THE GRADY GAMMAGE MEMORIAL AUDITORIUM FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT CLASSIC AT A.S.U. TRULY A PRECIOUS GEM

Arizona's great new tourist mecca lies, not in a setting of remote mountain grandeur or wooded wonderland, but in the bend of a busy transcontinental highway only minutes from downtown Phoenix. At the dedication of Frank Lloyd Wright's last architectural masterpiece the Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium on the campus of Arizona State University-Governor Paul Fannin looked into the future and declared: "It may well be that visitors to Arizona will soon have two things they most want to see the Grand Canyon and the Gammage Auditorium."

GRADY GAMMAGE MEMORIAL AUDITORIUM ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY DESIGNED BY FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

Like the Grand Canyon, this magnificent $2,800,000 showplace has almost as many favorite viewpoints as it has viewers. There are those who treasure most the frontal view at dusk, when the setting sun highlights the desert rose exterior and turns the vast glass-enclosed promenade to gleaming gold. Others are thrilled most by the nocturnal vista, when the great globes of light along the pedestrian bridges extending from either side of the circular building glow like matched strings of pearls. Still others cast their votes for the heart-stopping view from the huge expanse of stage, with the lights above the curving grand tier and balcony glittering like the Milky Way itself.

While it was yet on the drawing boards, and even during the two years when it was under construction, the 3,000-seat Gammage Auditorium was the focal point of raging controversy. "Garish," "impractical," "vulgar," were some of the gentler epithets hurled at Wright's daring concept. Had it not been for the courageous advocacy of a handful of Arizona civic leaders and the remarkable foresight of the state's Board of Regents and Legislature, the auditorium blueprints still would be gathering dust at Wright's Taliesin West studio.

But today this noble dream of two great men - Frank Lloyd Wright and Dr. Grady Gammage has become reality, and Arizona is immeasurably richer for it. Some of the most respected newspapers and periodicals of America and Europe already have hailed it as a milestone in theatrical architecture. Eugene Ormandy, whose famed Philadelphia Orchestra played the auditorium's dedicatory concert, is ecstatic in his praise for the building's nearperfect acoustics. Pianist Andre Previn, after his performance in the auditorium, called it "one of the world's most distinguished concert halls." Soprano Birgit Nilsson echoed Previn's praise. One by one, the great names of the performing arts are appearing in this exciting new building and then moving on to spread the good word about it.

As a result, Arizona is being included in the future itineraries of symphony orchestras, dramatic companies and individual headliners which for decades have regarded the area between the Midwest and California as a vast cultural wasteland. With incredible speed, the Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium is pushing Arizona toward a new era of musical and theatrical maturity.

THE DREAM HAS ITS BEGINNING

When Dr. Grady Gammage assumed the presidency of Arizona State Teachers College at Tempe in 1933, the little auditorium which served the college was already old and tired. But Dr. Gammage, fired by a resolve to build an institution of which all Arizona might be proud, was not immediately concerned with the inadequacy of the auditorium. He found himself and his college in a struggle for life itself, with the meager ranks of faculty melting under the deprivations of the Depression, and the neglected physical plant crying out for patching plaster and a dab of paint.

But as soon as the elemental demands of teaching salaries and classroom facilities had been met, Dr. Gammage became increasingly dissatisfied with the creaky old college auditorium which stood in the shadow of Old Main. Still there were needs of more urgent priority as the little teachers' college took on new academic responsibilities in 1945 and braced itself for the tidal waves of students which were to inundate the campus each autumn following World War II. There were scientific laboratories to be built, library volumes to be added, residence halls to be erected.

The old auditorium held out as long as its rotting beams and floors would permit, but one day in 1955 it could wait no longer. The ceiling fell, under-girdings sagged and the building was closed as a menace to life and limb. Such musical and dramatic events as were scheduled were moved to the tiny Lyceum Building, and later to the student union ballroom, or to the auditoriums of the campus training school or Tempe Union High School.

Dr. Gammage longed for a campus showcase of the performing arts - a truly distinctive building which would focus the attention of the nation and the world on Arizona State University. He became convinced that there was only one architect in the world who could design such a building-Frank Lloyd Wright, greatest of them all. He had met Mr. Wright several years before, and the two men had become friends. But Dr. Gammage could offer the architect nothing but zeal and a deep faith in his fastgrowing institution. There was no money, and little reason to believe that an economy-minded state legislature would look fondly on a luxury such as a Frank Lloyd Wright auditorium. But Dr. Gammage could not dismiss the dream from his mind. He outlined it one day to Mr. Wright.

What happened next is best told in the words of Mrs. Frank Lloyd Wright: "My husband came to me and said, 'Olgivanna, there is a very nice fellow, the President of a University, Grady Gammage, who asked me to design a building. But he has no money.' "Well, I said, 'but how are you going to do anything about it?' "I don't know. I don't know, he said. It is very tempting... such a nice fellow.' "And over and over again he said 'I have faith in that man. I think he'll do it. I don't usually do this. I don't break my ethics by designing without any guarantee whatsoever, but I am going to do it.' The master architect was as good as his word. Without any concrete hope of financial reward, he started to dream along with Grady Gammage and to put fragmentary sketches of those dreams onto paper.

"Grady Gammage, I'll build you a building that will be a gateway to your university," he declared during one of their frequent talks. "It will be a gateway to your intellectual level. It will introduce what you stand for."

One warm May afternoon in 1957, ASU VicePresident Gilbert L. Cady joined the two in a tour of the campus. Several possible auditorium sites were studied and rejected, but at last the 15-acre women's athletic field in the southwest corner of the campus captured Mr. Wright's attention.

As Vice President Cady remembers it, Mr. Wright gazed for a long time at the grassy site, with its circular frontage on busy U. S. 60-70-80. Then he declared, with a wave of his cane, "I believe this is the site! The structure should be circular in design-yes, and with outstretched arms saying 'Welcome to Arizona!'

A MARVEL OF VERSATILITY

Mr. Wright's first finished sketches, which are still in the files at Taliesin West, pictured a complex of fine arts buildings-auditorium, theater, music school, and art gallery-grouped around a lagoon and a series of garden courts.

The problem of combining the requirements of a theater, concert hall, lecture hall and opera house in a single plan is generally regarded as virtually insoluble. In Europe, architects have refused to take on such a staggering task. And in America, many brave attempts at compromising two or more of these requirements had had unsatisfactory results.

Dr. Vern O. Knudsen, the internationally famed acoustical consultant, describes the problem this way: "Organ and choral music sound best in a large, reverberant room. A string quartet and most chamber music are heard best in a small non-reverberant room. Speech is heard best with amplification, and in a room free of excessive reverberation. Obviously, compromises must be made."

How well Mr. Wright and Taliesin Associated Architects succeeded in solving the problem is illustrated in the declaration of Mrs. George Izenour, Yale University's noted stage design expert, that "The Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium combines the functions of theater, auditorium and concert hall more effectively than any other such building."

Laymen who lack the skills and education of Dr. Knudsen and Mr. Izenour do not need technical soundmeasuring instruments and mathematical calculations to tell them all they need to know about this building. They can see the stage perfectly from every seat in the house. They can thrill to the crescendoes of a Beethoven symphony without the trace of an echo, and they can hear the whisper of an actress in a dramatic scene. Just as happily, they can arrive late and walk to their seats in the middle of the darkened auditorium without one anguished "pardon me," and without stepping on a single toe. The 42inch spacing of the building's Continental style seatingwith no radial aisles - makes that possible.

The amazing versatility of the Gammage Auditorium is enhanced by two unique stage features. One is the motor-driven 45-ton steel acoustical shell which fits unobtrusively against the rear wall of the stage when not in use, but which incloses a full symphony orchestra, choir, and organ when fully extended. The other is the movable forestage, which in its various positions can be a part of the main stage, an orchestra pit, or even a part of the main floor seating.

The building has been particularly admired for its soft desert coloring. Both exterior and interior are a combination of the many rose and rust hues of the earth and rocks of the Southwest. All the color planning was done by Mrs. Frank Lloyd Wright just as she did in all of her husband's major buildings.

To meet the needs of an art gallery, the spacious promenades inside the front entrances have been designed for exhibitions of paintings or sculpture.

Finally, this remarkable building houses a five-story music school, acoustically separated from the rest of the auditorium. Its classrooms, offices, rehearsal halls and libraries contain more floor space than Arizona State University's big Old Main building.

Almost miraculously, Mr. Wright's original concept of a group of fine arts buildings has been telescoped into one versatile structure.

THE STRUGGLE FOR ACCEPTANCE

Grady Gammage was a man who spent much of his life waging uphill battles. He had come to Arizona from Arkansas in 1912, sick and friendless, to enter the University of Arizona. By sweeping floors and jerking sodas, he financed his university education and went on to teach school at Winslow and serve eight years as president of struggling Arizona State Teachers College at Flagstaff. His struggles against formidable odds did not cease when he became president of Arizona State Teachers College at Tempe in 1933. Slowly and painfully he pushed the institution to one milestone of progress after another, and in 1958 he led a successful battle for acceptance of the institution's present name.

It was in the same year that he first went to the Board of Regents with his request for the designation of an architect for a great new auditorium. The Regents' minutes of September 6, 1958, tell the story of their reaction: "No action was taken, inasmuch as it was felt it would be premature at this time."

However, one regent, Phoenix banker Walter Bimson, found Dr. Gammage's enthusiasm for a Wright-designed auditorium highly infectious. Regents O. D. Miller and Lynn Laney soon joined the growing ranks of advocates, along with Scottsdale civic leader Lewis Ruskin and others who saw in Mr. Wright's preliminary design a building which would win international renown for Arizona.

In the spring of 1959, Frank Lloyd Wright, who had towered over his contemporaries in architecture for 65 years, died just before the 90th anniversary of his birth. And in December of the same year, death suddenly claimed Grady Gammage.

But the last great dream of these two men did not die with them. In 1960, after spirited debate, the Arizona Legislature appropriated funds for an Arizona State University auditorium. Acting ASU President H. R. Richardson had continued Dr. Gammage's battle, and the new President, Dr. G. Homer Durham, brought it to a successful conclusion when the Board of Regents, on June 12, 1961, approved a contract with the Taliesin Associated Architects directing them to proceed with development drawings requesting only that all possible economies be considered. A request was also made for the inclusion of rooms for a complete music department adjacent to the stage house.

Completed construction of the auditorium and music school, including seating, carpeting, cabinetwork, stage equipment, theatrical lighting and mechanized orchestra shell, totaled under $2,900,000. A cost of $17.81 per square foot. This is an astonishingly low figure for a building of this type-lower on a square foot basis than any structure of comparable purpose built in this country in the last ten years. It is surprising because the building looks expensive in view of the excellence of its construction and the elegance of its design and detailing. It stands as vivid proof that beauty is the result of good organic design. (An interesting comparison: New York's Philharmonic Hall, seating fewer persons, was completed at something over $17,000,000, not including the addition of a large music school nor the subsequent millions for necessary acoustical corrections.)

PLANS BECOME REALITY

The man who transformed Mr. Wright's preliminary sketches into working drawings was William Wesley Peters, a giant of a man whose vision and skill match his physical stature. Peters, Chief Architect of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, appointed firm-member John Rattenbury, an able and practical architect, to the critical post of resident architect. For the next two years he virtually lived at the auditorium site.

Frank Lloyd Wright left his followers the task of fulfilling some 20 million dollars in work for 33 clients. The work completed since his death numbers 46 buildings (including 21 residences) costing 16 million dollars. This total includes a number of major projects with preliminary designs by Frank Lloyd Wright. Among them were the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Annunciation Greek Orthodox church in Milwaukee, and the Dallas (Texas) Theater Center.

Taliesin is busier now than it ever has been. Its current work involves 45 projects for 42 clients totaling 32 million dollars. Also there are future projects to follow ones now being designed or built, including the Marin County Civic Center and government complex in San Rafael, California, which will amount to a 20 to 30 million dollar development. A 4.4 million dollar administration building was completed there several years ago and drawings now are being made for a 9 million dollar Hall of Justice and a 1.6 million dollar theater and audi-torium. With its various buildings spanning valleys and fitted to the crowns of hills on a 160 acre site, the project is considered an outstanding application of Wright's prin ciples of organic architecture.

WILLIAM WESLEY PETERS Chief Architect, Taliesin Associated Architects, Ltd.

The project is one of a number Wright's followers inherited after his death. This work is being carried on by Taliesin Associated Architects, formed in 1959 as an affiliate of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. Mrs. Wright is Board Chairman and Peters is Chief Architect. The association consists of 35 persons, most of whom are architects and designers, registered to practice in all the states as well as abroad.

In recent years, Taliesin's operations have been shifted more and more to its western headquarters near Scotts-dale, Arizona. Only three, instead of sis, months of the year are now spent in sumimer residence at Spring Green, Wisconsin. The growing amount of work in the western states, and a preference for life in Arizona were among the reasons given for this shift.

Arizona has been the center of several recent works by Taliesin's architects. Besides the Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium, there is the Ascension Lutheran Church in Paradise Valley, the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity House at ASU, and a current project for a revolutionary theater for the performing arts for Phoenix. Also there are several residential projects for Arizona.

R. E. McKee General Contractors of El Paso and Tucson won the $2,362,910 construction contract for the Grady Gammage Auditorium, and from the time of the groundbreaking ceremony on May 23, 1962, to the completion of the building in June, 1964, architects and builders worked together in one of the most harmonious relationships in the annals of construction.

This highly complex building-designed in two over lapping circles-offered many a challenge to Construction Superintendent Rankin Stockton and his many sub contractors and artisans. Its size alone is staggering-300 feet by 250 feet and 80 feet high-with pedestrian bridges extending another 200 feet from each side. There was the problem of the complex circular steel frame, which required the use of 28 radii points for layout and construc tion. There was the problem of fabricating and fiting the massive 145-foot box girder-one of the largest ever used is building construction-which supports the grand tier. There was the problem of the 50 slender concrete col umns, each 55 feet high, which had to be cast on the construction site and erected to support the roof.

For the first time at least a dozen new architectural concepts were put into practice. The architect listed some: The "flying" balconies, with vertical space behind and around them to allow free circulatiori of sound and air.... the use of Continental seating and convenient side exits on the main floor and both balconies... the unique acoustical shell... the two pedestrian bridges. Notwith standing the proximity of the stage to each of the 3.000 seats in the house, the atmosphere of the auditorium remains intimate. The topmost seat in the upper balcony is only 118 feet from the forestage, and the steep floor slope gives every patron a completely unobstructed view of the stage.

From one side of the stage area to the other is 140 feet about half a city block-and the height frem stage floor to loft is equal to that of an eight-story building. The proscenium opening is 64 feet by 30 feet, and the stage will accommodate any performance from a lone lecture to a grand opera.

A BUILDING FOR ALL ARIZONA

Although the Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium and its associated music school facility are on the campus of Arizona State University and were built primarily for the educational and cultural needs of the univer sity, the auditorium belongs to all the people of Arizona. The Phoenix Symphony Orchestra presents its concerts here; the Arizona Education Association conference and other statewide meetings have been held here; major events sponsored by a wide variety of civic organizations are scheduled with increasing frequency.

David Scoular, ASU professor of music has been appointed auditorium directors, and it is he who shoulders the principal responsibility for programming in this great new showcase of the performing arts. Scoalar has sched uled an impressive number of important events-opera, drama, musical theater, lecturers, symphony concerts, and many others for the months ahead.

"We pledge that we shall never permit anything shoddy or cheap within its walls," President Durham has said of the auditorium. "It may tax us severely to build a program worthy of this structure. No inatter how complicated modeen society becomes, how jaded or sated its peoples, or how distraught with tension, we should never overlook the fact that great art, great music, great literature, great drama have a sense of purity, dignity, simplicity of line, thought and feeling toward which, like the ocean, all streams finally return, no matter through what deserts or obscure wilderness they have previously flowed."

G. Homer Draham, PRESIDENT

ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY

THE WINDMILL

A windmill stands erect and firm A lonely figure in a lonely land. The whirling blades attuned to catch The whimsy moods of the wind's command. The water flows. The tank is full And Nature has quenched the cattle's thirst. It could have been used for growing fields But in this land the cattle come first.

A TIMELESS TIME

I have come . . . To find and walk a quiet road . . . To watch the sun . . . As it slips into a sunset . . . To breathe the chillness . . . Of a chilled night . . . To see a dying fire die . . . And to see the stars . . . As they melt and disappear . . . Into lightness . . . And watch the brooks . . . As they rapidly run into emptiness . . .

DESERT HARVEST

There's magic in a desert night When stars fall down to human height; I filled my pockets, filled my hands, And more stars fell upon the sands. The gentle breeze that shook the sky Sent starry windfalls sailing by, And whirlwinds scuffling on the ground, Kicked stars into a silver mound. Despite this bounty in my clutch, Millions more were there to touch The desert night must play a trick, Hanging stars low down to pick!

ONE DAY AT A TIME

Twenty-four shining hours Were given me today Each moment a part of Eternity, Plenty for work, and enough for play. Twenty-four shining hours Handed to all just the same The rich man or the poor man, It doesn't matter the name. The Infinite gives us good measure The clocks are all keeping score, I must use up every hour - Tomorrow there's twenty-four more.

I DO NOT CARE FOR STARS

If one could buy I'd have a flame of sun to warm me in the winter, I'd purchase carpets made of grass as strong and soft as love. And for my roof I'd choose the flights of eagles - I do not care for stars They are so cold. And in my tomb the hearts of leaves would sing.

LAKE BLUE

Were I to name the lake anew, I would christen it Lake Blue! The sky into the water slipped, And faded where the edges dipped: The little breezes the big wind sent, Stirred the colors to give accent!

YOURS SINCERELY VIVA NACHO! VIVA SONORA!

Once again I must express my whole-hearted admiration for your splendid Novem-ber number.

Day before yesterday, the whole Board of Directors of the National Confederation of Chambers of Commerce, had occasion to pay their respects to our President Elect, Lic. Gustavo Díaz Ordaz in his personal offices. Your splendid publication “just happened to be” under my arm when we entered his office, for the little thought came to me that he would enjoy seeing it. Right after everybody had filed out of the office, I just “kind of lingered” and showed him especially the double central page of the Bay of Guaymas. I pointed out the sign painted on the hill “Sonora con Díaz Ordaz.” I explained the great and magnificent gesture of friendliness and goodwill that is evidenced by this issue that is now circulating throughout many nations of the world. He was reminded by me that Arizona is one of the States that has been outstanding in its constant activity of co-operation and friendship to México. Furthermore, I told him that the State of Arizona is one of the biggest and most potential sources of tourism to México.

Dear Ramón, I am very very pleased with my interview, and I can assure you that he was deeply impressed.

One great big affectionate abrazo from your Mexican amigo,

SUPPLEMENTAL INDEX:

I have been receiving your magazine since January, 1963 and have all issues for the year intact. Before I have them bound into a permanent volume, I would like to know if you folks have issued an index for the year.

RECEPTION IN ITALY:

I feel you should know that for more than four years, thanks to Dr. and Mrs. K. F. Meyer of San Francisco, I have received monthly your wonderful magazine.

My name is Raffaele Izzo and I am an official guide at Pompei and Herculaneum (Italy). I met Dr. Meyer at Pompei some years ago and he kindly sent me a subscription to ARIZONA HIGHWAYS as a Christmas present, and I have been reading it ever since! I like it very much; it is so interesting, and we are able to learn a great deal about your beautiful country, its past and present life. The photographs are perfect, the colors so bright and clear, and the scenery is marvelous! Every month when the magazine arrives I have to lend it to at least twenty colleagues of mine, for they are extremely anxious to read it also!... and I have to work hard to get it back! I have kept all the issues since Christmas 1960.

BACK COVER

"BEAVERTAIL CACTUS" Opuntia basilaris BY DAVID MUENCH. This photo of a Beavertail cactus (Opuntia basilaris) was taken along U.S. 66 near Kingman. Lovers of cactus will find Mohave County a rich field for cactus study. The opuntias are the most traveled of cacti. They have been found as far north as Canada. Some opuntias increase rapidly and can become pestiferous on range land subjected to prolonged overgrazing. On the other hand, some of the species provide emergency feed for cattle. Cattle can feed on opuntias for a limited time without undue injury provided the spines are burned or the joints macerated. Kearney and Peebles in Arizona Flora list about fifty species in the Opuntia family in Arizona. Linhof II camera; Ektachrome; f.32 at 1/5th sec.; Zeiss Tessar 51/4" lens; May bright sunlight; meter reading 200+; ASA rating 50.

OPPOSITE PAGE

"STRAWBERRY HEDGEHOG IN BLOOM" Echinocereus Engelmannii BY JOSEF MUENCH. The Strawberry hedgehog cactus is one of the gayest members of the Echinocereus family. It occurs in many parts of the state and grows at elevations up to 5,000 feet. Cactus plants are found blooming in Arizona as early as February, and blossoms can be found as late as August. Same species of cacti can be found blooming at different times depending on elevations. Some of Arizona's finest cactus gardens are Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument south of Ajo, Saguaro National Monument near Tucson, along the Apache Trail and in the Joshua forest east and north of Congress Junction.