Frank Lloyd Wright
 

I've always been a fan of his work. Most of his designs look modern to this day.

https://youtu.be/cVZ5s7X7-Zo?si=jGdJ2GNWn5O9VRdW

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

https://youtu.be/Cf0RrF6KsI8?si=rsVUAGd1A1wO1lH0

...and a little song that I've heard since I was a kid.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

He designed some amazing buildings.

https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/frank-lloyd-wright/

There is one of his "Prairie Style" homes near me; Westcott House in Springfield, Ohio. There are also a bunch of copycat homes in the area. I'm not a fan of the low roofs with deep overhangs over the windows. The views from the windows are nice, but the deep overhang keeps sun out and the rooms seem dark, even with lots of windows.

^^^exactly.

His designs don’t work in Western Oregon where it is dark and dreary for 40-95% of the time.

Wonderful designs.

This years show, Top Chef is being filmed in Wisconsin. Two episodes ago
the contestants toured 3 or 4 local, Frank Lloyd Wrights buildings that was
then, tied into a cooking challenge. It's worth watching that episode if you
can find it. It was quite interesting.

I love my mid-century modern home.
Here's the story of another famous Cali home designer.
How many folks can name their homes architect?
https://www.redfin.com/blog/what-are-eichler-homes/

I think that is the turning point for American architecture, the mid century, into modern architecture. Wight is way before his time. a forward thinker for sure.

You like John Launter's work? We did the restoration interior work on Chemosphere. I lost a lot of hair over the inner workings of that new sliding door that fits flush into the weird arch on the Paralam Beam. Pocket door frame was welded, arch door glued, made and fitted on the job. I see it on some U tube vids, its still standing. I think I was about 30 at the time. Can't believe it was 25 years ago.

Wright has a bunch of homes and larger projects in and around LA. The Architect I did some work for lives in a Lloyd Wright house right off Mulholland and part of the foundation is a huge boulder that is exposed on the interior of the house.

There is a Neutra hosue at the end of my block. Those folks are pretty weird that live in it.:rolleyes:

Visited FLW's Hollyhock House several years ago. It's located just off Hollywood Blvd. and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Completed in 1921, it was Wright's first project in the L.A. area.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1714336976.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1714336976.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1714336976.jpg

One interesting thing about FLW homes is that they were pretty much unlivable.

Blade Runner (1982) and numerous others were filmed in Ennis House.

Yes, I've heard that too. Seems that Wright's homes were much more about form rather than function.

The only ocean-front home that he ever designed is just down the coast in Carmel, CA.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1714338965.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1714338965.jpg

I wouldn't say that about Fallingwater. But many of them do seem institutional.

Wright believed form and function were one and I believe he perfectly succeeded in that goal.

We have many Wright homes in the area and I’ve toured a few and driven down to Falling Water. The homes are from a different era. Regarding livabilities, you have to keep that in mind.

When the Stones were last in Buffalo the band got a tour of some local Wright homes…mighta just been Charlie and Mick, can’t remember

Their tour poster for the 2015 Buffalo show was a Wright theme

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1714341679.jpg


This is a local home. A cool pbs doc about it and a cool look inside

https://www.pbs.org/video/wxxi-presents-frank-lloyd-wrights-boynton-house-next-hundred-years/

And of course the Burns documentary on FLW is excellent if you can watch it.

I'm more of a Greene & Greene aficionado, a more clean and natural construction and look.

FLW sort of had a hand in the "Brutalish Architecture" that you see. Like living in a Community College building.

Wright often required complete authority over the furnishing of his homes. It was a package deal in many cases.

Straight-backed dining chairs, geometric couches and loungers, completely and totally impractical niches, coves and fireplaces. Inaccessible kitchens, dysfunctional bathrooms, hundreds of square feet of uninsulated glazing, stone and concrete surfaces requiring constant vigilance against mold and mildew. Complete abandonment of traffic flow and remarkably drafty floor plans.

But, and this is indisputable, his most innovative interpretations of organic exteriors and interiors are such that his eouvre is a brutal and completely conscious challenge to fractal nature. He compliments nature by his command over it. And it is beautiful.

The Innes, Hollyhock houses were all less then 2 miles from where I went to high school with a couple more only a few more miles away. We didn't know any better then of course.

In terms of form over function, I agree. IMO. FLW is a much better designer over the Greene and Greene brothers. I know, different styles and I remodeled one of their smaller home, the Bowen house. FLW's designs are just so grand whereas The Brother's are more functional. Around here, most of FLR homes are on hills whereas Greene and Greenes are mostly on flat lands around Pasadena, old east coast money. Both have a tremendous amount of wood by now, over 100 years later, rot or termite have done its damage. Especially the Greene and Greene homes due to location and changes in the neighborhood, the occupants did lots of damage, just like the Bowen house. It was a rental for some time.

I toured his studio-museum near Chicago. The neighborhood has several of his houses that we saw the outside of on a walking tour. His places do look nice.

The only high rise he ever did is in Oklahoma.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_Tower

Fallingwater has some fairly major architectural problems

Taliesin is not far from us. I took my wife early in our marriage since she is a fan of the style and was born and raised in CA and had only seen pictures. Wouldn't want to live in one, but appreciates using the local materials.

Some of the commercial buildings are interesting to look at as well, but most of his stuff is of the style that is great in a calendar, not in real life.

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.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1714422479.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1714422479.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1714422479.JPG

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1714422479.JPG

It's falling over. Or was AFAIK.

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



https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse3.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP. vIgmozUkX9R0_7l0EcYHfwHaEK%26pid%3DApi&f=1&ipt=68a acbf3c1b4014aefbc584af7c1adc30d5073d139146648309c1 66a3e064740&ipo=images

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.


https://i.pinimg.com/originals/29/82/98/2982984ad9ed9b38106b33408de64d63.jpg

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.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/h2i6gcpqzzk?si=pUkioCg59vWoTPbc" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

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.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1714575997.jpg

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

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1714594502.jpg
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.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1714595182.jpg


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