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The story of how Frank Lloyd Wright drew up America's finest Twentieth-Century house in the time it took the client to drive two hours to meet him is the stuff of legend...
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Friday afternoon a week before St Patricks Day seems an ideal time to ponder a fairly convincing Ontological Proof of God provided by a skinful of Guinness, a pretty girl and a bright sun...
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Those of you have commented on John Key's speech to West Harbour Rotary in which he argues for the benefits of greater government meddling might be interested in yesterday's discussion of the speech with bFM's Simon Pound, now online.
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One of Australia's most prolific architects has died. Harry Seidler (1923-2006) was an unabashed modernist responsible for many of Australia's well-known public buildings including Sydney's Australia Square and Grosvenor Place, and Brisbane's Riverside Bu
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As if to demonstrate that we know far less about astro- and quantum physics than we think we do, New Scientist reports this week that the existence of black holes is under question...
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More FM yesterday ran a story saying that the Libertarianz political party supported racism. More FM now accepts that this was incorrect. Libertarianz Deputy Julian Pistorius confirmed that his party does ~not~ support racism, but it does support people's
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As I mentioned when I first suggested this, "we plan to integrate BBQ, beer-drinking, physics and rugby": What could be better, eh? Schrodinger's Fridge Cat? Strange particles? The interconnectedness of everything? Beer! In a series of taped lectures...
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A wonderfully free-flowing 'pinwheel' plan for this country house project by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe from 1923. A plan that combines elements of Frank Lloyd Wright, De Stijl, Berlage and Malevich.
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It doesn't stop, does it. Hard on the heels of Carter's Whangamata Veto, the Communist Commerce Commission chair-thing Paula Rebstock says she wants to throw a spanner in Fairfax's plan to give TradeMe founder Sam Morgan a large cheque.
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Chris Carter has done everyone a favour. He's made it clear even to the unwashed and unenlightened that meddling is in, that enterprise is out, that the separation of powers in this pathetic authoritarian backwater is non-existent, and that New Zealand op
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Herald: "Do you support widespread legalisation?" Mr Hide: "No."
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Nursery school bosses [in Oxfordshire, UK] ordered the words of the rhyme Baa Baa Black Sheep to be altered to Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep. The change was made to avoid offending children after teachers examined the nursery's equal opportunities policy. Stuart
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Frank Lloyd Wright's Larkin Building of 1905 was revolutionary. The first atrium office building -- indeed, the first atrium building of any type -- air-conditioned, fire-proof, a veritable 'cathedral of industry.'
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The Wellington firebreather made short work of a stack of census forms tonight at the Botanic Gardens Soundshell, doing what he does best in front of a crowd of forty or so that included a group of scouts chanting "Burn, Census, Burn!"
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This is what a meddling arsehole looks like (left). Chris Carter, MP, has just stepped in to reject the application to build a $10 million marina in Whangamata after consent for the project had already been granted by the Environment Court. Carter knows best...
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...discussing 'prisoner rehabilitation' and Rachaelle Namana over the last day or so, I've kept hearing the phrase "repaying their debt to society." Prisoners, people keep saying, need to to "repay their debt to society." What on earth are they talking about?
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Liberals tend to like cats; conservatives tend to like dogs. Such is the result reported by the Washington Monthly...
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Didn't 'we' do well. Weta Workshops's Richard Taylor is now equal Oscar-wise with Clint Eastwood, Bob Hope, John Barry and Francis Ford Coppola as the winner of five Academy Awards. Says the Dom enthusiastically: "Wellywood and Weta have done it again, with King Kong grabbing
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Wow! Dr. Wafa Sultan is a secular Arab-American psychologist, whose view of Islam can best be decribed as one of absolute contempt. On February 21 she confronted radical Islamist cleric Ibrahim Al-Khouli in a debate on 'The Clash of Civilizations,' not in
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When someone buys a Mercedes Benz or Jaguar, they look for quality, comfort, and detail. Size has nothing to do with the appeal of these cars. If you wanted nothing but space, you could buy a truck. Why is it, then, that some people feel compelled to buy bigger when it comes to their house, even though bigger is not always better...
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Meanwhile, Libertarianz has organised a protest at the Wellington Sound Shell, with a fire breather to burn census forms. The press release states: "Libertarianz leader, Bernard Darnton, announced the event today, saying that "the census is a blatant e
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In 1906 architect Louis Sullivan criticised the then-traditional bank with its classical ornament and layout in an article in The Craftsman -- read by musician-turned-banker Carl Bennett, Sullivan was challenged to "suggest how to obtain something better
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Democracy, as Bill Weddell used to say, is the counting of heads regardless of content. I talked the other day about the importance in a democracy of putting things beyond the vote, so that your life, liberty and your right to pursue your own happiness ca
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Good for Sam Morgan, the fomer owner of NZ's most popular website, TradeMe, the site he started just seven years ago that now accounts for sixty-percent of NZ's web traffic. He is "the former owner" because as you might have heard he's just sold it for th
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Tomorrow night I shall be burning my census form. That is, I would be if I had one. Apparently I am amongst the third or so of central Aucklanders who haven't yet had a form delivered. How sad. Perhaps I'll need to download a form in order to burn it.
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'The rich keep getting richer!' screams economist Paul Krugman. 'So what,' says George Reisman in his latest blog. Actually, they both say it far more learnedly than I just summarised, but what you got was the gist of it...
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Four questions for you this morning: * Given that a man has been jailed last year for offending the state religion cutting down his own trees on his own property, and that yesterday a man was fined $100,000 after abasing himself before a room full of zealots...
Plein Air
It's just so ~right~, isn't it. As a client, you could imagine Wright winking at you with amusement every time you used it. ;^)
Yes, and I'm fortunate that today is a warm enough day that I can mimic the effect with my window wide open (and a few birds chirping away) -- but it just isn't the same.
:-)
"Oh my...'Colonial' (as I understand it) is the last impression I would get. This seems like a case of needing to apply a convenient label, which I had wondered about when the host mentioned it."
Yep, that's about it. I think Rand called that sort of label a 'package deal.'
"I find the view of the stream from the living room breathtaking,"
It's great, isn't it. Opening that folding glass cover (in the lounge, directly opposite the fire) takes you directly down to the stream, and to a plunge pool using teh stream's water. Fire and water, directly related -- and not by accident.
"...my very favorite touch is the cut-out in Kaufman's desk that allows the full-length window to be opened inward."
It's just so ~right~, isn't it. As a client, you could imagine Wright winking at you with amusement every time you used it. ;^)
Oh my...'Colonial' (as I
Oh my...'Colonial' (as I understand it) is the last impression I would get. This seems like a case of needing to apply a convenient label, which I had wondered about when the host mentioned it. (And he likely applied 'Modernist' as he didn't know what else to call it.)
I find the view of the stream from the living room breathtaking, but my very favorite touch is the cut-out in Kaufman's desk that allows the full-length window to be opened inward. That is the touch of a man who knows the luxurious feeling of working that way -- almost in plein air. I find it quite decadent.
Thank you, Peter.
Colonial! Modernist?
Jennifer, thanks for your comments. You asked: "Also, do you have any knowledge of why he chose to pull back from Modernism in this particular interior? I believe the clip said it was more of a Colonial design."
I'm not sure that you'd call the interior 'Colonial,' or Wright a 'modernist.' The misinterpretation perhaps comes from a misunderstanding of Wright's relationhship to both 'colonial architecture' (which he reviled) and modernist architecture (which in large part he inspired, but dis-respected). Wright himself never called his architecture anything but Organic.
If you want to look at some pics of the interior to see for yourself (and try and see them with 1936 eyes if you can) then have a look here.
Fallingwater
What a great story. I find it sadly typical that people would question Wright's ability to design a house in so little time, when he was clearly a man with a great mind, and was confident his staff was capable of delivering what he needed on time. If he weren't, why in hell would he set himself up that way?
I'm particularly fond of his cheek: "We love Mozart, we hate Beaux Arts..."
Peter, the timeliness is quite appropriate on this one. When we last communicated I had asked about some of the architectural issues I had discovered about Fallingwater, but in no way was that my attempt to diminish Wright's contributions, nor his achievements, as I think you had interpreted my question. I was simply curious to know what happened. Now I'll have to go dig through the archives and find the answer.
Also, do you have any knowledge of why he chose to pull back from Modernism in this particular interior? I believe the clip said it was more of a Colonial design.