Fallingwater

I knew I'd get around to sharing this eventually! Part two of my recent road trip out east: a little slice of heaven, Frank Lloyd Wright style.



Fallingwater, in Mill Run, PA, is a little off the beaten path, and you need a car, or at least an organized bus (orrr a really good idea of bus routes) to get there. Mill Run is kind of a funky, claptrap kind of town. There are some cute buildings downtown, but many of the shopfronts are shut and a number of enormous and once very ornate houses on the main street are now boarded over and abandoned. The typical American downtown in the 21st century?

My sister and I had our own car, as it was a road trip, so the challenge was not so much getting there, but finding it. I managed to veer down an alley at one point, thinking myself the totally-on-top-of-it road warrior, but Mill Run has some funny intersections and a number of one-ways, so beware, tentative driver, if you happen to find yourself there.

When we made it through Mill Run proper and out into the country, we followed a hilly road to the entrance of the park, which is demarcated by a lovely FLW-esque sign that and a beautiful little drive into the parking area through shady trees which hadn't quite started to turn color yet.

After purchasing our tickets, we parked and made for the visitor center, which is kind of wonderful in itself. The central desk is the nucleus of this little amoeba of a visitor pavilion, with little arms that stretched out to encompass the restrooms, a cafe, and the gift shop. It was all quite nice. After a cursory look around the museum shop, our tour was called -- you have to book a tour to see the house -- and we wandered down gravel trails through the woods until we came upon this:

We met our tour guide on a bridge that used to be the driveway around the back of the house and up to the car ports. The water was low that day, as the summer had been so dry, but there was a trickle. The platform at the bottom of the stairwell was several inches above the water, but often hovers at water level when the stream is more active.

Not the best photo, admittedly, but I loved the way the house seemed so float in the forest as we walked in front of it. And from this angle you get a good idea of the number and significance of the windows in the place.

We weren't allowed to take photographs inside the house, which was unsurprising. True to Wright, there was a tendency for small bedrooms and small walkways that opened up into expansive common areas and out onto the numerous terraces. Standing on the various levels and seeing the house and the grounds from different perspectives was really amazing in itself. It seemed never to end.

My favorite thing about Wright was his inclination, especially with this house, to preserve, work with, and emphasize nature. All of the rooms had windows and/or terraces that brought the outside in. And not only that, but he made sure there was very little that obstructed that view. The way the corner windows hinged open on the outsides and left openness in the middle as opposed to a window frame to block the view was genius. But it was also the little things. The original owner wanted a large desk in his bedroom, but there were swinging windows that would be in the way, so Wright simply cut out a quarter-circle shape in the surface of the desk so that the window could still swing open. Outside, the photo below sort of illustrates how no detail was overlooked:

All of Wright's furniture was integrated perfectly with the house; the craftsmanship was unbelievable.

Even if Wright it's my all-time favorite architect, there is still some serious respect to be had for someone who could design something of such beauty -- and something so livable. It was an awesome opportunity to see one of the most iconic houses in the world, and I'm glad we made it there.

a bit of catch-up.

so, first, i should start by admitting that i've been a total SLACKER in the blog department. but -- i'll at least attempt to amend that situation with a couple of totally killer things i've stumbled across recently. all worth a glance. some of which i'm excited to visit in person over the next few months!

first, and maybe most exciting to me: the underbelly project. the site is apparently not totally up and running yet, but to sate our street art appetite (or mine, at least!) there are a few blogs that show images of the work. what is it? some pretty well-known street artists ("rockstars," even, if you like that term. i don't, but just to clarify) have done up some fantaaastic walls of a disused train station in new york city. i don't personally identify the subway system in new york with its abandoned stations -- the ones in london have taken on something of a cult status over the years. but the underbelly project has enlisted some talented folks to paint an underground street art gallery. it's not open all the time, and hosts pieces most of us will never see. but artists like roa, and the london police are all in there -- i've raved about these two before here, and here -- doing up the place, in some cases in collaboration with others, to make some really astounding work that's mostly hidden.

some amazing photographs via lunapark on flickr here.

that's one thing i would kill to see.
but onto another...


via contemporist

this is probably the greatest small home i've seen in a long time. it's so simple. fluid, open, absolutely made of windows. that's what i like. i like windows. lots and lots of them! everywhere! you get the idea. toronto-based GH3 designed this house for an obviously amazing landscape. i remember rock like that when i was "survival camping" in ontario several years ago -- the way that the house looks like its jutting out of the stone is so awesome. not to mention it's the minimal hyper-modern style that i lalalove. i want to spend MY weekends here. clear out!



one of the galleries on my list to check out in london, in the spring? concrete hermit. currently showing kid acne, i can't wait to see what's on when i'm there in 2011. alternative contemporary art space -- and shop!! woo!! looks like my kind of place.



and last but DEFINITELY not least: POP: the genius of andy warhol by tony scherman and david dalton. if i had to recommend one book that i've read this year, it would be this one. hands down. if you have even the most vague, fleeting interest in andy warhol, not to mention a dying urge to know absolutely everything about him (ahem, me?) this book is absolutely worth the read. because, well, it's highly readable. it's a wild ride. he was an outrageous person who did outrageous things and surrounded himself with outrageous people. one might argue that those people were what made him outrageous to begin with. there are a lot of other names to swallow in andy's world -- he surrounded himself with a huge slew of people. but all of these characters are worth knowing.

the book isn't a comprehensive b-to-d bio. it's the 1960s; it's the decade that andy warhol established himself as possibly the most famous and prolific artist in the world. at least of the 20th century. the fact that one can find warhol's images or words stamped on anything from jeans and record album covers to drink coasters and necklaces is sort of self-explanatory. it's basically warhol's dream. this book is a joy. it's entertaining -- how can his life not be entertaining? it examines his lifestyle and how it related to his work. even though i personally wouldn't mind, it doesn't go into a bunch of technical this-means-that and that-is-like-that-because sort of art historical jargon. if anything, it dispels the notion the warhol's works "mean" much of anything at all. it's objective. and it's colorful without being gaudy.

anyway. READ IT. read it. readittttt. (paperback is out 11/23/2010!)

marcio kogan i love you.

via contemporist

ahh, another marcio kogan (the website is rad) house. again with the love. just had to share. i've got a burgeoning love for these contemporary brazilian architects.

farnsworth house.

more photos after the jump.

last week i spent six days in the southern chicago suburbs for work. the saturday that i drove back to wisconsin, i took a detour to plano, illinois to see the farnsworth house, ludwig mies van der rohe's masterpiece of a residence along the fox river.

i was extremely impressed not only with the house, but with the visitor center and the staff. i was running fifteen minutes late for my tour when i got there, but it was absolutely no problem at all to move me over to the next one, and the woman in the gift shop cheerfully put in a documentary about the house for me while i waited.

the house is one of those iconic places that is pictured in every architecture and art history book you'll ever pick up. mies van der rohe accomplished great modernist architecture in this house, and it's no wonder at all that since it was first heard of, it's been world famous.

i'm a big fan of modernist and contemporary architecture, as you might already guess by some of my previous posts. i read dwell magazine to get an idea of the trends, i look at photos in house books and other periodicals... but nothing compares to being able to stand inside the house and experience it for yourself. a house is a 3-D object that can't be appreciated by looking at a photograph, just like a a sculpture can't be appreciated fully until you can walk around it. a house you have to be able to walk around, and walk inside of.

the outside of this house is impressive, but it's when you're inside that you feel you've been transported. standing anywhere inside the house, one cannot see any of the supports holding up the lower porch or any part of the I-beams that touch the ground. you're lifted five feet and some inches off the ground, and with the flawless floor-to-ceiling windows, you feel almost like you're floating through the woods.

mid-century modern = one of my favorite eras in 20th century architecture. this falls into that very broad category, but mostly it's in the international style. theory, of course, being an art history fanatic, is where it's all at. one of my favorite concepts that this house embraces, being an international style home, is the twofold juxtaposition of new-world and old-world. first, it's a modern house in a natural setting. new and old. in the materials of the house, mies used steel and glass along with roman travertine marble and rare primavera wood from guatemala.

it's flawless. i want one. :)

all photos (c) katie mothes 2010

now THIS is a renovation.

via contemporist

you are meant to ignore the above photo. but one has to appreciate having seen it, so keep that dismal, winter ranch in mind when you look at the photo after the jump.

WOW. i have kind of a distaste for the sort of blah ranch in the above photo. so did the owners of that house, apparently, because they turned it into something SO much cooler. but what's great is that the mid-century sensibility wasn't totally lost on it. and while the house is nearly unrecognizable as something having been built out of that, the interior updated and brightened and opened and looks every bit as modern and fresh and groovy as this house was probably hoping to look when it was first built. designed by hufft projects, whose other designs i'm also quite fond of, this "modern w/ ranch" in kansas is serious about the mod.

i love a good makeover!!!

laurie frick and her house.

via contemporist

it's been a while since i've come across a new modern residence in my daily perusing that has had me feel so warm and content as this one in austin, tx by krdb. one thing it has going for it is the warmer climate of texas, where i'm always drawn to the desert plant landscaping and the possibility for more open, airy spaces. what's so exciting about this house (for an artist, laurie frick -- the things one discovers!) is how it seems to combine homey-ness and material collections with gallery-like open spaces and white, modern walls. an obvious choice for an artist, but it still seems full of life -- which a lot of modern houses, in their very concept, are not at all. i love the industrial hints -- the I-beams on the ceilings, mixed in with the rugs and pottery and books! and art! it's great. it's not so minimal; a change.

laurie frick's stuff is pretty cool. should check out the link above; she does collages out of found postcards, books, papers, etc. and makes some really spectacular works out of art out of them.

jane eyre and california hills.

who wouldn't kill to live in a place like this? the hills of malibu, california, to be sure. this house is gorgeous. the blair house, designed by bruce bolander (link to entire online residential portfolio). i love-love-love the mid-century throwback with the furniture and the long horizontals. it' very "california!" some of his other work is really awesome, too.

and i'm halfway through a re-reading of jane eyre by charlotte brontë. i last read it in high school, possibly my junior year? and i don't remember being too interested in it at all. i'm not sure i was interested in anything literary then. but on further re-evaluation, i realize that i love it. of course, in the vein of other famous english literature -- jane austin, emily brontë, william thackeray, etc. i'm having a great time. :)

also very, very good is richard ford's collection of three short stories published in the 90s entitled women with men. also worth taking a look at -- a quick read, but not forgettable in the slightest.

houses that give me heart palpitations.

via contemporist

OH MY STARS! i am so in love with this house AND its location... i cannot begin to really describe how much i love it. i went directly to the pb elemental architecture website and started fooling around looking at all of their delicious residential architecture. these are the houses that really stop me dead in my tracks... the ones that when all is said and done, look like they grew out of that spot in the earth and were made for exactly that place. this house is magnificent! in the northwest forest, it looks like it is glowing.

this particular house is in north bend, washington. the firm is based out of seattle and all of their featured residences online are in washington. it's no wonder; the northwest is where i would build a contemporary house, no questions asked. the geography is perfect.

i'm keeping these guys in mind. i love everything they're doing.

marcio kogan.

via contemporist

it's basically the haute couture of modern residential architecture. marcio kogan's paraty house in brazil, on an island between são paolo and rio de janeiro. basic structure is two concrete boxes, one on top of the other. the above link has some spectacular photographs of both interior and exterior. i just can't get over the stone. i love the stone. this house is practically a modern museum. check out mario kogan's website (it's an awesome site). all of the projects are seriously to die for, plus, there's some other funky stuff to check out on there. i feel like i'd practically exist in an alternate universe if a place like this was my home.

are they coming back?

i have a confession to make. jamiroquai is at least one of my favorite bands, if not the favorite band. i love them. the only song that ever made it onto mainstream charts here "virtual insanity" way back in what, 1997? i was 12, so let's be real. i barely cared. but when i was about 16 or 17, one of my friends at work (who is still a close friend today) turned me on to these guys. so that was back in 2001 or so. and for my birthday that year, another friend of mine bought me every album they'd released up to that point. and i was set..

the problem is, or was, that there had been some not-so-secret discontent on the band's part, or at least the frontman, jay kay, with their record label, sony. their contract was up after the release of their last "album" -- more or less a greatest hits compilation with a couple of new tracks tacked on the end. those two tracks, i'm telling you... i used them to hold me over as much as i could, but... my friend and i have been waiting... and waiting... for even the tiniest tidbit of news we could nibble on. suffice it to say, i was reading all of the british newspaper rumors up until now; i wanted so much to believe!

and TODAY!! well, it was posted a couple of days ago, but one of the big fan sites, funkin.com, posted a news item after an interview by derrick mckenzie (drummer) on playvbz.com. what this all culminates in is the very real possibility that within a year, i may be holding a brand new jamiroquai album! mention of a tour was made, but i'm not getting my hopes too high yet for that. i do, after all, live in wisconsin.

via yatzer

the osler house, brazil, by marcio kogan.

i want to be here, right now. i love the modular aspect of it, the pivoted top over the pool. it reminds me of mid-century california architecture, which i suppose is perfect in brazil where it is also sunny and warm. the wooden paneling along the bottom opens up out into the pool; i think this is brilliant! it's warm even when it's closed. it's private and closed-off, but it manages not to look like a gigantic garage door. and i feel like the house as a whole just the right size. any bigger and the size would detract from the details, like those stairs at the end that seem to just float off the end of the house.

and on a final note... i love to take trips. yesterday i hopped in my car, still unsure where to go, though i had been thinking i would do the usual route along the northern edge of the door county peninsula. but i took out my wisconsin map and essentially decided i should just drive to northern michigan. i hadn't been up that way since i took a road trip to canada several years ago. the saab had a full tank of gas, so i drove up through green bay, stopping for a coffee along the way, and then just after hwy 41 veers north of green bay, i got off the highway and followed county roads along the lakeshore. some of the towns were so small i could almost blink and miss them... little suamico must have been so little i didn't even notice it.

i drove to peshtigo, wi., of peshtigo fire fame. i knew next to nothing about the fire, other than that there had been one, and i surmised that it was terrible. but i stopped into the historical society fire museum and a sweet old lady summed up what happened that fateful day in 1871. essentially, the town had been battling forest fires all summer, but that october, wind turned it into a real firestorm, and it wipen out the entire town. i looked around the museum for a while. continued up to marinette/menominee, mi. and continued along the lakeshore on m-35 until i decided that since i didn't really have a destination, and escanaba was just a little too far for my patience, i turned around. grabbed lunch at gas station that served like a camping outpost, grabbed lunch, and found a picnic area near the lake right off the road.

took some country roads back. the photo above is of an old school house on hwy j, north of green bay somewhere. i love old, abandoned buildings, and this one had apple trees growing all around it. it was great to get out for the day, and what a beautiful day it was.