Wright Chat

What's So Great About Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater?


David

"Then for seven months he did nothing." This is the legend, as told by some. Do early sketches survive, dated or otherwise ? Don't we know that Mr Wright designed in his mind before putting pencil to paper -- as do most architects ? To say that Wright "did nothing" for seven months is a rather rash assumption -- it seems to me.

If Wright was not above taking a couple of years off his age, in mid-life (?), and if he enjoyed stoking the legends of his own prodigy, would he have hesitated to remove early sketches from his files, the further to enhance the story of Fallingwater's miraculous birth ? Or was he oblivious of the gathering tale of the immaculate conception . . . ?

SDR

Netto is much too "black and white" in his assertions like Fallingwater is not a modernist building, that everyone copied Mies, but not Wright with his "handmade" architecture (was Farnsworth built by robots?), that it doesn't take time to design "if you are a genius", and because one person took their own life that good architecture can't improve the quality of people's lives.

I find this whole Q and A to be disconcerting.

Is Frank Lloyd Wright a Modernist? Is Fallingwater Modern?


David

The word "M/modern," capitalized or not, is as ridiculous a definition of any specific category of architecture as "Classical" is of music. Modern has a meaning that changes with time. Each era considers itself modern, so by definition, what the era produces is also modern, making what was built in the past old hat. The present is never classic, so only old hat can be considered Classical; it's a reactive term which can just as easily apply to the work of Bach and Brahms as Mozart. If it is considered important to pigeon-hole art by era or style, words that morph from one age to another should not be used. "Baroque" works for Bach; "idiosyncratic" works for FLW.

As non-geniuses, it's easy for us to dismiss the claim that Frank "did nothing" for seven months. What we can't easily understand is that the mental capabilities of persons who are genuine geniuses exceed our own capabilities by such a margin, that we might call that person a magician if we didn't know better.

I have met only a handful of true geniuses: I was lucky enough to go to school with one. He was able to play up to 6 chess games at a time, in his head!

People such as these possess the ability to visualise things in their mind just as if they appeared solidly in front of them.

I find it very easy to believe that Frank spent quite a lot of time looking at the site plan and elevations, and managed to almost completely design the thing in his head without ever having put a pencil to paper.

If the account of his prodigious drawing session prior to Mr. Kaufmann's visit is correct, then I find it relatively easy to believe that he was simply putting down onto paper that which already existed in his head.

[url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703922804576301670230267088.html wrote:What's So Great About Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater?[/url]

It seems to me if David Netto has to ask "What's So Great ...about Fallingwater" ... that he'll never know.


And, how long did it take Frank Lloyd Wright to design Fallingwater?

The answer? About 70 years.

Bravo -- and amen.


SDR