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SDR
Joined: 17 Jun 2006
Posts: 17918
Location: San Francisco
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 Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2016 2:35 pm Post subject: |
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I'd say that yes, even Frank Lloyd Wright was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright . . . !
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DRN
Joined: 10 Jul 2006
Posts: 3789
Location: Cherry Hill, NJ
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| Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 11:37 am Post subject: |
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From the April 18 article:
| Quote: | | The Phoenix City Council is scheduled to meet Dec. 7 on whether to grant the designation, which would ensure against demolition threats. |
The meeting to decide on the designation is 8 months away? Is this to allow preparation time for the city council to review submitted materials? |
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SDR
Joined: 17 Jun 2006
Posts: 17918
Location: San Francisco
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| Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 3:29 pm Post subject: |
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Is the David Wright house still threatened with demolition ?
SDR |
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Tom
Joined: 30 Jan 2011
Posts: 2724
Location: Black Mountain, NC
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DRN
Joined: 10 Jul 2006
Posts: 3789
Location: Cherry Hill, NJ
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| Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2016 8:44 am Post subject: |
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| The architecture is great...I just can't seem to warm up to all that grass (and the water it must consume) blazing in the Sonoran desert....I realize the 1950's orange groves weren't much better from a water use standpoint, but at least there were blossoms, fragrance, and fruit. |
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Tom
Joined: 30 Jan 2011
Posts: 2724
Location: Black Mountain, NC
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| Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2016 9:38 am Post subject: |
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| Agreed. I'd like to see cacti and desert plants. |
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Roderick Grant
Joined: 29 Mar 2006
Posts: 9356
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| Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2016 10:50 am Post subject: |
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| The entire population of Arizona should be reduced by 98%, so everyone could live in grand isolation, a thousand acres per habitation. The desert doesn't like crowds ... or grass. |
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Paul Ringstrom
Joined: 17 Sep 2005
Posts: 4172
Location: Mason City, IA
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Roderick Grant
Joined: 29 Mar 2006
Posts: 9356
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| Posted: Thu May 12, 2016 1:27 pm Post subject: |
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| Considering how poorly universities take care of their architecture, this is a good thing. If the owner wants to unload the house, he should put it on the market at a reasonable price and write the loss off on his taxes. |
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DRN
Joined: 10 Jul 2006
Posts: 3789
Location: Cherry Hill, NJ
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| Posted: Thu May 12, 2016 1:27 pm Post subject: |
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This is not going well.
Maybe the Historic Landmarking process should have been proceeding in tandem with Rawlings' "big plans". What if Rawlings, after being shut out of revenue generation for the property for a while, decides to stop the bleeding by putting the property up for sale? Will he recognize that for the good of the house it must be purchased, restored (it is cleaned, landscaped, and re-rugged, but not completed), and then lived in by some mortal...as his neighbors will allow nothing else? Will he price it accordingly? |
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DRN
Joined: 10 Jul 2006
Posts: 3789
Location: Cherry Hill, NJ
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| Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2016 11:14 am Post subject: |
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This article was linked in Prairie Mod's weekly newsgram:
http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2016/08/16/frank-lloyd-wright-house-owner-offers-home-to.html
I'm waiting with bated breath to see if this next non-profit decides to "ride the bull".
Not that anybody cares, but IMHO the David and Gladys Wright house does not and never has had the potential to be a tourist draw to the same extent as the Taliesins or Fallingwater. Rawlings' vision for that end were unrealistic and distracted from the main effort: securing the site as a protected landmark and restoring the house itself. The property will have to financially tow some or most of its load, but it doesn't appear the neighbors are ever going to agree to a public site in the museum or cultural venue mode. The neighbors will not allow a non-profit to use the house for its purposes which involve the public visitation of the premises to fund restoration via tours, fundraisers, or event rentals.
Most people with the financial means to restore the house on their own don't want to live in a bare CMU house of about 2200SF....maybe as a vacation toy, but not everyday. And when that Daddy Warbucks who does buy it wants to sell, then what? More of the last two years of suits filing suits?
What option is left? A house for living. Cut the grandiose crap and make the house a Wright rental. Surely the neighbors can live with that. No throngs; just a family or two living in the house as a house. What does it matter if the occupants are never the same? It is not a crowd. "But, they are transients." Transients making reservations weeks or months in advance paying several hundred dollars per night are not typically riff raff. The rental income could offset some of the expenses of restoration and maintenance otherwise covered by grants or corporate donations. This seems to me to be only workable solution to this.
Thoughts? |
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SREcklund
Joined: 26 Feb 2013
Posts: 792
Location: Redondo Beach, CA
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| Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2016 11:44 am Post subject: |
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| DRN wrote: | IMHO the David and Gladys Wright house does not and never has had the potential to be a tourist draw to the same extent as the Taliesins or Fallingwater. Rawlings' vision for that end were unrealistic and distracted from the main effort: securing the site as a protected landmark and restoring the house itself.
Thoughts? |
I think they need to look to other properties in similar situations - a private residence in relatively close proximity to neighbors - for guidance. Laurent, Christian and Zimmerman all come to mind - maintained as museum pieces, with a touring program sympathetic to the neighborhood. Number one priority needs to be house structural restoration - I would downsize the property and sell the excess to finance; maybe even offer it as some sort of greenspace to maintain distance but get a write-off. Re-establish the grove on the smaller property and focus on the structures. I'm not sure the group to which it's currently being offered is the right one to handle something like that ...
_________________
Docent, Hollyhock House - Hollywood, CA
Humble student of the Master
"Youth is a circumstance you can't do anything about. The trick is to grow up without getting old." - Frank Lloyd Wright |
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Roderick Grant
Joined: 29 Mar 2006
Posts: 9356
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| Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2016 11:51 am Post subject: |
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| The recent trend in renting houses to vacationers has soured a lot of people on the whole idea of transients of any type. It too often occurs that renters create havoc for the entire neighborhood and leave houses in a shambles. Obviously, renting to FLW enthusiasts would be different, but I suspect the neighbors won't differentiate between them and the riffraff revelers. |
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DavidC
Joined: 02 Sep 2006
Posts: 7013
Location: Oak Ridge, TN
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DRN
Joined: 10 Jul 2006
Posts: 3789
Location: Cherry Hill, NJ
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| Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2016 12:48 pm Post subject: |
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I was unable to read anything other than the headline...
Correct me if I'm mistaken, but just prior to or just after Mr. Rawling's purchase of the house, wasn't the city ready to designate the property a landmark to protect it from threats of demolition? I would hate to think that opportunity was squandered by proposing grandiose plans for the property that frightened the neighbors into lawyering up prior to having that landmark protection in place first. |
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