Virginia to Ohio-CB Rally and Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright to Kent State, OH
The Cherry Blossom Rally was great, 40 trailers in a field in a triple half circle with a nice three pole wedding tent in the middle. This is the main rally for my Washington DC Unit ( think boy scout troop ) it is a little early in the season, so it usually rains all day at least one day, and except for going into Washington DC, there are no real events besides eating and drinking. We did all those things. I had two pieces of carrot cake for breakfast each day. Scandalous.
I went into DC to the newest Smithsonian museum, the one for the American Indian. I wanted to see the architecture as it is sort of a take-off on the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde. It is built using the same yellow stone cut rough, and has curves and windows that hide in the recesses like a cliff dwelling. The landscaping around it is very natural, grasses, weeds and a nice disorderly pond and trees on the side that faces the Capitol. On the side that faces the Mall there is a spirited waterfall over rocks again informal and natural, all of which is a nice contrast to the very tidy formal gardens that are the norm in DC. I. M. Pei’s addition to the National Gallery is right across the Mall and this building is a good balance and answer to it.
The interior is also exciting, lots of circles and curves. The floor plan is very like the serious of Kivas at Chaco Canyon’s ruins, but it isn’t as obvious to one walking around, lots of nice spaces and finishes however. They have a restaurant that serves absolutely fabulous food, all based on Native American foods, cooked perfectly, in a setting like the food court at a shopping mall, cafeteria style. Worth the whole trip to have buffalo and salmon and wild rice salad and tamales with peanut sauce. Yum.
I wish the displays had been as great as the architecture and the food. It was overly wordy, too much text, too many stories that I didn’t feel drawn in by. Different tribes had niches with some artifacts and explanations of their ideas of community, religion, use of the land, videos of elders talking etc. Good if you are a kid writing a report, but I was bored and confused by them. My hunch is that displaying this collection of artifacts, which belonged to a George Heyr, was likely to meet with resistance from the tribes. He probably did buy most of the stuff, and some legitimately, rather than stealing it. At any rate, it felt as though the designers of the exhibits got the tribes to tell their stories so they wouldn’t sue for the return of the artifacts. I don’t know this for sure, it might just be inclusion and PC taken beyond the bounds of my interest.
It was a good trip, though, in spite of the impenetrable directions on how to get a ticket for the subway out of the automatic machines. Another example of instructions written by and for people who already know how, leaving those who really need to know in the dark.
One of the AS folks, Peg VanBeveren, heard I was heading for Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater house in Mill Run PA and jumped at the chance to come along, so we made a little caravan of our own. It was fun to have the rally last a little longer. She has a new trailer and is still doing a shakedown cruise in it before taking her partner along so it was a good trip for both of us. After a little research we headed for a CG in Mill Run, PA called Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park. Normally I avoid places like this like the plague, they are full of screaming kids on bikes and they pack the trailers in and have hayrides and cartoons and bingo and water slides and so on. But the state parks are not quite open yet, so we have to.
Fallingwater is closed on Mondays, I discover, but all is not lost, there is another F. L. Wright house nearby and it is open, so we start with that.
Kentuck Knob was built in the 50’s and is one of FLW’s Unisom houses, aimed to be affordable and smaller than some of the earlier piles. It is up on a hill, but not placed where a phenomenal view of the river valley and mountains can be seen, but rather back in the trees. It is low, made of stone quarried on site, and not a 90 angle in the place. This makes it interesting to look at and be inside, but it must have driven the masons and carpenters nuts. Inside it feels like the cliff dwellings again, a big connection to the out doors, but from under a low roof line so one feels protected, and wide open at the same time. There are gorgeous wooden details, closets with matching grain running horizontally, built in dressers and desks. The kitchen, in the center is hexagonal and has a huge skylight which is being replaced. As built, the sun made it unbearably hot, so a wooden screen was later added. Stainless counters, a funky oven that looks like a car grill and a stainless 4 burner stove that has flip up burners so the counter is clear if you aren’t cooking.
This house is owned by a British nobleman with an Italian last name (?) and it and the grounds are filled with expensive art. The sculpture meadow has a number of dreary metal sculptures, a host of red cutout figures aligned in rows and to my joy, two Andy Goldsworthy rock installations. First a circular wall, 6’ high of dry laid stone, with 4 openings, a sheep pen or a ruined hut or a temple. The second a conical pile of big round boulders maybe 20’ high, with horizontal grooves cut into the stones almost like water lines. This has a portentous presence, the size of the boulders implies might and power, either a great king with lots of slaves or a rich benefactor and a crane. Oddly, it doesn’t have any religious vibrations the way the round pen does, but there is no question about the authority it has.
Next day, we decamp and take the trailers with us to Fallingwater. Peg has to get back to NJ after our tour. Be advised if you go here, you MUST make reservations, even off season, due to bus loads of school children.
This early house of FLW is crouched over a waterfall, several round edged concrete balconies jutting out at three levels over the rushing water. These are cantilevered and tricky engineering, FLW apparently designed the house to only stay up for the lifetime of the department store king who commissioned it. Since it has become a national treasure, vast sums have been spent to keep it from slumping into the water.
The interior has the same deep cave with a great view feeling. I like especially the glass to glass corners where you expect to see a support and see only light. All the metal window frames, hinges and cupboard knobs are designed and specially made and painted “Cherokee red” a sort of venetian red, that is FLK’s signature color. I concur, if there is no particular reason to paint something a color, then the default is red. The bedrooms are tiny, the woodwork lovely. The living room has a fairly rough stone floor that is waxed to resemble the wet stones of the river, including a faux waterfall that comes out of the stone fireplace. In a rare triumph over FLW’s ego, the owners nixed his design for dining chairs and have three legged rustic Tuscan chairs instead, which work better on the uneven floor (who paid for all this anyway ?) Hanging next to the fire place is a big red spherical kettle that can be moved on a crane to sit over the fire. It has a Chinese look to it and while wondering why a water heater is needed in this luxurious home, I am told that it was to heat wine for parties. Slight mind boggle over that much wine being heated.
There is a stair that descends from the living room and stops at the water, no visible means of support. It looks like a swimming ladder, but I think the water is very cold, or maybe a place to fish. We are told that both things happened, but that mostly it is a way to get the cool air from the stream up into the living area. The opening is encased in glass doors to regulate the flow. It must be a sight when the stream rises up and flows over the through the steps and railings.
These two houses impress me with FLW’s authority and enormous ego. After looking at the tasteless pseudo-chateaux that the wealthy of FL favor, and the crushing weight of the “cottages “ in Newport RI, he has managed to keep his clients under his thumb and produce houses the way he alone wants them, right down to specifying the furniture. One lives in his sculpture/installation, not in one’s house. I wonder how many of his houses are lived in day today. They are impressive and theoretically comfortable, but leave very little wiggle room for us ordinary mortals to feather our nests as we see fit.
We part ways and I have an easy drive to Ravenna OH, where my cousin lives.
The Cherry Blossom Rally was great, 40 trailers in a field in a triple half circle with a nice three pole wedding tent in the middle. This is the main rally for my Washington DC Unit ( think boy scout troop ) it is a little early in the season, so it usually rains all day at least one day, and except for going into Washington DC, there are no real events besides eating and drinking. We did all those things. I had two pieces of carrot cake for breakfast each day. Scandalous.
I went into DC to the newest Smithsonian museum, the one for the American Indian. I wanted to see the architecture as it is sort of a take-off on the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde. It is built using the same yellow stone cut rough, and has curves and windows that hide in the recesses like a cliff dwelling. The landscaping around it is very natural, grasses, weeds and a nice disorderly pond and trees on the side that faces the Capitol. On the side that faces the Mall there is a spirited waterfall over rocks again informal and natural, all of which is a nice contrast to the very tidy formal gardens that are the norm in DC. I. M. Pei’s addition to the National Gallery is right across the Mall and this building is a good balance and answer to it.
The interior is also exciting, lots of circles and curves. The floor plan is very like the serious of Kivas at Chaco Canyon’s ruins, but it isn’t as obvious to one walking around, lots of nice spaces and finishes however. They have a restaurant that serves absolutely fabulous food, all based on Native American foods, cooked perfectly, in a setting like the food court at a shopping mall, cafeteria style. Worth the whole trip to have buffalo and salmon and wild rice salad and tamales with peanut sauce. Yum.
I wish the displays had been as great as the architecture and the food. It was overly wordy, too much text, too many stories that I didn’t feel drawn in by. Different tribes had niches with some artifacts and explanations of their ideas of community, religion, use of the land, videos of elders talking etc. Good if you are a kid writing a report, but I was bored and confused by them. My hunch is that displaying this collection of artifacts, which belonged to a George Heyr, was likely to meet with resistance from the tribes. He probably did buy most of the stuff, and some legitimately, rather than stealing it. At any rate, it felt as though the designers of the exhibits got the tribes to tell their stories so they wouldn’t sue for the return of the artifacts. I don’t know this for sure, it might just be inclusion and PC taken beyond the bounds of my interest.
It was a good trip, though, in spite of the impenetrable directions on how to get a ticket for the subway out of the automatic machines. Another example of instructions written by and for people who already know how, leaving those who really need to know in the dark.
One of the AS folks, Peg VanBeveren, heard I was heading for Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater house in Mill Run PA and jumped at the chance to come along, so we made a little caravan of our own. It was fun to have the rally last a little longer. She has a new trailer and is still doing a shakedown cruise in it before taking her partner along so it was a good trip for both of us. After a little research we headed for a CG in Mill Run, PA called Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park. Normally I avoid places like this like the plague, they are full of screaming kids on bikes and they pack the trailers in and have hayrides and cartoons and bingo and water slides and so on. But the state parks are not quite open yet, so we have to.
Fallingwater is closed on Mondays, I discover, but all is not lost, there is another F. L. Wright house nearby and it is open, so we start with that.
Kentuck Knob was built in the 50’s and is one of FLW’s Unisom houses, aimed to be affordable and smaller than some of the earlier piles. It is up on a hill, but not placed where a phenomenal view of the river valley and mountains can be seen, but rather back in the trees. It is low, made of stone quarried on site, and not a 90 angle in the place. This makes it interesting to look at and be inside, but it must have driven the masons and carpenters nuts. Inside it feels like the cliff dwellings again, a big connection to the out doors, but from under a low roof line so one feels protected, and wide open at the same time. There are gorgeous wooden details, closets with matching grain running horizontally, built in dressers and desks. The kitchen, in the center is hexagonal and has a huge skylight which is being replaced. As built, the sun made it unbearably hot, so a wooden screen was later added. Stainless counters, a funky oven that looks like a car grill and a stainless 4 burner stove that has flip up burners so the counter is clear if you aren’t cooking.
This house is owned by a British nobleman with an Italian last name (?) and it and the grounds are filled with expensive art. The sculpture meadow has a number of dreary metal sculptures, a host of red cutout figures aligned in rows and to my joy, two Andy Goldsworthy rock installations. First a circular wall, 6’ high of dry laid stone, with 4 openings, a sheep pen or a ruined hut or a temple. The second a conical pile of big round boulders maybe 20’ high, with horizontal grooves cut into the stones almost like water lines. This has a portentous presence, the size of the boulders implies might and power, either a great king with lots of slaves or a rich benefactor and a crane. Oddly, it doesn’t have any religious vibrations the way the round pen does, but there is no question about the authority it has.
Next day, we decamp and take the trailers with us to Fallingwater. Peg has to get back to NJ after our tour. Be advised if you go here, you MUST make reservations, even off season, due to bus loads of school children.
This early house of FLW is crouched over a waterfall, several round edged concrete balconies jutting out at three levels over the rushing water. These are cantilevered and tricky engineering, FLW apparently designed the house to only stay up for the lifetime of the department store king who commissioned it. Since it has become a national treasure, vast sums have been spent to keep it from slumping into the water.
The interior has the same deep cave with a great view feeling. I like especially the glass to glass corners where you expect to see a support and see only light. All the metal window frames, hinges and cupboard knobs are designed and specially made and painted “Cherokee red” a sort of venetian red, that is FLK’s signature color. I concur, if there is no particular reason to paint something a color, then the default is red. The bedrooms are tiny, the woodwork lovely. The living room has a fairly rough stone floor that is waxed to resemble the wet stones of the river, including a faux waterfall that comes out of the stone fireplace. In a rare triumph over FLW’s ego, the owners nixed his design for dining chairs and have three legged rustic Tuscan chairs instead, which work better on the uneven floor (who paid for all this anyway ?) Hanging next to the fire place is a big red spherical kettle that can be moved on a crane to sit over the fire. It has a Chinese look to it and while wondering why a water heater is needed in this luxurious home, I am told that it was to heat wine for parties. Slight mind boggle over that much wine being heated.
There is a stair that descends from the living room and stops at the water, no visible means of support. It looks like a swimming ladder, but I think the water is very cold, or maybe a place to fish. We are told that both things happened, but that mostly it is a way to get the cool air from the stream up into the living area. The opening is encased in glass doors to regulate the flow. It must be a sight when the stream rises up and flows over the through the steps and railings.
These two houses impress me with FLW’s authority and enormous ego. After looking at the tasteless pseudo-chateaux that the wealthy of FL favor, and the crushing weight of the “cottages “ in Newport RI, he has managed to keep his clients under his thumb and produce houses the way he alone wants them, right down to specifying the furniture. One lives in his sculpture/installation, not in one’s house. I wonder how many of his houses are lived in day today. They are impressive and theoretically comfortable, but leave very little wiggle room for us ordinary mortals to feather our nests as we see fit.
We part ways and I have an easy drive to Ravenna OH, where my cousin lives.
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