https://franklloydwright.org/site/ennis-house/

I really like John Lauther's homes, studied under Wright. A bit less over the top and are comfortable to live in.

Friends in Phoenix took me out to Taliesin West...interesting place. Heavy use of native materials.

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It's falling over. Or was AFAIK.

FLW's Unity Temple is the inspiration for the interior of my living room. Not there, yet.



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When you engaged Mr Wright to do your home he asked to come live with you for a time so he "could learn how you live". In actuality since he was a famous guest, the homeowner learned how Mr Wright lived and ended up with a Wright house.

As for Fallingwater there is a famous detail where Mr Kaufman wanted his desk at the perimeter windows but Mr Wright wanted floor to ceiling operable windows at the corner. Next time you are there find the cut out in the desk that allows for the tall window but also the desk.

Fractal Geometry in the Late Work of Frank Lloyd Wright: The Palmer House

Wright used nature as the basis of his geometrical abstraction. His objective was to conventionalize the geometry which he found in Nature, and his method was to adopt the abstract simplification which he found so well expressed in the Japanese print. Therefore, it is not too shocking perhaps that in this quest his work should foreshadow the new mathematics of nature first put forth by Benoit Mandelbrot: fractal geometry.


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I learned about Wright driving for Dominos Pizza in high school. The founder, Tom Monaghan, was a HUGE fan (he’d dropped out of college to start Dominos, and his major was architecture). I don’t think I ever saw a company newsletter that didn’t mention FLW. IIRC, the corporate headquarters in Ann Arbor was aping one of Wright’s designs.

I'd heard that if Wright came to visit a client after they'd moved into the home and saw that the furniture was no longer exactly where he initially placed it, he would insist that it be moved back. Just another quirky FLW legend? Don't know, but there could be some truth to it.

Ken Burns did a 2 part documentary. You can watch it through Amazon with a 7 day free trial of PBS Documentaries. After that, it's only $4.99/month. I'll probably stay with it for a while.

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This Husser Dining set (Husser house was demolished in 1926) was intended to create a tiny room within a room that enclosed the diners which was meant to encourage conversation and privacy. One person recalled the “unequalled agony of sitting” on these and several other ‘tall-back’ chairs.


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I watched a video of Mike Wallace interviewing FLW in 1951. FLW seemed very intelligent and well sorted in his philosophies. He was unconventional to say the least and not particularly cooperative. He wasn't rude, he was well composed, but he did not succumb to foolish questions. To MW's credit, he didn't ask stupid questions but stumbled a couple of times in response. FLW derailed MW more than once but MW got back on script fairly easily.

I noticed that FLW used the reverse the question to put the other person on the defensive technique. MW handled that pretty well by a direct answer or changing the subject.

No question who ruled the interview and MW was one of the best. As for FLW, he had some interesting viewpoints. He seemed to dwell on Thomas Jefferson as his idealist. At once he was he was not pompous or aloof but he did set himself aside from the "mob." That was his word for conformist society. Had nothing to do with the slang for organized crime.

There was no discussion of business dealings or personal interactions. I was interested enough to look for a book on Amazon. I found mostly books on the architecture and a couple of autobiographies. I wasn't looking to learn more about the architecture and I figured the autobiographies would be devoid of criticism so I passed for now. The man was an enigma. Some of his musings were excellent. The context was missing because of the time constraint.

My wife grew up in Oak Park, FLW's home base for many years. During our dating period, we toured his studio on Lake Street and attended a function at Unity Temple. I found both fascinating and, as an Interior Designer, she filled in blanks for me. Also toured Taliesin East several years back which was impressive to me.

While she was working in DC at the ICE mother ship, we toured the Pope-Leighey house in Alexandria. Pretty solid example of a usonian home and was not so resident friendly.

I grew up in Rockford, Il where FLW created the Laurent home for a wheelchair bound client and it is fully functional. Drove past it every day during my community college days. I think it is now open for tours which it was not then and has undergone major restoration.

I finished my education at SIU Carbondale where we had Bucky Fuller for many years in the Design department. His dome residence there has been rehabbed and is open for tours, I believe. Bucky would lecture on campus from time to time and they were an experience. He lost most people within 5 minutes:)

Can you imagine an evening with FLW, Bucky Fuller and Salvador Dali as your guests? Probably unforgetable.

Or forgettable as much of it would have gone over my head. These guys were not just scholars. In fact, some sentiment seems to indicate that being strictly scholarly was not advantageous to their respective missions.

Incidentally FLW dismissed Dali as much of a true artist, merely a talented craftsman (my words). However, he had praise for Picasso. To FLW, Picasso was modern and FLW was all about modern and not for modern's sake. He considered 'modern' as visionary. Progress. No fluff.

Not a bad idea for a Broadway play.
3 of the greatest artists and thinkers of all time, gotta add Leonardo DaVinci to the conversation

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Salvador Dali was amazing. Crazy amazing but amazing. This is his famous portrait of his wife

If you squint to the point that you can hardly see the image she stands out! That is very clever. Her nose in particular is very well detailed.

He used to pay large restaurant tabs with a small check with a drawing on the back. Due to his fame, the restaurant would keep the uncashed check. He also had a pet ocelot.

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A former Pelican bradzdotcom, long deceased, knew Steve McQueen casually. He said Steve had a broke period where he paid grocery bills with a check, knowing they would not likely be cashed.

Dali was an accomplished "conventional" artist before the mind bending, clock melting great stuff that he's famous for. He earned his right to be taken for a seriously talented out there artist