Martin House In The News

Frank Lloyd Wright designed Darwin D. Martin House

Wall Street Journal - August 2003

The House restoration will cost an estimated $23 million. And backers have already exceeded that figure, raising $25 million for the rehab, which will continue until at least 2007.

Dozens of exquisitely designed windows must be replaced, and a company in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, Oakbrook Esser Studios will reproduce the art glass and lighting fixtures designed by Wright. Those that are still intact, such as the jewel-like window that would only have been seen by Mr. and Mrs. Martin in their bedroom, give a touchingly human view of the young Wright (He was 35 when he designed the house) and his warm relationship with his client.

This sensual exuberance and beauty has attracted architecture buffs over the years, not least the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who in 1993 stopped a planned auction of a few dozen Martin house windows and arranged for their return to Buffalo. Sen. Moynihan pressured state and federal authorities to fund the Martin house restoration, urging them to "bring this house back alive," and posed for TV news cameras hugging one of it's structural piers as he told reporters, "I love this house."