Wright goes to Arkansas

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Sat Jan 18, 2014 6:06 pm

I'm not so sure. What was it that Wright said about proposing a revolution with every house he designed? How can you not bring in politics when talking about Wright? With most other architects I agree, there is no need. But I don't think Wright's work is apolitical. It's too much tied to the land and the myths, no? It posits a way of life, like Jefferson. This is where the extra constitutional aspects of the term "American Exceptionalism" becomes palatable for me. It's a rich topic. Should be appropriate for Wright Chat.
(Speaking of Kennedy's. Recently, due to 50th assassination anniversary, I read that the CIA associate with whom Stalin's daughter lived for a while when she first came to the states was also for a time a handler of Lee Harvey Oswald. Can't remember the name. Might be Patricia Johnson or something similar. Crazy world you know.)

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Sat Jan 18, 2014 8:14 pm

I love the fact that the Walton's are patrons of good architecture and art. The museum is probably one of Safdies (sp?) best, a great addition to little Betonville, and the Bachman Wilson house will be, if not "living", then at least well cared for and available to the public.
The issue is, not so much the personal business ethics of the Walton's, as it is the rules of the structural system they are working in. The distinction is dialectical and not absolute. "Liberals" will lean toward the systemic explanation. "Conservatives" toward that of personal responsibility.

Craig · Post by **Craig** » Sun Jan 19, 2014 9:19 am

Staffer: "Miss Walton, the employees of Walmart do not make enough in wages to build houses made of wood and stone."

Miss Walton: "Then let them use concrete block."

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Sun Jan 19, 2014 2:23 pm

I wonder if Crystal Bridges will site the Bachman House as if it actually were in Broadacre; minimum of an acre etc.. You could choose worse places than Betonville to introduce the planning principles of Broadacre full scale.

(Priscilla Johnson interviewed Oswald in Moscow in 1959. In 1967 when Stalin's daughter came to the U.S. her "safe house" was the Johnson family home and Priscilla seemed to have been assigned to her.)

Rood · Post by **Rood** » Sun Jan 19, 2014 2:35 pm

Tom wrote: (Speaking of Kennedy's. Recently, due to 50th assassination anniversary, I read that the CIA associate with whom Stalin's daughter lived for a while when she first came to the states was also for a time a handler of Lee Harvey Oswald. Can't remember the name. Might be Patricia Johnson or something similar. Crazy world you know.)

Svetlana lived for a short time on Long Island with Stuart H. Johnson, whose daughter, Priscilla Johnson McMillan, was translating Alliluyeva's book Twenty Letters To A Friend. The translation was arranged by George Kennan. The CIA had secretly arranged for Kennan to meet Svetlana when she was in Switzerland ... Kennan having been whisked across the border from Italy by the Swiss without having to go through customs. Kennan and his family treated Svetlana not like a celebrity, but as a human being, and she responded, accordingly.

After Long Island, Svetlana lived with Kennan's daughter, Joan, and her family at the Kennan farm Cherry Orchard, near East Berlin, Pennsylvania, while Kennan and his wife were abroad. Shortly after that, Svetlana, by then a fairly wealthy woman, purchased her own home.

krietzerjak · Post by **krietzerjak** » Sun Jan 19, 2014 7:56 pm

Does it really matter that much if it was raised a few feet, or hundreds of miles? It was saved. That is the main point, isn't it? Would you prefer it among the lost? Could not remain where it was.

Andy

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Wed Jan 22, 2014 3:46 pm

The original site for Bachman-Wilson seems not too unusual -- an almost flat site, with view in one direction. If so, relocation shouldn't present too many problems ?

SDR

Paul Ringstrom · Post by **Paul Ringstrom** » Wed Jan 22, 2014 6:04 pm

In 1989 the Stockman House, which was in bad shape, was relocated and restored and is now in great shape and available to the public.

In 1994 the Pope-Leighey House was moved twice and is now available to the public.

In 1997 there was talk, and estimates, and plans for the Wynant House to be relocated and rebuilt in Indianapolis. It should have been moved. It did not happen and the house was lost.

In 2001 the Gordon House, of a very similar design to B-W, was successfully relocated and rebuilt and is now available to the public.

In 2004-2007 the Duncan House, which was in bad shape, was relocated and rebuilt. It is now in pristine condition and available to the public.

I see no reason why the Bachman-Wilson House, which is in pristine condition, will be relocated and rebuilt and not remain in pristine condition. Especially since the current owner and architect will be in charge of the rebuilding.

Are there any other Wright houses that have been moved that I missed?

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Thu Jan 23, 2014 12:19 pm

Well, there was that sad little W. S. Carr vacation house in Grand Beach that was moved, horribly cared for and ultimately demolished.

Reidy · Post by **Reidy** » Thu Jan 23, 2014 3:34 pm

The River Forest Tennis Club was moved and altered in the early 1920s: http://rftc.org/history.html

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Thu Jan 23, 2014 7:41 pm

(Pardon another tangent: what was Wright's relationship with Henry Luce? I seem to remember seeing something related to him inside the living room of TWest.)

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Thu Jan 23, 2014 7:46 pm

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general ... /0403.html

"In 1932 Mr. Luce purchased a trade publication, Architectural Forum, ..."

SDR

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Thu Jan 23, 2014 8:20 pm

Very interesting, another son of Presbyterian clergy (like the Dulles bros.) and missionaries to China no less. ... and he had a home in Phoenix. Shame he didn't have Wright do it.

Rood · Post by **Rood** » Thu Jan 23, 2014 8:38 pm

I don't know the details, but Henry Luce owned TIME, LIFE, FORTUNE, The ARCHITECTURAL FORUM, and other magazines, and Luce came through with many articles on Wright ... devoting entire editions of the FORUM to Wright's work. It was he who put Wright on the cover of TIME.

Mr. and Mrs. Luce were close friends of Mr. & Mrs Wright and after Wright's death they maintained a close relationship with Mrs. Wright and with the Fellowship ... both hosting at their house on the grounds of the Arizona Biltmore (designed, or rather remodeled, by Wes Peters) and as occasional guests. Clare once spoke to the Fellowship in the Cabaret Theatre about her own unusual and rather interesting life: her desire for fame; suffragette; author: The Women; Academy Award Nominee; Editor - Vanity Fair; wit: "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished"; Public Speaker; Politician-Congresswoman - Connecticut; Ambassador -Italy, Brazil;, but she said nothing to us about her experiments with LSD. She began her political life as a protÃ©gÃ© of Bernard Baruch and as a nominal ally of FDR, but she quickly became a staunch Conservative, with a capital "C".

Mrs. Luce gave Mrs. Wright several works of art which she designed, using bits of found desert items ... small stones, cactus, etc, They are on display in the Garden Room at Taliesin West.

DRN · Post by **DRN** » Fri Jan 24, 2014 9:24 am

Time/LIFE featured a level of regional advertising in its magazines in addition to national advertising. Edgar Kaufmann's department store chain was a regular regional advertiser, as was SCJohnson Wax on the national scene. Wright's connections with Luce's major advertising clients likely had some connection with his interest in Wright.