How to Fire Frank Lloyd Wright
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu
The rooms are triangle-shaped. Just let that sink in a minute.
My favorite story from the tour was about the penthouse, which was intended as an office for the CEO of the company that commissioned the tower. The office chair was part of the design, and its the most uncomfortable (and immovable) metal abomination you’ve ever seen. FLW was so obsessed with the form of the desk, that he wouldn’t even allow a telephone to be placed on it — the owner had to retrofit one to be installed after the project was complete.
His building look lovely, and he was very influential, but his residents paid the price for that influence.
It’s quite an experience, overwhelming at times.
1) Time costs money. Building time, change time. Custom increases build time, and plan changes increase engineer / architect time to recertify.
Consequently, I would highly recommend starting from a base plan!! (The first exclamation mark I used to register serious recommendation; the second to indicate emphasis.) These plans can be purchased from many sellers, and are already code-compliant.
Thus, your problem space can be windowed down to "What do I want to change from the pre-approved plans?" + "What needs be done to realize those changes?" With the remainder of the house being "as is" and requiring minimal plan work.
This also avoids things becoming overwhelming, as the building starts "done." And should stay "done" (except for the part you're adjusting currently).
1b) Change expense is highly variable, because you're changing an approved system. Sometimes a wall movement will be no charge. Sometimes same will require a new microlam beam and redesigned joist system to realize.
2) Homes are personal. Architects design homes for a variety of reasons, some of which may overlap your personal needs. Think about how you will live in and use the space (as in, on an average Tuesday), and design for that. Assume you will not completely change your lifestyle just because of a new house. ;)
3) The wedding choice problem (from catering experience): anything can be changed. To meet your financial and time goals, only some things should be changed. Come up with some ruthless method of deciding which things are in which category. Expected enjoyment must be > change cost.
4) Work from major to minor changes. Structural changes -> orientation changes -> internal system changes. The former can impact the latter, resulting in cascades of changes. The latter rarely impact the former.
5) Do everything and anything you want in-wall that would make your life easier (insulation, conduit). This is trivial during construction when walls are open, and a pain in the ass after everything is sheetrocked.
6) Look at products like an engineer. Cost difference vs return (financial of according to your value metrics). Manufacturers have incentive to sell you everything under the sun; only some things make sense.
Most things don't make sense. Make something prove itself, rather than starting from an assumption of change.
7) Find a quality builder and monitor them. Show up on site, know your plans, and check random things. Some builders will cut corners; they will cut fewer corners if they know you're watching. F.ex. don't let them bury construction debris in the foundation trench (will eventually settle).
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A hodgepodge of things I've realized are important: foundation[!!!] (basically can't be changed after house is built, easy to plus-size/prepare if in an area with concerns), insulation (if hot or cold climate), foundation drainage (if rainy climate: it's trivial to bury a proper PVC french drain+gravel or gutter drain during construction, and a pain[!!!] after), conduit (home runs to central data closet), joists sizing / stiffness (if you'll be there a long time, don't minimally-size floor joists, as they will weaken over time and lead to bouncy floors).
Misc ideas: geothermal heating and cooling (if geology and temperature support), hybrid hot water heater (heat pump), natural gas heat appliances (incredibly cheap in terms of fuel)
I didn't build a house but I bought one and it's had some significant remodels for some combination of desire and necessity. This is a great point. It's easy to design in things, maybe a formal dining room for example, that correspond to some idealized now house-owning state but that don't really line up with your actual lifestyle.
https://beltmag.com/frank-lloyd-wright-affordable-housing-ch...
> Capitalizing on Wright’s Prairie style, regarded as the first truly American style of architecture, the houses—of which there were seven to choose from—were promoted as the quintessential American home. Sherwood Anderson, the nationally acclaimed novelist who at the time was an unknown copywriter, wrote in 1917 for a Tribune ad, “We want you to understand how the genius of this man has made it possible for every home builder to build beautifully without spending more to achieve beauty than he now spends on senseless ugliness.”
Here is what Rand said in 1937 prior to The Fountainhead being published in a correspondance with Wright about her book (from an LA Times piece in 2009, linked [2] below):
> In 1937 a little-known author named Ayn Rand wrote to revered modernist Frank Lloyd Wright. “Dear Mr. Wright,” her letter of Dec. 12 began, “I am writing a novel about the career of an architect. ... I should like to have the privilege of meeting you and discussing it with you.”
> In “The Fountainhead,” modern architecture provided a convenient vehicle for her views. In her 1937 letter, she told Wright that her new novel “is to be the story of an architect who follows his own convictions throughout his life, no matter what society thinks of it or does to him. . . . A man who has an ideal and goes through hell for it. So you can understand why it seems to me that of all men on earth you are the one I must see.”
> But she added: “My hero is not you. I do not intend to follow in the novel the events of your life and career. His life will not be yours, nor his work, perhaps not even his artistic ideals. But his spirit is yours -- I think.”
> Unsure of how to hook such an architect for their modest home, the Jacobses put it to him as a challenge: could he build them a nice house for $5,000 (around $85,000 in today’s dollars)? According to Jacobs, Wright responded that he had waited for decades for someone to ask him just that question.
It's worth noting that an $85,000 house back then would be much more extravagent than an $85,000 house today as housing inflation has exceeded official inflation rates. Probably more like a 3-400,000 house if I had to guess. Still, an average house.