Former S.166 – J.H. Amberg Residence, 505 College Avenue S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan Including apartment units at 444 & 446 Logan Avenue S.E. Located two blocks from the Meyer May house (S.148), the back of this private residence is divided into two apartments. This property was removed from Prof. Storrer’s book upon publication of the third edition. In discussing this with Prof. Storrer, he indicates that he relied on other trusted sources but upon further research has determined that this was not a Wright project after all. He has written briefly about his reasoning, which is based on the similarity of design to Marion Mahoney works, as well as a floor design that does not match Wright’s patterns. Rather, he believes Mahoney deserves full credit for this; she designed several structures (particularly when Wright was in Europe) that have been wrongly attributed to Wright. Some other sources, including those in Grand Rapids, disagree with his assessment. Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation archives, has assigned this an “opus” number of 1001, indicating his belief that the project is connected with Wright. Photographed on July 10, 2009 and on February 24, 1991 (bottom photos).

Side views, including two apartments:

The lamp is nice, but it appears it was added later – see the 1991 photos below for comparison

FEBRUARY 1991

At the time, the copper gutters were left to oxidize; they were later treated and sealed as shown in the 2009 photos above. The staff at the Meyer May house was a bit critical of the green gutters, but I always figured natural materials are used for a reason and copper ages this way. I’ll concede, though, that it is distracting to have a green outline framing the house.

Revised 04/02/2014