House on Morris' "Seacliff" site still for sale

DavidC · Post by **DavidC** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 8:10 am

hypnoraygun · Post by **hypnoraygun** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 10:16 am

In the fourth picture down, is that a retractable skylight? Any guesses?

outside in · Post by **outside in** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 10:44 am

hmm, I guess the purpose of this post is to prove that it would be no great loss to tear it down and build Wright's design? I'm all for it! The only problem would be recycling all of that wall to wall carpeting.

dleach · Post by **dleach** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 11:12 am

It looks like it is right above China Beach. That was our favorite (good weather) after-school hangout when I was in HS.
I had the same questionabout the skylight/or not.

Don

JPB_1971 · Post by **JPB_1971** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 11:45 am

Demolishing the existing home and attempting to build Seacliff would probably be the most controversial issue ever relating to the Legacy program and what can/cannot be claimed as a FLW design owing to the spectacular site and well-known design. BTW the price has been consdierably reduced - I think I recall several months ago it being well into the teens.

Would modern building codes even allow it to be built? Does anyone know the square footage of the Morris plan? Was it ever developed to the construction documents stage?

I believe that, according to an older thread on the same subject in which I participated, what is for sale may represent a portion of but not the entire original property on which Morris was to have been built.

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 2:27 pm

The first project for Seacliff in 1945 (M7, pp 74-79) was worked out in considerable detail. Seems a bit stiff to me, overbuilt. Not a great deal of house for all the extensive amount of construction needed. The second version, designed in 1955 (M8, pp 194-195), is less daring, but handsomer. The Guest House/Garage of the same year (M8, pg 196) is ungainly. The 1955 project was stopped by the client's death.

The plot plan on page 74 is divided into 20-foot squares, and measures about 145' at the north (ocean) end, narrowing down to about 90' at the south (El Camino Del Mar) entrance end, with a depth of over 200' north to south.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 4:56 pm

Seacliff I

Seaclliff II

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 11:38 am

A delight for me to know the address of this project and to be able to find it on Google Maps and therefore to know the exact site for the first time!

SDR: Where is the image from with the title: "Three Quarters of a Century of Drawings" Looks like a book or some publication I've never seen before?

jim · Post by **jim** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 5:18 pm

The extant house is more or less permanently for sale at ridiculous prices that it never will sell for. Every high-end realtor in town has taken a run at it. Apparently the same judgement about floor coverings and light fixtures permeates the pricing strategy.

Reidy · Post by **Reidy** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 5:44 pm

This book came out in conjunction with an Italian exhibit shortly after Wright's death. Reproductions are tiny, but it's the largest collection of drawings I've ever seen in one place, nearly all in color. Its introduction is notable for tracing Wright's ideas about organic design to the nineteenth century.

The larger drawing is interesting in connection with the current Taylor Wooley Photos thread, which touches on the question of dead space on downhill facades.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 7:11 pm

Lest there be any misunderstanding about Jim's post, the house in question is the following:

http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2009 ... strai.html

This may or may not be the intended location of the V.C.Morris project(s).

SDR

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 8:17 pm

Reidy: Thanks for mentioning the content of the introduction of that book. It's goes to the center of my interest in Wright. You have any idea who wrote it? Won't be buying this book though: $999.00 on Amazon. But I'll keep an eye out for any available library kind of copy.

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 5:12 am

and Reidy, I agree about a connection to the Wooley thread. Seacliff 1 seems, in some sense, a distillation of certain relationships present in that project.

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 3:10 pm

I don't know that "dead space" is an appropriate term; it sounds slightly condemnatory. "Blank space" is more acceptable. There's nothing wrong with blank space when it's called for.

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Sun Oct 16, 2011 11:54 am

Evidently the 3/4 Century book was first published as a catalogue in Italian for a traveling exhibit of Wright's drawings starting in Naples in 1976. It was called FLLW Disegni 1887/1959. Translated into English with the revised title of 3/4 Century in 1981-82. Three Italian guys do the writing. Italians on the romanticism of Wright, that would be very interesting I imagine.