OBSERVED
surfaces
accessories
second takes
A MASTERFUL MATCH
It took years of color-analysis trials for Pittsburgh Paints to match the hues Frank
Lloyd Wright originally selected for Fallingwater, his 1939 masterpiece built above a
stream in Mill Run, Pennsylvania. But you can now achieve the same results in the time
it takes to apply two coats: the company’s new line of commercial paints—available
without VOCs—faithfully replicates 13 distinctive shades found in and around the
historic house. T
Dusty Trail
#414-4
Bone
White
#516-3
Moth Gray
#515-4
Blue Lava
#550-7
Lion’s Mane
#216-5
Cherokee Red
#6432-7
Red Gumball
#233-7
Rekindling a Tradition
When today’s starchitects want to demonstrate their artistic range
(and extend their brand), they design a chair, teapot, or piece of jewelry. About a century ago, the celebrated Prairie School architects,
working in Chicago, chose pottery as a vehicle to design for the
masses. Hired by the American Terra Cotta and Ceramic Company,
they produced Teco pottery, affordable ceramics that displayed their
Modernist penchant for pure geometric forms. Ironically, those pots
have now become so valuable that they are only within the means of
elite collectors.
Prairie Arts, a three-person operation outside of Chicago that primarily makes reproductions of decorative Frank Lloyd Wright pieces,
has begun reprising a series of Teco vases—five will be released this
month—aimed at buyers who can’t afford the antiques. Like the originals, each piece is slip-cast and finished by hand. “That’s really the
only way you can make the types of shapes and the effects that you
get on Teco pottery,” says Eric O’Malley, the product-development
director of the company. But some features simply couldn’t be replicated, such as Teco’s signature waxy green color, the result of toxic
lead in the glaze. As a result, O’Malley says, “We decided to embody
the spirit of Teco, rather than slavishly copying it.” —Belinda Lanks
Rug Refresher
Gloria Finn, a rug artist who
translated the works of Milton
Avery and Anni Albers into
floor coverings, has left her
legacy to daughter Rosemary
Hallgarten in more ways than
one. A textile artist in her own
right, Hallgarten has recently
revived one of her mother’s Gio
Ponti designs—albeit in fresh
colorways. Just try to imagine
the Italian Modernist coming up
with this contemporary mix
of spring greens, Persian red,
and eggplant.
Rug, Don Tuttle/courtesy Gio Ponti; vase, courtesy Prairie Arts; Fallingwater
photo, Robert P. Ruschak/courtesy Western Pennsylvania Conservancy
