by Saxon Henry

Created on: April 01, 2009   Last Updated: April 03, 2009

Though AutoCAD and IntelliCAD have changed how architects work and store their ideas, preserving traditional, unwieldy plans is no small feat when an architect has been blessed with a long and successful career. John L. Volk, who completed over 2,000 commissions during a career that spanned six decades, is one of these prolific draftsmen, and his wife, Lillian Jane, believes it's the artistry with which he approached each project that made him one of the premier architects in Palm Beach from the 1920s to the early 1980s. For doubting Thomases, she can easily prove her claims by foraging through more than 26,000 architectural drawings or a catalogued collection of notes, prints, sketches and photographs, which she has archived since John's death in 1984. She keeps the collection in the home that they shared for many years, which is just above the office he maintained in Palm Beach. "When you look at his drawings, you see the hand of an artist," she remarks, pointing to a finely drawn elevation of an ornate column, one of many framed drawings that line the hallway. "These are works of art that must never be lost."

Volk and his contemporaries Addison Mizner, Marion Smith Wyeth, Joseph Urban, Maurice Fatio and Howard Major to name a fewwere dubbed the inventors of Palm Beach Style. They peppered the "American Riviera" with what they called Spanish architecture. "I knew that he was brilliant when I married him, but I didn't know he was a genius until I saw the depths of his architectural talents," says Mrs. Volk. "It bothers me that Mizner has gained so much more attention than John not that he doesn't deserve attention, and he and John were certainly close friends. But I believe that John had an equal or greater impact on architecture in this country and that drives me to protect his archives so that history will eventually prove it."

Toward this effort, she has organized his plans many of which are sheathed in the original metal tubes, some rusty from age and the salt-tinged air of south Florida. For nearly two decades and without hesitation, she has opened her home to writers and scholars who want to research her husband's work. In 2001, she collaborated with her son and daughter-in-law, John K. and Lory Armstrong Volk, to publish John L. Volk: Palm Beach Architect. Volk was a prolific writer, and she credits her insistent nature for the preservation of every word he published. "I was always after him to save things and file things," she remarks. "At the time, he thought I was a pain. Now I think he would be glad."

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