Greatbatch Pavilion visitors center unveiled at Darwin Martin House
Reception pavilion praised at unveiling
Guests entering the new Eleanor and Wilson Greatbatch Pavilion for Thursday’s unveiling were treated to a sweeping side view of the Darwin Martin House Complex designed by Frank Lloyd Wright more than a century ago.
Seeing the entire layout through the pavilion’s floor-to-ceiling glass wall was breathtaking — worth every penny of the $2.5 million the family contributed to the $5 million visitors center, said Ami Greatbatch, daughter-in-law of the inventor and his wife.
“This is the first time anyone has been able to see the Martin House from this angle,” she added.
The night before, relatives and friends attending a sneak preview felt as if they were standing outside on a summer night gazing at the moonlit complex, from the main house on Jewett Parkway to the pergola, conservatory, carriage house and Barton House in the rear, she recalled.
“You were drawn toward the Martin House. You wanted to see more,” Ami Greatbatch recounted during the formal dedication of the pavilion, a spare, low-profile building that sits just to the west of the Tshaped complex.
That’s precisely the sensation architect Toshiko Mori hopes the first paying visitors will feel when the center — the final piece of the $50 million Martin House restoration and expansion—opens to the public Wednesday.
The unobstructed panoramic view of the complex, across a paved courtyard ringed by newly planted locusts, is enhanced by the pavilion’s climate-control system. The 5,600-square-foot main floor is heated and cooled by convection from systems located below ground. No vents or pipes interfere with sight lines.
Tour the new visitors center at the Martin House
It may still be winter, but it doesn’t seem like it from the new center.
After pausing to take in the Martin House off to the right, visitors will be shown a short film about the 30-year relationship between Wright and Martin, the Buffalo industrialist for whom he built what is arguably the greatest of his “prairie houses.”
Moving toward the back of the main floor, they will find rows of backlit glass cases containing photographs and drawings of the complex as it came to life in the early 1900s, as well as touch-screen interactive video terminals.
Thus properly oriented, they will move out to tour the six-structure complex, which also includes the Gardener’s Cottage and is the largest residential compound Wright designed.
The pavilion completes “two centuries of design excellence” at the site, bringing together “the best of our past with the best of our future,” Mary F. Roberts, Martin House Restoration Corp. executive director, said at Thursday’s unveiling.
The overall project is about 75 percent complete, leaving interior restoration of the Martin House and landscaping of the grounds as the major remaining tasks, said John N. Walsh III, president of the restoration board.
When completed, the revived complex is expected to draw 40,000 to 50,000 visitors a year and contribute $14 million to $15 million to the area economy, he said.
The New York City-based Mori, who headed Harvard University’s architecture department from 2002 to 2008, recalled feeling both excited and “intimidated” by the challenge of designing a center opposite one of Wright’s greatest achievements.
But the process became “a true collaboration, true teamwork” among architects, engineers, contractors, consultants and the restoration board, she said. “It took an incredible amount of determination to make this space come alive.”
It helps that the Greatbatches feel their money, given through the family’s East Hill Foundation, was well spent.
“We’re just thrilled,” said Ami Greatbatch, a member of the Martin House board, whose husband, Warren, is Wilson and Eleanor’s oldest son. “This is better than anything we could have imagined.”
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