Design Observer :: Join the Discussion http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/mr-wright-comes-to-moloch/35918/ en-us Design Observer Group 2012-09-11T15:22:51-05:00 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0
At least NYC is authentic in its own nasty way. But its no Paris, Tokyo or even Chicago. My point is either you are on the side of good design, that values craft, solid & sustainable materials, lasting value that improves communities or you like crap. Just remember that in NYC they tore down Penn Station to build Mad Square Garden.
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Had I not the preface that he was talking about our fine city, I'd think that, in fact, he was referring to our modern suburbs & exurbs, with their thousands of identical Walmarts peddling mass merchandise, 4,000lb personal transportation machines, and other devices that devour a much greater share of resources per capita than our relatively modest urban denizens - and, alarmingly, a visit to any suburban mall or stadium may be all too revealing with regards to the term pig-pile...

Which comes to the ugliest truth about FLW: in his fetishization for suburban nature as a consumable for the well-to-do, he abetted and visualized the most energy consumptive, landscape destructive form of human settlement ever created.

In this light, Falling Water stands as a grotesque, the worst form of trophy hunting, a concrete crotch shot standing over the shot-dead pond - I'd take the old hunting cabin on the bluff any day. ]]> http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/mr-wright-comes-to-moloch/35918/#comments 2012-09-11T11:12:08-05:00 again, oh lets not forget to keep beauty in the front line, a right chestnut

undisputed I think is "center of the architectural media universe". ]]> http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/mr-wright-comes-to-moloch/35918/#comments 2012-09-11T08:32:51-05:00
otherwise, wright did disapprove of the international style, but absolutely not because it was too functionalist or "beauty was not part of their equation." just the opposite. he was opposed because it was a STYLE, and one that could be achieved by a set of predetermined criteria. ]]> http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/mr-wright-comes-to-moloch/35918/#comments 2012-09-10T14:47:42-05:00 I don't see them as opinions about NYC so much as observations. It is no doubt the center of the media universe--but its powerful microphone can be taken over by those with crass (word of the day) taste and moneyed interests. There are a lot of great things in New York, but they exist in the shadows--not at MoMA or Broadway or Times Square.
The book Frank Lloyd Wright in New York: The Plaza Years, 1954-1959, leads me to think that Wright objected to the Johnson and his 1932 MoMA show, because it was too heavily focused on machines and "less is more" which had taken over the Bauhaus. Beauty was not a part of their equation. At the same time, Johnson called Wright the "Greatest architect of the nineteenth century," and wanted to include him in a historical role. I'm sure Wright was thrilled about that. And... the international style continues to haunt modern architecture to this day.
Of course, as Johnson (who may have been born elsewhere, but was a New Yorker since prep school) later realized his error after modernism went out of style and Wright was trendy again in in the 1950s. The funny thing is that the Guggenheim is the most international style-ish thing Wright did.. a white-washed machine for viewing art. But it couldn't have been created by Mies, Johnson or anyone else.

Facts are bent by whoever is holding the microphone. Which is probably why Wright had a contentions relationship with Johnson... the microphone holder. ]]> http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/mr-wright-comes-to-moloch/35918/#comments 2012-09-10T14:32:49-05:00
google results:
guggenheim museum: 5,810,000
fallingwater:1,200,000
frank lloyd wright and guggenheim: 689,000
frank lloyd wright and fallingwater: 509,000

fallingwater is not more famous than the guggenheim, even adjusting for the relative subjectivity of "fame."

otherwise, you are wrong, johnson (btw: born and raised in ohio and north carolina, not nyc) BEGGED wright to be a part of the museum's first architectural exhibition.

facts matter. ]]> http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/mr-wright-comes-to-moloch/35918/#comments 2012-09-10T09:59:20-05:00
I like NYC too, but FLW's comments are pretty much statements of fact: the city that birthed Philip Johnson, Donald Trump and P.Diddy is All About the Benjamins... this is a crass city with crass architecture where taste and authenticity must be imported... even if FLW liked the energy of the city, i don't think he ever lost perspective enough not to lose his eye for detail, scale and taste.

Also, I could be wrong, but didn't Philip Johnson keep FLW out of the MoMA at the beginning because Johnson was an European International Style groupie (among other fascist hobbies)? I don't think that Wright was ever 'Sprockets' enough for him. Pretty sure that was the case. ]]> http://observatory.designobserver.com/feature/mr-wright-comes-to-moloch/35918/#comments 2012-09-10T02:41:32-05:00