In her multi-media presentation, Kim Bixler recounts the joys and pitfalls of owning and living in a Wright-designed home. Dealing with the public’s curiosity, playing hide-and-seek, coping with the habitually leaky roof and managing constant renovations make this an unforgettable story. (AIA Continuing Education Units (CEU) available for her lectures.)
Kim Bixler’s family owned Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1908 Edward E. Boynton House in Rochester, New York, from 1977 to 1994. The Boynton House is one of Wright’s stunning prairie-style private homes. During its construction, the world-renowned architect was frequently on-site, supervising all details, including the design of the furniture (seventeen pieces still remain in the house).
Kim Bixler published her latest book Growing Up in a Frank Lloyd Wright House. She is also featured in the 2012 PBS documentary Frank Lloyd Wright’s Boynton House: The Next Hundred Years (see below) and has appeared on NPR’s Here & Now and was written up in the Wall Street Journal.
Kim Bixler has authored and edited several books, including Get a Clue: Guide to Cornell University and Ithaca, NY, 365 Great Things About Atlanta, The Cigar Book, Austin from Boston, and My Twin, My Friend. Growing Up in a Frank Lloyd Wright House, however, is the book she has been waiting to write nearly her whole adult life. Kim currently lives with her husband and children in Manhattan Beach, CA. She graduated from Cornell University in 1991.
For additional information about Kim Bixler’s lecture series click here for YouTube video overview: Frank Lloyd Wright Lecturer
Catch Kim on The Not Too Serious Architecture Hour May 2020
Preview of PBS Special: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Boynton House: The Next Hundred Years (2012)
Testimonials:
“Dear Kim,
I just finished reading your book manuscript; it’s wonderful. Although a growing number of clients and homeowners have written books about their houses (Rosenbaum, Hanna, Jacobs, Reilly (Grant)) none of them have provided such a well researched and beautifully written account — a true history of the house. As an academic concerned mostly with the narrower aspects of structure, space, and their meaning I read with envy and delight about your life in the house.”
Jack Quinan
Founder of Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy
University of Buffalo Distinguished Service Professor
Historian of architecture specializing in work of Frank Lloyd Wright
Experiencing Frank Lloyd Wright’s Architecture: A Phenomenological Study
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“Kim, take it from me, your talk would get an A+ from any professor!”
Maya Moran Manny
Author of Down to Earth: An Insider’s View of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Tomek House
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“Thank you for a truly splendid evening! You’re a natural, and I’m so glad you were willing to share your special story with us.”
Charles W. Jermy, Jr.
Cornell University
Dean, School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions
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“Last month Bixler gave her presentation as part of the Cornell reunion weekend and suffice it to say anyone who sits down in Statler Hall next weekend will not be witness to a dry academic talk about the mechanics of cantilevering or the various alloys to be deployed in stained glass. Nearly 20 years after moving out of the Boynton House, Bixler is still enthusiastic about her sojourn there. The presentation is filled with family snapshots from the 1970s and ‘80s, interspersed with historical images that effortlessly place the structure in the broader context of Wright’s work.”
Cassandra Palmyra
Ithaca Times
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“The entire family became experts on the house and Wright, which led to Bixler writing “Growing up in a Frank Lloyd Wright House” (2012), on which her Cornell talk was based. She has given similar talks around the country, and has been a featured guest at other Wright buildings.”
Linda B. Glaser – staff writer for the Cornell College of Arts and Sciences.
Cornell Chronicle
