4 ms·

What i find surprising is that the world-renowned architect worked on projects as simple and cheap as that.

OldHand2018 5y ago
He spent a lot of time working to make “good” houses more affordable, and was constantly pushing the limits on materials and techniques, which is a large reason why his houses are such maintenance nightmares 70+ years later. https://beltmag.com/frank-lloyd-wright-affordable-housing-chicago/ https://beltmag.com/frank-lloyd-wright-affordable-housing-ch... > Capitalizing on Wright’s Prairie style, regarded as the first truly American style of architecture, the houses—of which there were seven to choose from—were promoted as the quintessential American home. Sherwood Anderson, the nationally acclaimed novelist who at the time was an unknown copywriter, wrote in 1917 for a Tribune ad, “We want you to understand how the genius of this man has made it possible for every home builder to build beautifully without spending more to achieve beauty than he now spends on senseless ugliness.”
- dtgriscom 5y ago
  There's no maintenance problems mentioned in the link; any other citations? (I have heard that Fallingwater has problems due to its wet environment...)
dakial1 5y ago
He probably wasn't. Notice that the communications were always by someone "representing" him, but the most probable isnthat he had an office with a lot of Jr architects who would work on those assignments (with some guidelines and templates done by him, or more senior architects). He probably thought he could scale up and get more volume (and steady revenue stream) working on those small/medium projects as the bigger ones are more rare (even for a big architect). This is an error. Consultancy (I work in the industry) are similar in method to the architecture office, as it depends a lot on people and there is not much you can do to scale up without having to scale your workforce. And even worse, small clients (as we see by the librarian in the story) are usually very high maintenance. For that reason consultancies don't like (or simply don't work) with startups, as they will have less revenue but more work per client, so the scale up is tricky.
- lelandfe 5y ago
  I visited Taliesin West and saw the huge focus on schooling that FLW had. During the tour I couldn't help but wonder if at least some of the designs attributed to him were instead performed by his students (many of whom were quite talented).
  - caturopath 5y ago
    Taliesin West is so strikingly beautiful -- it's one of the non-natural places I've been most visually captivated, though of course the surrounding and integrated landscape were of course a big part of it.
SilasX 5y ago
Side note: Wright is believed to have been the inspiration for the character of Howard Roark in the Fountainhead, whose arc involves him doing a gas station after a skyscraper because the station owner let him do the design how he (Roark) wanted. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead#Howard_Roark https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead#Howard_Roark
- adventured 5y ago
  Wright also did a sketch of a house for Rand, that she quite liked and they discussed having built [1]. Here is what Rand said in 1937 prior to The Fountainhead being published in a correspondance with Wright about her book (from an LA Times piece in 2009, linked [2] below): > In 1937 a little-known author named Ayn Rand wrote to revered modernist Frank Lloyd Wright. “Dear Mr. Wright,” her letter of Dec. 12 began, “I am writing a novel about the career of an architect. ... I should like to have the privilege of meeting you and discussing it with you.” > In “The Fountainhead,” modern architecture provided a convenient vehicle for her views. In her 1937 letter, she told Wright that her new novel “is to be the story of an architect who follows his own convictions throughout his life, no matter what society thinks of it or does to him. . . . A man who has an ideal and goes through hell for it. So you can understand why it seems to me that of all men on earth you are the one I must see.” > But she added: “My hero is not you. I do not intend to follow in the novel the events of your life and career. His life will not be yours, nor his work, perhaps not even his artistic ideals. But his spirit is yours -- I think.” [1] https://i.imgur.com/TgjvOjf.jpg https://i.imgur.com/TgjvOjf.jpg [2] https://archive.is/9s5iW https://archive.is/9s5iW
willyt 5y ago
Yep. It’s a mistake. People who want an architect designed house for the price of a kit house are going to be disappointed. Especially ones that have massive lists of new wonder products they have been sold on by adverts from manufacturers, they are a nightmare. He shouldn’t have taken the job at all or he should have replied straight away to the first detailed brief saying that it’s not possible. In the UK you can be struck off if you fumble this situation badly, I would imagine that it’s the same in the US?
runeb 5y ago
He saw it as a challenge. Here is a good podcast episode about it > Unsure of how to hook such an architect for their modest home, the Jacobses put it to him as a challenge: could he build them a nice house for $5,000 (around $85,000 in today’s dollars)? According to Jacobs, Wright responded that he had waited for decades for someone to ask him just that question. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/usonia/ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/usonia/
- et2o 5y ago
  Thank you for this link! It's worth noting that an $85,000 house back then would be much more extravagent than an $85,000 house today as housing inflation has exceeded official inflation rates. Probably more like a 3-400,000 house if I had to guess. Still, an average house.

OldHand2018 5y ago

He spent a lot of time working to make “good” houses more affordable, and was constantly pushing the limits on materials and techniques, which is a large reason why his houses are such maintenance nightmares 70+ years later. https://beltmag.com/frank-lloyd-wright-affordable-housing-chicago/ https://beltmag.com/frank-lloyd-wright-affordable-housing-ch... > Capitalizing on Wright’s Prairie style, regarded as the first truly American style of architecture, the houses—of which there were seven to choose from—were promoted as the quintessential American home. Sherwood Anderson, the nationally acclaimed novelist who at the time was an unknown copywriter, wrote in 1917 for a Tribune ad, “We want you to understand how the genius of this man has made it possible for every home builder to build beautifully without spending more to achieve beauty than he now spends on senseless ugliness.”

dtgriscom 5y ago
There's no maintenance problems mentioned in the link; any other citations? (I have heard that Fallingwater has problems due to its wet environment...)

dakial1 5y ago

He probably wasn't. Notice that the communications were always by someone "representing" him, but the most probable isnthat he had an office with a lot of Jr architects who would work on those assignments (with some guidelines and templates done by him, or more senior architects). He probably thought he could scale up and get more volume (and steady revenue stream) working on those small/medium projects as the bigger ones are more rare (even for a big architect). This is an error. Consultancy (I work in the industry) are similar in method to the architecture office, as it depends a lot on people and there is not much you can do to scale up without having to scale your workforce. And even worse, small clients (as we see by the librarian in the story) are usually very high maintenance. For that reason consultancies don't like (or simply don't work) with startups, as they will have less revenue but more work per client, so the scale up is tricky.

lelandfe 5y ago
I visited Taliesin West and saw the huge focus on schooling that FLW had. During the tour I couldn't help but wonder if at least some of the designs attributed to him were instead performed by his students (many of whom were quite talented).
- caturopath 5y ago
  Taliesin West is so strikingly beautiful -- it's one of the non-natural places I've been most visually captivated, though of course the surrounding and integrated landscape were of course a big part of it.

SilasX 5y ago

Side note: Wright is believed to have been the inspiration for the character of Howard Roark in the Fountainhead, whose arc involves him doing a gas station after a skyscraper because the station owner let him do the design how he (Roark) wanted. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead#Howard_Roark https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead#Howard_Roark

adventured 5y ago
Wright also did a sketch of a house for Rand, that she quite liked and they discussed having built [1]. Here is what Rand said in 1937 prior to The Fountainhead being published in a correspondance with Wright about her book (from an LA Times piece in 2009, linked [2] below): > In 1937 a little-known author named Ayn Rand wrote to revered modernist Frank Lloyd Wright. “Dear Mr. Wright,” her letter of Dec. 12 began, “I am writing a novel about the career of an architect. ... I should like to have the privilege of meeting you and discussing it with you.” > In “The Fountainhead,” modern architecture provided a convenient vehicle for her views. In her 1937 letter, she told Wright that her new novel “is to be the story of an architect who follows his own convictions throughout his life, no matter what society thinks of it or does to him. . . . A man who has an ideal and goes through hell for it. So you can understand why it seems to me that of all men on earth you are the one I must see.” > But she added: “My hero is not you. I do not intend to follow in the novel the events of your life and career. His life will not be yours, nor his work, perhaps not even his artistic ideals. But his spirit is yours -- I think.” [1] https://i.imgur.com/TgjvOjf.jpg https://i.imgur.com/TgjvOjf.jpg [2] https://archive.is/9s5iW https://archive.is/9s5iW

willyt 5y ago

Yep. It’s a mistake. People who want an architect designed house for the price of a kit house are going to be disappointed. Especially ones that have massive lists of new wonder products they have been sold on by adverts from manufacturers, they are a nightmare. He shouldn’t have taken the job at all or he should have replied straight away to the first detailed brief saying that it’s not possible. In the UK you can be struck off if you fumble this situation badly, I would imagine that it’s the same in the US?

runeb 5y ago

He saw it as a challenge. Here is a good podcast episode about it > Unsure of how to hook such an architect for their modest home, the Jacobses put it to him as a challenge: could he build them a nice house for $5,000 (around $85,000 in today’s dollars)? According to Jacobs, Wright responded that he had waited for decades for someone to ask him just that question. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/usonia/ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/usonia/

et2o 5y ago
Thank you for this link! It's worth noting that an $85,000 house back then would be much more extravagent than an $85,000 house today as housing inflation has exceeded official inflation rates. Probably more like a 3-400,000 house if I had to guess. Still, an average house.