Mystery? Oak Park resident and architect Jack Lesniak says that when it comes to his profession, there’s nothing like a good mystery. That’s one of the best things about being a preservation architect, he said, restoring old buildings and uncovering unknown truths about them.
Lesniak may not be what some think of when they hear the word “architect.” He’s not involved in the design of buildings. Instead, he makes sure they’re built right, which he’s done for several years as director of Construction Administration for O’Donnell Wicklund Pigozzi and Peterson Architects, a firm with offices in Phoenix and Chicago.
But he’s better known in Oak Park, his home since 1976, for his work in helping restore some of Frank Lloyd’s Wright’s landmarks, including Unity Temple. When it comes to Wright and architectural gems like the temple, there’s not much more to uncover, Lesniak said. But it’s researching and restoring other homes by Wright with lesser-known histories in Oak Park that makes Lesniak’s job more than just replacing windowpanes or rusty pipes.
“I guess the excitement I get is finding out how these homes were built and who the first owners were,” he said.
In recognition of his efforts, the Unity Temple Restoration Foundation (UTRF) will honor Lesniak, 60, at its 4th annual gala this Saturday for his work in restoring Unity Temple. The gala takes place at 6 p.m. at Unity Temple, 875 Lake St.
Lesniak will receive the UTRF Award, the fourth individual to receive the honor for his workd in preserving the temple. The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy will receive the Unity Award for historic preservation efforts in the Oak Park area.
Proceeds from the Saturday dinner and concert will go toward the current project to fully restore Unity Temple by 2009, its 100th anniversary.
Lesniak has been involved in restoring Wright’s buildings for almost 20 years, first as a member of an early restoration foundation in the 1970s, later with the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust. He joined the UTRF board in the 1980s.
“I’m very connected,” Lesniak said of his history with Frank Lloyd Wright preservation. “I’m almost joined at the hip to it.”
Restoration of Unity Temple includes replacing the building’s nearly 100-year-old heating and cooling system with a geo-thermal climate-control energy system, estimated to cost up to $2 million.
The system uses the earth or ground as a regulator, with cool and warm air circulated in the building through several hundred feet of underground wells and pipes, along with a pump in the temple’s basement. The temple has no air-conditioning at all, and is rarely used by the public in the summer because of the heat, said Lesniak. He said the plan is still in the design and developmental stage. Drilling took place at the temple in November 2005 as engineers gathered data for installing the system.
Other work on the temple includes restoring the exterior concrete, which has scarred and crack over the years. In all, the temple’s restoration will be done in three phases at a cost of $12-$15 million.
UTRF Director of Development Melinda Wright said Lesniak is eminently deserving of this year’s award.
“Jack has been involved with the temple for more than 20 years,” she said. “It’s a wonderful way for us to honor members of the community who have served as civic leaders in the restoration of Frank Lloyd Wright’s centerpiece.”
Getting acquainted with Wright
Lesniak, though, wasn’t always such an aficionado on Frank Lloyd Wright. When the Northwest Side Chicago native was asked in 1974 by some of his friends in Oak Park to join the organization that helped save Frank Lloyd Wright’s Home and Studio, he said yes. But they asked him, in part, because he was architect and surely an expert on Wright. Right? Not quite.
Or course, Lesniak knew of Wright and has been interested in architecture going back to his high school days at Lane Tech in Chicago. Lesniak and several of his buddies from architectural class decided to enroll in an architectural program offered by the University of Illinois at its Navy Pier campus. Luckily for Lesniak, the university in 1965 was expanding to a campus near downtown Chicago, later becoming the University of Illinois at Chicago. Lesniak, who worked his way through college, would not have been able to afford living downstate to go to college. And he didn’t have any career interests other than architecture.
“It seemed like it was an appropriate thing to do,” he said. “It seemed like a direction I wanted to pursue with my friends.”
His first contact with Frank Lloyd Wright occurred during his Modern Architectural History Class. The professor was an enthusiastic Frank Lloyd Wright admirer. The professor even took the class on a field trip to Oak Park to gaze on Wright’s work and learn more about the legendary architect. So Lesniak was hooked right? Wrong.
“I knew of his work and knew he was influential, but I wasn’t a huge fan,” Lesniak admitted. “I certainly became a fan later on.”
It’s not as if he were blasé about one of his profession’s celebrated masters. He was just more focused in the early ’70s on work and getting his licensing exams. He was also focused on his family, having married his wife, Mary Ellen, a schoolteacher, in 1970. They would go on to have five children.
He was working for a few firms at the time his Oak Park friends asked him to join the early Home & Studio group in ’74. Over the next 10 years, Lesniak worked in several capacities, including restoration and giving tours at the Home and Studio. It’s probably safe to say now he was hooked.
Lesniak served on UTRF’s board, and is currently a member of the Restoration Committee for the Wright Preservation Trust’s other property, the Robie House. He is also chair of the Architectural Advisory Committee, which advises Unity Temple’s board of directors on restoration efforts. Since 2000, Lesniak has been a commissioner on the Oak Park Historic Preservation Committee as well.
Solving mysteries
Given all he’s done with Wright’s more familiar landmarks, Lesniak has been able to derive equal, if not more enjoyment from restoring less familiar buildings, such as the Copeland House at 400 Forest Avenue, built in 1873 and later remodeled by Wright”also the Harry Adams Home at Euclid and Augusta, built in 1913 with Wright as architect. Lesniak said people for years believed the original owner was a doctor who had a home office. But Lesniak’s research revealed that wasn’t the case. Two years ago, Lesniak discovered that Adams not only didn’t have a medical office in the home, he wasn’t even a doctor. He managed a stationary firm out of Chicago.
Lesniak acknowledged a certain joy in exploring the history of such homes and the people who lived there.
“There are times when I’m able to set things straight because of the research I’ve been able to do,” he said. “It’s like a detective story. It’s looking into the census records and looking at the records at the Oak Park library. From that, you can find out where they were employed and who they were.”
Lesniak said he’s learned that these homes offered more than just Frank Lloyd Wright architecture.
“They were homes that had people living in them and who got great enjoyment from living there,” he said. “They are great architecture of the time, but there were families who lived and died in these homes.”
Lesniak has carved out a place for himself and his family in Oak Park. But it wasn’t Frank Lloyd Wright that caused him to relocate his family to Oak Park. Lesniak and his wife’s second child Kathleen, born in 1973, was diagnosed with Rett Syndrome, a degenerative neurological disease.
Doctors recommended therapy. The Lesniaks signed Kathleen up for therapy through Easter Seals. The closest facility was in Oak Park. Lesniak had been commuting back and forth from Chicago anyway while working for the foundation, so the family moved to Oak Park in 1976. Kathleen remained developmentally disabled for the remainder of her life. She died in 1999 at age 28.
Lesniak and his wife, despite fears that Kathleen’s condition might repeat itself, had three more children shortly after moving to Oak Park.
None of the kids have followed in dad’s footsteps, but they were influenced by their sister. His oldest son, John, is now a special education teacher at Oak Park and River Forest High School. His third oldest, Meg, works with handicapped children. His daughter, Mary, is an English teacher, and his youngest son, Michael, is a graphic artist.
Lesniak doesn’t mind his children following their own paths. To him, it’s no mystery why they chose the careers they did. Kathleen had a lot to do with it, he said.
“I think it all affected them in their career goals,” he said, referring to the family’s caretaking history. “I’m pretty proud of the directions they took.”
CONTACT: tdean@wjinc.com