[HN Gopher] The house is a work of art: Frank Lloyd Wright
___________________________________________________________________
The house is a work of art: Frank Lloyd Wright
Author : midnightfish
Score : 108 points
Date : 2026-04-03 22:22 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (aeon.co)
(TXT) w3m dump (aeon.co)
| crooked-v wrote:
| I'm sad that we're coming up towards 100 years on from
| Fallingwater being built, and yet the American preference for new
| houses of a similar price (after inflation) is the sort of awful
| stuff that shows up on mcmansionhell.com.
| ramesh31 wrote:
| People want square footage and comfort, not design. Frank Lloyd
| Wright homes look stunning in an Architectural Digest spread,
| but living in them is not really up to par for modern
| standards.
| WillPostForFood wrote:
| _The main house uses 9,300 square feet of which 4,400 is
| outdoor terraces, while the guest house totals 4,990 square
| feet of which 1,950 square feet is outdoor terraces._
|
| https://fallingwater.org/media-resources/fallingwater-facts/
| ramesh31 wrote:
| >The main house uses 9,300 square feet of which 4,400 is
| outdoor terraces, while the guest house totals 4,990 square
| feet of which 1,950 square feet is outdoor terraces.
|
| Falling Water is his masterpiece. Most client homes were
| around 1,500sqft.
| linksnapzz wrote:
| The newest homes that FLW had a hand in building date from
| 1959.
|
| By the standards of the time, they were comfortable (if a bit
| lacking in closet space).
|
| If you'd like, you can buy a modernized kit Usonian (inspired
| by the Jacobs I house) from Lindal here:
|
| https://lindal.com/home-designs/madison/
| hibikir wrote:
| That hous is still extremely small for what most people in
| the US would put in a full sized suburban lot: Nowadays a
| median build is 2300 square feet (213 square meters). It
| makes that 1600 square feet look very small. The hallways,
| the large space dedicated to a great room and just 2
| bedrooms won't help.
|
| You will find new houses that small, but typically when
| it's extremely high value land, so typically infill. And
| then chances are it's a multi story house that fits the lot
| to the limit.
| linksnapzz wrote:
| Lindal has larger models, for those so inclined.
|
| That said, the kit pictured will, if constructed, will
| have amenities & physical qualities that the similarly
| sized original Jacobs house has had to have retrofitted
| at great cost.
| bombcar wrote:
| 1600 square for two bed/two bath will feel large if well
| designed; many modern houses are _not_ well designed for
| their size - usually _one_ version of a given plan is the
| "optimal/designed" version, and you can keep adding
| things that make it frankly ridiculous, weird winding
| hallways, small rooms, etc.
| anjel wrote:
| Looks more MCM than FLW to me
| tptacek wrote:
| The instinct to preserve and honor Frank Lloyd Wright in Oak
| Park, where I live, has basically frozen the place in amber,
| which isn't something Wright would have wanted, and also worked
| synergistically with exclusive zoning to keep the Village
| ultra-expensive (it directly abuts the Austin neighborhood in
| Chicago, which is low-middle income) and white (unlike Austin,
| which is 90+% Black).
|
| No idea what Wright would have thought about racial housing
| segregation, but it was certainly a knock-on effect of the
| preservationist cult he accidentally created.
| nullc wrote:
| The kind of bespoke construction in Wright's buildings couldn't
| be built today at an order of magnitude higher price, even
| considering inflation. A side effect of mass produced standard
| construction materials has been custom ones becoming
| astronomically expensive due to the skilled labor to build them
| having been replaced with mass production.
|
| I suspect projects like fallingwater have siting considerations
| that wouldn't allow it to be built at all anywhere in the US...
| isn't it built basically on top of a WOTUS?
| linksnapzz wrote:
| It'd be in litigation forever; which is why nobody with the
| means would try to build something like that today. Even if
| they could afford the construction, they can't afford the
| time in court.
|
| Larry Ellison owns a replica Japanese daimyo mansion in
| Woodside, two mansions on Bellevue Avenue in Newport, and 98%
| of the island of Lanai...but none of those structures there
| are (AFAIK) atop a permanent watercourse.
| therobots927 wrote:
| Anyone downvoting you clearly doesn't watch Arvin Haddads
| YouTube channel because it really is revolting how much subpar
| trash sells for $50 million+. Even at the highest end of the
| housing market you see a consistent demand for absolute garbage
| that is about as close to art as a pile of rancid shit.
| mna_ wrote:
| You might like the British TV show Grand Designs.
| zdw wrote:
| If you ever visit Taliesin in Wisconsin (which has a pretty
| bland), you should also visit the nearby House on the Rock which
| is a fascinating and very weird collection of esoteric and
| kitschy items.
|
| The contrast in attitudes and aesthetics between the two is
| incredibly stark, and it's very interesting to see the reactions
| of visitors to each location.
| kiernanmcgowan wrote:
| This is, by far, one of the weirdest places I've ever visited.
| Tonal whiplash is an understatement.
| NoNameHaveI wrote:
| Remember that Wright told HotR owner/designer Alex Jordon that
| he wouldn't hire him to design a chicken coop. You are correct;
| both should be visited. However, get ready for monotony at
| HotR. Room after room after room of Jordan's curiosity
| collection.
| mynegation wrote:
| Fallingwater is more than work of art, it is a religious
| experience. I visited it three times (each time my visit to
| Pittsburgh and the area surrounding the house was to specifically
| see it) and every damn time I stood weeping leaving the tour.
| Mistletoe wrote:
| Can you describe why?
| screye wrote:
| I can only describe it being overcome with a sense of love
| and harmony. I was giggling ear-to-ear the whole time I was
| there.
|
| Great works of art are meant to be religious experiences. At
| Falling water, every part of the house & estate feels like it
| was meant to be there. The shapes and curves feel so right.
| The emphasis on integrating natural materials makes it feel
| one with nature. Frank Lloyd wright cared a lot about sight
| lines, which makes every space easy on the eyes.
|
| I've had similar experiences in great Basilicas[0] such as
| Sagrada Familia[1]. Smaller objects have evoked similar
| feelings too. Be that cars (The Ferrari Roma[2] or Alfa 33
| Stadale[3]) or intricate jewelery (Earrings [4] or watches
| [5]). Great beauty feels divine, and Fallingwater is one such
| example.
|
| [0] Special shout-out to the new Romanesque basilica in DC -
| https://maps.app.goo.gl/8r59NzbgVnqKYAv2A
|
| [1] https://thebarcelonafeeling.com/wp-
| content/uploads/2022/12/S...
|
| [2] https://media.architecturaldigest.com/photos/5f96f18f0a23
| 96c...
|
| [3] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Alfa_
| Rom...
|
| [4] https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/39320
|
| [5] https://www.watchclub.com/upload/watches/gallery_big/watc
| h-c...
| pclowes wrote:
| I need to visit it in person I guess. The photos always leave
| me feeling like I am looking at a very small conference center
| and the feel of it seems off to me for a house. I dont quite
| get the appeal of a lot of his work. It sometimes feel everyone
| has decided its incredible and it persists on its fame over
| substance (not uncommon with art, eg. The Mona Lisa was just a
| small painting on a wall with a lot of arguably better
| paintings for a long time before we all decided to obsess over
| it)
| FireBeyond wrote:
| I can see that. In photos it feels like a very small
| corporate retreat. And there are definitely design decisions
| we've evolved from. But when you are inside, it feels warm,
| open, airy. And so many things are so well thought out to
| make them invisible when they should be, and draw attention.
| I would have enjoyed living in, or vacationing there.
| Lost-Futures wrote:
| As student I had privilege of visiting Taliesin West in Arizona.
| Easily my favorite architect, a true artist.
| kev009 wrote:
| I remember rumors going around Phoenix of someone trying to
| demolish the David and Gladys Wright House in 2011. Someone got
| a great deal on it around that time, $1m. It sold with a 7-10x
| return a a few years later.
|
| Viewed in isolation it is a bit underwhelming, but if you see
| it in landscape it has a charm. I think a copper roof on both
| structures would make it pop.
| iwontberude wrote:
| If you haven't visited falling water, definitely go. It's
| American architecture at its finest.
| linksnapzz wrote:
| If you'd like, you can still speak to the last living client (as
| of last year) of FLW; still living in the house the architect
| designed for him:
|
| https://alumni.cornell.edu/cornellians/reisley-wright-last-c...
| diabllicseagull wrote:
| Fallingwater has just gone through a series of renovations and
| all areas are now accessible. If you haven't seen it yet, now is
| a great time.
| gabrielsroka wrote:
| https://archive.org/details/frank-lloyd-wright-ken-burns
| mauvehaus wrote:
| For the northeastern US folks and anyone willing to travel: the
| Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, NH has not one but _two_
| Frank Lloyd Wright houses in its collection[0]. I've seen the
| Zimmerman House a couple of times, and it hews pretty close to
| the familiar aesthetic of Fallingwater: warm tones, lovely space,
| furniture to match.
|
| The Kalil House I got to see recently, it's the newer
| acquisition. It's a Usonian Automatic, meaning the owner was
| meant to buy the plans and the molds for the concrete blocks, and
| the build it themselves. Long story short: it didn't go exactly
| as planned.
|
| The house is fascinating though: much of it is a concrete gray
| rather than the warmer tones we usually associate wiry Wright's
| work. It feels less tied to the place it's built than either the
| Zimmerman House or Fallingwater. It feels much less starkly
| architectural, and more connected to the way regular people live,
| more attainable, insofar as you can use that word with Wright.
| They also both have ceilings that work with taller people.
| Fallingwater is downright claustrophobic in places.
|
| Highly worth the trip if you're in the area.
|
| And if you're in the area of Fallingwater, Kentucky Knob is
| basically right there. If you've travelled more than a few hours
| to see Fallingwater, you'd be nuts to miss it.
|
| [0] https://www.currier.org/frank-lloyd-wright
| slumberlust wrote:
| As someone 15 min south of Manchester, thank you. Will check
| these out!
| FireBeyond wrote:
| > And if you're in the area of Fallingwater, Kentucky Knob is
| basically right there. If you've travelled more than a few
| hours to see Fallingwater, you'd be nuts to miss it.
|
| My fiancee and I traveled from Seattle to see Fallingwater
| because I'm an architecture nerd. And we missed Kentuck (no y)
| Knob, but only because we decided instead to do Polymath Park
| (where you can stay overnight, though we didn't).
|
| But that was her anniversary gift to me, we actually did an
| extremely enjoyable "sunset tour" which included sit down wine
| and charcuterie and apps on the balcony with only 10 of us in
| total there (funnily enough, literally every other couple/group
| there had at least one architect in it, except for us).
| netfortius wrote:
| Surprised to see nothing about what he's done for S.C.Johnson, in
| and around Racine, WI.
| sombragris wrote:
| I studied graduate school in a building designed by William B.
| Fyfe, one of Wright's Praire School first apprentices. It was
| beautiful and serene. The same city where my school is located
| has a house designed by Wright himself in a special neighborhood
| known as Heritage Hill, also a great example of Wright's style.
|
| I felt grateful that I had to go to class every day in such a
| lovely building (which still stands, btw, albeit with some
| additions and modifications). Having the opportunity to be there
| was, and still is, one of the highlights of my life.
| WalterBright wrote:
| I wouldn't want to live in it, though, because everything would
| be damp.
| laserlight wrote:
| I wish people talked more about the building's shortcomings:
| moisture, mold, mildew, etc. It's a good architectural
| demonstration, but not good architecture --- just like how an
| overengineered code might be interesting, but not practical.
| cube00 wrote:
| The curse of the roof top garden, looks great but weighs a
| tonne when the soil is dump and often leaks.
| pseudohadamard wrote:
| Well TFA did sort of mention it, it said it was a work of
| art, not a house to live in. Lloyd Wright designed fabulous-
| looking buildings but also many that were eminently
| impractical, either because they started falling apart
| shortly after they were built and/or because they had so many
| problems that they were unfit for habitation.
| robertlutece wrote:
| _Leaks are a given in any Wright house. Indeed, the architect
| has been notorious not only for his leaks but for his flippant
| dismissals of client complaints. He reportedly asserted that,
| "If the roof doesn't leak, the architect hasn't been creative
| enough." His stock response to clients who complained of
| leaking roofs was, "That's how you can tell it's a roof."_
|
| _Wright's late-in-life triumph, Fallingwater in Pennsylvania,
| celebrated by the AIA poll as "the best all-time work of
| American architecture," lives up to its name with a plague of
| leaks; they have marred the windows and stone walls and
| deteriorated the structural concrete. To its original owner,
| Fallingwater was known as "Rising Mildew," a "seven-bucket
| building." It is indeed a gorgeous and influential house, but
| unlivable. For its leaks there can be no excuse._
|
| --Stewart Brand, _How Buildings Learn_
| 5kgs wrote:
| I wanted to find a quote of my favorite story about Frank
| Lloyd Wright, although not verifiable it fits well with what
| we know of his character:
|
| > Like the story of the client calling Wright during a
| rainstorm, saying water was dripping on his head, and what
| should he do, "Move your chair," says Wright to Mr.
| Whateverclient depending on the source.
|
| https://franklloydwright.org/willey-house-stories-
| part-10-lo...
| WalterBright wrote:
| I'm not in the least surprised!
| keiferski wrote:
| I visited Falling Water as a kid, so I probably had a limited
| ability to appreciate it. But I do remember finding it rather
| cold and uncomfortable, interesting with the waterfall flowing
| underneath but not really as somewhere I'd want to live.
| klum wrote:
| I always assumed that part of what made "the great architects"
| great was their skill in combining lofty visions with practical
| engineering, making houses that were at once artistic
| statements and durable, comfortable living spaces... utilizing
| the strengths of different materials, built on sound
| engineering principles and so on.
|
| But these architects seem to be more interested in the
| experience you get when _visiting_ the house in its
| environment, rather than the experience of actually living in
| it, and these houses are famously often impractical, hard to
| maintain, and in need of constant repair. That makes them less
| interesting to me.
| Rury wrote:
| That's just architects in a nutshell, and stems from the
| division of labor. They're primarily tasked with designing a
| grand vision, and because of that, aesthetics and features
| naturally end up being primary concerns they deal with (ie
| the "what" and "why"). Whereas engineers are tasked more
| about figuring out the details, the how, and ensuring that
| vision can actually be built, so naturally... practicality
| ends up being a primary concern of theirs, since they tend to
| have to deal with it more.
|
| That's not to say that architects don't or can't make
| practicality their primary concern, just that things
| naturally slant this way since this is typically how labor is
| divided.
| WalterBright wrote:
| I live in the rainy Pacific Northwest. I specified a lot of
| things about it that would keep it dry. The general contractor
| thought it was a waste of money, but I said it's my money and
| that's what I want to spend it on. There were still mistakes,
| but it can be managed.
|
| After 25 years, it has proven its worth.
|
| I've watched my neighborhood evolve, with older homes regularly
| getting dozed and new ones put up. After two or three years I
| see the water damage on them. Sheesh!
|
| Probably the most consequential feature is having large eaves,
| which keeps the windows and siding dry. Lots of modern houses
| around here have no eaves at all!!
| Animats wrote:
| Wright designed a gas station, with a control tower office from
| which the manager can look down on the gas jockeys.[1] It looks
| like it belongs in Southern California, but it's in Minnesota.
|
| His Marin Civic Center is nicely integrated with the terrain.
| Gattica, the movie, was filmed there. Like the gas station, it
| includes a non-functional pointy tower. Wright went through a
| pointy object period.[2]
|
| Wright emphasized materials and surface treatments, to complement
| the plain lines of his buildings. That tended to run up costs.
| But if you use Wright's lines without the materials, you get
| brutalism.
|
| [1] http://www.flwright.us/FLW414.htm
|
| [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marin_County_Civic_Center
| weard_beard wrote:
| Im drinking my morning coffee from my souvenir mug as I read
| this... https://imgur.com/a/c0USqaA
| moron4hire wrote:
| About a decade ago, I got to spend a week at a residency centered
| on immersion and design, provided by the Fallingwater Institute.
| My group of about 12 people stayed at High Meadow, which is an
| educational complex the Institute operates and is also an award
| winning piece of architecture. My wife was insanely jealous.
| Visiting FLW works has been a minor travel hobby for us over the
| years.
|
| Being only a short walk from Fallingwater, we spent some time
| there every day, including one day when we had the whole house to
| ourselves and had dinner on the terrace. We each tried to gain a
| sense of what it was like to live there, rather than just be a
| museum tourist. A couple of folks played card games sitting at
| the kitchen table all night. One person curled up with a book in
| one of the tall, narrow bay windows. I laid out on the floor of
| the living room and stared at the ceiling, something I do at home
| sometimes. I thought laying on the floor would give me a feeling
| of ownership, of doing whatever I wanted with a place, because
| you couldn't do that as a regular tourist.
|
| It... kinda worked. Not really. It was too surreal. I don't know
| if I'd ever be able to feel like Fallingwater was home.
|
| My wife and kids and I visited Taliesin West last summer as part
| of a Grand Canyon trip. I had much the same feeling there, while
| listening to the tour talk about FLW and his apprentices living
| there, that I couldn't imagine it _as_ a real living space. Also,
| I started getting real cultish vibes from the stories of some of
| the stuff the apprentices went through. Of course, Scottsdale, AZ
| wasn 't any cooler back then than it is today and they built the
| place themselves, by hand, without any air conditioning. More
| than one apprentice's marriage ended in divorce over the place
| because their wives couldn't stand living in tents in the desert
| without power and running water during the construction _years_.
| I was also struck by how I would not expect anyone to even be
| _allowed_ to bring a spouse on any similar apprenticeship in the
| modern day, but that 's a different issue.
|
| Between all of those experiences and also hearing the stories of
| how much the wives of FLW's clients would fight with him over
| kitchens, my own career as a consultant, not being able to
| imagine telling a client they couldn't have the kitchen they
| want, and other issues, in recent times I've lost some respect
| for FLW.
|
| I don't think his Usonian concepts have had much impact on
| society. For one thing, most people don't even know Usonian is a
| word, as evidenced when I see them try to come up with a word for
| a North American who isn't Canadian or Mexican (USian has to win
| a prize for finding an even more awkward term than Usonian).
|
| That leaves all of his contract work, which was frequently deeply
| flawed in construction. Some of that defectiveness was due to him
| experimenting with new construction techniques that eventually
| got perfected and are no longer so flawed, but there are still
| many core issues. I would come home from visiting his works and I
| would wrack my brain over how to employ his ideas of
| incorporating nature into living spaces before I finally
| remembered I live in Virginia: nature here is primarily composed
| of mosquitoes a this breathable water we call "air".
|
| His designs are all-or-nothing, it must be employed as a unified
| whole. It doesn't look right if it's a single piece of furniture
| or a window treatment in an otherwise normal house. Putting a 50"
| flat screen in Fallingwater would ruin the place. Got walls at 90
| degree angles to each other? Sorry about your luck! It ends up
| looking like wearing cargo shorts and a Fedora. If you have a
| regular ass house like every other "impoverished" slob with a
| quarter acre lot in suburbia, FLW-style design does not work. I
| say "impoverished" because FLW-style designs are exclusively the
| purvue of the ultra rich. To have a house that coordinated, that
| put together, takes "I make people work overtime for me and I
| don't even know their names" kind of money.
|
| In 2024, I spent $750,000 on a 1200 sqft rancher built in 1962.
| Less than a decade before that, Kentuck Knob had been completed
| for about $96,000. My house may not be as pretty, but at least
| the roof doesn't leak and the stove can fit a cake.
| jethkl wrote:
| > I don't think his Usonian concepts have had much impact on
| society.
|
| The word Usonain has vanished, but the style's influence has
| not.
|
| > In 2024, I spent $750,000 on a 1200 sqft rancher built in
| 1962.
|
| The Jacobs First House [1] in Madison, WI was the first Usonian
| house; it is credited with many features that became common in
| the mid-century ranches of the 50's and 60's. Stewart Hicks has
| a good deep dive [2] into Wright's influence on 20th century
| architecture.
|
| [1]
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_and_Katherine_Jacobs_F...
|
| [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXyiK-zVKsE
| moron4hire wrote:
| I don't know, man. I mean, I know it's the standard
| Architecture School answer that Wright was influential. But I
| feel like that can only be said if you focus on superficial,
| outward appearance and completely ignore his design
| philosophy, why he designed the way he did.
|
| The materials he chose were meant to make home ownership
| accessible to the common man. Your own link to the Jacob's
| House talks about Mr. Jacobs being "a young newspaper man".
| The $5000 cost in 1935 is like $120k today. Yeah, if 1500sqft
| houses cost $120k today, I could believe a journalist just
| starting out on their career could afford the mortgage on it.
|
| Are houses L-shaped now? Yeah, sure. Are they accessible to
| the common person? Not at all. People are talking the Little
| Golden Book version of Wright's philosophy.
|
| Also, _my_ house is not L-shaped. Jacobs got 25% more house
| for 1 /6th the inflation adjusted price. He got a study _and_
| a shop; I 'm performing my own manual labor in my back yard
| to build a gazebo that I hope will work as a shop for me. As
| a newspaper hack with a likely-unemployed wife he got a house
| near a lake. My electrical engineer with a master's degree
| wife working at a major military research institution and I
| got a drainage ditch that kinda looks like a stream when it
| rains really hard. And we're in our 40s. Everyone massively
| missed Wright's point.
| NoNameHaveI wrote:
| Having visited multiple Wright buildings, I must say this: no
| photograph or video will EVER do it justice. The man was a master
| of light. Wright buildings MUST be visited in person to
| experience this. You will FEEL it.
| ForOldHack wrote:
| When someone mentioned that these were available for download, I
| printed them in high res tabloid, and had them enlarged 4x and
| put the best two on my wall.
|
| It literally entered my though my pores... I became a better
| designer, a better illustrator, a better carpenter, a much better
| visualizer.
|
| I used to live in San Rafael, and San Anselmo, a stones throw
| away from the Marin Civic Center, and two of his houses... I
| studied and sketched the Civic Center from many angles, and saw
| 'Gattica.'
| pclowes wrote:
| > "The house is a work of art"
|
| I really disagree with this and think this sentiment lies at the
| heart of a lot of our current architectural and housing issues.
|
| Yes, houses should be beautiful and inspiring. However, they
| should not be "art" they should not be trying to say something.
| They should be trying to mesh with and improve the neighborhood
| they are in. They should be rooted in time and place. Every
| traditional form in a region is there because of tradeoffs of
| housing design in the area. Trying to build modern blocky houses
| and violating these tradeoffs with tech and materials always
| feels bad. Theres a reason New England farm houses are the way
| they are and so sought after.
|
| Houses as sculpture made by architects trying to impress other
| architects results in a disjoint aesthetic. Nobody wants to visit
| a hodge podge of houses in the style of whatever was in vogue
| when they were last remodeled. See all the blocky and angular,
| white, black with some wood tones built/remodel in the past 10
| years that already look dated. They ruin beautiful traditional
| neighborhoods.
|
| Buildings as art/fashion is inherently unsustainable as they have
| to be bulldozed whenever tastes change.
|
| Architectsagainsthumanity has a lot about this.
| csb6 wrote:
| > They should be trying to mesh with and improve the
| neighborhood they are in. They should be rooted in time and
| place.
|
| I take it you are not familiar with FLW's philosophy? He
| believed buildings should mirror their environment using local
| materials and forms that fit into the landscape. He definitely
| wasn't in favor of the houses you seem to be describing, which
| don't fit their environment or local nature. That doesn't mean
| his buildings can't be considered beautiful or art. Art can fit
| into and mirror its environment.
| pclowes wrote:
| I get what you're saying but Falling Water is notoriously
| damp, rusting, and uncomfortable. Most of his houses are form
| over function.
| csb6 wrote:
| A house can be aesthetically appealing and matched to its
| surroundings without being leaky or damp. A house that is
| ugly and out of place can also be leaky and damp (they
| often are because those architects often are also
| prioritizing form over function, but an ugly form instead
| of an appealing form).
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2026-04-04 23:01 UTC)