Comments on: When theory and fact fail to intersect

By: Earl

Earl — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 06:01:23 +0000

So glad to read your cogitations on this subject.

I’ve loved the look of the Marin Civic Center since it was built…but am also very aware of Wright’s failures in the engineering (and personal) areas of life.

For those who want to see what a cock-up his most famous building was, check out this documentary on the “saving” (I’d say more like “reconstruction”) of Fallingwater.

For those who’ve never seen the Civic Center, have a look at Gattica – it was filmed there.

By: Mike Devx

Mike Devx — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 12:05:34 +0000

Spartacus ends with this in #15:
> Control freaks, with no understanding of, or faith in, the efficiency, predicability, freedom, and beauty of well-ordered chaos.

For the left, it *is* all about control, isn’t it? That’s why they distrust the invisible hand in the free market – there’s no obvious control! Government is not in control! Disaster, disaster! There MUST BE CONTROL!!!

By: Opining Online » Links That Spur Questions And Thought

Opining Online » Links That Spur Questions And Thought — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:49:55 +0000

[...] When theory and fact fail to intersect – Bookworm Room. Political lessons from buildings. [...]

By: Spartacus

Spartacus — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:41:04 +0000

I hadn’t intended to do any blogmenting today, but I am really quite certain that I will never have quite such an invitation again to share this particular anecdote. It is a slightly more cheerful story about political insights regarding one of Wright’s buildings. Details on Wikipedia are slightly different from what I remember from the lecture hall many moons ago, but because my architecture prof was a complete guru; because Wikipedia isn’t always correct; and mostly because I am just stubborn, you’re going to get the version I remember hearing.

Fallingwater, Wright’s last house, already introduced by poliwog. Wright designed a giant, cantilevered deck that hung out in mid-air over the river. The owner, Edgar Kaufman Sr., was profoundly nervous about a deck that had nothing underneath, and ordered a support to be built to hold it up. Wright was absolutely furious at having his design second-guessed, but then, he wasn’t the one writing the checks. At a party given to celebrate the completion of the house, Wright and Kaufman were chatting out on the deck. Kaufman said, “You must admit, now that all is said and done, that it just feels better knowing that there’s something down there holding up the deck.” Wright did not give an answer, but proceeded to lead Kaufman downstairs, under the deck, and showed him with great amusement that in fact, the support was an inch or two shy of the bottom of the deck, and not in contact. Kaufman could be assured that in the event of a collapse of the cantilever, the deck would not have far to fall, but Wright had also made his point, that no support from the bottom was necessary.

Ironically, in this story, if one thinks about it a bit, Wright gets to play the conservative, saying, “Don’t worry, this will work without any meddling from you. It’s a tried-and-tested design whose performance characteristics are well known. All you need to do is just stand there, and refrain from getting the ‘Do something!’ disease. Some things in this world you can simply enjoy, without taking credit for making them work.” I remember a time several years ago, after a modest tax cut initiative had been approved by the voters against the will of our “betters,” the air was filled with hysterical wails, moans and dire predictions of crumbling roads and starving children. At about the same time, I noticed, the state DOT was busy tearing up the grass and trees for miles and miles along the sides of two major highways and replacing them with… grass and trees in nice, straight lines. Apparently, landscaping wasn’t the part of the budget that got mortally hit, and those trees couldn’t be counted on to just grow on their own, like they always had previously. Kinda like we need a Messiah in the White House to make the oceans recede… and then come back in again… about every 13 hours. Oh, and don’t forget to centrally plan the economy… can’t have the proles driving that with individual decisions. And get them all onto buses; no telling where they’ll go if you let them drive cars. And make sure some of those buses stop at the local hospital in case some of those who are socially useful need some medical treatment which we deem to be cost-effective.

Control freaks, with no understanding of, or faith in, the efficiency, predicability, freedom, and beauty of well-ordered chaos.

By: kali

kali — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:38:18 +0000

I grew up in Marin, and have fond memories of the Civic Center, simply for the fact the library was there (is it still?) It also provided my very first experience of a metal detector, thanks to the Angela Davis trial.

By: poliwog

poliwog — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:24:29 +0000

(And no, I don’t know what it says about my mind that I draw political lessons from buildings.)

One of my late husbands favorite classes was a History of Architecture elective. One thing the professor stressed was how an eras popular building styles gave a viewer clues to that time’s philosophy. So it simply shows you have a very good mind that can put a lot of little pieces into a logical picture, which is no surprise to your readers.

By: poliwog

poliwog — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:27:48 +0000

Falling Water is indeed a good example of progressivism. While living in PA, I saw an interview with one of the owners who had been a little girl when it was built. They hated that house. Wright had listened to what they wanted, which was a lovely view out the window of their favorite picnic spot (a large rock near a stream), nodded his head, took their money, and destroyed the very things they liked best about the property. To my mind, that seems to be almost exactly what the left is doing right now.

By: Danny Lemieux

Danny Lemieux — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:21:40 +0000

Ah yes, the perfect symbol of progressivism and Hollywood alike: aesthetically beautiful on the outside and rotting from the inside out. I noticed much of the same when we were house hunting years back. The modern architectural statements were abysmally wasteful and uncomfortable places to live.

Same with all these beautifully diagrammed housing projects designed in the LBJ 60s that decayed into hell-holes. The dreams were always trumped by reality.

By: Charles Martel

Charles Martel — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 06:40:23 +0000

Wright’s building is referred to by locals as “Big Pink,” in honor of its coral-colored walls, topped by a distinctive and memorable blue tile roof.

Everything that Book has to say about it is true—it’s an energy sieve that, even as it renders Wright’s fantasy in hard concrete and steel, forgets human needs and comfort.

Still…….the building has its attractions. On Thursday I’m going to meet for lunch in Big Pink’s cafeteria with a bookkeeper friend of mine who has a wicked sense of humor and a great conservative mind. We’re meeting there not because the cafeteria food is great (it’s passable) but because we dig the architecture. For all its many flaws, Big Pink is still an entertaining confection. Wright was a master of small embellishments—sconces, banisters, signage—that can make a building memorable.

That said, Big Pink is an arrogance that should have been built, paid for and suffered through by a private company. To ask taxpayers, even in a Sugar Mountain like Marin, to pay for its exorbitant inefficiences and operating costs is a bit much.

By: richard diamond

richard diamond — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 06:23:58 +0000

Great article Book. You missed one of your other callings as an architectural critic. If I had never seen it, I would have seen it.