Nothing screams the hubris of urban life like a giant building. And while for some cities a skyscraper is just another building, plenty peg their self-worth on mammoth projects, designed to serve as iconic credentials of progress. However of those planned, only a handful ever result in a shovel in the ground — and even then their completion remains uncertain, held hostage by economic and technical realities. Chicago and Dubai, while already boasting some of the world’s tallest buildings, suffer such disappointment on a regular basis. In the grim midst of the Great Recession, not even the best laid plans of city or architect are safe. After the jump, check out some prime examples of the Tower of Babel’s modern heirs.
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At 765 pages, Architecture of the Sun
, Rizzoli’s lavishly illustrated survey of Los Angeles modernism from 1900 to 1970, is as angular as an Eames building but with the warmth of a Charles and Henry Greene California bungalow. Perched on a coffee table, a monolith of receding straight lines and hard cover, the volume peers over an ocean of pacific blue rug and recalls Pierre Koenig’s famous Case Study #21 house. But like the modernism the book examines, there is more here than form; there is content too. To give proper due to the buildings and the men who built them, author Thomas Hines needs all the pages he can get.
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Photo by Tim Street-Porter
Artinfo reports that Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House (located in Los Feliz, California and inspired by ancient Mayan ruins), is being offered for sale for $15 million (!) by the Ennis House Foundation. Eric Lloyd Wright, Frank’s grandson and a member of the non-profit’s board, believes that a private owner is the best way to maintain the home in the current economy. Read More »
Spending an afternoon with abstract expressionists, batting ideas back and forth about the latest Bacon exhibit, or wandering through a Warhol wonderland is worth more than money can buy. Yet, growing up amid the tentacles of global capitalism, it’s hard to turn our backs on the mantra, “spend, spend, spend” — especially now that shopping is the new religion. That, my friends, is what museum stores are for. Enabling us to get the best of both worlds in a heady combination of art, design, and retail therapy, museum stores let us feel all warm and culturally enriched inside while still feeding our consumer cravings. Here, we run down the best that the culture capitals have to offer.
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TAKE A PHOTO TOUR OF THE ISABEL ROBERTS HOUSE HERE>>
I met Carol and Bill Pollak when I was interning without pay in San Francisco, living (not very well) off my paltry savings. As parents of a friend I’d known in DC, they were kind enough to invite me over for dinner and feed me a square meal. When I remarked on their lovely Marin County home, they agreed it was “nice,” but insisted it was nothing like their previous house, which they described as truly special.
For a little over a decade, from 1988 to 2000, the Pollaks lived in the Chicago suburb of River Forest in a 10-room home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The Isabel Roberts House was erected during Wright’s quaintly termed “Prairie” era and renovated by the architect in the early 1950s. The Guggenheim is currently feting the 50th anniversary of their own iconic, Wright-designed building — giving us the perfect excuse to grill them on what it’s like to live in one of the great man’s houses. Read More »
A Mark Twain for the Baby Boom generation, T.C. Boyle is a portraitist of human folly and fantasy. A prolific writer of both short stories and novels, Boyle recently published The Women, a fictional work about Frank Lloyd Wright, as told by four of his infamous amours. While on a national tour to promote the book, Boyle chatted with our sister publication Boldtype. After the jump, he tells Chelsea Bauch about his fascination with famous egomaniacs, being a mama’s boy, and the extent to which creative writing can be taught.
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Fairey-gate: In the latest twist in this street artist’s drama, Shepard Fairey announced yesterday that he was suing The Associate Press with the hope (get it!) that a judge would find his use of the now infamous Barack Obama photo did not violate copyright law. This is an interesting move because the AP wasn’t going to sue Fairey, they just wanted compensation/credit for their photographer. [Via Chicago Tribune]
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The Wright Stuff?: Lionsgate has nabbed the rights to Loving Frank, a piece of historical fiction by Nancy Horan that explores the famous architect’s affair with Chicago socialite Mamah Borthwick Cheney. John Burnham Schwartz — who previously worked on Reservation Road — will write the script, and judging from this picture, we’d cast another Frank (Langella) in the lead role. It’s funny, once we started thinking about it, we realized that there aren’t too many architects in the movies. [Variety]
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