Manitoga

Making up the team “More is More,” my friend Sarah and I won second place in the Open House NY Modern Architecture and Design Scavenger Hunt earlier this spring. We claimed our prize last weekend: a guided tour of Manitoga, the Russell Wright Design Center, near Garrison, NY. I have to admit I’d never heard of Wright (1904-1976), who was all over home design in the middle of the last century, with his dinnerwear in particular, and was one of the first industrial designers of note. After visiting Manitoga, I want to live there. Purchasing land that had been virtually clear cut and gouged by a granite quarry operation — some of the rock went into the NYPL’s flagship on 5th and 42nd — Wright spent decades rehabilitating the 75-acre parcel. With his theatrical experience and love of the woods, he, and his workers, essentially sculpted a woodlands garden around his low-slung, rock-hugging house and studio in the uplands above the Hudson. Four miles of trails on the property, connected to the Osborne Loop off the Appalachian Trail, are open to the public now (tours of the house are ticketed: I highly recommend a visit).It’s hard enough to maintain an old house as museum and research center. Adding the care of the grounds to the mix makes things complicated indeed. Any designed space that is also natural (natural artificial nature) means things are always in flux: trees and bushes grow, obliterating the viewsheds Wright planned, and, of course, trees die. Wright was particularly fond of Eastern Hemlocks (Tsuga canadensis), with their dramatic dark green needles. This native species normally thrives on shady rocky ridges and ravine slopes, perfect for the Hudson Highlands; but, the Hudson Valley has been the epicenter of the invasive Hemlock Wooly Adelgid (Adelges tsugae), an aphid-like insect that kills the trees after several years of infestation. Thus a major component of Wright’s woodlands’ design is disappearing.Wright mixed found objects, recycled objects, and the most modern (for mid-century) materials in his home and studio, which were green roofed avant la lettre. There are strange plastics you never heard of, and sliding doors with butterflies in them. It looks live every single door handle is different. This is the view from the studio’s tub:The granite dipping into the pool on the far right was thought by Wright’s daughter Ann to look like a dragon, so the house and studio were named Dragon Rock. Still in charge of Russell Wright Studios, Ann Wright has donated some of her father’s library to the Center: