Crystal Bridges day 2, The Bachman-Wilson House

Returning for a second day at Crystal Bridges was not any kind of chore. The mission on this day was to visit the Bachman-Wilson house, a Frank Lloyd Wright designed house which had been dismantled, transported and re-assembled on the site.

When we visited in 2024, this had not been available because in the few days before we visited a series of tornadoes had devasted the grounds leaving them closed to public access.

This time we were able to take the time to visit both the house…and walk some of the art trails around the grounds which cover 134 acres of native Ozark forest.

The house was essentially rescued from its original site where it had suffered repeated damage from flooding.

As with most of the Frank Lloyd Wright houses we have visited, there is no photography allowed inside….so if you want to see the interior…..it’s worth the visit…..

From the house, we followed the Art Trail….partly to get around to the other side of the house…but also to wander along the collection of outdoor art/sculptures in the gardens.

This next picture is of a ‘wall’ of small round mirrors….if you look closely at the picture you can see it. It’s a fascinating thing in person.

The plaque by this one invites you to sit with the people on the benches….so of course I had to…..

….and the path brings you around to the front of the Bachman-Wilson House…..

As we wandered further around……this piece is a collection of stainless steel balls floating free in this part of the creek…..they move around…and they sound a bit like wind chimes as they bump each other in the breeze.

It was also very reminiscent of the shimmer balls at the Chicago Botanics…..

This beast is called ‘Maman’…the ginormous spider has a basket holding eggs under her abdomen….it’s eerily beautiful…..and extremely creepy at the same time…..

There are scatterings of bronze animal sculptures by various artists…..

This ‘turret’ is James Turrels ‘The way of color’ A sculptural piece with a skylight to view the heavens …and a bench to sit and observe. While we were there a family came in, sat around on the bench and started singing hymns….!!!

Mother nature added a little beauty of her own as we wandered down to some huge crystal slabs embedded in a rock wall.

As we made our way back to the building we found this Keith Haring piece, which is part of the Crystal Bridges permanent collection

…and to Scotts delight, we also found the car, which is featured in the advertising for the 3D exhibit of Keith Harings work….but the car itself is in a completely different location in the building….!!

On our way back out of the building we noticed this rather confusing sign…LOL

Rather than taking the shuttle bus back to the parking garage…we opted to wander back through the sculptural gardens. These giant flowers were produced by the same artist that made the coloured light balls inside the gallery. Yayoi Kusama.

…and just before you get all the way back to the parking….is this Fly’s Eye Dome by R Buckminster Fuller…..he’s the guy who designed the geodesic biodome in Montreal and inspired the Spaceship Earth Dome at EPCOT in Disneyworld Florida.

Extra Pix