Taliesin

This is the 100th anniversary of Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin residence in Wisconsin. Here is the economist on the difficulties of preservation.

My wife and I visited there about seven years ago, when I was on the job market deciding between moving to Wisconsin or Michigan or staying at Maryland. It is about a 45 minute drive south of Madison and well worth the trip.

Turkel House

The Agitator had a link to a piece about the restoration of Frank Lloyd Wright's Turkel House (named after its first owner, as they always are) in Detroit.

I first thought, encouraged by this description at the Architizer, that it has been left to rot in some neighborhood gone bad, but in fact the owners just ran out of money, it sat empty for a while while being foreclosed, and was then bought by its current owners, who have poured in quite a lot of money - Wright was not actually very good at designing houses for those of modest means - to restore it to glory. I also found some photos from when it was on sale in 2006, prior to the repairs, as well as the website maintained by the current owners and an article from Detroit's Hour magazine about the house.

Expensive or not, it is a very cool house.

Addendum: Apparently it is more common to abandon Frank Lloyd Wright houses than I would have thought. Reader (and old friend) Scott points to the not dissimilar history of the Martin House in Buffalo.

Ann Arbor federal building

I've often walked by the ugly not-so-very-attractive federal building in downtown Ann Arbor and wondered, sometimes silently and sometimes aloud, what fine old buildings were torn down to make way for it. Here is the answer. I am sad.

At the same time, I think the post overstates in calling the federal building the ugliest in Ann Arbor. The apartment tower on South University takes that honor, in my view.

Architectural failure

A slide show of architectural failures from Slate.

I actually like the Stata Center (no relation to the statistical package) at MIT. I've walked by it a few times in transit between the NBER and the Sonesta. Falling Water is amazing, despite the issues in the slide show, and well worth a visit even if you are not a Frank Lloyd Wright groupie.

Hat tip: the Agitator

Frank Lloyd Wriight house for sale in LA

You can own the Innis House for only $15 million.

Hat tip: Jackie Smith

The architecture of Star Wars

A bit of science fiction fun from The Architects' Journal.

Hat tip: Jackie Smith

Housing envy

Photos of the American Institute of Architects design award winners. Yum.

U of Chicago Law School Remodel

I'm glad that U of Chicago decided to remodel the gorgeous law school building by Eero Saarinen rather than tearing it down, as they did with his Woodward Court dormitory. The latter was demolished in 2002 to make room for the new Graduate School of Business, which was designed by the staff architects at Hilton Hotels. Just kidding.

Hat tip: alumni email from U of Chicago

Frank Lloyd Wright house for sale in Ann Arbor

On the front page of the Ann Arbor news today is a story about the lone FLW house in Ann Arbor going on the market for only (and I mean that seriously) 1.5 million. I will confess to some housing lust as I am a big fan of FLW and have greatly enjoyed visits to Taliesin and Falling Water as well as his home in Oak Park, near Chicago.

Another picture of the Palmer House is here.

Our snail mail for today included a postcard from the local realtor (amazingly, not Nancy Bishop, the seemingly omnipresent seller of all expensive homes around here) selected to sell the Palmer house, with the following request:

"... if you are outside [why not inside?] and approached by someone who asks you for directions to the home, please tell them you have no idea where hte house is located."

Far be it from me to subject anyone, including the Palmers (whose descendants are selling the house), to architecturally inclined pests. So, don't send me an email asking where the house is!