Heard a story on NPR this morning about the news that a French electrician recently revealed that he had 271 never-before-seen works of art by iconic painter Pablo Picasso, worth nearly $80 million,in his garage. Not surprisingly, the legitimacy of how he came to own them is being called into question. Litigation soon followed. Read more about it here.
« October 2010 | Main | December 2010 »
November 2010
Triple H For Rent
Curbed LA reports that the 1935 Laing House designed by Wright-influenced architect Harwell Hamilton Harris is available for monthly rent. Located in the historic Poppy Peak district of Pasadena, CA, the house features two bedrooms, two baths, 150 feet of built-in bookshelves, French doors, hardwood floors, and mountain views. Read more here.
Image via Curbed LA
Milwaukee Museum Celebrates Wright
Just in time for the 100th anniversary of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Art Museum will host an exciting exhibition from February 12 through May 15, 2011 about Wright’s groundbreaking seven-decade career. Read more about it here and see you there!
Image copyright Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation
Home That Moves You
Mark Hertzberg forwarded me a link to the Everingham Rotating House, a unique round buidling in Australia built largely of glass and steel, and powered by an electric motor “not much bigger than a washing machine motor." Read and see more about this moving experience here.
Image via www.everinghamrotatinghouse.com.au
Kankakee Holiday Housewalk
PrairieMod reader Paul R. sent a link to an exciting Holiday housewalk event happening this Sunday, Dec. 5, 2010 in Kankakee, IL. It's your chance to see five beautiful Riverview neighborhood homes decorated for Christmas, including Frank Lloyd Wright's Bradley House. More details here.
Image via KankakeeWright.org
Building A New Identity Through Architecture And Art
Mark Hertzberg sent a link to an interesting New York Times article about the efforts in the United Arab Emerites to use "architecture and art to reshape their national identities virtually overnight, and in the process to redeem the tarnished image of Arabs abroad while showing the way toward a modern society within the boundaries of Islam." It's being done through the construction of new extentions of famous museums by equally famous contemporary "starchitects". Read more about it here.
Image via the NYT
Going Prairie In Olympia Fields
Here's a link to an article that was in this Sunday's Chicago Tribune about a couple in Olympia Fields, IL who built a (very large) Prairie Style home and are doing what they can to make it accessible to their community. Read more here.
Image via the Chicago Tribune
Blair House Has Mod Flair
The Hollywod Hills home designed by architect Harwell Hamilton Harris in 1939 for Disney artists Lee and Mary Blair is on the market for $725,000. See photos and read more about it here.
Image via The Blackwing Diaries blog
Art Glass Back Where It Belongs
A rare original section of art glass skylight from the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Darwin D. Martin House was purchased in late October from an anonymous collector by the Martin House Restoration Corp. This is great news, since it will help in the effort to reproduce other missing sections. Read all about it here. Also, check out the Martin House's new website here.
Image via franklloydwright.tercenim.com
Peace Crane Ornament
A PrairieMod reader sent a great link to a unique origami crane ornament for your table or tree made from decorative paper. I especially like the "Saguaro Forms" version. Check more out here.
Image via etsy.com "localcolorist" shop
Stairs? I'll Take The Slide
PrairieMod reader, Karlitos E., sent a link to a fun solution to having to take the stairs down all the time: put in a slide! Check it out here.
Image via daddytypes.com
Don't Miss Our Cyber(Mod) Monday Deal!
If you're looking for wonderful, unique gifts to give for the holidays—our PrairieMod Store is chock full of great items! Or, if you've had your eye on one of our Teco Art Pottery Collection® vases—this is your chance to get one for a steal...
Use this code when making your purchase to receive 30% off: CYBERMOD. This Cyber Monday Special is only valid until December 5th, 2010.
Get your discount now!!
Taliesin T-Shirt Update
The cool Taliesin Cenntenial graphic T-shirt we posted about yesterday apparently does come in adult sizes too! Get yours here.
Image via www.taliesinpreservation.org
Concrete Christmas
Get the most unique architecture-related gift of all by purchasing a piece of salvaged concrete from Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple. Each chunk is unique and your purchase helps the Unity Temple Restoration Foundation in their on-going effort to restore one of Wright's most important buildings. Get yours here.
Image via UTRF.org
Have A Robie Christmas
Continuing today's theme of architectural holiday shopping: If you've got someone on the list who loves Prairie School architecture, Chicago and beautiful handcrafted items—then this Robie House commemorative Motawi tile is the perfect gift! Buy it from the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust and help do your part to restore Robie House. Get it here.
Image via ShopWright.org
Taliesin Centennial Swag
Today is all about the shopping. So if you're in the buying mood and want to help save significant architecture, then cruise over to the Taliesin Preservation webshop to pick up some exclusive products celebrating the 100th anniversary of Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin. I especially dig the Eugene Masselink-inspired graphic on this children's T-shirt. Now, if it only came in adult sizes. More here.
Image via www.taliesinpreservation.org
Check This Chess Set
Looking for a great gift for the lover of chess and architecture on your list? Then "check" out this new set featuring chess pieces inspired by the Alfonso Iannelli-sculpted statuary from Frank Lloyd Wright's Midway Gardens (formally of Chicago). See and order it here.
Image via Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation
Sullivan's Secret Church?
Here's an brief article from the Mississippi Sun Herald about an upcoming fundraising tour by the Gulf Coast Symphony Guild of four local homes and a church in celebration of restoration efforts over the last 5 years. However, this section of the article caught my eye:
Rookwood Thanksgiving Revival
130 years ago, Maria Longworth Nichols fired the first pieces of pottery that would eventually become the famed Arts & Crafts era Rookwood Pottery. On this Thanksgiving Day, Rookwood president and CEO, Christopher Rose, will celebrate the rejuvenation of the company by pulling new pieces from the kiln 130 years to the day. Read more about it here.
Image via news.cincinnati.com
Bachman Wilson House Online
The wizards at Tarantino Studio not only work their architectural restoration magic for other people, they've also restored their own Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece: the 1954 Bachman Wilson House in Millstone, New Jersey. Check out their fantastic house website, chock full of great info and photos. See more here.
Image via www.bachmanwilsonhouse.com
Schindler/Ain Safe...For Now
Curbed LA has an update on the distressing ebay auction (now cancelled) of the R.M. Schindler/Gregory Ain-designed Donald Gordon cabin interior. Apparently the whole thing was a misunderstanding and the new owner doesn't want to destroy this architectural gem. Let's hope so. Read more here.
Image via ebay
Give Thanks, Pass The Mod
Want some ideas to have a Mod Thanksgiving this year? Then check out the blog, Hostess with the Mostess, to get all the fixens to get your holiday table set perfectly Modern. See more here.
Image via Hostess with the Mostess
Baer Bikes The Boulevards
A fan of Chicago history and bicycles? Then get ready to catch Geoffrey Baer's newest city-centric documentary "Biking the Boulevards" on Monday, November 29, at 7:30 p.m. on WTTW. Get all the details and a video preview here.
Image via www.wttw.com
Also On The Market
Scott T. has rustled-up some interesting architecture currently on the market for us to peruse. Check out E. Fay Jones' Adrian Fletcher House in Fayetteville, AK here and a Michael P. Johnson-designed residence in Carefree, AZ here.
Image via www.realestate.com
Big Sur, Big Price
PrairieMod reader, Karlitos E., sends a link to an unbelievable home deisgned by Taliesin apprentice Mark Mills in Big Sur, CA on the market for an equally unbelievable sum, $5 million. Check out the details and the photos here.
Image via www.bigsurrealestate.com
My Type Of Map
I'm really digging Axis Maps' renditions of city maps made-up of different color type and word groupings. So far they've done versions of Boston and Chicago. Check out the details here.
Image via Axis Maps
Erickson's Home Of The Day
Taliesin Apprentice, Don Erickson's Barrington, IL home (on the market for $1 million) is the house of the day on Curbed.com. Check out photos and a video of it here.
Image via Curbed.com
A Look At Coonley
Chicago Magazine's Dennis Rodkin recently got a tour of part of the Avery Coonley residence in Riverside, IL (which is also on the market for $2.89 million). Read about it and see a video tour here.
Image via YouTube
Troubling Things Afoot On Ebay
If you look hard enough, you can come across some pretty bizarre things for sale on ebay. However, a recent auction was found for the entire interior contents of the R.M Schindler/Gregory Ain-designed Donald Gordon cabin in Los Angeles, CA. The preservation community raised an alarm and the auction appears to have been ended, but no one yet knows the result. Another example of architectural plunder for profit. Read more about the situation here.
Image via eBay
Happy Birthday, Marina City
Blair Kamin reports on his Cityscapes blog about today's 50th anniversary of the official ground-breaking for Marina City Towers on Chicago's river. Read more about it here.
Image via Blair Kamin's Cityscapes
Celebrate Jensen
Here's an article about Jens Jensen, Prairie School landscape architect extraordinare, the sesquicentennial of his birth this year and tips for applying his ideas to your own landscape. Read more here.
Photo by Alex Garcia/Chicago Tribune/MCT
Nickel Archive Goes To Art Institute
The Richard Nickel Committee recently donated preservationist Richard Nickel's photographic archive documenting the work of Dankmar Adler, Louis H. Sullivan, and other noted Chicago architects to the Art Institute of Chicago's Ryerson & Burnham Libraries. Read more about it here.
Auditorium Building image by Richard Nickel
Troubled Bridge Over Water Gets Help
The Geneva, Illinois Park District is getting $729,000 in federal money toward the cost of replacing the north bridge at Island Park. The bridge was built in 1931 by the Wilson Bros. firm of Geneva, who worked with architect Frank Lloyd Wright to construct his houses in the area. Read about the bridge work here.
Image via dailyherald.com
Christmas Prairie Style
Celebrate the holiday season this year from Friday, November 26 through Friday, December 31 with a visit to the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Dana House in Springfield, IL. More details about visiting and their two special evening events here.
Photo by Danette E. Forbes
On The Block
Frank Lloyd Wright did not design houses. He designed total works of art. This often meant he considered everything inside and outside the building—from art glass windows, sconces, mailboxes, furniture and more. So when pieces of these total architectural works of art appear on the auction block—stripped from their original and inteded context—it diminishes the importance and impact of Wright's artistic endeavor. This month, Wright-designed furniture is appearing at two major Chicago auction houses: The John Toomey Gallery and Wright auction house, and it signals the troubling trend of strip mining important architecture for cash. It's hoped that with enough education the sale of items that belong with their buildings will cease.
Image via Wright20.com
Canberra Tries To "Embiggen" Itself
Architecture meets Animation when Canberra's ACT Planning Minister, Andrew Barr, recently compared the reverence in ACT planning circles for Canberra's designer, Walter Burley Griffin, to the awe in which "The Simpsons" characters hold their town's founding father, Jebediah Springfield (who turns out to be a fraud and a pirate). And you thought American politics was absurd. Read more here.
Image copyright Matt Groening
What Goes A Round
After posting on some "round" building similarities, PrairieMod readers Sandy L. and Kyle J. send us some links to the New York State Pavilion at the New York World's Fair 1964-65 and the Rotating House by Richard Foster in Connecticut. Kyle also points out that Frank Lloyd Wright used a round motif in the Sol Friedman house in Usonia, NY. Thanks for sharing, Sandy and Kyle!
Image via alamedainfo.com
Thaxton On The Sales Block
Here's some recent news from the Houston Business Journal about the city's only Frank Lloyd Wright House, the William Thaxton House, which was once in danger of being torn down and is currently for sale. Read more after the jump...
ASBH In New Jersey
In doing some recent research on Frank Lloyd Wright's American System-built House designs, I learned that the designs were resurrected in the late 1990s for a neighborhood development project in Atlantic City, New Jersey. I decided to do a little more digging and see if I could find out more of this story and if any were built. More after the jump...
Wright's Gingko Trees
Frank Lloyd Wright had an affinity for gingko trees—one was planted on the grounds of his Home & Studio in Oak Park, IL that today is one of the largest you'll ever see. Here's a link to a blog post with some images and info about the Wright tree.
Image via www.bettendorf.com
Rent Mackey
A recent user posted some R.M. Schindler-related news to the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy "Wright Chat." Apparently, The MAK Center for Art & Architecture announced that the penthouse of the historic Pearl M. Mackey Apartments (1939) is now available for short-term rentals. Through this unique opportunity, you can help support the MAK Center's ambitious program of exhibitions, lectures, performances, publication projects, and new work commissions, all engaging the intersection of art and architecture. Read more about it here.
Image via Curbed LA
Hope For Hollyhock
In the wake of recent news of the Los Angeles budget woes that might affect Barnsdall Art Park, The Los Feliz Register reports that important restoration work at Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House will begin by year's end. Read more about it here.
Image via The Los Feliz Register website
Walter Burley Griffin And The Stinson Memorial Library
The Walter Burley Griffin Society of America also has news that they've published a second book titled Walter Burley Griffin and the Stinson Memorial Library. Written by Paul Kruty, with an analysis of the landscape plan by Paul E. Sprague, the book is the first monograph on Griffin’s major public building, the Stinson Memorial Library, located in Anna, IL. Find out the details and order your copy here.
Image via WBGSoA website
2011 Griffin Society Meeting Announced
The 12th Annual meeting of the Walter Burley Griffin Society of America will take place June 25, 2011 in the Oak Park/River Forest, IL. As stated on the Society's website:
This year the meeting will be centered around the work of Griffin’s mentors and associates among the architects of the Prairie School, including Robert Spencer, George Maher and Frank Lloyd Wright. The morning meeting and lectures will be held at Pleasant Home, 217 Home Ave, Oak Park, the restored George Maher mansion that is also the headquarters of the Oak Park Historical Society. Details will be forthcoming on-line and in the Spring newsletter.
Follow the link to learn more.
Image via WBGSoA website
A Look At Helixa Shelter
Inhabitat recently featured the Helixa Shelter by Taliesin Apprentice, Maya Ward-Karet. Built for just $812, it features a sturdy "earthbag" construction which is designed to protect the inhabitant while still letting the "Outside In." Read and see more here.
Image via Inhabitat.com
Barnsdall Art Park In Trouble
Barnsdall Art Park, which includes the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Hollyhock House, is in danger of closing or being privatized due to Los Angeles' budget woes. Read all about it here.
BTW: check out the Hollyhock House's re-vamped website here.
Image copyright Julius Shulman
Van Dekker House Restoration Kick Off
Curbed LA reports that, after years of deferred maitenance, the Rudolph Schindler-designed Van Dekker House's new owners are making significant progress on restoring the home back to its former glory. See more photos and read all about it here.
Image via Curbed LA
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
