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| ...did you ever feel like you were paying for the Sins of a previous life? |
| Do you know why Frank Lloyd Wright had to die? Answer: He got the commission to re-design Heaven. Do you think he will ever come back? Answer: Oh, Sure... ...As soon as He finishes single-handedly carving a Frozen Hell!! |
| Every student of Architecture in America has an opinion about Frank Lloyd Wright. A considerable number of people beleive that he "ruined" the profession with his reputation for artistic arrogance. Some of the stories of his "uncompromising" demands are retold countless times in various biographies of his life. Few people, it seems, actually enjoyed working with him. Whether there were any of his contemporaries who could compete with him on an equal footing is still a matter of debate. He did feel "threatened" by the acclaim given to the Modernists, and refused to associate with them, tho he did enter into a protracted ideological "discussion in stone" that went on until the end of his life. His first response the Modernist School was the Fallingwater House in Bear Run, Pennsylvania. He tried to answer to the criticism of being an Elitist Architect with his entry into low-cost housing, which he called the Usonian Houses. He may be best remembered for his ability to "interpret" an asian aesthetic that was very much at home on the American landscape... ...rather than for his later work, in which he seems to be losing the war to be the true voice of the Future. Modernism had descended into a debate between circles and squares by the 1950's, but at the end of his life, he never attempts to return to the pre-modern classical style that had established his reputation. Perhaps he knew his reputation would long outlive him. He once stated that it would be 500 years before another Architect of his stature would come along. Perhaps he was right. Maybe if we all put our heads together... ...we can at least prove him partly wrong. |