Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Golden Anniversary

@MontereyJack,

An old best pal of my ex and I once lived in a FLW house in Wisconsin. I once knew which one, but now forget. Anyway, there was a 'pond' going into the house. (I've since had a client with another house like that, another story, another time.) Anyway, for Harvey, this great feature meant all sorts of animals came into the house at night. Do I remember muskrats being among them?

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lol (have you seen the "I'm going to end everything I say with lol" thread)

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@MontereyJack,

Yes, I'm enjoying it, though I'm not very practiced at lolling.

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@Lightwizard,

Lightwizard wrote:

I still feel Falling Water is a spectacular work of architecture -- the most perfect melding of location and building:

There are interior shots but they don't tell you much except that it was his concept of very open spaces and probably one of his more successful executions of that design element.

It posted okay, now it's disappeared -- try again:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ynkOxvGaV6s/Rqu-dQhSHDI/AAAAAAAABac/_KPiKd03gKs/s1600/fallingwater62.jpg

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Oh, great, now they both posted! The hamster is drunk this morning.

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@ossobuco,

Yee Gawd -- wild animal access to your home and I remember that Mr. Johnson (Johnson & Johnson) got dripped on his head at his first dinner party from a leak on a rainy night in his new FLW house, and I know you've all likely read this one before, but he calls FLW and complains, so Wright answers Mr. Lever, "Well, Herb, why don't you just move your chair."

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@Lightwizard,

No, I hadn't heard that one..

Now we don't have two photos..
It's ok.

I could see it by clicking on the little square at the same time I clicked control and chose open image in a new window. I've a mac. You can do something similar with a pc - I think you right click and then choose 'properties' and then open in a new window.

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@ossobuco,

I did a copy and paste and the image came up on the original page, then when I clicked on the back button, it had returned here. There's some server gliche.

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@Lightwizard,

Too bad when they made "Lost Horizons," they weren't able to use the Wright Imperial hotel for the High Llama's temple. It would have worked better than that Beverly Hills modern house they came up with (looked like it was done by the same studio designers who eventually came up with the buildings in "The Fountainhead," since Wright refused to do the drawings or models).

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That's one of the great shames of the 20th century, that they razed the Imperial.

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It's strange when you see old pictures of FLW buildings that the buildings still look contemporary but they have those archaic cars (or horses and buggies in some of his older ones) in front of them

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@MontereyJack,

The best view of Falling Water is the entire "strata shot" that allows one to see the house in and along the horizontal strata of pre coal measures.

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@farmerman,

Somewhere in my old VHS collection I have the PBS hour special on Falling Water that included the restorations. I'm sure it has become available on DVD but will have to look. I also have the PBS biography which was narrated by his Great Grandaughter, Anne Baxter (yep-- Eve in "All About Eve.")

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@Lightwizard,

The Guggenheim Museum is one of my favorite buildings in New York City. Especially since they cleaned it up and did a very effective exterior restoration of the facade.

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The Guggenheim was the background for an alien takedown in "Men In Black I", if I remember my movie trivia correctly. Came by it at 3am three days ago, as the bus from Boston hove into NYC--impressive even at that hour and unlit.

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@MontereyJack,

I want to rent a copy of The International (2009/I). There is supposedly a great shoot out scene in the Guggenheim rotunda.

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@tsarstepan,

The restoration was long over waited and although well done, the finish on the Giant Cupcake still looks like very uneven. It's no wonder architect gave up on trying to achieve anything like a smooth finish on a huge rounded surface using concrete or that architects like Frank Ghery and Richard Meir went to metals.

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I've never been to the Gugenheim NY, but it seems like a good concept for an art museum for the most part. One problem is that as you walk down the ramp you are standing on a slant while the pictures on the wall are level with the ground. I would have had stairs instead, with broader areas to stop and view the paintings. However, if you had a skateboard, and it was allowed, you could stop and start all the way down; it would be fun for the kids anyway.

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As for Falling Water, practicallity aside, it's beautiful and fits in to the environment perfectly, something you'd expect to see in Japan more so than in the West because of the differing philosohies and attitudes toward nature.

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@coluber2001,

I've been to the Guggenheim once for the Cai Guo-Qiang: I Want to Believe exhibition. When you get to each separate level where the bulk of the art is in gallery's offshooting from the atrium spiral, the floor actually levels off into a level plateau.

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Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Golden Anniversary

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