Art & Inspiration If Frank Lloyde Wright had a 57 Chevy

I wonder if this is the Artiste?

 

Tough song to dance to.

 

I saw a bunch of pics somewhere of cars made into waterfalls like that and other yard art thingies. Can't remember now where or when, may have even been on here. It is strange what some people do....

 

If Frank designed a car you could bet your last buck the fucker would leak. Then he'd stand there and tell you (with water dripping in your face) that it wasn't leaking, and that it was your fault.

 

In Mukwonago Wi. there is an old truck waterfall at the do it yourself car wash place.

 

Wright's problem is that he would not listen to his designers. Just because you envision something does not mean it can be built. It's like putting a hemi engine in a stock Model T. It might look cool but would be un-drivable. He was told point blank from his designers that the "patio" in Fallingwater was too heavy and could not support its own weight. His solution was to fire the designer. About 30 or so years ago they needed to do a multi million dollar fix to prevent it from collapsing.

 

The gas station he designed.

 

Lots of “Frank Lloyd Wright” hot rods out there. They look cool sitting still on a sunny day, but they would fall apart going down the road. Maybe best use is for show, like the waterfall in the first post.

 

Thats in Cloque, Mn. Been by that a bunch is really neat and thought it would make a unique speed shop.

 

It would stand to reason Frank didn’t have materials at hand that we do today. I mean how many old find’s of customs and rods (visions) that didn’t hold up even after sitting under a dry roof.

 

Maybe Wright designed all these camshafts that fail so quickly..

 

When my grandson was due to be born, my wife and I planned the trip to Pittsburg to coincide with the due date. He ended up arriving 10 days late. We were getting bored watching the daughter in law waddle around the house and my birthday was coming, too. We made plans to visit Falling Water as a birthday treat.

My birthday arrives and the daughter in law announces she thought that she needed to get to the hospital instead.

I told her," That's wonderful, let's go. Besides, I was getting worried, because last night I had a dream that some priceless Frank Lloyd Wright rug was going to be destroyed by 'falling water'." LOL.

BTW, the grandson is going to be 18 (!!!) next week.

 

His other L29 CORD.

 

Fallingwater was built and as far as I'm concerned we are far better off because of it. What a boring world if not for people who say "screw that, I'm going to build that".

And it's still standing with thousands and thousands of people visiting it every year.

 

I build 'Starchitect' houses for a living - no '57 Chev waterfalls on my resume yet?

Can't speak to the personality who refuses to listen to other experts but, if FLW had available to him what we have today, who knows what we would be building now.

 

And millions of dollars spent over the years to keep it standing!

 

So what? How much would it cost to keep a drag strip operational for 86 years?

How much have we spent upkeeping the Washington Monument? Graceland? Monticello?

How many other once private residences do thousands seek to visit every year?

 

"Fallingwater", that would be a great name for a radiator repair shop.

 

Was there about a month ago
Also have been to Polymath park in Acme pa
Three houses moved there brick by brick

Frank was not car friendly never wanted garages designed into his houses
You were lucky to get a car port

 

Motivation can be a bad thing too

 

Some of Frank's buildings weren't very sound. Rot from moisture plagued some of them. Some of the physical structure failed on others. All from poor design. They had to be redesigned...and the fixes hidden to save Frank's "vision". Frank's personal life wasn't very great either. He abandoned his first family.

 

Absolutely. If Falling Water had been designed by someone else, it would be one of thousands of mundane homes on spectacular property that nobody has ever heard of. Possibly even torn down and rebuilt by now. We certainly wouldn’t be discussing it.

Many love these Wright buildings for their style and design and what they represent in America’s history. Their owners are happy bear the costs of restoring and maintaining them. It puzzles me that a community of early car enthusiasts fails to understand this. Do we not embrace car designs and technologies that are now obsolete? That are sometimes mocked as primitive and dated by people who do not share our appreciation for a transformative time in transportation and American society?

Did Wright’s buildings sometimes leak? Yes. So do old Fords.

 

There are lots of cars I walk by because the design does nothing for me. Same with the Wright designed buildings, they lack warmth, soul, bet there is an empty echo when you walk through one, they are a lump on the landscape.

 

The El Morocco came to mind when I saw the title

 

Frank was like Charlie the Tuna trying to show Starkist he had good taste. people paid money to have Frank run their lives just so they could say their home was designed be Frank. For the amount of money people paid for Frank houses rot or structural shortcomings should never be a problem. An investment like that should never had been a temporary installation.

https://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/02/us/rescuing-a-world-famous-but-fragile-house.html
https://www.insider.com/what-frank-lloyd-wright-got-wrong-2016-8#many-buildings-leaked-2

 

On the other hand, it could be argued that Wright's post-Prairie design trajectory was, in broad terms, the exact same one which has led to the technologically opaque, passivity-inducing appliance cars we have today, the very stuff many of us are kicking against.

I do not embrace car designs and technologies that are now obsolete. I reject technological paradigm disruptions imposed from a position of power for purposes which are largely contrary to my own interests. I look to past designs for clues as to what might have been, for a starting point from which to start imagining, inventing, designing.

I wonder how many here on the HAMB are likewise more about counterfactuality than nostalgia, without having had cause to think of it in those terms. The late anthropologist David Graeber said, “the ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently.” If that is so a counterfactual imagination is a perfectly sensible thing.

 

Eh, I don’t know.

 

I don't speak ill of dead people. I Don't relish the thought of defending my conduct from the afterlife.