Thomson and Wright
When discussing the work and legacy of Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson, the question often arises of whether Thomson’s style was moving towards an early modernism – his eschewing of articulated window reveals at Great Western Terrace, and his experimentations with cast iron and glass in his warehouses being the most common indicators of a transitioning style – and whether his work might have served to inspire those who came after him. Certainly the influence of Thomson can be found in many of the Glasgow architects who followed; Sir John James Burnet’s modern classical edifice at 200 St Vincent Street being a clear example of the influence of the reductive classicism explored by Thomson at Great Western Terrace (GWT was in fact completed by JJ Burnet after Thomson’s death). But whilst his legacy can be found in Glasgow and across Scotland, did his influence ever reach beyond his own shores?
Thomson’s unique style was certainly exported by the Audsleys, who left behind a skyscraper in New York, a gallery in Milwaukee and a number of prominent competition entries all composed from Thomson-esque components. But the American raised most commonly in connection with Thomson is Frank Lloyd Wright, indeed esteemed commentators such as Andy MacMillan, Gavin Stamp and Sir John Summerson have all speculated on the link between the two, despite their being little tangible evidence that one exists. Yet the similarities between their works, both domestic and ecclesiastical, combined with their shared desire to develop a New Architecture have bred these continuing comparisons.
“There is nothing like Thomson anywhere outside Glasgow. Edinburgh never caught the magic germ, neither did Aberdeen; and I cannot think of anything in Continental Europe which is comparable. One has to cross the Atlantic and look at Frank Lloyd Wright’s creations of 1900-1910 to find an equivalent handling of form…” Sir John Summerson
In their domestic work likenesses can be found between Thomson’s greatest homes, Holmwood and the Double Villa, and Wright’s iconic Prairie Houses. The shared usage of low-pitched roofs, over-sailing eaves, and the emphasis on horizontality in their overall composition all bring some commonality to their works. Gavin Stamp commented that:
“There is something wildly ‘American’ about Thomson – a ‘New World’ attitude. You can see it in the villas with their spreading eaves – a sort of primitivism, ultra-Tuscan. Compare, for instance, Thomson’s double villa at Langside with, say, the William H. Fricke house, Oak Park, Illinois (1902) and the other Wright houses of the period.”
And I can’t help but agree (on the latter part of the statement anyway), for me the projecting bay and L-shaped plan of Wright’s Frank Thomas house (1901) can be easily juxtaposed with Thomson’s Double Villa. Whilst the arrangement of spaces, and the related fenestration – in particular the grouping of 5 windows to the upper living space with glazing on the returns seen at Holmwood can be found in many of Wright’s prairie houses.
On the similarity between Thomson’s ecclesiastical work and designs by Wright, Andy MacMillan noted:
“Thomson’s churches exhibit some of the same massing and geometric patterning of flat wall surfaces perforated by large trabeated openings and smaller linked windows, found in the Textile Block houses of Wright’s ‘Mayan’ period in the 1920s. This is particularly noticeable in the St Vincent Street church and above all in Ballater St church where the resemblance to Unity Chapel is striking.”
And it is the Unity Temple (1908) that comes up over and over again in the writings of McFadzean, MacMillan and Stamp when comparing the two, which is unsurprising given that it predates Wright’s other religious buildings by 40 years plus and comes when Wright is in his early productive period.
Its plan and section are quite closely related to those found at all Thomson’s major churches; it is almost square in plan and relies on high-level geometric glazing. Meanwhile the overall composition of the Unity Temple can be set against Thomson’s – sadly now demolished – Ballater St church in the Gorbals, in particular its arrangement of a central entrance with hall and church either side. But for this author, the design influences can largely be drawn from older sources (Schinkel in particular), whilst the arrangement of spaces is pragmatic – to improve acoustics, to allow spaces to be accessed independently and so on.
So could Wright have known of Thomson? The only place Thomson’s domestic designs were published was in the Blackie publication, Village and Cottage Architecture, but having obtained a copy of the books owned by Frank Lloyd Wright from Columbia University (who hold the Wright archives) it isn’t listed in his collection. That of course doesn’t mean that he didn’t at some point see a copy, or own one earlier in his career, but it does certainly reduce the likelihood that he was exposed to Thomson’s residential work. Meanwhile, Thomson’s churches were evenly less widely published. As Thomson’s biographer, Ronald McFadzean, summarised:
“There is also a similarity in some of Thomson’s greatest buildings to the early works of Frank Lloyd Wright but it must be emphasised at once that there is no evidence that Wright ever saw any drawings or published works of Thomson.”
But what Wright almost certainly would have seen is the work of the Audsley Brothers, both in New York and in Milwaukee, whose Thomsonesque architecture would have stood out to someone in search of a ‘New Architecture’ like Wright. Early in his career Wright entered a competition for a new Library and Museum in Milwaukee (1893) with a surprisingly neo-classical design.
With the site being only 10 minutes from the Audsleys’ Milwaukee Art Museum of 1888 it’s difficult to imagine Wright not being familiar with it. Furthermore, one of the few things that Wright admits to being influenced by is the art of Japan, as George Ashdown Audsley was the author of three books on the art of Japan (one of those one of the first major English language publications on the subject) it is considerably more likely that Wright would have been aware of the brothers and their work, and thus by extension and perhaps without knowing it Thomson.
But as to the question of whether Thomson influenced Wright, I have to think it unlikely. The more plausible answer seems to be that these were both architects in search of a new style, drawing on common sources as well as examining the arts of various ancient cultures – and whilst Thomson found his muses in the Egyptian and Greek, Wright found his in the Japanese and Mayan arts. Both, when working at the height of their creative powers, produced buildings that could only have been formed by their unique approaches to architecture, and it is, I think, this individualism that serves to perpetually bond the two together.
To learn more about Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple you can attend a free lecture by Gunny Harboe, the conservation architect who has recently restored the church, on Friday 19th October 2018 at Mackintosh’s Queen’s Cross Church. The event is hosted by Glasgow School of Art, the Hunterian and the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society.
Our next blog will dig deeper into the connection between the work of the Audsleys and Thomson. To find out when it has been uploaded be sure to sign up to our newsletter (form on the homepage) or follow us on social media.
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