A Few Things I Would Like to Ask Frank Lloyd Wright
It could take a lifetime to understand Frank Lloyd Wright's work — less if we had answers to a few simple questions
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Frank Lloyd Wright was the greatest architect of all time. Period. At least that's what they told me in design school. He was a modernist before the movement moved to Europe and started wearing all white. His work was organic and warm, yet thoroughly contemporary.
When I was in school, the Europeans held my attention. I was enamored with Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus movement in Germany. To be honest, I never really understood Frank Lloyd Wright's work. It seemed dated to me somehow. He seemed overly fussy in his details, and the ornamentation didn't suit my youthful minimalist tendencies. The clean and stark modernism of the Bauhaus movement seemed easier to understand.
But as I've matured, Frank Lloyd Wright's work has resonated with me more and more. There's a tactile quality to his designs. It has a human scale, which sounds simple, but it's one of the hardest thing to accomplish. His buildings fit in perfectly, gently nestled into the landscape. His work is intimate and expansive at the same time.
It turns out that the modernism I loved in my youth has lost its sway on me. But Frank Lloyd Wright? He continues to inspire me. I find myself coming back to his work again and again, endlessly fascinated. I think I could spend a lifetime trying to understand his work.
And I still have some questions.
When I was in school, the Europeans held my attention. I was enamored with Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus movement in Germany. To be honest, I never really understood Frank Lloyd Wright's work. It seemed dated to me somehow. He seemed overly fussy in his details, and the ornamentation didn't suit my youthful minimalist tendencies. The clean and stark modernism of the Bauhaus movement seemed easier to understand.
But as I've matured, Frank Lloyd Wright's work has resonated with me more and more. There's a tactile quality to his designs. It has a human scale, which sounds simple, but it's one of the hardest thing to accomplish. His buildings fit in perfectly, gently nestled into the landscape. His work is intimate and expansive at the same time.
It turns out that the modernism I loved in my youth has lost its sway on me. But Frank Lloyd Wright? He continues to inspire me. I find myself coming back to his work again and again, endlessly fascinated. I think I could spend a lifetime trying to understand his work.
And I still have some questions.
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| He usually wore a fedora and a cape. That's right, I said a cape. |
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| Frank worked for Louis Sullivan as a draftsman early in his career. But he took commissions to design homes for a few of Sullivan's clients in the evenings. When Sullivan found out, he fired Frank Lloyd Wright. Whenever I think about the last job I was fired from, I try to picture Frank Lloyd Wright walking out of Sullivan's office on his last day. I bet he tossed his cape over his shoulder and slammed the door on his way out. |
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| I talked about this before, right? All of his front doors are so hard to find. What gives? |
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| Wright had a way of using very low ceilings to create intimate spaces; places where you could rest and feel secure. Which come in handy as you recover from bumping your head after standing up too quickly. |
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| Fallingwater has many meanings. |
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| Frank Lloyd Wright was ahead of his time in terms of structural engineering. He often experimented and pushed the boundaries of the construction practices of his time. The story goes that the contractor on the Johnson Wax Building didn't believe that the mushroom-shaped columns were structurally sound. So Frank Lloyd Wright climbed on top of one to show the workers that they were sturdy. I'm sure he looked majestic up there, white hair and tweed cape flapping in the wind. I'm also sure the workers moved the ladder away while he was up there. |
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| Frank was the Harrison Ford of architecture, or at least the Rutger Hauer. |
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| All art is best viewed by motorcycle. |
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| I just discovered this house today. It was one of the last projects Frank Lloyd Wright designed, and construction was just finished a few years ago. See what I mean? Endlessly fascinating ... All photos used in these graphics are in the public domain or have been used with permission under Creative Commons license. Click individual graphics for photo sources and links. More by Coffee With an Architect: An Architect's Calling Cards 12-Step Program for Architecture A Primer on the Language of Design Find Your Inner Minimalist Flash Cards for Architectural Terms Find Your Architectural Style Great Architecture Speaks to Us |
Ideabook updated on May 16, 2012.
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A recent FLW restoration project here in my town, Rochester NY. Just being completed now.
As an interested layman, I love FLW - I would love to see a professional architect highlight his genius by pointing out his most mysterious choices (like the question about indirect entrances). Kind of like hearing Clapton talk about Hendrix...
www.houseart.net for my mailboxes and numbers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Hotel,_Tokyo
Somehow they managed in tearing down the house to destroy an element of two facets of American history.
Then again, there is the beach house pictured above---finally finished; a cheap knock off of Falling Water and looking as much out of place as Falling Water is integral to its setting. Or the Marin Civic Center---splashy and eye catching from a distance, but so dated inside it's not even attractive. Words like dingy come to mind. Wright was a master, a genius, but he was also a human and with the extensive oeuvre he had, he was bound to lay a few eggs and produce a few turkeys, and nothing is quite the turkey as a Frank Lloyd Wright turkey. Still, most of his stuff, whether it leaks or not, stands among the best of Architecture world wide. Sort of like Alfa Romeo or Jaguar----they may not always get you where you're going, but when they are working, they're not just cars, they're not mere transportation, they're an Experience, and it's too bad that, like Wright's houses, too few get the experience.
Interesting jujitsu twist there. I assume that you indicate "contemporary" as having a living quality, a presence in this ready moment, and that this heart is not expected to be found in "organic" design...but that's the wool of Modernism still over your eyes a little, my friend. The very essence of organic design speaks to the instant of creative being in the here and now -- and never anything less.