Reserve faculty as lifelong learners.

Blankenship brings Wright stuff to Reserve classroom

In an awe-inspiring setting only famed American architect Frank Lloyd Wright could create, Lee Blankenship put his design talents to task during the summer of 2004. Studying inside Frank Lloyd Wright's 1889 prairie-style home and studio in Oak Park, Illinois, Blankenship took advantage of Reserve's faculty summer study program to learn more about an architect he has introduced enthusiastically to students for the past three decades.

"I have had a lifelong admiration for the work of Frank Lloyd Wright," says the architectural design, engineering drawing and woodworking instructor. "The experience of sitting at the tables and under the roof where Wright and his apprentices created so many masterpieces was, and still is, hard for me to adequately express. After getting past being literally awestruck, I was able to focus on one project, one goal."

During his summer study experience, Blankenship, who holds a B.A. from Kent State University and a M.A.T. from Marygrove College, joined a small band of fellow architecture enthusiasts chosen for the special weeklong program. The group worked alongside architects from the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust, which sponsors the program. Armed with photographs and measurements, Blankenship arrived with plans to design a Frank Lloyd Wright-influenced entryway for his Hudson home.

"My idea was fully developed by the time I left [the workshop]. But I was perplexed to begin with because my idea became a much more open design. As with most projects, it developed into something larger than I originally anticipated," he says with a laugh.

Blankenship's 1980-era home just blocks from Reserve's campus features elements prevalent in prairie-style structures: stained-glass ribbon windows of his own design and construction, large overhangs and cedar shake trim. The addition of the glass, double-door entryway Blankenship designed while in Illinois will bring the house another step closer to embodying the prairie style Blankenship loves. "The geometric lines and repetition of design elements is something I'm really taken by," he explains.

What this designer and craftsman practices at home, he then takes into the classroom. In one particular unit of his architectural design course, Blankenship guides students through the design of a basic floor plan. The students then adjust their floor plans according to various home styles (including Wright's prairie-style) to gain an understanding of how a structure's exterior design influences its floor plan. Frank Lloyd Wright's presence is equally apparent in Blankenship's woodworking class, where the fabled architect's use of geometric lines inevitably goes under study and into practice.

To further enrich his students' understanding of Frank Lloyd Wright's impact on American architecture, Blankenship takes his pupils on field trips to visit Wright-designed homes. In particular, Blankenship and his students often tour the architect's two well-known Pennsylvania masterpieces: Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob, which both showcase Wright's trademark concept of incorporating outdoor surroundings into interior designs. Blankenship also makes numerous architecture resources available to his students, such as books from his private collection as well as a list of websites pertaining to the works by Frank Lloyd Wright and other famous architects.

While Blankenship understands the value of such resources, he places equal importance on his students' personal exploration of architecture. "There are a zillion courses on architecture, but the real knowledge grows out of what students need in order to express their own designs," he says. "Students' knowledge is really driven by their interest in their designs."

A student himself to this very day, Blankenship continues to look for unique learning opportunities like his summer of 2005 experience. In the summer of 2003, he traveled to the Four Corners country, where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona meet, to study the culture, architecture and art of the ancient Anasazi Indians. Blankenship says he devoted this past summer to constructing the entryway he designed while sitting at a drafting table in Wright's Oak Park studio.

Editor's note: Each May, student-crafted pieces from Blankenship's woodworking class are on display in the Moos Gallery. This impressive collection of furniture usually includes a Wright-inspired lamp table or coffee table. This year's exhibit runs from May 18 - June 1, 2007.