Huff Post had one of their typical "top ten lists" on Frank Lloyd Wright (they actually featured over twenty projects). They left out the Marin County Civic Center, pictured here. I haven't mentioned Wright by name since I started this blog. His connection to architecture is like the sun rising in the east and setting in the west--a fairly reliable phenomenon. As an innovative designer, I think that he is unmatched. As an architect who established precedents I think that he set standards that are impossible for others to follow.
Speaking of precedents, here is the precedent for the Civic Center design, courtesy of some unknown Roman engineer.
Wright was a good student of history, but his technical innovations tended to backfire--the structural failures of Fallingwater have been well documented and debated. In terms of influence on American architecture that impacts our everyday life, I don't hold him in high regard. Corbusier built less here, but had more influence, probably because his ideas were more easily imitated. Wright was a great advocate of suburban expansion, but his aesthetic contributions are distinguished by their rarity. And, after all, to be an advocate of inevitability is not much of an accomplishment.
The Roman structure is an bridge and aqueduct near Avignon, France. I visited it once on a school trip. It is possible to walk through the top level of the aqueduct, along the path the water once traveled. It was originally about as tall as a person and wide as your arms stretched out, but there are enormous mineral deposits left by the water which narrow the opening. At least that's how I remember it. It was early morning and quite beautiful. There was grafitti there from hundreds of years of visitors--the older work carved into the masonry, the more recent spray-painted on.
ReplyDeletePerhaps most interesting was that there were no guards, no admissions fees, no roped off sections. If the aqueduct were in America, there would be a lot more worry that someone would fall of it and sue. There were also no "interpretive displays" with audio tours, as you find at so many museums and attractions these days. These have a certain value, but I appreciate the ability to experience what I'm seeing directly, without someone else's interpretation. I will always remember walking through that cool dim aqueduct tunnel in the morning, and over the years as I've learned more about Roman architecture, I've layered meaning onto that memory. Would it have been better if I'd walked through it listening to a tape about Roman water engineering?