Four years ago, I had taken a tour of the S. C. Johnson Wax Headquarters complex in Racine, Wisconsin. Designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1936, it has been on the National Registry of Historic Places since 1974. This excursion was completely free save for the cost of lunch at a small restaurant, including bus transportation from the downtown Chicago Cultural Center to Racine and back. The tour concluded at Wingspread, the former home of Herbert Fisk Johnson, Jr., then president of S. C. Johnson Company. This 14,000 square foot dwelling was also designed by Wright and built between 1938 and ’39. This was quite a fun, relaxing, educational, cultural way to spend a Sunday afternoon. This ’76 Chevrolet El Camino was in the parking lot of Wingspread. I’ll admit I was almost as excited to see it as these buildings.
Arriving at S. C. Johnson Wax Headquarters by charter bus.
Before we get too deep into this thing, I want to make it clear that the title of this essay isn’t a dig on this El Camino, or on this type of vehicle in general. I like these and have written about a handful of them over the years here at Curbside. The “wrong” in the title is more a description of how I felt after my immediate and loud reaction to seeing this one in the parking lot of Wingspread. Here we were, a bus full of Chicago-based tourists, arriving at this celebrated piece of Prairie School design created by one of the most famous architects in history, and I was spazzing out over a lime green El Camino. Don’t judge me. Also wrong was the fact that when I had returned home that evening, I discovered that I hadn’t gotten one, single shot of the exterior of Wingspread with my Canon camera, when I had at least five frames of this truck. Oops.
Obviously, I am interested in both architecture and historic sites, otherwise I wouldn’t have been there in the first place. It was my older brother who had once been serious about studying architecture in school before deciding on a different path. It was during those years, though, that I had first become aware of Wright’s aesthetic and subsequent influence on North American building design – residential, municipal, and commercial – during the middle of the last century.
Wingspread postcard image, as sourced from the internet.
Even the second house I had ever lived in, originally built in the 1940s, contained passable facsimiles of some of the elements of his work. Compared with the conventional, box-like, two-story houses of frame construction around it, our red brick house had a lower, broader stance, wide expanses of wood-framed window banks, built-in planters lining the front of the house that seemed to blend the outdoors with the interior living space, and a complex shape. Someone could have convinced me as an adolescent that our house had actually been designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Before boarding the bus that day, I had anticipated a certain level of snobbery, or at least a strong sense of reserve from the other participants on this amazing architectural tour, which I would have paid for without hesitation. If I recall correctly, it had been subsidized at least in part by the S. C. Johnson Company, in conjunction with the Chicago Cultural Center. The reverse of my assumption ended up being true, with the other tourists seeming as warm and friendly as the Wisconsinites at the handful of stops we made throughout the afternoon, including at the small restaurant at which I had my first sampling of a pastry of Danish origin called a kringle, which was delicious and something I’d love to have more of for this year’s holidays.
S. C. Johnson Wax headquarters postcard image, as sourced from the internet.
After first making the rounds at the breathtakingly gorgeous Johnson Wax Headquarters, including up into its iconic tower, our bus arrived at Wingspread, pulling into the parking lot in front of one of the most highbrow examples of North American home design, with one of the most lowbrow types of vehicles I could possibly imagine sitting its parking lot. I had honestly hoped when originally drafting this essay that I was going to be able to come up with some theme that would tie in the design of the El Camino with that of Wingspread. I was hoping to write maybe about how both designs appealed to a certain, respective demographic with a specific, elevated taste common to only a select few. Or, perhaps I’d draw a parallel between the physical appearances of both things, like how the El Camino’s curvilinear GM “Colonnade” styling echoed the way that Wrightian design…
No. Absolutely not. Couldn’t do it. If this was a homework assignment with that as the theme, I would accept a Grade F on principle. The truth is that there is no way for me to find many similarities (if at all) between the automotive equivalent of a mullet haircut and one of the most beautiful residential buildings I have ever been inside. The front of Wingspread may have been antiseptically and geometrically “business up front”, but I can assure you from having taken the tour that there was no “party in the back” of that residence. The more fluid, flowing lines of the Johnson Wax Research Tower (pictured above), with its rounded corners, would rhyme more closely with the El Camino’s rounded everything, but I had seen this vehicle at Wingspread and not at Johnson Company headquarters.
Inside the main atrium of Wingspread.
Total ’76 El Camino production was about 45,000 units, which included about 5,000 Super Sport variants. Combined with its sister ship, the GMC Sprint (which usually sold in quantities roughly 10% of the comparable Chevy), GM moved just over 50,000 of these coupe utility vehicles that year. This one is finished in factory Lime Green and Antique White two-tone. The Super Sport package, RPO Z15, which this example does not have, was basically a dress-up package that included different “SS” exterior identification, sport mirrors, the ubiquitous Chevy Rally Wheels (15″ X 7″), stripes, and raised white-letter tires.
Standard power for the base model El Camino came from a 250 cubic inch six cylinder engine with 105 horsepower mated to a three-speed manual transmission. Optional engines ranged from a 140-horse, two-barrel 305-c.i. V8, two 350 V8s with either two- or four-barrel carburetors (with 145 or 165 hp, respectively), up to a top-shelf, 175-horse 400 with a four-barrel. Curb weight was right around exactly two tons, though the factory 1976 brochure lists the “model weight”, which included estimates for occupants and fuel, to be around 10% more. Sounds right to me.
There’s no rule, written or unwritten, that says that if a person likes one thing, that they’re forbidden from genuinely liking another, using advanced architecture and half-car-half-truck conveyances as the examples given in this essay. One look at my music collection, which encompasses everything from New Wave to disco, Beethoven, jazz, yacht rock, and hip-hop (and more), is proof positive that one person can like a lot of widely ranging variety with authenticity. On this particular day, however, I had only wished that I had been better able to contain my loud, visceral reaction out of excitement at spotting this El Camino from the tour bus at Wingspread. But again, why should I have been sorry? I like what I like, and this Sunday afternoon trek ended up being a win on many different levels.
Racine, Wisconsin.
Sunday, October 29, 2017.
I love architecture, especially early/mid 20th century but I too would have been instinctively drawn to Any unusual car. My family is all too used to my cry ‘look at that , its a ( fill in name of 60s -80s car) looks like original colour, probably 72/73, they didn’t sell many of those, amazing someone’s preserved that.’ It doesn’t mean I actually like the car in question, just fascinated by it’s style and design which will be so redolent of a different era. Meanwhile my family switched off once they realised it was ‘only a car’ I had spotted. This El Camino is a fantastic example of a car it must have been hard to see much need for even at the time, which just makes it even more interesting.
Jon, this has always been me since I’ve been probably about five years old. “Look at that!” “What is it??” And it’s some car or truck. I suppose my family just used to it
Those examples of Frank Lloyd Wright’s work are stunning! And that tower on the S. C. Johnson building is double stunning! I generally don’t see the El Camino as a lowbrow vehicle, though I hafta admit that I’ve seen Mullet Man behind the wheel of one on numerous occasions. Maybe my appreciation for this Colonnade model is partially because I rarely see them in this condition, and the color combination is absolutely amazing! I do remember these ones seeming to be made of rust, with the majority of them perforated and disappearing fast while I was still a little kid (mid 1980’s) in a state where there was winter but road salt was not used. I can readily appreciate both the FLW architecture and the El Camino’s styling and presence, though I too would be screwed if I had to tie them together somehow. Still, that ute just doesn’t look out of place in a higher rent district these days… perhaps it would’ve on its tenth or fifteenth birthday, but the fact that someone is deliberately loving and maintaining this one in such condition on past its fortieth birthday goes a long way toward lessening the sins its brethren may have committed in years past. Perhaps not timeless, but certainly has some elegance about it!
Yes. I seldom use so many exclamation marks, but there *is* something exciting about the whole affair. Not sure if it’s the lime green Elco speaking, or the buildings, or both?
I think you’re spot on, on all of this. The age and amazing condition of this El Camino do contribute to it seeming of a class way higher than when it was perhaps 15 years old.
One thing about that tower that I was not expecting was the greenhouse effect as a result of all that glass. If I recall correctly, some of the scientists reportedly found the conditions unworkable, according to H’Vyn, our docent.
Oof. That was one thing that totally escaped my mind while taking in the details of the structure. I bet the solar gain inside the tower is tremendous! Makes me wonder if that could’ve been used for passive heating and cooling at certain times of the day/night/season, though I suppose it might be hard to pull off while the tower area was actively occupied.
Either way, thanks for sharing this piece! Reminds me that I need to dive down the Frank Lloyd Wright rabbit hole again in search of more knowledge on his work.
I actually kinda sorta see a parallel between your two subjects for today. A house or a typical building is built for function, and with (hopefully) a little effort at making it attractive. Chevrolet has done a good job of this over the decades, from the Advance Design trucks through the modern C and K series trucks, certainly mostly through the 2000s.
An architectural design by Wright, it seems to me, makes style functional rather than the other way around. The style is the reason for it. If function is that important to you, go buy one of the bazillion other houses out there. The El Camino (particularly this generation) starts with style (albeit style cribbed from a line of cars) and makes it functional as a truck. It’s not a real truck – if you want one of those, go buy a C1500, or even an S-10. So there – maybe this is not a great bridge between building and vehicle, but it should at least get me a C+ for a grade. 🙂
And I love the color combo on this El Camino. The mid 70s had a way of taking some of the really bright automotive colors of around 1970-71 and softening them a bit for broader appeal. Plus, it really makes me want to take a bite out of a granny smith apple!
This is a great parallel you draw of the relationship between the style and functionality of both architectural style and vehicle. I can see this and agree, with the qualifier being that I’ve never personally owned nor regularly needed a truck or anything.
We took a tour through Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob in Pennsylvania a few years ago, and I recall that at Kentuck Knob, the hallway to the master bedroom was so narrow that you could never get a bed or a mattress or in or out of there once the house was built (or something like that). The guide also said that Wright gave no thought to drainage, so his construction foreman designed and recommended a drainage system around the house to avoid future problems. *I’m going on memory here, so forgive me if I got a detail wrong.*
Not being a student of architecture, the overall impression I got was that if you employed Wright, he was going to design the house that he liked, and livability was secondary. Still, there’s a reason people love his work.
My takeaway from touring Fallingwater many years ago was that it has so much of “That ’70s Decor” going on.
It was designed in 1939.
Frank Lloyd Wright was such a visionary. Either that, or there were a lot of copycat architects.
As to a parallel for this generation of mid-size GM cars… We DO nickname this generation “Colonnade”, which is definitely an architectural feature as opposed to a design language for cars.
Of course, colonnade architecture predated Frank Lloyd Wright by a few thousand years, so there’s that.
Went there a few years ago. Fallingwater was much better than I expected. You can fit that and Kentuck Knob in one day, and anyone making a FLW pilgrimage there should do that. There was a van ride up to that house, but be sure to walk downhill back to the visitor center. As I remember the owners of the Kentuck Knob house wanted it situated with a view like anyone else would, but Frank insisted on it being put where he wanted it to be. Probably the same thing with the problematically located Fallingwater.
Engineering was not exactly his forte. They spent millions on Fallingwater to put steel cables into the famous and sagging cantilever balconies, a couple steel columns being out of the question.
Oh, and extra credit points for “automotive equivalent of a mullet haircut”. I guess it all started in 1957 in pre-mullet times.
Speaking of architecture, it looks like those range ridin’ cowboys with the new Ranchero live in a very midcentury modern ranch house.
Speaking of cars, the 1957 Ranchero brochure shows Rancheros in a base model with no side trim or the Custom version as shown. But you see a lot of them with the full Custom 300/Del Rio Ranch Wagon type trim, with an extra stripe of stainless with gold in between.
It seems like both Ranchero models were less trimmed than the equivalent Ranch Wagons when they came out, which was three months after the rest. Possibly Ford changed their minds and made the Custom trim the same as the equivalent Ranch Wagon later – or else a lot of owners cheated and added it?
I always thought the original and later Falcon Ranchero designs worked, but not the Chevelle.
From what I also remember from the tour, Wright was a very strong personality. I could see him designing a house to his liking without regard to certain things. Still, I’ve got to respect artistic integrity.
One set of facts I wish I had included in this essay was the dollar amounts it had cost to build each structure. That’s a very important part of an assignment, regardless of artistic integrity.
“I discovered that I hadn’t gotten one, single shot of the exterior of Wingspread with my Canon camera, when I had at least five frames of this truck”
Could one call that “priorities”? 🙂
What strikes me is the contrast between these two. Not what they are but how they were approached from the styling standpoint. One was an exclusive build for a specific purpose whereas the other was a commercial build for a variety of purposes. Both have been successful and both captured your attention in different ways.
Thanks for tying FLW into this as his work is truly amazing. While design is not my sugar stick, I do appreciate his work for S.C. Johnson.
Jason, now that you mention it, a common thread between vehicle and buildings could be their unorthodox approach to solving a problem in a new way.
I’m also a fan of Wright’s work and in the amount of research I had done for this essay, I came across one article about some of his buildings that had a date with the wrecking ball, or in one case, anyway, had burned down less than a year after completion!
Thank you for a good post and a good read during breakfast. I had the pleasure of touring the (FLW)Robie house in Chicago about 20 years ago. Beautiful. I think my opinion about the El caminos falls in that mainstream..easily classifiable as “mulletmobiles” yet full of GM goodness and may be perfect for some. The ad copy caught me 3x. 1) Despite the the obvious danger to function I am a sucker for taillights in Chrome bumpers 2) Did not know they had a factory air shock setup..cool! 3)what the F Lloyd Wright Were they thinking when they said the motor was modern because of its valve in head design? Did FLW brag his houses contained indoor plumbing? 🙂
Andre, thank (and a few others in the comments below) for the reminder of Wright’s work here in the Chicagoland area. It has always been on my list of things to do, but now I feel like I need to push it further up in my priorities.
Last night, I was going to add to the Art Fitzpatrick tribute that the building behind the ’71 Grand Ville looks a lot like FLW’s Taliesin West in Arizona (but isn’t), which I saw when I was almost 9 and we were driving from the O.C. to NC in a ’68 Electra with a screaming Siamese cat.
I don’t remember that mullets had become a status marker by ’76, because there were plenty of long haired guys of all classes.
I didn’t know about the air shocks either, and I’m shocked they were standard at a time when everything was optional on Chevrolets.
El Caminos had air shocks starting in 1965. Chevrolet probably received complaints about the suspension after the 1964 reintroduction. I had a 1973 El Camino SS but I never touched the shocks, as I never carried anything heavier than a Christmas tree.
Guess your mullet was light, even when wet.
Well, they’re both designed with a long and low profile, both could be said to have an aesthetic that’s meant to convey a certain utilitarianism while still being stylish, both this El Camino and several of FLW’s works had reputations for problematic water intrusion, ….
That’s all I’ve got.
Well, I will offer up a similarity between the El Camino and the SC Johnson building: Both are hybrids of two disparate concepts.
– The SC Johnson building (specifically the tower) is a blend of Wright’s spacious and spread-out Prairie School design philosophy with the constraints and dimensions of a high-rise building. Two completely different concepts, and it’s fascinating to see how Wright brought them together.
– The El Camino is a blend of a car and a truck. Again, two completely different concepts, at least within the 1970s automotive landscape.
Were either of them successful in this blending? Probably not in any subjective way, but despite that (or maybe because of that), I love them both.
And incidentally, a few weeks ago I wrote up a short article on a Crosley, and in writing that piece I was pleasantly surprised to see that Wright owned two Crosley Hotshots – the picture below shows Frank and Olgivanna Wright with their Crosleys:
Two years ago, my family and I spent a night at the Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma — I highly recommend it.
The SC Johnson tower and the Price Tower were Wright’s only two high-rise buildings, and they share many similarities. Originally designed as an office building for an oil firm, Wright included several residential apartments in the Price Tower as well. These days, the building functions as a combined art center and hotel. The chance to stay in an actual FLW-designed living unit is remarkable (there are individual rooms in the hotel, and also “suites” – which are the original apartments. Choose the suites!). When we stayed there, the cost was something like $225/night… more than I’ve ever spent for a night’s lodging, but even given my frugality, I thought it was worth the cost.
The building itself is highly original… as such, it’s sort of rough around the edges, the a/c doesn’t work great, and some fixtures are well worn. But if you don’t mind that, it’s a wonderful opportunity to explore Frank Lloyd Wright’s design philosophy first-hand.
This was our hotel room (one of the original apartments). The sleeping area is on the cantilevered loft above the living area. The original kitchen has been removed from these rooms, and the furniture is new (though complementary in design), but everything else, including the bathroom, the building’s elevators, etc. is original.
A great experience for those with an interest in architecture.
This site needs thumbs up ratings, which I would have given to all of the comments here.
The last time I was in Germany I stayed in the Bauhaus dorm in Weimar. The whole place was fascinating including a subdivision designed by a Bauhaus guy and professor houses, all accessible by bus. The original classroom building had tours and displays, and the next year a Bauhaus related museum opened in the town.
The balcony was frightening.
Neat!
I guess one difference between Germany and the US is that in Germany the frightening balconies are open. The Price Tower also had oddly small balconies with short barriers, but the doors leading out to them were locked. Probably for good reason.
Oh, I can just see myself kicking back in those chairs relaxing while watching the Warriors. Not!
I studied both architecture and industrial design in college (changed majors and graduated with a BSID). I recall one of my professors pointing out that architecture is the design of the spaces in which humans move and live, and industrial design is the design of objects humans use in their lives. It’s simply a matter of scale.
Wright often designed the furniture for his houses and other structures. The columns in the Johnson Wax building are but one of many, many fascinating details in its architecture. Compare and contrast to pretty much any modern office park structure – both the exterior architecture and the design of the interior spaces. Night and day.
I remember perusing that brochure when my folks were shopping for a 76 Chevy (probably a Nova Concours), bringing 11 year old me along. I wandered off unknowingly to what was the truck brochure section, offering fliers about “mediums” (bigger than pickups, smaller than 18-wheelers) and other big rigs Chevy still made back then. Then there was the El Camino, which I’d never heard of but at least looked like a car from the front view on the cover. Open it and it says “A car when you need a car”. I thought, that’s pretty faint praise. The best Chevrolet can say about these is if you need a car to get somewhere, one of these will suffice? Must not be much of a car. Then I opened the next leaf and saw “A truck when you need a truck” and realized what I was looking at – one of those half-car, half-truck things I occasionally saw rolling down the road. I didn’t know their real names.
Frank Lloyd Wright is great but Wingspread leaves me a bid cold. The shot with the green globe out front is a dead ringer for my high school’s front entrance (minus the globe and tower), and the interior shots look halfway between a hotel and a mall. I’ll leave Fallingwater in Mill Run, PA as FLW’s masterpiece, even if function tends to follow form in that structure. But what structure! Maybe the Canadian or Israeli contingent here can work in a tribute to Moshe Safdie, the world’s greatest living residential architect IMO, who designed Habitat 67 in Montreal and moved up from there; never has anyone else figured out how to make outside space feel more like inside space, and look great whilst doing it.
Several vendors in Racine, WI will ship kringle to you anywhere in the USA. It ships and freezes well. A reliable source:
https://www.ohdanishbakery.com/
In my area, kringle can occasionally be found at the Trader Joe’s stores.
This is not a crass commercial, but a reference from one who likes kringle and has nothing to do with any of these vendors other than being a customer!
Thank you for this! My local Aldi discount supermarket also sells kringle, and while I haven’t had it yet, I’m all for trying it for $3.99. It’s kind of a can’t-lose proposition.
two thumbs up on the kringle, highly addictive
Trader Joe’s in California sells kringle. Haven’t tried it yet, tempted now.
Trader Joe’s and Aldi are part of the same company.
“Several vendors in Racine, WI will ship kringle to you anywhere in the USA. It ships and freezes well. A reliable source:
https://www.ohdanishbakery.com/”
O & H Danish Bakery is awesome! As well as the best kringle, we have them make all our birthday cakes too.
I should be ashamed to admit this, but living within 15 miles of these buildings I have never toured either one. I’ve been in some of SCJohnson’s manufacturing facilities, and the Golden Rondelle theater (surprised your tour didn’t stop there), I have somehow missed these gems. I guess we sometimes miss that which is in our backyard…
The kringle is the picture with the white frosting all around the top? If it is the first reaction I had when I saw the picture was not from my taste buds. The reaction was from my heart trembling a bit (I kid you not) and saying not in me.
We have friends in Oak Park, so we are quite familiar with Wright’s work. One of his first designs was a remodeling of the Springfield home of the Thomas’, originally built for the Danas during the Victorian age. Wright stripped it and turned a dark Victorian masterpiece into a Wright masterpiece. Impractical, but a work of art, nonetheless.
As to the El Camino, I simply never cottoned to the Colonnade generation. The interiors were filled with cheap molded plastics, the exteriors were overwrought. Stacked rectangular headlights are right up there in my book with Continental spares – eyesores. The earlier generations were perfect, and the next generation replacing this one was also very handsome. (Yet, I believe the Colonnades were still better looking than the Ranchero of the same era.)
What you did sounds like a lot of fun.
The green and white two-tone complements the car, making it appear longer and lower (compare it to the brochure examples). The greenhouse in profile is, by far, the cleanest and most pure expression of the rounded and soft GM Colonnade style. One sees a lot of Robert Jordan’s Opel work reflected in it.
IMO, this is also an example of seeing the car how it was envisioned in the first place. Time, age, fading, rust, and other damage tend to place the car in the “dumpy” category. But, seeing this one, maintained properly with the original wheels, proper proportions, and kept cleaned up, it shows off the design well.
I owned a ’69 El Camino for many years and can tell you they are not very good as a truck, nor particularly good as a car. But as a compromise between the two, they are excellent, and the 69s are beautiful as well. I’ve lived and worked in the Racine area most of my life, and been to the Tallesin. In my personal opinion Frank Lloyd Wright was a great artist, but probably the single most over rated architect ever. He never built a roof that didn’t leak. Ask anybody in maintenance at the Johnson Wax or the Tallesin. Finally, to tie the to subjects together, Wright only liked Nash automobiles and only in brick red.
Indeed, flat roofs were not designed for cold climates. As an insurance guy, I can tell you this firsthand.
A few thoughts … I love the green of the El Camino, same as my Vega was, but struggling a bit with the white trim. I was a huge fan of the Colonnade two and four doors when they came out, when I was in high school, but with the downsized final generation of the RWD A/G Body in 1978 they suddenly seemed massive and dated. As for El Camino’s, my first memories were of the batwing ‘59’s and I thought they were odd. What is this, car or truck? Subsequent versions were way outside my automotive interests, maybe indeed too “lowbrow”, until the final generation, which seemed just right. I’ve had on and off hankerings for one ever since, but never a Colonnade until recently. They are much cheaper than other generations, and all but the final years avoid having to comply with smog regulations. If GM released an EV version I could be tempted. Our local Frank Lloyd Wright building is the Marin County Civic Center from around 1960; with a mixture of lines and curves, and bright colors it’s actually not unlike this El Camino.
Yes he did and do many know the tumultuous history behind it at the time. Accusations of being a communist and so forth. His only public building and he died before it was started in 1960.
https://marinmagazine.com/feature-story/new-details-old-controversy/
Interesting, thanks for the link. My mom’s cousin lived in Corte Madera and we often went to Marin or Sonoma Counties as kids, so I saw it from 101 many times in my youth. Usually accompanied by critical comments from my Mom who hated the bright aqua-blue colors. I liked it better than the other landmark on the trip over from the East Bay, San Quentin.
The Marin building opened in 1962. The similar in style Grady Gammage Auditorium at ASU in Tempe in 1964. Some people thought old Frank had lost his marbles with these, featuring things like columns that didn’t really support anything and other extraneous forms, sins in form follows function modernism.
Then a decade later Post Modernism popped up, which did all the same kind of things but generally not as well.
I’m not sure if Grady Gammage also leaked, but it doesn’t rain much there.
Frank Lloyd Wright had several phases of architectural design. One of the is called Usonian. The Usonian residences are functional and “affordable” houses that are like Joseph described his family’s first house. I would liken the El Camino’s design to this particular phase. Am I Wright or am I Wrong?
“one of my professors pointing out that architecture is the design of the spaces in which humans move and live, and industrial design is the design of objects humans use in their lives. It’s simply a matter of scale.”
Very true Ed! Personally I always thought ID was more “FUN” even if I’ve only met one person (non designer type) who actually knew what Industrial Design was…. 🙁
However, getting back to this delightful little “tour”: the view from my window at the then J.I. Case ID office was of the S.C. Johnson tower. It was a pleasant view no matter the season.
The ’76 El Camino remains among my favorites for this type of vehicle, and the lime green certainly “freezes” it in a certain time frame. The single color paint jobs did more to flow the surfaces, IMO, however. 🙂
BTW….kringles should be available in Chicago area stores; they are way down in central Northern IN!!!! DFO
You have a wonderful eclectic inquisitiveness, nuff said. Thanks for a great piece.
SC Johnson used to be “a family company.” You used to be able to carry the whole family in an El Camino until too many kids fell out and they outlawed it.
So what would Frank Lloyd Wright have thought of the El Camino? And what would a vehicle designed by him look like? I just wonder…..
Love the Johnson’s wax building from both architectural level and a personal level since my great grandfather, Jake Stocker, was the project superintendent during its construction, there’s actually a picture of him on the unfinished tower with Frank Lloyd Wright in a book my grandpa had. One of my biggest regrets is I wish I could have gone to the building with my Grandpa before he passed, he would have been a hell of a tour guide as he knew everything there was about it, the construction process was really interesting.
Matt, that is such a cool family connection / legacy to have. Wow.
Joseph, you made a very apt connection. Mr. Wright had a life-long deep connection to automobiles. He even drew sketches for a number of models, using a cantilever roof design on some.
I am a docent at Hollyhock House in Barnsdall Park in Los Angeles, the home Mr. Wright designed for oil heiress, theatrical producer, and art collector Miss Aline Barnsdall. The house and property became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019 based on Mr. Wright’s introduction of modernism into the city in 1921. He included a multi-car garage and motor court for Miss Barnsdall’s home, which is considered the precursor of the American ranch-style house due to its extensive use of integrated indoor-outdoor space and open floor plan.
As several people note, Mr. Wright loved cars; it is estimated he owned over 80 during his lifetime. He saw the automobile as liberating and believed it could be successfully integrated into urban settings. He was not the only “urban planner” who failed to recognize some of the long-term shortcomings of that notion; Robert Moses was another. Mr. Wright took credit for introducing the carport, a feature used in many of his Usonian ranch-style houses of the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s.
Mr. Wright’s twice annual seasonal caravan of automobiles with family and students making the trek between Taliesin in Wisconsin and Taliesin West in Arizona was something he thoroughly enjoyed. After his Cherokee Red Continental was damaged he re-tooled its appearance to eliminate the rear window. When the body shop men protested that the driver needed a rear window Mr. Wright said he was the exception as he was only “looking forward.”
Mr. Wright designed a showroom in Manhattan for Max Hoffman and accepted in payment a Mercedes 300SL roadster and 300 sedan. He designed gas stations. One of the un-built examples, this Tydol station below, has been constructed inside the Buffalo Transportation Pierce-Arrow Museum.
There is one book (and several articles) about Frank Lloyd Wright and his cars but in my opinion more research is needed.
While I do not imagine Mr. Wright’s ego would allow him to approve of Joseph’s distraction by the El Camino from his architecture, I would not be surprised to learn that on occasion the same thing happened to him given his fascination with the automobile.
Thanks again for a fun piece.
This is all fascinating – thank you for this. I would have had no idea there was an actual automotive connection to FLW. I feel like I need to do more research on this now.
As P.J. O,Rourke said, the El Camino told the world, I’m too tough for a car, and too rich for a job
reason for the decline of the El Camino: All the pool boys in LA already had one
One of my favorite pictures of Frank Lloyd Wright and his cars. I wrote above that he had a 300SL roadster whereas this picture shows it to be a gullwing coupe.
Thanks, everyone, for the warm reception to this essay and thoughtful ideas left in the comments. I have generally limited access to this site this week, but read through them, and they’re great. I hope my Stateside friends who are celebrating the holidays this week do so safely, and that everyone else has also a great week.
I love Wright and his architecture. I’ve been to Fallingwater 4 times since 1991, driving there from Detroit.
I also toured the Johnson Wax Building and Tower (but unfortunately, didn’t make it to Wingspread) in Racine around 2014 or so.
I would have loved to have seen that El Camino in a parking lot anywhere. My grandfather’s friend had one in the 70s that I remember well, it was red and had the sport wheels. It was very sharp for an older man, I thought at the time. Grandfather was driving a 1969 F-250 that was kind of beat up and crude in comparison. They were both European immigrants from France and Italy respectively.
FLW was pushing the envelope with his architecture on a technical level. That is one reason why his buildings need constant repair and rehabilitation. The contractors were frequently local men that were not used to building those types of structures. And it is certainly true that Wright was building mainly what he wanted, not the clients wanted. That was part of the deal when you hired Wright. He also hated garages, attached or otherwise. He liked the open carport, because then the owner had to be neater, not accumulate clutter and junk.
Wright was ahead of his time with that too. Where I live, few people still keep their car in the garage; they park outside and the garage is full of crap and junk. I don’t like that trend at all. Their most expensive possession sits outside in the snow and rain and ice, and garage contains the old kiddie pool and swing set that nobody has used in years
I think Frank Lloyd Wright’s buildings are rather ugly and unattractive and I believe I read they are prone to cracking concrete and coming apart. In my opinion Wright is very overrated and inspired mediocracy. I would be much more impressed by something designed by Richard Morris Hunt, Stamford White, HH Richardson, Horace Trombauer or George Barber.
I also would rather have a Ford Ranchero than a Chevy El Camino especially a 77 to 79 Ranchero with a Thunderbird front clip.
Here’s a link for you, Mr D., albeit a bit stretchy.
Australia was the land of the sedan-based ute, with Valiant, Falcon and Holden all offering one, the latter two right up to 2016. It wouldn’t be unusual to see one in Canberra, Australia’s capital city.
Now, Canberra, like, say, Brasillia, is a concoction, agreed upon in 1908 (eight years after we became a Federation instead of a collection of colonies). The joke goes that building it ruined a perfectly good sheep farm. In 1911, the Govt held a worldwide competition for a design of this new city, and the winner was one Walter Burley Griffin of Chicago. He had been an employee of Lloyd Wright, and was expecting partnership, but in 1905, Wright travelled to Japan, borrowing money from griffin. On his return, the rather capricious Wright said Griffin had overstepped his role in charge over those months, and he did not repay the money. Griffin thus left, and set up his own successful practice. He is contemporary of Wright, and the question of who influenced who in those earlier years is a live one. The style is quite similar to what we see of Wright’s work: Griffin even invented a Knitlock style of concrete whilst in Australia too.
Griffin and his equally talented architect wife came to Australia in 1913, but alas, in a way too common for too long in this land, his plans were drastically changed by small minds, and he was ultimately forced out of being in charge. World War One and the Depression and ineptitude meant Canberra remained largely unbuilt till much later, though a fair amount of his plan was later used. (The Griffins loved Oz despite all, and stayed on, designing an entire Sydney suburb that is quite a special and Lloyd-Wright-ish place).
So you see, it is quite likely that a GM sedan-ute would not only be parked AT a Wright-derived place here but parked WITHIN a place designed from that source, even if it’s just curbside. Now there’s your link!
Told you it was a stretch.
A guy I went to A/C school back in 1978 had a red ’69 or ’70 El Camino, SS. I really liked that generation, but the Colonade cars well, they did nothing for me, but the El Camino was the least objectionable of any of them. To me, the Colonades were the first sign that GM had just given up, styling wise.
I have a picture of same vehicle, year and color
I have this beauty for sale in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada 🙂