Featured Demolition permit filed for Frank Lloyd Wright’s ‘Booth Cottage’

"This is like buying a dusty Van Gogh at a garage sale, then tossing the canvas into the trash because you only wanted the frame for your clown painting"

https://chicago.curbed.com/2019/5/22/18635989/frank-lloyd-wright-demolition-illinois-booth-cottage

 

Unbelievable!
And it says:

"If torn down, the Booth Cottage would be the first Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home to be destroyed since the W.S. Carr House in Grand Beach, Michigan, met its demise in 2004. The most recent loss of a non-residential Wright building occurred last year with the demolition of the Lockridge Medical Center in Whitefish, Montana."

Do these people hate Frank Lloyd Wright?

 

No, I don't think it's that, more likely "you don't miss your water till the well runs dry" kinda thing.

 

Fools!

 

Yep, tear down something that is NOT replaceable for a new building that is, not real smart. Hopefully they will move it to another location.

 

As someone who is NOT a FLW fan, I object strenuously to tearing down that house!

 

Beautiful old things get destroyed all the time. I hope James is right and someone moves it to a new location.

 

Right near all the other gas stations and fst food places...

 

Referring to all the people who want to tear down such structures as the "Booth Cottage" . . .

Surely some/most of us have heard the "old saying" which goes: "All his/her taste was in his/her mouth."

 

although FLW was a very creative designer, either he or the builders lacked some building knowledge for building long lasting structures. Some owners have spent substantial $$$ to save their homes. In fact, one couple spent well over 1M$ to save their home.
Patd

 

Well, one needs to put this in context, they were not building for posterity at the time, they were building for someone/family to live in.
Start building structures meant to last for centuries and costs would EXPLODE!

 

That is a shame. You never know what you've got, till it's gone. Paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

 

I am a FLW advocate. I so much wanted to be a organic architect. His designs have more significant influence than the drawbacks of his creations. I hope it gets relocated.... It wouldn't be the first time. However being so small it probably wouldn't be financially sensible. FLW pushed the envelope in architecture and design. He was somewhat of an experimentalist too. His own home was always being modified somehow for some new idea. I love his work, but some of it is impracticable. Maintenance and upkeep can become quite an expense. I loved visiting the Veteran's memorial building on the waterfront of Milwaukee. It stood out like a wing from a bird. When I visited a number of years ago They built an underlying support structure to support the whole building. The cantilever design probably needed more support. When at Falling Water, I spoke with a maintenance man about the building. Winters are the bane of their work... They constantly have to sweep off the snow from the roofs when snow falls! Flat roofs are not for northern winter weather! I cringed when I learned of the demise of the Larkin building. Another architectural landmark, but obsolete for office use! Maybe we should tear down the pyramids of Egypt! They serve no use! Alas, the Booth Cottage is just in the wrong place... It was probably all alone in the woods when it was built. The neighborhood has evolved for more suburban use...and the larger American home. I wonder what they will squeeze in... a 4 unit condo????. The booth Cottage reminds me a little of the Unisonian designs. Simple. Space for the less than wealthy. And it was put up as a temporary residence to boot. A shame to see even his simplest designs torn down. In the old adage "Function follows Form or does Form follows Function". Frank dictated not only the design of the home, but how the inhabitants were to live in it. Today, following the Function we Form our lives. For the majority, we don't dictate the design our sacred spaces but rather fit ourselves into the matchbox Ticky Tac designs that are put forth to us today.

Despite FLWs shortcomings, he stretched our minds to think of how live with our natural surrounds. Today we modify our environment to fit our mechanistic, manufactured, computer created spaces and stuff.

But to really know FLW one must live in a FLW home, furnishings and all. No modifying, just experience. And then ask why. Why force function to fit into the design. Frank gave us the experience of living in a sacred space. A Zen experience. Thank You Frank Lloyd Wright!

Phil
https://www.pinterest.com/myamiphil/flw-the-architect/

 

Awesome post. Shows your true love and knowledge.

 

I live in a house that no one contemplated would still be there a hundred plus years later. I laugh at myself when I search endlessly for a replacement for my “rough sawn look” redwood siding or have my lath and plaster ceilings repaired. It is a labor of love not practicality.

 

And James, there were few if any building codes.
Patd

 

"I love his work, but some of it can be impractical."

Thank you Phil F., for that lovely paean to Wright. Whether or not I personally like his designs is quite beside the point. I can and do appreciate the effect he has had on architecture.

However... When I first saw Falling Water -- and learned where it was, I was confused/surprised. Flat roof? Winter? Later, while I was living near a Usonian enclave, I got to see some of those houses. Shall we say, my idea of function and Wright's were not compatible. (And, he seemed to have a broad streak of misogynism.)

So your "impractical" line rang a bell, however innovative he was.

 

Thanks, AJ!

 

I have to agree with some of the comments - Falling Water in particular is beautiful, but Wright had very little experience with reinforced concrete, and argued with the contractors about whether his design was adequate to handle the stresses involved. Many of the cantilevered areas began to sag as soon as the construction forms were removed, because he had not built in an upward angle to allow for deflection and settling.