Wright Chat

Getting back to Burj Dubai, the current world-wide economic crisis has hit Dubai hard and brought construction of the tower to a standstill.

According to Elizabeth Kassler's book, Henken was at Taliesin in 1942 only. So was his wife.

That's correct, Paul. He has thought of dividing his 22 acres into two lots (there are very strict limits on lot size because of water scarcity), building a spec house and selling it so that he could subsidize finishing his own house, but I think that is unlikely to happen. One summer he shut down w...

Obviously getting rid of Blago didn't solve all of Illinois' problems.

Edward G. Robinson said of Picasso that he was both the greatest artist of the 20th Century, and the greatest con artist of the 20th Century. I think FLW was running a con of his own with this project. At lunch one day in 1964, Leonard Parker was talking about the Illinois, and said that it was a ri...

There is a lyric purity to the 1911 house. It almost seems too course and rudimentary to have been done by the same person who had designed such full-blown, extravagantly articulated masterpieces as Martin, Dana, Coonley and Robie. It's as if he was starting over from scratch. And in a very real way...

He had a similar melt down at Tomek, when the owners, very proud of their stewardship, showed him the living room. FLW was so upset with the addition of curtains that he tried to rip them off and had to be restrained.

Perhaps FLW foresaw this problem. In his final book, "A Testament," the first words are from the Tennyson poem "The Flower":
"Most can raise the flowers now, / for all have got the seed."
The theme of that poem was theft.

J B Muns in Berkeley has a complete set of the Monographs for sale with only three slipcases missing, $5000. Also, Vol 5, 1924-1936, $500. As pricey as they are, I doubt they will go down anytime soon. Even the complete 8-volume paperback set cost $1500. Also available are the first two elephant por...

When I first read "Eric Lloyd Wright home for sale," I thought it might be his own house in Malibu! That would have been unfortunate.

It should be pointed out that the Gardener's Cottage was extensively redone by the last owner. The extension on the back side facing the estate is an addition. The interior of the house as originally built was quite unexceptional, almost bleak.

I saw Graycliff before the removal of the obtrusive chapel. Seeing the living space with the huge windows on both sides is a delight. FLW is reported to have been disappointed with the house, and the comment, "Well, you can always plant ivy." is associated with it, but I think it's a terri...

The gable roofs are in the drawings. Not the one facing the street; that's the one that would appear to have been added at the time of construction. Over the years, all sorts of things have been added to the house, making the back look very messy, indeed. The extention of the front porch with the od...

Mono 2, 60-61. A significant difference between the house as built and the original design is the addition of a gabled ell facing the front of the house. What appears on the second floor plan as a bulkhead or deck over the entrance, became a 6' extention of the second floor, with a third floor attic...

Paul, I agree about base planting. Without proper landscaping, much of the exterior charm of a FLW house is lost. But inside, there are few spaces more beautiful than that dining room. Nor can I see why the porch had to be enclosed; it's hard to believe the house needed all the extra room obtained b...