i peed

AND had $300 Cristal champagne in a Frank Lloyd Wright house on Friday.

How many people can say that?

houses, houses, and more houses

This is the long overdue post I've been meaning to compose for ages now.

First, I'll report that when I returned from my trip east, I drove past that scary facade/house demolition/reconstruction site. The tattered facade was gone and replaced with new plywood or something (obviously I know little of the technical stuff about the building arts). So they weren't saving it. Why not knock it down with the rest of it? I guess we'll never know. Anyway...

My trip included a day visit to Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater in rural western Pennsylvania. You can see some of my photos here. I'm no Julius Shulman, but I try.

In case you're blissfully unaware, Fallingwater is one of the most famous pieces of architecture in the world. It's probably the most famous non-royal house. And with good reason. Allie thought the color scheme was ugly. That didn't bother me. What surprised me actually was how Art Deco it was. There are some fabulous thirties elements, which you don't expect. Wright's work sort of has this timeless quality to it since he refused to admit he was influenced by anyone else's work. Then again, Philip Johnson called him our greatest 19th century architect. Stylistically Wright's work looks more "traditional" (whatever the hell that could mean... basically, he liked to use natural materials because he believed that his buildings should grow from the ground), but the more reading I do on Wright, the more I'm convinced he was indeed very modern in ideology.

That leads me to my final report. I visited the Ennis House in the Los Feliz hills upon my return! I take all my tourists to see this massive FLW house, but I finally got to go inside. At work I've been writing a historic context statement on the building, and it generally makes sense to visit the places you write and research about (especially if they're local). This of course was very cool, particularly since I'd already done so much research on the house that I knew what I was looking at. The most surprising thing about the house is how small it actually looks inside. Wright usually used very low ceiling heights, but this one has soaring 22' ceilings, compared to his usual 6'4" (he was 5'8"). But between the exterior massing and the many interior photographs I've seen, the house actually looks smaller than any of these would suggest. Still pretty thrilling.

historic preservation?

I've linked you to my most recent Picasa photo album. It's a doozie.

Last Saturday, Andrew and I went to the Cha Cha Lounge.* In our effort to find parking, we stumbled upon this house under (de)construction. I just couldn't believe it. I vowed I'd go back and photograph it.

Fearing even the tattered facade would be gone soon, I went back the next day with David on our way to the Hammer Museum (awesome exhibits now on display...go, it's free all summer!). Anyway, it seemed to still be in tact, so I took these photos. David also noticed that they didn't just "preserve" (what the hell is going on with the bottom?!) the facade, but also chose to keep a cool spiral staircase. Unfortunately, the photos just don't do the site justice, and even having been there, it's hard to tell what's going on.

I encourage a fieldtrip. The former duplex is on Edgewater Terrace at the intersection with Deane St. in Silver Lake, just off Silver Lake Blvd. I haven't been back since last week, but I'll try to check on it periodically. It could be leveled now.


* The only cool thing about that place is the color photo booth. We took some (unintentionally) hilarious photos in there.

adventures in photographs

Yesterday I had a little adventure downtown. First on a walking tour of Little Tokyo, which is a place I've been to a few times before. But it's nice to get a formal tour. We started in the Japanese American Cultural Center Plaza, which looks like a 1970s urban renewal project--and guess what, it was! Okay, fine, one of the buildings has a Japanese flair, but it's still brutal concrete. You can see my photos here (it looks better than if I embed them in the blog).

On my way home, I visited my cousin Miriam at her new swanky (faux) loft downtown near the Staples Center. I took some photos of the courtyard, which includes a cool view of the downtown skyline.

Did you know that new apartment housing no longer uses traditional metal keys? They're now swipe cards like hotels! I bet this has probably been going on for awhile, but I just didn't know since I hadn't visited places. Andrew's campus housing has this too. It's kinda weird, isn't it? What happens when the power goes out?

mod house call

I know you were just dying for another blogging episode from me today, so I'm going to give it to you.

Click the above link for a cool photo essay on Modern architect-designed houses in L.A. Or click here to see my photos of the same kind of thing.