Art of Living

Nearly six decades ago, two sisters with a home-design dream literally changed the landscape of Greenville. Their sheer determination to have Frank Lloyd Wright design their house was an act of bravado, and it must have struck the iconic architect as such, which is, perhaps, why he agreed to do it. Could they have known the impact they would have on our town decades later? Or was it just naïve luck?

When Charlcy and Gabrielle Austin initially inquired about having Wright design their home, he declined. Several follow-up attempts went unanswered. Consider that at the time of their persistence, Wright was in his 80s and had achieved a reputation as an internationally renowned designer. Asking him to design your house would be akin to commissioning Pablo Picasso to paint you a work of modern art. Yet, these sisters would not take “no” for an answer.

Instead, they got in their car and drove to Taliesin, Wright’s summer home in Wisconsin. It was 1951. Can you imagine? Through several connections, Wright finally agreed to see them and discuss their project. I can only guess their Southern charm won him over.

The result is that of the two Wright-designed homes South Carolina claims, one is right here in Greenville. (The other is on the coast near Georgetown.) Even more extraordinary is that Wright autographed the Greenville structure—something he rarely did. The West Avondale Drive home, which is named Broad Margin (from Henry David Thoreau’s Walden), bears Wright’s red, square signature tile by the front entrance.

Indeed, Wright’s signature style exudes from every angle of the single-story home—inside and out. It’s unlikely that either Wright or the Austin sisters could have known just how far that influence would reach. But this past fall, hundreds of architects from all over the country were among those who validated the significance of our city’s Wright-designed home as they took guided tours of (and copious notes about) the historic space.

Shortly thereafter, G Magazine’s photo and design team descended on Broad Margin for one of the first photo shoots of this impressive space in more than forty years. What struck me while we were there was the care put into every element of Wright’s design. No detail was too small to be executed with precision—from a wide roof that seems to float out of the surrounding landscape to his custom-designed Broad Margin logo that can be found cut into everything from hall windows to kitchen cabinets.

Amazingly, the home is still maintained as a private residence, which almost certainly is how Wright would want it. An artist in every sense of the word, his designs were all deeply personal. He painted Broad Margin into the existing landscape, perfected its design inside and out, and finally made it a home, one we can count ourselves fortunate to call “neighbor.”