titled ‘Forest Portraits.’”Yet later on she would reveal in“The Magic of America” and toarchitectural historians that shehad hardly retired. As MarkPeisch, who interviewed Mahonyextensively, wrote in theMacmillan Encyclopedia ofArchitects in 1982, “Although herspecific contribution to the hus-band-wife teamwork is not ade-quately documented, it can beconsidered major.”

Bureaucratic interference andWorld War I would throttle theirhopes of executing the Canberraplan. A formal governmentinquiry found politicians haddeliberately withheld “necessaryinformation and assistance” fromGri∞n, who also suffered for hisYankee status. Still, the twostayed in Australia. They built acollege in Melbourne and autopian hillside suburb wherethey lived outside Sydney. A suc-cession of young architectshelped them run their business.“Mrs. Gri∞n had a great abilityand a rare capacity to understand

and help develop others and theirideas,” writes Queensland archi-tect James Birrell in his 1964biography of Gri∞n.

During the Depression theyturned to industrial design, main-ly in Sydney, creating municipalincinerators that, in the words ofPeisch, gave “powerful form andremarkable beauty to a structurewhose purpose was neither invit-ing nor aesthetically challenging.”Major commissions in India fol-lowed, and as Gri∞n createdexhibition buildings, a universitylibrary, and maharajah palaces, hereached a new apex in his career.Mahony stayed in Australia to runtheir practice but left it in thehands of proteges after surmisingher husband needed a bit of help.“Mrs. Gri∞n follows her man,”she wrote to him. Eight monthslater, Gri∞n fell from a scaffoldwhile working on the library. Hedied a week after the accident, inFebruary 1937.

Afterward a devastatedMahony would turn down joboffers in both Australia andIndia, staying only long enoughto finish pressing commissions.

When Mahony returned tothe house on Estes at the

end of 1938, America had largelyforgotten about both of theGri∞ns. The few visitors who

came to talk architecture allwanted to know about FrankLloyd Wright, whose recentlycompleted Fallingwater hadmade him a press darling.

Mahony accepted planningprojects for towns in Texas andNew Hampshire, but her clientdied before those could be exe-cuted. She was asked to addressthe Illinois Society of Architectsshortly after her return, but sheonly wanted to talk aboutanthroposophy, a religious sys-tem that she and her husbandhad adopted while abroad.

Mahony found solace in writ-ing “The Magic of America,” a1,100-page autobiographicalmanuscript she called “my sort ofbiography of Walt.” Organizedinto four parts, detailing battlesthe couple faced personally andprofessionally in India,Canberra, Sydney, and Chicago,her prose failed to draw theattention she’d hoped for.

Scholars attribute the design for the Adolph Mueller house in Decatur to Mahony, though Wright took credit for it at the time.

Marion Mahony Griffin:Drawing the Form of NatureWHEN Through Sun 12/4: Tue 10 AM-5PM, Wed-Fri 10 AM-8 PM, Sat-SunNoon-5 PM, closed MonWHERE Block Museum of Art, 40 ArtsCircle Dr., EvanstonPRICE FreeINFO 847-491-4000, blockmuseum.northwestern.edu

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CHICAGO READER | SEPTEMBER 23, 2005 | SECTION ONE 21

She asked William Purcell,whom she considered Gri∞n’sclosest friend from their days inthe Oak Park studio, for feed-back, explaining that she wantedto get “Walter’s Architecture andTown Planning concepts beforethe general public by hook or bycrook.” Purcell could only offermeasured encouragement: “Yesindeed—here is a treasure ofgreat interest to architects.” Buthe noted she hadn’t yet “builtthis material so that a readerunfamiliar with the issues couldsee its significance.”

No publisher ever came for-ward. As she neared 80, Mahonyfinally arranged to deposit copiesat the New-York HistoricalSociety and the Art Institute ofChicago.

Not long afterward Mahonycalled Thomas M. Folds, thechair of the art department atNorthwestern, and said she hadsome drawings to show him.Visiting her home, Folds encoun-tered an array of tall artworks ondrafting linen—not just presen-tation drawings for houses inAmerica that Mahony had ren-dered in ink, her preferred draw-ing medium, but also her “ForestPortraits,” which depict locales inTasmania and New South Walesthat Mahony painted during a1917 respite from the disappoint-ments of the Canberra project. Inall, Mahony would donate 120pieces to Northwestern. She gave350 more to the Art Institutebefore she died in 1961.

In the years since their deaths,recognition of the Gri∞ns has

gradually increased. In 1981 thecity named a string of Gri∞nhomes Walter Burley Gri∞nPlace. John Notz, a PrairieSchool historian and trustee ofGraceland Cemetery, arranged tohave Mahony’s cremated remainsmoved from an unmarked graveto a columbarium that now bearsa plaque with her name and oneof her flower renderings.

Many of the pieces shebequeathed to Northwestern willbe displayed at the BlockMuseum as part of MarionMahony Gri∞n: Drawing theForm of Nature, the first exhibi-tion to make Mahony the mainattraction. The show emphasizesMahony the artist over Mahonythe architect; it’s the first publicshowing of the “Forest Portraits,”and there’s also a section devotedto “Fairies Feeding the Herons,” amural Mahony painted at theArmstrong School in 1931, whenshe returned to Chicago during abrief separation from Walter inAustralia.

While for years getting access to“The Magic of America” requiredvisiting one of the holding venues,Art Institute o∞cials are workingto publish it, at least online, in theface of budget cuts. The Block,meanwhile, has borrowed por-tions of it for the exhibition. “Shewas one of the first women outthere practicing architecture,”says Wood. “It gives people a feelfor what that was like.” v