Table Of Content
The display of over 200 objects is the only permanent in-depth public exhibition of the Wrights' product designs anywhere. Although best known for American Modern dinnerware, the Wrights rejected rigid modernism for a life that invited ambiguity. Mary’s role as a partner, designer, and entrepreneur is explored here for the first time. This lavish volume is filled with personal histories, and hundreds of stunning photographs synthesizing multiple archives, charting the innovation of their design practice, their lives, and the idyll at their Dragon Rock home and the Woodland Paths of Manitoga. In the mid-century era of suburban conformity, Russel and Mary Wright were individualists. The realization of a decades-long vision, Dragon Rock at Manitoga, the Wright’s family home, occupies a sprawling forested property and abandoned quarry located an hour north of New York City.
Country Gardens
River Architects has been collaborating on a long series of projects at MANITOGA / The Russel Wright Design Center. Manitoga is the former home of the American industrial designer Russel Wright, and comprises the main house, pergola, studio, and a 75-acre woodland garden and trails- all part of Russel Wright’s unified design vision of living in harmony with nature. One of the few 20th-century modern homes open to the public in New York State, Manitoga/The Russel Wright Design Center preserves, interprets, and shares Russel Wright's modernist home, studio, and 75-acre woodland garden. Named Dragon Rock, Wright's home and studio is considered an outstanding example of Organic Modern architecture c. A joint project, the exterior of Dragon Rock is credited to architect David Leavitt and the interior design to Wright himself. The surrounding 75-acres of woodland garden were acquired and cultivated by Wright and his wife, Mary.
The Original Mad Man: Russel Wright’s Manitoga Home in Garrison NY
Today, it is part of the Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. River Architects are the Architects of Record for the Design Gallery, a bold conversion of the original bedroom wing of the house into a permanent exhibition space for their collection. River Architects brought their deep familiarity of the structure in reversing alterations that compromised both structural and design integrity, assisted in the documentation of historic fabric, and in a seamless transition from the Collection to the original house environment. River Architects integrated the work of exceptional lighting and exhibition designers, Manitoga’s talented staff and board members, and managed the efforts of the craftspeople executing the work. Development of the Master Plan continued in Phase 2, with ongoing infrastructure repair and upgrades, Kitchen restoration, and conversion of administrative offices into a Design Gallery with ADA-compliant Bathrooms and Work zones.
Benefits for National Trust Members
Wright thought these resembled scoops of strawberry ice cream so he’d host an ice cream social to celebrate the season. Sadly, Mary died in 1952 and never lived in Dragon Rock, although she participated in the home’s design. The Wrights practiced what they preached and Manitoga, the couple’s home and grounds in Garrison NY, is open for touring. It’s about an hour north of NYC, whether you’re driving or taking a MetroNorth train from Grand Central to the heart of the lower Hudson Valley. Preserving, sharing, and celebrating America’s gardens and diverse gardening traditionsfor the education and inspiration of the public.
Magazzino carries over the same environmental message to another institution just down the road in Garrison, Manitoga/The Russel Wright Design Center, an architectural version of Gilardi’s nature carpets. All of the below experiences includes the interiors of the House, Studio & Design Gallery. All tour programs include a moderate hike through the landscape to and from Dragon Rock. Visitors must be able to negotiate uneven ground and ascend and descend several sets of stairs, including a 40-step stone stair with handrail. 2021Manitoga opens The Russel & Mary Wright Design Gallery, which tells the story of how the Wrights shaped modern American lifestyle.
DRAGON ROCK: HOUSE & STUDIO
They lived and worked in NYC but purchased the former quarry site in Garrison because it had a Woodstock vibe. They reworked the landscape, using the materials found on property, to provide a swimming hole for Mary and a meadow for entertaining. Wright and his designer wife Mary (a relative of Albert Einstein), were advocates for domestic simplicity. In their 1950 book “Guide to Easier Living,” they encouraged American families to abandon the fussy and labor-intensive homekeeping and entertaining traditions of the past. Out with fancy tablecloths and formal dinner parties; in with serve yourself buffets on mix and match plates.
Russel and Mary Wright:Dragon Rock at Manitoga
He debuted the American Modern dinnerware as a starter set of 12 pieces, in a range of soft, earthy pastel shades. Housewives were hooked and successive design releases drew crowds to Macy’s and other department stores. The cabinetry throughout the house is made of bright white Formica, the shiny counter material popular in the 50s. Wright would switch over spring/summer white for a reddish burnt orange for the cooler months. You may not know Russel Wright’s name, but you’ve probably seen his American Modern dinnerware.
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The Studio was Russel Wright’s personal space where he slept and worked. It illustrates many of the recurring themes at Manitoga including an integration of the built and natural environment, the influence of Japanese design, the juxtaposition of natural and synthetic materials, and efficiency and functionality. The Wrights met at an arts gathering in the 1920s, held in Woodstock NY, called the Maverick Festival.
He teaches primarily in the fields of Music Industry and Music Production, and is the founder and Director of the MFA in Creative Music Technology at Ramapo College. In light of that mission, the center has recently opened the Russel & Mary Wright Design Gallery - a beautiful space with Wright’s designs on display. A number of Wright designed furnishings are on view in the Studio including an early 1930s black lacquer lazy Susan coffee table and a bedside table manufactured by Statton that embodies Wright’s focus on easy functionality. The tour lengths vary from 90 minutes to two hours, are held rain or shine and include a mandatory, moderate hike. Access to the house is via an inclined trail that has mulched paths and stone steps.
After studying the site over many years, Russel Wright hired architect David Leavitt in 1958 to help him realize Dragon Rock, the name given to the House, Studio, and immediate quarry landscape. Leavitt, who had worked in Japan with architect Antonin Raymond, shared Wright’s appreciation of Japanese architecture and landscape design, evident in the House and Studio through scale, structure, intimacy, and details. Wright and his daughter covered a ceiling in his studio with white pine needles. And a large cypress trunk encases a steel support beam in the living room. Over 200 objects tell the story of how the Wrights shaped modern American lifestyle – from early experiments in spun aluminum in the 1930s and the colorful rounded forms of American Modern and Iroquois Casual mix & match dinnerware to Japanese inspired patterns and textures decades later.
Here, we see luminous butterfly wings pressed between sheets of translucent plastic, pine needles embedded in green plaster walls, and a roof covered with a lush carpet of native plants. Celebrate good design for living in creative harmony with nature through tours, programs, and events. Russel Wright domesticated Modernism for generations of Americans and pioneered high art's infusion into commercial design and production. Manitoga, the 75-acre eco-friendly estate he built and lived on in his latter years, survives as a foundation dedicated to preserving his design and environmental philosophies. It's a decidedly human-scale monument to harmony, with both home and studio built right into a rock ledge of the property's quarry.
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