Crystal Bridges Home Purchase Feels So ‘Wright’

Forget Fallingwater. Bentonville has Movinghouse.

We’ve become accustomed to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art tingling our senses with new additions of major American art to populate the walls of the beautiful Moshe Safdie-designed building in a Bentonville ravine. But credit the museum’s leaders for surprising everyone with its most recent acquisition.

Over the course of the next year, the museum will move a house to its 120-acre campus, but it’s not just any house. It’s Frank Lloyd Wright’s Bachman Wilson House. Since 1954, the Wright-designed building has called Somerset, N.J., home. The current owners have struggled for years to restore the home and repair damage from flooding from a nearby river. They put it on the market on the condition that the house would be moved to a suitable new location.

We can’t think of a more suitable location than a museum of American art housed in an architecturally inspiring structure of its own. Wright was the quintessential American architect. In 1991, the American Institute of Architects named him “the greatest American architect of all time.”

The art collection at Crystal Bridges is a primary draw for the thousands of visitors coming annually to Northwest Arkansas, but Alice Walton’s museum itself is a work of art worth experiencing. The addition of a Frank Lloyd Wright structure on the property makes the museum even more of a destination for those who appreciate the artistry of physical space. The museum’s placement in the context of its natural surroundings mirrors concepts that proved important in Wright’s design work.

The 2,800-square-foot house will fit right in on the property and be a wonderful opportunity for Arkansans and other visitors to see a small sample of Wright’s inspirational work, one more piece in a collection of great works of art.

CASUALTIES OF WAR

To honor the men and women in our armed forces and remind our readers of their sacrifices, this newspaper is publishing Department of Defense announcements identifying Americans killed in active military operations.

Army Sgt. First Class William K. Lacey, 38, of Laurel, Fla., died Jan. 4 in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered when the enemy attacked his unit with rocket propelled grenades. Lacey was assigned to 201st Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Knox, Ky.

Army Sgt. Daniel T. Lee, 28, of Crossville, Tenn., died Jan. 15 in Parwan Province, Afghanistan, from wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with small-arms fire during combat operations. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), Fort Bragg, N.C.

Army Spc. Andrew H. Sipple, 22, of Cary, N.C., died Jan. 17 in Kandahar City, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, from a noncombat-related incident currently under investigation. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

Army Chief Warrant Officer Edward Balli, 42, of Monterey, Calif., died Jan. 20 in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, of wounds from small-arms fire when he was attacked by insurgents. Balli was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, U.S. Army Europe, Vilseck, Germany.