Architecture and Frank Lloyd Wright

[RonPrice]

PLANS
Architecture and Frank Lloyd Wright

Every once in a while the world of television gives its votaries another glimpse of the world of Frank Lloyd Wright(1867-1959). The last time, at least for me, that I got a glimpse of Wright in a TV doco I was in the last six months of my career(1) as a full-time teacher, lecturer, tutor and adult educator among other jobs that filled my days from 1961 to 1999. This most recent time for yet another doco(2) I had been retired from FT work for more than a decade and from PT and casual-volunteer work for five years. –Ron Price with thanks to (1) ABC TV 18 October 1998 and (2) “Frank Lloyd Wright: Murder, Myth and Modernism,” ABC1 TV, 11:10 p.m. to 12:10 a.m. on 9/10 May 2010(BBC 2005).

Wright died(9 April 1959) six months before another sort of career in my life was beginning as a member of the Bahá'í Faith. Membership in a religion is, of course, not exactly a career, but I refer to it as such since this new world Faith has occupied my time and attention as much as my jobs have over the years 1961 at the age of 17 to 2005 at the age of 61. Wright was obsessed with his creative life, his work, his architectural creations. In 1991 The American Institute of Architects recognized him as “the greatest American architect of all time.”(2) I, too, have been a man obsessed. This obsession of mine was partly due to various mental health disorders and partly due to my beliefs and my writing.-Ron Price with thanks to (2) Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.

You were a tireless self-promoter, Frank.
That was the way your life was portrayeda)
your obsessive-compulsive creative force
I can understand, Frank. I’ve had some of
that in my life, too; but I’m not in your big
league, Frank--not even close. I’ve had my
tragedies-nothing like yours-15 August 1915;(b)
I’ve had my troubles in marriage, but nothing
like yours, Frank; you built that Fallingwater(c)
right at the start of that 1937-44 Teaching Plan,(d)
but my creations are very small ones on paper!!
I've had my Plans, too, Frank, but they've been
nothing like yours.....I've had my excesses, too,
Frank, but they've been a far-cry from yours....
I trust you've found some peace, Frank, in that
Undiscovered Country with its Ethereal Houses!

(a) In the doco I watched on 9 May 2010.
(b) On this day in 1914 Wright’s servant killed 7 people in his home, Taliesin, and burned a large part of that home.
(c) Fallingwater was a famous private residence Wright completed in 1937 at a town near Pittsburgh Pennsylvania for one of Pittsburgh’s department store owners.
(d) The first stage of the organized Bahá'í teaching Plan, the stage from 1937 to 1944. That Plan is now in its eighth decade.

Ron Price
12 May 2010
For the ArchitectureWeek
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