Wow! Not only does the Sharpshooter need a crew of architects, engineers,
and conservators to maintain his porch protection during the low-season,
he's let on that his Benz is garaged in the Vineyard just steps from the
delicate veranda. Such a subtle hintster: he's still waiting for a crack
team of experts to announce their availability. Now, with the car, we should
be able to get to the market, out to a bar or two. Yee-haw!!!
As for Fallingwater: I had a class-mate in graduate school who regulary
called it Running Water. She refused to believe us when we corrected her.
Last I knew she was working for a managed care company in Stamford,
Connecticut. I was a bit underwhelmed by Falling Water on my first visit --
with a bus-load of tourists. But, then I spent the day in Dunbar (the
population of said fine burg, I have been told, has been studied several
times in an effort to develop a sound understanding of the effects of
in-breeding). And, after marvelling at the wonders of nature, returned to
Fallingwater. When the crowds are gone and the docents gone home, the place
is a lot more agreeable. Of course, you cannot get in the house (legally)
after hours, but you can wander through the stream, up behind the house, and
get a much better sense of the place. Once I'd had a chance to sit by myself
for a while I found the house started to grow on me. And, that running water
is perfect backdrop for contemplation of the pronunciation of Youghigeny...
Call me,
Chief Engineer, Porch Brigade.
-----Original Message-----
From: Met History [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, June 19, 2000 10:27 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Took the train to Harrisburg...
... from Manhattan to pick up the rental car because we left the car in the
Vineyard a few years ago - Mrs. Sharpshooter is still mad abou that, says
that not having a car in the city makes her feel "trailer park", but I like
getting a new, clean car every time we need one (and not paying
$325.00/month
for the garage).
The train ride was neat - west of Philadelphia it's all new country to me.
I
last saw the Harrisburg RR Station when Jim Fitch and I went there around
1980 pursuing a restoration job with a joint venture A/E firm. Whoever
ultimately got the project did a fair job - the big train shed looks good,
although they left out the architect's name from the plaque in the waiting
room (my bet: Furness & Hewitt, late work).
Stopped at the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg, certainly the
absolute worst such interior I've ever seen - an ignorant, bombastic
Klassical, without a hint of subtlety or art, except the peculiar Mercer
tile
floor in the rotunda. The exterior of the dome is in green tile alternating
with gold ribs - kind of neat.
Meandered out towards Fallingwater via local roads, including Munn's Choice,
a little hamlet with a neat old general store ("Munn? Sorry, never heard of
him.") and the Queen Anne-style "Cosmopolitan Hotel - Now Under Renovation",
although it looks to me that they don't get that many visitors.
Next morning we took the $50 tour of Fallingwater, and I'm afraid my dubious
forebodings were confirmed. (Or maybe I just self-confirmed them.)
Interesting house, but I failed to see any single thing or group of things
which set it much apart from other interesting houses by much-less-branded
designers than Wright. (Examine, for instance, Louis Curtiss' Sutherland
house in Kansas City, or George & Edward Blum's apartment houses in NYC.)
In
fact, if anything, it struck me that the house should be a monument to the
Kaufmanns, not FLW. Turns out they were pretty interesting clients, but that
doesn't sell tickets, I expect. (I want to see the house they had Benno
Janssen design for them in Pittsburgh in 1930, only 6 years before going
over
to FLW.)
Wright's arrogant incompetence in such things as unforgivably demanding
tolerances on the windows, poor reinforcement, uncomfortable furniture,
pointlessly low ceilings and dark halls - the whole thing was an
embarrassment to me - what an abuse of trust and power!
And I hardly agree with Wright's much-bruited opinion that positioning the
house so it would have had a direct view of the waterfall would have
"spoiled" the occupants. I kept wanting to ask the docent "Just what is
this
'organic' architecture, anyway?" during the tour, but they were all
believers. (Is there balsamic architecture? How about free-range
architecture? Cruelty-free architecture?) Upshot: when I make my 4th
$million, I am absolutely not hiring an architect who wears a cape to design
my house-cum-waterfall escape.
Sign me, prefers George Maher, anyway
We then back-roaded it through all sorts of neat villages - Ohiopyle;
Confluence; Centerville; saw lots of neat barns (local variant: wooden
lattice covers over the barn windows) and wound up in Mercersburg, where
Sharpshooter, Jr., is in summer science camp. Neat campus, interesting
buildings, rowed up like half of the UVA campus, in different styles -
Doric,
Victorian, renaissance. Plus a retro 1992 library with steep sloping slate
roofs. I noticed that slate failure on this 8 year old roof was much more
widespread than on a 1927 administration building, a 73 year old one.
Perhaps
that's why they didn't list the architect's name in the library handout.
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