Source: thepoliticalpartygirl.com via arielawonders on Pinterest
Well, she wasn't that bad. Wonder what JFK had in mind?
Posted on 03/15/2012 3:49:47 PM PDT by BfloGuy
When Jim Berger, now 68, was 12 years old, he wrote to Wright and asked him for a design for his black Labrador, Eddie, offering to pay for the work with money from his paper route, according to the Associated Press.
“I would appreciate it if you would design me a doghouse, which would be easy to build, but would go with our house...,” read the letter dated June 19, 1956. “(My dog) is two and a half feet high and three feet long. The reasons I would like this doghouse is for the winters mainly.”
After another exchange of letters six months later, Berger received the plans, free of charge.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Source: thepoliticalpartygirl.com via arielawonders on Pinterest
Well, she wasn't that bad. Wonder what JFK had in mind?
The beauty there is the natural setting. Any well designed house would look good on that spot. I’m not taking away from Franks design here as it is fairly awesome but “I’m just saying”.
But will it double as a Sopwith camel?
Perhaps. But I've found Fallingwater to be the most beautiful building ever designed since I first saw a picture of it in my Golden Book Encyclopedia at the age of 12.
“Well, she wasn’t that bad. Wonder what JFK had in mind?”
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I wonder what Nancy had in hand?
See I was right, that house ruins a beautiful water fall.
I recommend a great fictional/factual exposé of the career of Frank Lloyd Wrong by T.C. Boyle, called “The Women”. His bombast, incompetence, refusal to pay debts, intellectual theft and exploitation of his wives and acolytes is beyond description, except by Boyle. Written with great wit and sarcastic admiration.
so lessee, we got a book here that nobody will read written by someone nobody will remember about guy who's a household word and left his creations all over the place, which people travel great distances to see and which have influenced generations of people after him.
Yeah, that's about the way it usually goes.
awesome doghouse.
I’ve seen that house and couldn’t agree more. And I think about 20% of the homes built in Memorial in the ‘50’s are copies of that same style. Goofy if you ask me...
That is typical of modern houses. One architect built a house in which all the outside walls are plate glass. One person who lived in it for years, an art professor, said it was freezing cold in the winter and hot as a sauna during the summer.
My folks had Danish modern furniture, which for livability isn’t any better than the houses. My dad is now in an assiated living facility, and I’m selling all the furniture. Horridly uncomfortable stuff, though it looks great!
Been there lots. My parents lived in Lakeland from 1981 the rest of their lives. Both my sister and her daughter got their degrees from Florida Southern. My niece was married in one of the chapels on campus. So I was on that campus often. There are found also more Wright creations in the residential areas.
And, BfloGuy, as you know, Buffalo, NY also has quite a number of turn-of-the-20th century Wright archetypes. One of them, the Heath house on Soldiers Place, was only a few moment's walk from my folks' home on Argyle Place, where I wrote my PhD thesis back in 1972-3. There were some more Wright houses not far away, up near the Buffalo Zoo.
Coincidentally, two of my boys lived in a house in Oak Brook, IL which (probably not designed by FLW) certainly was directly inspired (or copied) in its design in both exterior and interior influences and furnishings -- an impressive home in which to dwell and be comfortable. One somehow just felt ... well ... rich .. by the surroundings. Wright's home was not far away in Oak Park.
In grade school, I had wanted to become an architect, but later wound up as a research scientist. However, in the college libraries, I spent a lot of time scanning through the art and architecture periodicals in what little leisure was available. Wright was certainly a visionary (and perhaps a creator) of the lean, economical forms to come -- not a very moral person, but a shaper of futuristic amoral lifestyles emerging, bad or good ---
Thanks for the post that stirred reminiscing - of the implementation of his forms in ranch-style and split-level residences that really took hold after WWII - that is so markedly associated with a sea-change of styles and morality. (Interesting that the name "Wright" of the same era was connected with a new age of transportation --) Also interesting that the Prairie concept predated the beginning of the auto and aircraft age!
Have you ever taken the FLW tour at the Johnson Wax headquarters in Racine? The big open concept work room is amusing because everybody who was any kind of executive eventually fled the open concept work space and retreated to their own private offices with walls that surround and doors that shut. THe Great Work Room is now just a museum piece that is displayed on tours.
Then there was his design for the 3 legged desks for the Great Work Room which had to be re-done because they kept tipping over and dropping the secretaries on their behinds!
That said, when he was really on his game, his work was profound. I've long been a fan of his more modest efforts, which intentionally tackled affordability, accesibility and function, for families of modest means. These were the so-called Usonian houses.
I nearly bought a Wright inspired Usonian design ten years ago, designed by a student of his as the first home for himself, his wife and young children. Deep eaves, one story, low slung, built in a “U” shape to the rear. Cantelevered carport on the back, sliding glass wall to a large screened porch, quarried stone galore, radiant floor heat fed by a boiler that still worked perfectly. I loved that place, it was so well proportioned that there really wasn't a bad angle anywhere in it or on it. It was a labor of love and very personal, and it shone right through.
Hate that I didn't go through with it, but there were a few matters that needed attention, on top of the price that was already at the top of my range, so I reluctantly passed. Whoever bought it painted the gorgeous natural cypress board and batten exterior, in a very wrong Tuscan mustard looking color, they either didn't know or didn't care what they had bought. I shudder to think at the interior remuddling that may have occurred. At the time of sale, it still had original cork flooring, weathered down to looking like dark saddle leather. I thought it was beautiful. But, Tuscany it ain't.
Lakeland has a lot of former Western NY folks -- I think they used to have an annual reunion of former Allegany County residents at the Memorial Center. Now, I think I might like to wind up my years there -- sort of wish I had gone after retirement -- country folk from the upper reaches of Appalachia seem to feel at home in the South, and welcomed.
I like Lakeland and the area or the general location. The summer heat would kill me, though. Gotta have my *seasons*.
Ironically enough, FSC son just accepted a nice corporate title and position in Orlando. He loves Florida, especially the opportunity to play golf year ‘round; in keeping with his 4-yr scholarship to play golf for FSC, division champs. Ah...yute! Bless ‘em. ;D
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