A teacher tries to commission a house from Frank Lloyd Wright...

[nancylebov]

https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/frank-lloyd-wright-edith-carlson-untold-story/

She's very clear about what she wants. He makes a plan, but hasn't paid excessive amounts of attention.

They never achieve a meeting of minds.

I treasure this:

"I looked first for the windows which Mr. Wright told me he would put in the southeast wall of my house. I could not find any! And I am not building a house without windows on the southeast!! (The first exclamation mark I used to register disappointment; the second to indicate emphasis.) My house must make sense to me and a house in Superior without windows in the southeast is silly."

I've never disambiguated exclamation points, but perhaps someday I will have the opportunity.

She did so much research. I wonder whether she ended up designing her own house.

Comments

[noelfigart]

I know a lot of people considered Wright this amazing genius. And maybe he was aesthetics-wise. But in reviewing pictures of the homes that he designed, it looks to me more like he did sculptures in the form of a house rather than designing... well, a machine for living (as Le Corbusier commented. Not that I would have found his designs all that commodious, either).

I sometimes think one ought to serve an internship cleaning homes for a year before one is allowed to be licensed as an architect.

[cmcmck]

It's known that some of his designs leaked like sieves! Falling Water springs to mind. It looks stunning but was a nightmare to live in.

Erno Goldfinger insisted on living in every building he created for a time after completion which might be why I prefer his work to FLW's!

[selenite0]

My impression of architects is they don't even want to think about people being inside the buildings, just how they look from the outside.

If I ever hire an architect I'm going to want to see their personal copy of "How Buildings Learn" to check how much wear is on it.

[madfilkentist]

It makes me think of the Zimmerman house in Manchester, NH. It's a Frank Lloyd Wright House, but the person who commissioned it must not have had a Frank Lloyd Wright budget. Inside, it's almost as cramped as living in a mobile home. I wonder if he just got too many commissions like that.

[ndrosen]

As a grad student in physics, I worked as a teaching assistant, grading homework and tests, and holding office hours for basic physics courses. Many of the students were allied health majors, notably pharmacy majors, and some were architecture majors. They weren’t all very good at physics; I remember thinking that I didn’t want to live in a building designed by an architect who didn’t get basic physics and math. Someone told me, more or less, that there were architectural engineers to worry about how the building would stay up, while the architect dealt with the aesthetics. Make of that what you will.

[madfilkentist]

Calling gorgeousgary!

[redrose]

20some years ago, when in college, I had a friend studying architcture. He did not have to take calculus? I still do not understand why.

[melita66]

I toured Taliesin West years ago. At one point, the guide warned the tall people in the group to watch their heads. He half-jokingly mentioned that FLW wasn't very tall and his designed often included low ceilings. I seem to remember there being several awkward-to-maneuver-through areas on the tour.