cable satellite corp. 2016] c-span continues on the road to the white house. mr. trump: we all went to get back to making america strong and great again. ms. clinton: i am running for everyone working hard to support their families. everyone who has been knocked down but gets back up. >> live coverage of the presidential and vice presidential debates on c-span, the c-span radio at, and c-span.org. monday september 26 is the first residential debate live from hofstra university in new york. kaineence and senator tim debate at longwood university in farmville virginia. on sunday, the second presidential debate leading up to the third and final debate between hillary clinton and donald trump taking place at the university of nevada las vegas on october 19. my coverage of the presidential

advice presidential debates on c-span. listen live on the free c-span radio app. watch live anytime at c-span.org. welcome to grand rapids, michigan. our of a frank lloyd wright home, also known as the meyer may house. >> for those of you that watch real estate programs like house hunters and so on on house garden television network, you typically find buyers of homes looking for an open concept floorplan. as they look at late 1800 and

early 1900 homes, it is inevitable that they do not find that open concept. here is a home that frank lloyd wright created in 1908 that has all of those open characteristics. southeast grand rapids, michigan, at the meyer may house that was designed by frank lloyd wright in 1908. we are told that it is the most comprehensively restored of his harry styles homes. frank lloyd wright was a very successful architect in 1908 when he was commissioned to build a house for a family. clothing a local merchant. his store was located in downtown and rapids. he was successful as a marketer. recognized forly

being the first to display clothing on wooden hangers in a settiell -- retail ng. he was very aggressive and successful financially. those were very important if you are going to be a client of frank lloyd wright. he was going to design a home that is very different from the neighboring homes. having that progressive nature, having developed a thick skin that an early adopter has to have was an important consideration. may wantedrhood that his home built-in was a well-established neighborhood back in the late 1800s and early 1900s. it is known as the heritage hill historic district. it is about a quarter of a mile wide and a mile-long and incorporates 1200 residential

properties. it was the premier residential neighborhood and the late 1800s and early 1900s. if your business was successful and you had a successful production -- profession, this is where you wanted to live. most of the architecture was very traditional northern european architecture. clearly this house is not reflective of that architecture. fact, frank lloyd wright was reacting to characteristics of other architecture that he felt was inappropriate. the neighborhood response when the home was under construction was what is that? it isn't an easy house to make fun of as you look at it starting with the fact that you went all the way to chicago and hired this hotshot architect who did not even know to what the front door on the front. he had a philosophical reason for doing this.

it was about privacy. if the neighbors did not understand this, and the house was very strange to them. there were several principles that were important. you might begin with the fact that it is a place of tranquility and serenity. it was not a commercial structure where you would hang out to encourage people to come and visit you. it was a place where you could retreat to at the end of a busy day or that you could invite friends over and socialize in the serenity and tranquility of your own residence. in contrast, the neighboring homes would have a large public sidewalk connected to a large private sidewalk that would lead you to a very obvious front door, frank lloyd wright talked his primary guest entry into a hole so that guests were not on display while they were waiting to be welcomed into the home.

once inside, it opened up a great deal to be very spacious. one area would flow into the next. which in a living area flows very fluidly from the welcome space i was standing in just earlier. behind me is the southern exposure. in this instance, what frank lloyd wright has done is not only take advantage of the fact that the sun was shining, it would come from the south, so we have a tremendous expense of glass along the southern portion of this area, and then defying the convention of the period, he wraps his glass into the ceiling. overhead what you notice our natural skylights. they serve that function also. in addition, he has placed levels between the exterior

glass and the interior decorative glass so that early in the morning and late at night, cloudy or overcast, it has this wonderful diffuse light. fluidall very, very transition from one area to another. rather than a rigidly subdivided area that guests will experience when they enter the home. we are in the dining area. to me, this is one of frank lloyd wright's medical rations. in this instance, the architecture that surrounds the dining space actually becomes very recessive. it is just kind of there. what is important is the conversation you are enjoying and avoid -- and the food you are enjoying. he deletes the overhead chandelier that wants to call attention to itself and replaces

at the fourts corners of the table. he combines that with high backs on the chairs so that now the focus becomes who might eating with and what kind of food are we experiencing together? what is amazing about it is everyone gets a good seat at the table. perhaps you have been invited by a host or hostess to sit there. if it was not the chair they give you a view outside, you might have felt that the person who got the view to the exterior got a better seat. givesseat at this table you the opportunity to have a view to the outside. if it happens to be on one side of the table, you have a full wall of glass behind me. if you are on this side of the ,able, you have a lovely mural

one of frank lloyd wright's favorite flowers. color paletteame and balance as the home. it's very fluidly blends it and brings the outside inside. adjacent to it you have sightlines to exterior windows as well. we are always connected, and we always like to be connected to the outside. that is a very significant feature of this space. the second level of the house contains family bedrooms and staffoms as well as bedroom and bathroom. all spaces where you fully expect to have privacy. in those areas, the walls go to and connect with the ceiling to provide that level of privacy. frank lloyd wright wants to ensure that it does not become a box followed by a second box followed by a third boring box.

he modulates the volume of the he pushes into the attic in order to increase the sensation of spaciousness. corridor, narrow reduces the ceiling height, almost claustrophobic to some of the collar guests today. he wants you to have been experienced. at the end of the corridor, the space opens up again. it feels very different from the one you just exited. in addition to connecting the inside and outside from the standpoint of the visual experience, it also helps the natural life helps to -- like helps to expand -- light helps to expand the feeling of the space. he pushes out the windows and ads perpendicular side glass. you have a 180 degree panoramic view. instead sayk atand why not push out the floor, too?

he did not want people to fill it with more stuff, which would cause it to look crowded and diminish the experience of this expansive, panoramic view. if you were to retain him as your architect, first of all you had to have a wonderful continuous revenue stream. you have to be progressive because your house would be very progressive. you have to be very compliant. you have to be willing to say ok, here is my checkbook, do what you think is best for me. as you look around the first level of the home, you will note that there is no additive art on the walls. frank lloyd wright felt that this entire structure was a piece of art and that anything that's near mortals might add would simply diminish it.

he also was a realist and realize you might wish to you express yourself occasionally. in limited locations on the second floor, he designed limited picture frames. this is where it can go. express yourself. it has to hang in that spot on that wall. home iny moved into the 1909. at that time, they did not have children. they adopted an infant daughter in 1914, a son in 1916. in 1917.passed away he remarried. she had two children from her first marriage. they decided to expand the home. the expansion was not designed by frank lloyd wright. it added about 50% square footage to the house. it had less formal living space. intoived into the home

1936 when he passed away. ituyer or the home and had rezone multi family. honor -- third-- owner acquired the home. they brought it back to what it represented in 1909 when the family moved in. you might walk into the house and say it looks different, and it does. the more important thing is to understand how it lives different and how it can support and reinforce an experience that family would have living in this space. it is not a museum in the traditional sense that you have andtay on plastic runners stay behind velvet ropes. it is a home.

with some imagination, we hope that you can understand and feel how a family could live very comfortably in an environment that is intended to help shape and support and reinforce their experience. >> this weekend, we are featuring the history of grand rapids, michigan together with our comcast cable partners. learn more about grand rapids and other cities on our cities tour at c-span.org/citiestour. you are watching american history tv. all weekend every weekend on c-span3. next on the civil war, scott hardwick, a former supervisory historian at gettysburg national military park talks about the leading historian of the battle of gettysburg in the late 19th century who