| | I was excited to see you'd been talking about Frank while I was away; that is, until I say what you were all saying. Well, almost all:
"Peter, if you're an architecture afficianado, you owe it to yourself to visit Chicago if you haven't already."
I haven't, and I certainly intend to. :-)
Now...
...oddly, I've just been answering Wright criticisms on my blog. As I indicated there, it's interesting how people just love hearing stories that tear down great men; seems it doesn't even matter if they're true.
I comment on many Fallingwater canards here and here.
Feel free to look for more. As I'm sure you will.
"It seems that not enough thought was put into its initial construction,.."
On the contrary. It seems not enough thought went into your post. ;-P
"... and there have been repeated cracks and sinking of critical pieces of the house."
Many of the former are due to a) poor maintenance, and b)the house being seventy years old. The sinking of the cantilevered terraces is largely due to a) extra steel put in by the site engineer making the cantilevered terraces both weaker (concrete couldn't get into all the poured volumes) and heavier; and b) the builder not pre-cambering the terrace pours.
Concrete always creeps over time -- pre-cambering allows for that -- the builder didn't. He also kept his shed out on the terrace all through the crucial 28-day hardening period of the concrete.
"I'm not an expert on architecture but from what I read the disrepair is in large part owing to the fact that the house sits directly on top of the waterfall and the moisture ... is responsible for much of the decay.":
For disrepair see above. For moisture, the possible reasons are 1) poor maintenance - cleaning mould off walls in a humid environment should be an item of regular maintenance; 2)as you say the environment there would be very humid, meaning the materials needed to be carefully selected -- which they were -- and specific and careful environmental, thermal and HVAC design would have been required - and also continuation of those designed measures. A change of use from a 'single family home' to a 'regularly-visited museum' would for example change the parameters for environmental, thermal and HVAC design, and require a new design for the environmental control. I doubt whether the Conservancy bothered; they just moaned and asked for more cash.
"(Oddly, the Wright Foundation always seems to be short of funds for repair and maintenance.)"
Yes they are, but Fallingwater is 'maintained' by the West Pennsylvania Conservancy, not the Wright Foundation.
"And Wright probably is mildly at fault here by having insisted on putting it right there, rather than a few yards back as the owners requested."
Nonsense. A 'few yards' would be irrelevant in any case, and your story is either fabrication or embroidery.
"He often sacrificed (if that is the proper term) engineering for the sake of aesthetics."
Utter nonsense.
"...several of his works in Oak Park, including his home and studio and the Unity Temple, have undergone repairs and structural renovation in recent years to keep them standing strong."
All of which buildings are nearing or over 100 years old by now. Show me a house of that age which doesn't need repair.
" I don't think this gives the lie to his artistic accomplishments, though."
Thank goodness there's something here I can agree with. :-)
"The docent that conducted the tour blamed Wright for underestimating the amount of support needed for the horizontal structures that he thought could be adequately supported by the huge vertical chimney."
He's wrong. See above.
"He also told us that after the Kaufmanns moved in the roof started to leak. They informed Wright who wrote back to Mr. Kaufmann that since he owned a department store he should gets some buckets!!"
He's correct, they did, and the Kaufmann's continued to enjoy their house.
FRED:"It sounded toooo bizarre but I can't believe the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy would allow these dozents to spread falsehoods about Wright."
He probably figured you'd be happy enough to do it for him, Fred.
"I'll make sure to visit more of them as I proceed up the East Coast in coming weeks. Can anyone point out some majors in Atlanta, Florida or the Carolinas?"
There is a site somewhere that lists all of the buildings ands their locations. You're bound to find it in
here. In Florida you have to see the Florida Southern College, Wright's only complete campus design. It's gorgeous. In Alabama you can visit the jewel-like Rosenbuam House. North Carolina has the Leigh Stevens spread. SC has two buildings, neither of which I know too much about. AFAIK there are no FLW buildings in Georgia at all. Their loss.
Here's a list that looks pretty comprehensive. Not all the buildings will be open to the public of course: http://architecture.about.com/library/bl-wright-list.htm
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