For the northeastern US folks and anyone willing to travel: the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, NH has not one but two Frank Lloyd Wright houses in its collection[0]. I’ve seen the Zimmerman House a couple of times, and it hews pretty close to the familiar aesthetic of Fallingwater: warm tones, lovely space, furniture to match.
The Kalil House I got to see recently, it’s the newer acquisition. It’s a Usonian Automatic, meaning the owner was meant to buy the plans and the molds for the concrete blocks, and the build it themselves. Long story short: it didn’t go exactly as planned.
The house is fascinating though: much of it is a concrete gray rather than the warmer tones we usually associate wiry Wright’s work. It feels less tied to the place it’s built than either the Zimmerman House or Fallingwater. It feels much less starkly architectural, and more connected to the way regular people live, more attainable, insofar as you can use that word with Wright. They also both have ceilings that work with taller people. Fallingwater is downright claustrophobic in places.
Highly worth the trip if you’re in the area.
And if you’re in the area of Fallingwater, Kentucky Knob is basically right there. If you’ve travelled more than a few hours to see Fallingwater, you’d be nuts to miss it.
I studied graduate school in a building designed by William B. Fyfe, one of Wright's Praire School first apprentices. It was beautiful and serene. The same city where my school is located has a house designed by Wright himself in a special neighborhood known as Heritage Hill, also a great example of Wright's style.
I felt grateful that I had to go to class every day in such a lovely building (which still stands, btw, albeit with some additions and modifications). Having the opportunity to be there was, and still is, one of the highlights of my life.
Fallingwater is more than work of art, it is a religious experience. I visited it three times (each time my visit to Pittsburgh and the area surrounding the house was to specifically see it) and every damn time I stood weeping leaving the tour.
I can only describe it being overcome with a sense of love and harmony. I was giggling ear-to-ear the whole time I was there.
Great works of art are meant to be religious experiences. At Falling water, every part of the house & estate feels like it was meant to be there. The shapes and curves feel so right. The emphasis on integrating natural materials makes it feel one with nature. Frank Lloyd wright cared a lot about sight lines, which makes every space easy on the eyes.
I've had similar experiences in great Basilicas[0] such as Sagrada Familia[1]. Smaller objects have evoked similar feelings too. Be that cars (The Ferrari Roma[2] or Alfa 33 Stadale[3]) or intricate jewelery (Earrings [4] or watches [5]). Great beauty feels divine, and Fallingwater is one such example.
Wright designed a gas station, with a control tower office from which the manager can look down on the gas jockeys.[1] It looks like it belongs in Southern California, but it's in Minnesota.
His Marin Civic Center is nicely integrated with the terrain. Gattica, the movie, was filmed there. Like the gas station, it includes a non-functional pointy tower. Wright went through a pointy object period.[2]
Wright emphasized materials and surface treatments, to complement the plain lines of his buildings. That tended to run up costs. But if you use Wright's lines without the materials, you get brutalism.
If you ever visit Taliesin in Wisconsin (which has a pretty bland), you should also visit the nearby House on the Rock which is a fascinating and very weird collection of esoteric and kitschy items.
The contrast in attitudes and aesthetics between the two is incredibly stark, and it's very interesting to see the reactions of visitors to each location.
I wish people talked more about the building's shortcomings: moisture, mold, mildew, etc. It's a good architectural demonstration, but not good architecture --- just like how an overengineered code might be interesting, but not practical.
Well TFA did sort of mention it, it said it was a work of art, not a house to live in. Lloyd Wright designed fabulous-looking buildings but also many that were eminently impractical, either because they started falling apart shortly after they were built and/or because they had so many problems that they were unfit for habitation.
I visited Falling Water as a kid, so I probably had a limited ability to appreciate it. But I do remember finding it rather cold and uncomfortable, interesting with the waterfall flowing underneath but not really as somewhere I’d want to live.
Leaks are a given in any Wright house. Indeed, the architect has been notorious not only for his leaks but for his flippant dismissals of client complaints. He reportedly asserted that, “If the roof doesn’t leak, the architect hasn’t been creative enough.” His stock response to clients who complained of leaking roofs was, “That’s how you can tell it’s a roof.”
Wright’s late-in-life triumph, Fallingwater in Pennsylvania, celebrated by the AIA poll as “the best all-time work of American architecture,” lives up to its name with a plague of leaks; they have marred the windows and stone walls and deteriorated the structural concrete. To its original owner, Fallingwater was known as “Rising Mildew,” a “seven-bucket building.” It is indeed a gorgeous and influential house, but unlivable. For its leaks there can be no excuse.
I wanted to find a quote of my favorite story about Frank Lloyd Wright, although not verifiable it fits well with what we know of his character:
> Like the story of the client calling Wright during a rainstorm, saying water was dripping on his head, and what should he do, “Move your chair,” says Wright to Mr. Whateverclient depending on the source.
I remember rumors going around Phoenix of someone trying to demolish the David and Gladys Wright House in 2011. Someone got a great deal on it around that time, $1m. It sold with a 7-10x return a a few years later.
Viewed in isolation it is a bit underwhelming, but if you see it in landscape it has a charm. I think a copper roof on both structures would make it pop.
I'm sad that we're coming up towards 100 years on from Fallingwater being built, and yet the American preference for new houses of a similar price (after inflation) is the sort of awful stuff that shows up on mcmansionhell.com.
The instinct to preserve and honor Frank Lloyd Wright in Oak Park, where I live, has basically frozen the place in amber, which isn't something Wright would have wanted, and also worked synergistically with exclusive zoning to keep the Village ultra-expensive (it directly abuts the Austin neighborhood in Chicago, which is low-middle income) and white (unlike Austin, which is 90+% Black).
No idea what Wright would have thought about racial housing segregation, but it was certainly a knock-on effect of the preservationist cult he accidentally created.
The kind of bespoke construction in Wright's buildings couldn't be built today at an order of magnitude higher price, even considering inflation. A side effect of mass produced standard construction materials has been custom ones becoming astronomically expensive due to the skilled labor to build them having been replaced with mass production.
I suspect projects like fallingwater have siting considerations that wouldn't allow it to be built at all anywhere in the US... isn't it built basically on top of a WOTUS?
It'd be in litigation forever; which is why nobody with the means would try to build something like that today. Even if they could afford the construction, they can't afford the time in court.
Larry Ellison owns a replica Japanese daimyo mansion in Woodside, two mansions on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, and 98% of the island of Lanai...but none of those structures there are (AFAIK) atop a permanent watercourse.
People want square footage and comfort, not design. Frank Lloyd Wright homes look stunning in an Architectural Digest spread, but living in them is not really up to par for modern standards.
That hous is still extremely small for what most people in the US would put in a full sized suburban lot: Nowadays a median build is 2300 square feet (213 square meters). It makes that 1600 square feet look very small. The hallways, the large space dedicated to a great room and just 2 bedrooms won't help.
You will find new houses that small, but typically when it's extremely high value land, so typically infill. And then chances are it's a multi story house that fits the lot to the limit.
That said, the kit pictured will, if constructed, will have amenities & physical qualities that the similarly sized original Jacobs house has had to have retrofitted at great cost.
1600 square for two bed/two bath will feel large if well designed; many modern houses are not well designed for their size - usually one version of a given plan is the "optimal/designed" version, and you can keep adding things that make it frankly ridiculous, weird winding hallways, small rooms, etc.
The main house uses 9,300 square feet of which 4,400 is outdoor terraces, while the guest house totals 4,990 square feet of which 1,950 square feet is outdoor terraces.
Anyone downvoting you clearly doesn’t watch Arvin Haddads YouTube channel because it really is revolting how much subpar trash sells for $50 million+. Even at the highest end of the housing market you see a consistent demand for absolute garbage that is about as close to art as a pile of rancid shit.
The Kalil House I got to see recently, it’s the newer acquisition. It’s a Usonian Automatic, meaning the owner was meant to buy the plans and the molds for the concrete blocks, and the build it themselves. Long story short: it didn’t go exactly as planned.
The house is fascinating though: much of it is a concrete gray rather than the warmer tones we usually associate wiry Wright’s work. It feels less tied to the place it’s built than either the Zimmerman House or Fallingwater. It feels much less starkly architectural, and more connected to the way regular people live, more attainable, insofar as you can use that word with Wright. They also both have ceilings that work with taller people. Fallingwater is downright claustrophobic in places.
Highly worth the trip if you’re in the area.
And if you’re in the area of Fallingwater, Kentucky Knob is basically right there. If you’ve travelled more than a few hours to see Fallingwater, you’d be nuts to miss it.
[0] https://www.currier.org/frank-lloyd-wright
I felt grateful that I had to go to class every day in such a lovely building (which still stands, btw, albeit with some additions and modifications). Having the opportunity to be there was, and still is, one of the highlights of my life.
Great works of art are meant to be religious experiences. At Falling water, every part of the house & estate feels like it was meant to be there. The shapes and curves feel so right. The emphasis on integrating natural materials makes it feel one with nature. Frank Lloyd wright cared a lot about sight lines, which makes every space easy on the eyes.
I've had similar experiences in great Basilicas[0] such as Sagrada Familia[1]. Smaller objects have evoked similar feelings too. Be that cars (The Ferrari Roma[2] or Alfa 33 Stadale[3]) or intricate jewelery (Earrings [4] or watches [5]). Great beauty feels divine, and Fallingwater is one such example.
[0] Special shout-out to the new Romanesque basilica in DC - https://maps.app.goo.gl/8r59NzbgVnqKYAv2A
[1] https://thebarcelonafeeling.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/S...
[2] https://media.architecturaldigest.com/photos/5f96f18f0a2396c...
[3] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Alfa_Rom...
[4] https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/39320
[5] https://www.watchclub.com/upload/watches/gallery_big/watch-c...
His Marin Civic Center is nicely integrated with the terrain. Gattica, the movie, was filmed there. Like the gas station, it includes a non-functional pointy tower. Wright went through a pointy object period.[2]
Wright emphasized materials and surface treatments, to complement the plain lines of his buildings. That tended to run up costs. But if you use Wright's lines without the materials, you get brutalism.
[1] http://www.flwright.us/FLW414.htm
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marin_County_Civic_Center
The contrast in attitudes and aesthetics between the two is incredibly stark, and it's very interesting to see the reactions of visitors to each location.
Wright’s late-in-life triumph, Fallingwater in Pennsylvania, celebrated by the AIA poll as “the best all-time work of American architecture,” lives up to its name with a plague of leaks; they have marred the windows and stone walls and deteriorated the structural concrete. To its original owner, Fallingwater was known as “Rising Mildew,” a “seven-bucket building.” It is indeed a gorgeous and influential house, but unlivable. For its leaks there can be no excuse.
—Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn
> Like the story of the client calling Wright during a rainstorm, saying water was dripping on his head, and what should he do, “Move your chair,” says Wright to Mr. Whateverclient depending on the source.
https://franklloydwright.org/willey-house-stories-part-10-lo...
https://alumni.cornell.edu/cornellians/reisley-wright-last-c...
Viewed in isolation it is a bit underwhelming, but if you see it in landscape it has a charm. I think a copper roof on both structures would make it pop.
No idea what Wright would have thought about racial housing segregation, but it was certainly a knock-on effect of the preservationist cult he accidentally created.
I suspect projects like fallingwater have siting considerations that wouldn't allow it to be built at all anywhere in the US... isn't it built basically on top of a WOTUS?
Larry Ellison owns a replica Japanese daimyo mansion in Woodside, two mansions on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, and 98% of the island of Lanai...but none of those structures there are (AFAIK) atop a permanent watercourse.
By the standards of the time, they were comfortable (if a bit lacking in closet space).
If you'd like, you can buy a modernized kit Usonian (inspired by the Jacobs I house) from Lindal here:
https://lindal.com/home-designs/madison/
You will find new houses that small, but typically when it's extremely high value land, so typically infill. And then chances are it's a multi story house that fits the lot to the limit.
That said, the kit pictured will, if constructed, will have amenities & physical qualities that the similarly sized original Jacobs house has had to have retrofitted at great cost.
https://fallingwater.org/media-resources/fallingwater-facts/