Frank Lloyd Wrong
May. 3rd, 2026 01:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
infrogmationYouTube video "The Lies We've Been Told About Frank Lloyd Wright"
https://youtu.be/zji7Zc-AYxA
I believe I've discussed Wright online previously, and my opinion got some dramatic pushback, but I couldn't find in in a search - perhaps it was on Usenet or some lost forum of yesteryear.
I acknowledge his brilliance as an artist, creating buildings that are interesting to look at. But if one considers part of the job of an architect is to design structurally sound buildings useful for people, he was not even competent.
My opinions developed from visiting some of his buildings on road trips in the US Midwest in the 1980s.
One in particular was the Neils House in Minneapolis, a private home at the time, and I got not only a tour but a good bit of family backstory. I first noticed the open carport which needed a short walk to the front door - Minneapolis has very cold winters and lots of snow, so almost every other house has garages with garage doors that can close and an interior door into the house. Inside, there were multiple levels requiring regularly going up and down a few steps, and otherwise open space separated by walls that went up 6 feet but left space before reaching the ceiling, and separated living spaces without any evident usefulness and just made going from one part of the house to another more awkward. There was also the maid's quarters, designed for the family maid, a short woman of 4 foot something - the ceilings were 5 feet tall, so the rooms unusable for many people of average height. When the water-heater had to be replaced, it necessitated hiring a crane and dismantling (and later reconstructing) part of the chimney and fireplace to remove the old water heater and lower a new one in - the only other option would have been to demolish multiple interior walls. The Neils family found the house impractical to live in, but maintained ownership because, hey, it was by the famous Frank Lloyd Wright - it was irregularly occupied by various young relatives as their first place out of their parents' house while going to college.
Uncyclopedia: https://en.uncyclopedia.co/wiki/Frank_Lloyd_Wright
The intro seems basically the same as the snark I put there in my brief time on uncyclopedia some 20 years ago:
"Frank "Lloyd" Wright (b. horse & buggy era – d. hula hoop era) was the world's most famous incompetent architect.
Known for creating improbable buildings out of untested materials, he inflicted hundreds of unlivable houses, unusable office buildings, and frighteningly ugly landmarks on the gullible public. The hallmarks of Wright's architectural style are the leaking roof, the broken window, and the crumbling foundation. Along with Le Corbusier, he was key in changing the discipline of architecture from providing basic shelter for people into a series of passive-aggressive pranks."
https://youtu.be/zji7Zc-AYxA
I believe I've discussed Wright online previously, and my opinion got some dramatic pushback, but I couldn't find in in a search - perhaps it was on Usenet or some lost forum of yesteryear.
I acknowledge his brilliance as an artist, creating buildings that are interesting to look at. But if one considers part of the job of an architect is to design structurally sound buildings useful for people, he was not even competent.
My opinions developed from visiting some of his buildings on road trips in the US Midwest in the 1980s.
One in particular was the Neils House in Minneapolis, a private home at the time, and I got not only a tour but a good bit of family backstory. I first noticed the open carport which needed a short walk to the front door - Minneapolis has very cold winters and lots of snow, so almost every other house has garages with garage doors that can close and an interior door into the house. Inside, there were multiple levels requiring regularly going up and down a few steps, and otherwise open space separated by walls that went up 6 feet but left space before reaching the ceiling, and separated living spaces without any evident usefulness and just made going from one part of the house to another more awkward. There was also the maid's quarters, designed for the family maid, a short woman of 4 foot something - the ceilings were 5 feet tall, so the rooms unusable for many people of average height. When the water-heater had to be replaced, it necessitated hiring a crane and dismantling (and later reconstructing) part of the chimney and fireplace to remove the old water heater and lower a new one in - the only other option would have been to demolish multiple interior walls. The Neils family found the house impractical to live in, but maintained ownership because, hey, it was by the famous Frank Lloyd Wright - it was irregularly occupied by various young relatives as their first place out of their parents' house while going to college.
Uncyclopedia: https://en.uncyclopedia.co/wiki/Frank_Lloyd_Wright
The intro seems basically the same as the snark I put there in my brief time on uncyclopedia some 20 years ago:
"Frank "Lloyd" Wright (b. horse & buggy era – d. hula hoop era) was the world's most famous incompetent architect.
Known for creating improbable buildings out of untested materials, he inflicted hundreds of unlivable houses, unusable office buildings, and frighteningly ugly landmarks on the gullible public. The hallmarks of Wright's architectural style are the leaking roof, the broken window, and the crumbling foundation. Along with Le Corbusier, he was key in changing the discipline of architecture from providing basic shelter for people into a series of passive-aggressive pranks."
