[Sorry, couldn't find a photo I could link to directly]
I love his work (except all the leaking roofs and under-supported cantilevers)...but he wasn’t a very good guy...which is fine with me as I appreciate the vision more than his persona offends me. Of course I never knew him personally, but if I had, I doubt we would have been best buddies. Ayn Rand, who did know him, said she didn’t like him at all. She used modern architecture in “The Fountainhead” but stressed that Howard Roark was NOT modeled after Wright.
Click *photo tour*; it's truly amazing; **The architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright on the campus of Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida, is a little known Central Florida treasure. Florida Southern College (FSC) has the largest concentration of Wright designed structures anywhere in the world with 10 buildings and two additional structures on campus, and is in the National Register of Historic Places.**
We are all entitled to our own opinion, I think FLW houses are beyond ugly!
That said, when he was really on his game, his work was profound. I've long been a fan of his more modest efforts, which intentionally tackled affordability, accesibility and function, for families of modest means. These were the so-called Usonian houses.
I nearly bought a Wright inspired Usonian design ten years ago, designed by a student of his as the first home for himself, his wife and young children. Deep eaves, one story, low slung, built in a “U” shape to the rear. Cantelevered carport on the back, sliding glass wall to a large screened porch, quarried stone galore, radiant floor heat fed by a boiler that still worked perfectly. I loved that place, it was so well proportioned that there really wasn't a bad angle anywhere in it or on it. It was a labor of love and very personal, and it shone right through.
Hate that I didn't go through with it, but there were a few matters that needed attention, on top of the price that was already at the top of my range, so I reluctantly passed. Whoever bought it painted the gorgeous natural cypress board and batten exterior, in a very wrong Tuscan mustard looking color, they either didn't know or didn't care what they had bought. I shudder to think at the interior remuddling that may have occurred. At the time of sale, it still had original cork flooring, weathered down to looking like dark saddle leather. I thought it was beautiful. But, Tuscany it ain't.
