Skylights and clerestories have been as important in modern architecture as that of the past of course, and not just in religious buildings. Every one of Frank Loyd Wright's buildings utilized light as a powerful aesthetic and emotive factor. Yet another of my favorite architecture pairs are the buildings Wright designed for Herbert Fisk Johnson Jr., the president of Johnson Wax, in Racine, Wisconson, not far north of Chicago. The Johnson Wax offices and research tower utilized miles of glass tubing to create a glowing translucent enclosure that peaks out through the lilypad concrete columns and curving brick forms. (Wright designed the offoice furniture, too.) Then Mr Johnson's home, Wingspread, spirals out from the spectacular domed living room, ringed by clerestories, which Wright called a "wigwam." A marvelous pair of buildings that seem almost to be in perpetual motion, bathed in light.
