Join AIA Milwaukee for a tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hardy House in Racine with Mark Hertzberg.

Participants will examine Wright’s mastery of organic architecture and analyze how he adapted his Prairie School layout to a dramatic bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. The tour highlights signature Wrightian techniques—including expressive compression and release, art glass fenestration, and cantilevered terracing—to demonstrate how spatial geometry optimizes daylighting and natural cross-ventilation. Additionally, attendees will learn how Wright’s pioneering integration of site, light, and structure informs contemporary building performance and occupant well-being. Attendees will also review envelope restoration methods that protect Wright's pioneering architecture against environmental degradation and moisture intrusion.

Learning Objectives:

• Passive Design & Occupant Health: Analyze Wright's use of geometric art glass, orientation, and spatial flow to optimize natural daylighting and cross-ventilation for improved indoor environmental quality.
• Historic Envelope & Building Welfare: Assess historic restoration techniques for stucco and art glass to identify methods for mitigating moisture intrusion, environmental degradation, and indoor air risks.
• Bluff Stabilization & Structural Safety: Evaluate Wright’s site-adaptation strategies and bluff-stabilization engineering to understand how cantilevered foundations prevent structural failure on dynamic coastal slopes.
• Vertical Layout & Egress Safety: Examine life-safety considerations within the house’s compact, three-story layout, focusing on stair geometry, vertical circulation, and emergency egress.

Details: 

• Check-in with an AIA Milwaukee officer at the entrance to the home along Main Street. Street parking is available.
• Link: https://wrightinracine.net/2014/02/17/hardy-house-restoration/
• Submitted for AIA/CES approval 
• No Refunds day of event. Attendance is limited to 15 registrants.

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