tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post5676300634498947110..comments2023-10-19T05:40:59.162-04:00Comments on Sippican Cottage: Time Marches On, SortaSippicanCottagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14940797380578921776noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-48285205481342054022007-04-11T14:23:00.000-04:002007-04-11T14:23:00.000-04:00Oh, I'm with you on Wright. Some of the earlier Pr...Oh, I'm with you on Wright. Some of the earlier Prairie School homes are quite nice, but look at that office space. <BR/><BR/>In addition to the terrible physical design you mentioned, the supervisors sit in the offices on the upper terrace and look down on the lowly peons who get the three-legged chairs (They're for your posture! Sit up straight!). Even today's cube dwellers get divider panels. Wood floors + concrete pillars + no walls = constant noise, plus the boss is always leering down at you.<BR/><BR/>If not for the politeness of Midwesterners, you'd have had people going postal in that place within the month.P_Jhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16130988618277500381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-64898160475048760382007-04-11T13:24:00.000-04:002007-04-11T13:24:00.000-04:00Ruth Anne- Those Sullivan banks were called "jewel...Ruth Anne- Those Sullivan banks were called "jewel boxes" by architectural people. They are wonderful things. You're lucky to have gone in and out of them regularly.<BR/><BR/>Adler and Sullivan were big big big in Chicago. <BR/><BR/>Hi P Jeff-<BR/>The johnson wax place is (in)famous in architecture circles.<BR/><BR/>I've seen pics of wright demonstrating to the local building officials that those mushroom columns were safe, by having one built and then having sandbags piled on top of them to prove they wouldn't topple over. Wright was really imperious and didn't feel like he should have to show anybody anything. <BR/><BR/>He was right about it, technically, but ultimately that's a really crummy room to work in; a big, undifferentiated hive. And the roof leaked. <BR/><BR/>He had a tower made next to it for the laboratory, and he wanted to use glass tubing instead of windows. The joints between the tubes leaked like a sieve, and the rooms were like ovens if there was a cloudless day. But just like his furniture (it was all uncomfortable) Wright thought his design considerations should trump any concerns about the safety, comfort, or the bankbook of any of his clients. Most architects are like that. <BR/><BR/>I'm glad you like the architecture things. I never know what to write about.SippicanCottagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14940797380578921776noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-60385904747094429062007-04-11T11:08:00.000-04:002007-04-11T11:08:00.000-04:00"Magnificent weirdo" is right on both counts. I've..."Magnificent weirdo" is right on both counts. I've been in the <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson_Wax_Headquarters" REL="nofollow">Johnson Wax building</A> a few times -- a gigantic, open-vaulted central work space with dendriform columns and (originally) three-legged chairs at the desks. <BR/><BR/>The story goes that when Wright sat in one of his own chairs and polished the floor with his keister, it didn't take him long to figure out three legs = bad, four legs = good.<BR/><BR/>Neat, but weird.<BR/><BR/>Love the American house series. More, please.P_Jhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16130988618277500381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-6803135135125748832007-04-10T23:03:00.000-04:002007-04-10T23:03:00.000-04:00Sorry. I don't do architecture. Sullivan may've ...Sorry. I don't do architecture. Sullivan may've begun in Boston, but he did some fine work in Wisconsin.Ruth Anne Adamshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01936054116421006847noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-31316996548150713652007-04-10T18:07:00.000-04:002007-04-10T18:07:00.000-04:00Ruth Anne- That's neat. I think you got the studen...Ruth Anne- That's neat. <BR/><BR/>I think you got the student thing backwards, though. Sullivan was Wright's boss. Adler and Sullivan was a very important architectural firm. <BR/><BR/>Louis Sullivan is one of the most important architects in American history. Louis Sullivan was from Boston, originally.SippicanCottagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14940797380578921776noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-47592276313223904052007-04-10T16:37:00.000-04:002007-04-10T16:37:00.000-04:00Sippican:My little hometown [population 4000] near...Sippican:<BR/>My little hometown [population 4000] near Madison boasts two Frank Lloyd Wright homes and my mom worked for the two lawyers who each owned them [God rest their souls]. Also, there's a bank downtown designed by Wright's student, Sullivan. Also, lots of Victorian homes with lots of gingerbread.Ruth Anne Adamshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01936054116421006847noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-18286847445217662752007-04-10T16:09:00.000-04:002007-04-10T16:09:00.000-04:00Hi Ruth Anne- The red door is chosen to go with th...Hi Ruth Anne- The red door is chosen to go with the color scheme. The house is actually purple with yellow trim and a red door. It's subtle. It's just gray and white and red to most folks.<BR/><BR/>I don't know about the significance of red doors. There is an obscure local tradition around here called a "mortgage button." The newel post at the bottom of the main stairwell would have a peg hole in it. When the mortgage was paid, a mortgage button would go in it. On Nantucket, they'd sometimes make it of whalebone, or scrimshaw. Neato.<BR/><BR/>I should write a story about that, huh?<BR/><BR/>Hey Deb- No ell. Little house. <BR/><BR/>I have a lifelong interest in FLW. I know all about Monona Terrace, and Taliesin, and Oak Park down in Illinois, and so forth. There are a handful of Usonian houses around there that captured my imagination when I was a teenager. He was a magnificent weirdo.SippicanCottagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14940797380578921776noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-60619172189207270942007-04-10T15:07:00.000-04:002007-04-10T15:07:00.000-04:00(The above brought to you by Deb in Madison...)(The above brought to you by Deb in Madison...)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-18104682554865643142007-04-10T15:06:00.000-04:002007-04-10T15:06:00.000-04:00Hey, that's a Five Bay Center Chimney Full Cape wi...Hey, that's a Five Bay Center Chimney Full Cape with twelve over twelve true divided lites! Can't tell from the photo if there's an ell lurking behind the house.<BR/><BR/>My mother grew up in a Madison pseudo-Cape with a big picture window and only an attic. Two bedrooms and one bathroom for five kids and their parents, no ell. They were extremely happy there.<BR/><BR/>Since we're talking about houses and history, being from Madison I have to include a few words about old FL Wright.<BR/><BR/>He was not well-liked by the average Madisonian in his day for several reason. He didn't pay his bills around town, one of the worst things that a Midwesterner could do at the time. My grandmother, who is nearing 100 years of age, worked on the square in the 1920s and remembers him walking around flourishing his unusual flat hat, black cape, and cane. Madisonians back then didn't trust anyone who thought so much of themselves. <BR/>That said, Monona Terrace Convention Center, which was built after decades of opposition and controversy, is a marvelous building. It is not FLW's exact design, however.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14474631.post-27428411039151300652007-04-10T14:20:00.000-04:002007-04-10T14:20:00.000-04:00Any significance to the red door? My folks told m...Any significance to the red door? My folks told me that the churches with red doors still had a mortgage or something like that.Ruth Anne Adamshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01936054116421006847noreply@blogger.com