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

All this maybe true however, it kinda misses the point in my view, Wright was an icon in architecture & design and had a profound impact on that world. It doesn't get any better than that in one's life work.
If he designed it, it's worth saving, flaws & all, end of story.

 

I'm not disagreeing with that at all. It is a good thing that Falling Water has now been retrofitted, and should last for a while. But it is absolutely true that he thought in terms of beauty, and not durability. Falling Water began to fall apart as soon as it was built, and had it not been such an architectural icon, nobody would have spent the money to retrofit it, and it would be gone today - which would have been a sad loss.

 

Yeah, I think that's right. I'd say the best designers see things most of the rest of us don't and, they will fight tooth & nail to turn that vision into reality, DAMN! the details.

 

Who cares about how practical he was? The one architect most people who know nothing about architecture know is Frank Lloyd Wright. Only a philistine would tear one of his buildings down for some throwaway building that will be gone n 30 years. He did more to further the awareness of architecture than any single architect before him, at least in America, Sullivan and Richardson notwithstanding. 60 years after his death and everybody still knows his name!

It's simply astonishing. No surprise that people keep thinking of Joni Mitchell and her line about paving paradise and putting up a parking lot.

Oh, and just to see if you're still reading: I live in the capital city that was hit by a F3 or F4 tornado last night. Google it and check the photos. Not only is there widespread human devastation (no deaths, amazingly and thankfully), but several blocks of one-of-a-kind Victorian homes will probably have to be bulldozed. Homes that survived the war with modernism and were on the way back to create a spectacular historic district.

The moral? Quit tearing important architecture down! Mother natures does enough of it without the help of greedheads. When it's gone it's gone. Oh, and in case you're wondering: we (and our antiques) escaped unscathed. So thankful!!!!

 

I saw that on the news with lots of sad pictures including the homes. Being in an area that gets occasional tornadoes, I feel so sorry for the people who have lost all. We are still trying to help some folks in south GA who were struck last October.
Patd

 

Hi,
Thank God no one was killed. We had a old house on Nag's Head NC. It was built in 1850 survived all of the hurricanes for years. In 1960 we were going to ride out the hurricane but the State Police made us evacuate. When we returned two days later there was nothing there. The house and everything was just a beach with Nothing not even a scrap on the beach. Last time I was there was in the 1990s and it was all just horrible 3 story ugly condos. No wonder it is called Skagh's Head now.
greg

 

Oh Come on now! Nags Head isn't that bad! No it's not the 1960s anymore! I was just on OBX year before last, wonderful place, 50 miles out in the Atlantic.
Every few years OBX gets WIPED CLEAN by a storm and the rebuilding process begins all over again, i love the Outer Banks. If you've never been, worth a trip!

 

I love your insights into this. I'm so glad too that you and your antiques made it through.

 

James, agree on OBX. We had a house at Mile Post 11 for a number of years on the beach that survived storms except for some shingle damage. Loved being on the beach and the seafood. However, we had a house on the Sound at Wrightsville when Hazel hit in 1957. The first floor was filled with sand. The first 2 rows of beach side houses were gone - nothing but the pilings left. The power of the storm was amazing!
Patd

 

Agrees, OBX can be a wild & wonderful place the farther south you go from the road entrance at Manteo. You are VERY exposed to mother nature on OBX & one senses that immediately. Look left and atlantic ocean, right and pamlico sound (which looks like ocean) and you are standing on this teeny tiny strip of land way out in the ocean as far as you can see.

 

Hi James,
When I was growing up Nag's Head was just a sleepy little fishing community. There were 8 or 9 houses and several little motels. One gas station and a huge fishing pier jutting out to the ocean. It was a just a little place of heaven. The Nag's Head I visited in the 1990s was very grown up multiple streets with many and I mean many three storey Condos and stores. There was only one road and nothing around the place. It was the finest place to roam and dream for a young kid. There were a few people but mainly empty spaces with small dunes. I used to swim at night and never worried about "Jaws", sleeping on the beach and just loving the emptiness, nothing to do but fish and roam around. The traffic lights, the six streets and sidewalks and numerous stores and gas stations that are there now is as far from what was there. If you were there in the 40s,50s and 60s and compare it now is like comparing a little village to a booming city. I remember the huge crabs that lived next to the dumping area where all the garbage was picked up every two weeks and hauled away by barge.
greg

 

Greg, it's still pretty much like that if you go south! Yes, Nags Head & Kitty Hawk are built up at the moment (waiting on next storm) but going south towards Buxton & Hatteras is still pretty empty.

 

"I love your insights into this. I'm so glad too that you and your antiques made it through."

Thanks @KikoBlueEyes , your comments mean more than you know!