RoR: Forum

Post 40

Sunday, June 19, 2005 - 2:56am

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Wow. Thanks so much for that Jeff.

I agree with your comments about Rand and Wright. It's why when asked about the influence of on on the other the best short answer is perhaps 'yes and no.' I remember an article by Peter Reidy a few yeas ago that gave plenty of the details of Wright/Rand connections. [Found it: http://www.objectivistcenter.net/articles/preidy_wright-rand.asp ] The 'letters' and 'Journals' also offer some detail. I guess those of us who admire them both will always want to know more.

I believe Olgivanna is a very complex story, which I'd love to hear from your point of view.

In fact I'd love to hear more of your stories, and I'm sure I'm not the only one ... about visiting other Wright buildings ... about the Taliesin apprenticeship ... any anecdotes... what it was like to live and work at the Taliesins (and what's with the air-conditioning at TW?) ... about your own work.

Were you there when Nezam Kazal was about?

And how about that poll for the second best architect? How about these for a start: Goff, Neutra, Schindler, Candela, Scarpa, Calatrava, Nervi... :-)

Thanks again. With the last few posts I've become pleased now that Luke started the thread. :-)

Post 41

Sunday, June 19, 2005 - 10:29am

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Peter:

If you are interested in learning more about Taliesin and Mrs. Wright, read the recently published book Reflections from the Shining Brow by Kamal Amin. Kamal was at Taliesin during my tenure and his book provides some interesting insight into the operation of the fellowship. I think it would be of general interest to anyone, but it is particularly useful in filling in the gaps for those of us who spent a brief time there and never fully understood the political dynamics.

I never met Nezam Kazal. This must have been well before my time there.

Second best architect? I like the work of all those you mention. I was always a big fan of Eero Saarinen, but I believe that Santiago Calatrava has extended Saarinen's direction of rationally expressive, sculptural architecture, and I would select him for the title. He has the added benefit of still being alive and practicing so we can look forward to more exciting buildings from him. I recently visited his recently completed Milwaukee Art Museum which has moveable roof "wings". It is a marvelous building with an exciting interior. Check it out if you ever get to the USA Midwest.

Post 42

Sunday, June 19, 2005 - 1:34pm

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Wright's influence also pops up, less obviously, in "Atlas Shrugged." Rand and her husband houseguested at Taliesin in the fall of 1945, and the southern Wisconsin countryside became a setting in the novel. The clandestine vacation trip that Taggart and Rearden take together, wherein she discovers the remains of the motor, is in the same area and season, and the Twentieth Century Motor Company sequence is set there too.

Peter

Post 43

Sunday, June 19, 2005 - 1:54pm

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Peter C.,

From your past discussion of FLW, I was motivated to go out and purchase a book of FLW's work, "Frank Lloyd Wright" by Caroline Knight [purchased fairly cheaply at Costco, by the way]. His birthday is well worth celebrating. Thanks for expanding my horizons.

Post 44

Sunday, June 19, 2005 - 2:05pm

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To answer Peter C's question: the last time I led tours, two of us were working, and the most frequent questions we got were about the master bathroom, still closed because of the restoration. It's a very ordinary space, completely redone in the 70s, about 15 years after Wright died and about 50 years after he build the house. That and "how tall was he?"

Serious fans should try to make it to the FLlW Conservancy's conference in LA in October (http://www.savewright.org/conference2005/index.html). It will include visits to houses the public rarely gets to see.

Serious fans from New Zealand will be interested to know that Kiri te Kanawa is one of your number. I once saw her at the Home and Studio in Oak Park, emerging from a limo for a private tour. She and I have both signed the guest book at the Tomek house a few miles away in Riverside.

Peter

Post 45

Tuesday, June 21, 2005 - 3:56pm

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Serendipitous Wright.

Most of the Wright works that I have seen, I knew before hand what I was about to view. But once, when staying in Peoria, Illinois, I was out for an evening walk when I came upon this house that not only caught my attention, it grabbed me by the eyeballs. It was nearing dusk, so I walked up and down the front and side of it, (it was a corner house) and couldn�t get enough. There were lights on inside and I saw a man moving about. Then I saw a marker at my feet and I read, much to my delight, that I was standing in front of one of FLW�s houses. Now that is what I call �serendipitous Wright.�
When I got home, I looked up the house in my FLW Companion and found that it was a small residence that he had built for Francis W. and Mary Little. It is the only house he ever built in Peoria. Interesting side note. The Littles fell on hard times and had to sell the house, but when they got back in the money they had Wright build them another house. This one is located in Northome, Minnesota.

Fred

Post 46

Tuesday, June 21, 2005 - 4:07pm

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I had a similar experience with his Storer house in LA, coming on it by chance and knowing at once whose it was. 8 years later it opened for a public tour, and, reading the directions, I realized that this was the same house. Even more years later, reading Rand's letters, I learned that she had once considered buying it.

The second Little house, in Minnesota, was torn down. Its living room is in the Met in New York, and its library is in a museum in Allentown PA.

Peter