Willet Hauser Architectural Glass

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Willet Hauser Architectural Glass
PredecessorWillet Studios (1898),
Hauser Art Glass, Co. (1946),
Associated Crafts (1997)
Headquarters
Winona, Minnesota
Area served
North America and Abroad
ServicesDesign, fabrication and restoration of architectural stained glass windows
WebsiteWillet Hauser Architectural Glass

Willet Hauser Architectural Glass, Inc is a North American stained glass firm located in Winona, Minnesota, that specializes in the design, fabrication, preservation and restoration of leaded stained glass and faceted glass windows.

The studio, one of the oldest in North America, was formed through the merger of two American stained glass studios: the Willet Stained Glass Studios of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the Hauser Art Glass Company, Inc., located in Winona. The two united in 1977 and together are one of the largest stained glass studios in North America. In 2005 the company changed its name to Willet Hauser Architectural Glass, Inc., to more accurately reflect the long-term direction of the studio.[1] In 2014 the Arizona-based national stained glass studio Associated Crafts acquired Willet Hauser Architectural Glass, Inc.[2]

To date, Willet Hauser has created and/or restored windows in more than 15,000 buildings located throughout the world.[3] In 2018, Inc. Magazine named Associated Crafts/Willet Hauser Architectural Glass Inc. to its 37th annual Inc. 5000 list of the nation's fastest-growing private companies.[4]

History

Willet Studios

Willet Studios was founded in

Portraits on Glass or Canvas and Miniatures.[5]

Anne Lee and their son, Henry Lee, took over the studio after William's death in 1921.

laminating stained glass, a technique known as Farbigem.[8] In 1971, the Franklin Institute awarded Henry Lee Willet the Frank P. Brown Medal
.

In 1965, E. Crosby Willet, the son of Henry Lee Willet, became the third generation president of Willet Studios. Under his leadership, Willet windows were created for many of the major

Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco.[1]

Hauser Art Glass Company

The Hauser Art Glass Company, another long-standing American stained glass studio, was founded in 1946 by James E. Hauser in Winona, Minnesota. It was originally opened as a repair and

restoration
studio, focused on serving small, remote churches, after Hauser recognized an opportunity to aid many American churches whose stained glass windows had fallen into neglect and disrepair during the Second World War.

As the firm's projects became larger and more complex, a number of glass artists specializing in the replication of different design styles joined the studio. The firm eventually began creating moderately priced windows for neighborhood churches as well as windows for hotels, restaurants, and private homes. However, its main specialty remained the repair and restoration of existing stained glass, including those by Connick Studios, Tiffany Studios, John La Farge, Henry Wynd Young, Franz Mayer of Munich, and Innsbruck Studios.[1]

Associated Crafts

In 1973, John Phillips Sr. was living in Pennsylvania and started to work for Hauser Art Glass Co in Winona as a national salesman. In 1980, three years after Hauser merged with Pittsburgh-based Willet Studios to become Willet Hauser Architectural Glass, Phillips Sr. left on friendly terms to start his own stained glass studio in Pennsylvania, in which his son John Phillips Jr. started to work. After 10 years, Phillips Sr. sold the business.

John Phillips Jr. and his wife Mary founded the Arizona-based stained-glass business Associated Crafts in 1997. Some of their work including sub-contracting work for Willet Hauser. The business grew rapidly as a national stained glass studio and in Jan 2014, Associated Crafts acquired Willet Hauser Architectural Glass, Inc. combining to become one of the notable global forces in stained glass.[9]

Innovations

In the 1960s, when the industry began a movement toward contemporary

mosaics, and sandcarving or sandblasting.[10]

Farbigem

The Willet Studio introduced the Dutch technique of Farbigem to the United States in 1966, after a visit to the Amsterdam glass factory known as Glas-Industrie Van Tetterode. Research and development was carried out at the studio from 1967 into the 1980s.

In the process of Farbigem a base plate is made by sandwiching plexiglass between two layers of glass. On this surface, layer upon layer of glass can be built up in all different directions. Designs can be traditional or abstract. The pieces are held together by a crystal clear, flexible adhesive that was developed in the Netherlands which allowed the glass to naturally expand and contract. Entire walls could be designed in decorative thicknesses of glass. The farbigem technique eventually fell out of favor due to the deficient technology of the adhesive which, with time, allowed the multiple layers of glass to separate. Changes in aesthetic taste also contributed to its decline. Today, windows similar to the farbigem technique are fabricated in stained glass studios under the name "Laminated Glass".

Sculptured gold windows

Henry Willet created the first sculptured gold window between 1948–49. When first devised, the sculptured

Los Angeles, California
.

Notable commissions

Cadet Chapel

Military Academy.[12] The project for the design and fabrication of the Nave and North windows was awarded to the Willet Studio. The master plan for the nave windows, which were sponsored by individual classes in the hopes that every class would eventually be represented,[12] was devised by Bertram Goodhue, William Willet
, Colonel C.W. Larned and Chaplain Edward S. Travers. The window program depicts familiar stories of the Old and New Testament, as well as stories of saints from the early church. The north window, also designed and fabricated by the studio, is a memorial to the alumni who died in World War I.

The commission, which spanned three generations of Willets over a period of sixty-six years, remains the longest continuing commission in American history.[13]

Grace Episcopal Cathedral, San Francisco, California

In 1965, the studio completed six leaded stained glass windows for

San Francisco, California. Located in the east half of the north and south aisles,[14] the studio’s windows are part of a larger collection of art at the Cathedral which includes stained glass works by Charles Connick, Gabriel Loire and an altarpiece casting of the last work[15] completed by Keith Haring in the Cathedral’s AIDS Interfaith Memorial Chapel.[16]

The commission began in the early 1960s when the studio was selected as a representative of the current day masters of stained glass. Designed by Marguerite Gaudin, the colorful windows are contemporary in style, an intentional departure from the more traditional aesthetic of the earlier Connick windows.[14] In 2009, a copy of Gaudin’s New Testament Baptism (1964) design was displayed at the Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery as part of the University of the Arts Silver Star Alumni Award Exhibition.[17]

Hall of Science and Technology

The Hall of Science was designed in 1962 by

coffers, each 2 feet (0.61 m) wide and 3 feet (0.91 m) tall. The Willet Studio, under Henry Lee Willet's guidance, was commissioned to construct the 5,400 panels that form the walls in less than one years time.[18] Each panel is composed of thick chunks of blue faceted glass held together by cement. Twenty to 30 different shades of blue glass, imported from France and the Blenko Glass Company of Milton, West Virginia, were used in the project. The blue light, which engulfs the interior, symbolizes the heavens and carries out the theme, "Rendezvous in Space."[19]

Metropolitan Transportation Authority

Arts for Transit is a program of the

public transit by presenting visual and performing arts projects in subway and commuter rail
stations. As a part of the overall project, neighborhood artists working in various media are invited to compete for projects in nearby stations. In 1998 Willet Hauser was selected to fabricate faceted stained glass panels based on the winning designs of many of these artists. The project is one of the largest projects in the studio's history.

Saint Martin’s Episcopal Church, Houston, Texas

In 2001, the studio received the monumental commission to design and create the entire stained glass fenestration for St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas. The 36 window project, completed in May 2004, is the studio’s largest-ever one-time commission. Over 100,000 individual pieces of hand-cut glass make up the clerestory windows alone. The church’s Rev. Gibson, remarking on the coloration of the different blues within The Great Commission window, compared the work to Chartres stained glass: “...the bluest window I have ever seen, next to the Jesse Tree window in Chartres.”[20]

Nearly 20 years later, in 2018, the studio was again commissioned to design and fabricate the stained glass in the church’s new Christ Chapel and Parish Life Center.

Contributing artists and designers

Other media

Ben Shahn, Frank Shoonover, Franklin Watkins, György Kepes, Jacob Landau, Ralph Pallen Coleman, Sadao Watanabe, Ellen Miret, David Pushkin, Max Abramovitz, Wallace Harrison have worked with the studio in other media.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Studio History and Biographies. Willet Hauser Architectural Glass Archives & Library, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  2. ^ John Phillips. "America's Stained Glass Window Heritage Companies Come Together as Associated Crafts Acquires Willett Hauser". PRWeb Online Visibility from Vocus. 10 Jan. 2014
  3. ^ Pazulski, Kristin. "Local stained glass firm continues 108-year tradition of craftsmanship." Chestnut Hill Local 9 Nov. 2006.
  4. ^ Inc. Magazine Inc. 5000. "Inc. magazine names Associated Crafts/Willet Hauser to Inc. 5000 list". Winona Daily News. 18 Aug, 2018
  5. ^ Willet, William. Book of Results of the Willet Stained Glass and Decorating Company, Philadelphia: Willet Stained Glass and Decorating Co. (1921)
  6. ^ "Anne Lee Willet, 1867-1943." Stained Glass Quarterly. Spring 1943
  7. ^ Pazulski, Kristin. "Local stained glass firm continues 108-year tradition of craftsmanship". Chestnut Hill Local. 9 Nov. 2006
  8. Philadelphia Inquirer
    , Oct. 1983.
  9. ^ Associated Crafts and Willet Hauser. "Willet Hauser purchased by competitor with family connection". Winona Daily News. 26 Jan, 2014
  10. ^ Waggoner, Shawn. "Crosby Willet and Willet Stained Glass Studios: Three Generations of Glass for the Ages." Glass Art, Jan/Feb 2003:57
  11. ^ Farnsworth, Jean M. Stained Glass in Catholic Philadelphia. Philadelphia: Saint Joseph's University Press, 2002.
  12. ^ a b Pappas, George S. The Cadet Chapel: United States Military Academy. West Point, New York: U.S.M.A., 1987.
  13. ^ Parente, Leigh Anne. "The St. Martin's Commission. The Willet Stained Glass Studio's Largest Commission (Yet)." The Stained Glass Quarterly 101:4 (2006):278.
  14. ^ a b Murphy, R. (July/August 1999). “Celebrating the Stained Glass Legacy”. Glass Art, 42.
  15. ^ Waggoner, S; Windishar, M (July/August 1999). “To Sustain a Legacy: The Grace Cathedral Restoration”. Glass Art, 41.
  16. ^ Grace Episcopal Cathedral "AIDS Interfaith Memorial Chapel"
  17. ^ The University of the Arts. Silver Star Alumni Award Exhibition. Edited by Joe Rapone, Regina Barthmaier and Nancy Burlan. Philadelphia: The University of the Arts, 2009. Exhibition catalogue, accessed July 22, 2020. "Silver Star Alumni Award Exhibition"
  18. ^ Waggoner, Shawn. "Crosby Willet and Willet Stained Glass Sudios: Three Generations of Glass for the Ages." Glass Art, Jan/Feb 2003:58
  19. ^ Long, Tania. "Hall of Science Studies Lighting." The New York Times, 7 Oct. 1964.
  20. ^ Parente, L. (Winter 2006). “The St. Martin's Commission: The Willet Stained Glass Studios’ Largest Commission (Yet)”. The Stained Glass Quarterly. 101 (4): 278-283.
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