My Frank Lloyd Wright year
This year I had two great experiences traveling to famous buildings that Frank Lloyd Wright designed: his home and studio in Oak Park, Illinois, outside of Chicago, and Fallingwater, in Western Pennsylvania.
The two are so different, and are from completely different times in Wright’s life, but going to both within a few months helped me connect the dots and consider the arc of his career. This ultimately lead me to my new article about Wright in The Atlantic.
In Oak Park, Wright was establishing his own practice, doing houses, and trying to make a name for himself. Everything he would later be known for is there, but it’s not fully expressed.
But by the time Fallingwater comes together, Wright is eager for a big hit. As I describe it in the piece, Fallingwater is…
“…the private residence in the western Pennsylvania woods dramatically cantilevered over a waterfall that would finally put him on the cover of Time and permanently in the national spotlight.”
Like a lot of Wright’s projects, Fallingwater is as impractical as it is impressive. It’s built over a damn creek. But it is impressive, and the response was what Wright always wanted because it allowed him to do projects like the Guggenheim.
The subject of my article, is Ennis House, in L.A., and it was built between the two. It’s definitely got its own weirdness, and that’s exactly why (spoiler) it ends up being so great for genre tv and movies.
