Island for sale (includes a Frank Lloyd Wright house)… or does it?

If you have a spare $20 million dollars and are looking for a new home, you might be interested in this…

Petre Island is a heart shaped piece of land, approximately 11 acres in size that sits in Lake Mahopac, about 50 miles north of Manhattan and for your money you not only get the whole island, but your very own Frank Lloyd Wright House as well…

Sounds like a bargain, except not everything is exactly as it seems… The island, the price and its availability are all real enough, it’s the Frank Lloyd Wright house that seems to be the issue.

FLW did design a house for this island back in the 1950′s, when the owner asked for something that would surpass Wright’s most famous house, Falling Water (from 1937). Unfortunately the owner at the time couldn’t afford to build Wright’s vision, and so settled instead for a small cottage.

Roll forward to 1996 when the island was bought for £770,000 by a new owner who was determined to realise the original FLW scheme. He approached the FLW Foundation, and ended up suing them after they claimed copyright of the original designs and wanted to charge more than half what he had paid for the island to use them. The courts found in the new owners favour and with the help of an FLW expert and some 3D software, he set about converting the single finished floor plan, a perspective and a handful of elevations into a best interpretation of Wrights’s vision, claiming upon its completion in 2007, that it was “within two inches of Wright’s original design”

Except that not many people agreed with him. Without the great Frank Lloyd Wright (who died in 1959) to oversee the project and work up the details, the resultant 480sqm building, although impressive in some regards, appears lacking and a bit thin in many key areas…

The biggest issues seem to revolve around wrongly shaped roof lights, chimney tops and more tellingly the inclusion of the existing rocks and landscape into the design. A trademark of FLW’s approach, this usually resulted in dramatic juxtapositions where the natural met the man made..  and looking at the photos here, there does appear to be something amiss.

There’s just not the detail and quality you would expect of a Lloyd Wright house. Compare the following images, the first one is from Petre Island, the second two are from the place it was supposed to surpass, Falling Water. Do I need to say more? The lumpen blue walls with the stones stuck into them and the unadorned fire place at the end of the room are surely enough to agree with the critics… let alone the everyday paneled ceiling and overlong, uninspired banquette…

Still it’s easy to be critical and if I had $20 million dollars (and US residency of course) I would definitely be going for a nosey around…

You can find more on this story here and here if you’re interested.

Theo Jansen & his Kinetic Strandbeests…

One of my colleagues here in the office was sent a link to an intriguing clip of film earlier today…

Watch it from about 45 seconds in and then marvel at the fluidity of the Strandbeest’s movement…

It’s really quite spooky, a thing almost alive and independent, with beautiful junctions, cams and bearings that allow the “animals” to move, and all made from PVC pipes.

The Vimeo clip below is from a film currently being made about Theo Jansen, who has been making, developing and refining these things for over 20 years now, and it really highlights how complex they need to be to create such effortless and fluid motion unaided.

Jansen thinks of these intriguing constructions as new forms of life and hopes that they will eventually develop into self sufficient entities inhabiting the beaches of the future, a task that he is dedicating the next twenty years of his life to, teaching them how to adapt and survive…

I have no idea how mad this actuually is or how successful he will be in his goal, but I wish him well. I think it’s good to have a dream and it would undoubtably be pretty amazing to see herds of these seemingly freewilled creatures gliding across the horizon powered only by the wind and the sun…

Lebbeus Woods – A Visionary Architect

I’m rather late with this small tribute to an architect who was little known outside of the profession, and who sadly died at the end of October at the age of 72.

When I was at University in the late 80′s & early 90′s, I became rather obsessed with the work of Lebbeus Woods, an American architect and academic who had an amazing  imagination that was luckily for us, coupled with an unbelievable talent for drawing.

I tried (like many others I guess) to copy his style and I borrowed his ideas for the basis of some of my projects, most notably this one with a series of faceted structures stuck to the side of the Post Office Tower. I soon realised however that despite my best efforts, my drawing and presentational ability were not up to the task, and so I had to be satisfied with buying his books and stroking the images that lay within…

And what wonderful images he could make.. flying, dynamic, structures rendered in layer upon layer of perfectly weighted pencil crayon lines, truly wonderful stuff…

Woods was unusual for an architect in that I don’t think he actually ever completed a building. In fact I think he only ever completed one physical project, a light sculpture that sits within a Steven Holl building in China, completed earlier this year. All his projects were almost always theoretical, often based around ideas of conflict and war and the resultant destruction and rebuilding of the cities fabric.

He was often described as a fantasist, producing work and imagery that would grace any decent sci-fi story. This was an accusation he always fought however, saying instead that his work was intended to invoke real architectural albeit one which was free of conventional limits, and lived by a different set of rules. One fine example of which would be his Einstein Tomb in which a structure travelles the universe along a single beam of light forever..

I will leave you with just a small selection of some of Lebbeus’s wonderful drawings, but if you would like to know more, Oliver Wainwright’s blog at the Guardian is a good place to start, as it gathers comments from some of his many students and contemporaries, all of whom hold him in very high esteem…

Simplified Tube Map

Just came across this bit of wonderfulness on the Twittersphere…

As and when I find out where it originated from I’ll update the post, but until then I’ll try and resist the temptation to mentally add more generic area descriptions, because although that would be fun, it kind of defeats the point…

Steve Thomas Travel Posters

I’m liking the work of Steve Thomas at the moment, an American (I think) illustrator and graphic designer…

Like most things that appeal to me, it’s a very simple idea that’s been executed very well.. Steve takes imaginary or unreachable destinations and then creates a travel poster advertising it as a holiday destination..

In each case there is an instantly recognisable feature/ landmark, a cheeky written reference to the source of the idea, and always a very good reason to go there…

Drawn in a soft 1930′s Halcyon style, I like the inherent contradiction within the images, wherein something you know to be made up or totally inaccessible, becomes an almost achievable destination, thanks to the familiarity of the presentational format.

The Star Wars ones I think are especially good (but then anyone whose read more than a couple of posts on this blog, would probably know that already…)

A Couple of Old Queens…

I picked up a copy of the new free Time Out this morning and apart from being surprised at just how many bands from the 80′s and 90′s are still doing the rounds (is ANYONE interested in seeing The Fields of the Nephilim, Space or The Farm!!) these two images sitting either side of the same page, amused me with their similarity of imagery and style…

Curly bouffant hair, eyes closed in concentration, respectfully aged skin, expensive looking clothes and big jewelry…

Methinks Mr. Hucknall didn’t really think this one through … unless his singing career is in such dire straights, that he’s considering an alternative one as a looky likey

Satellites for your Mantelpiece…

Today’s “completely pointless but rather lovely nonetheless” objects come via Daily Icon, and I quote…

“Designed for Papafoxtrot London, Postlerferguson have selected the 5 most iconic unmanned spacecraft circling the earth and transformed them into Papafoxtrot’s iconic design language. The satellites are made out of polished maple and laser etched stainless steel with matte white and gloss red touches”

And not much more need be said…

Ampeg Dan Armstrong Acrylic guitar…

We ended up at home in time to watch a Later with Jools Holland “best of” show on Friday night, and the sight and sound of Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters playing that most excellent of guitars, the Ampeg Dan Armstrong Plexiglass has been in my head ever since…

My guitar buying days were back in the early 1990′s when, after lots of magazine buying, reading and talking to friends, I opted for a rather fine Japanese Silver Series Squire Telecaster, stylish and affordable. What I really wanted though (but couldn’t afford) was either a Gibson Semi-Acoustic (as wielded by Steve Howe and Geordie) or this truly innovative transparent wonder…

Dan Armstrong was a well respected American guitar maker and session musician when he was hired by the Ampeg Company in 1968 to improve their line of guitars. The idea to use solid acrylic (or Lucite in the US) was an unusual one, as timber was generally thought to give greater depth and sustain.

Armstrong’s contention however was that the electrics within the guitar, along with any outboard effects would be able to create a much better and faithful sound if the vibration of the instrument was limited only to the strings, with the body being as inert as possible. Acrylic fitted the bill perfectly, not only for stability but also for its striking looks (enhanced by a very fetching formica scratch plate no less) and the guitar was an immediate success…

As a piece of design it seems to perfectly catch the spirit of the early 1970′s, with its sensuous curves, and its combination of the modern and the kitsch (both in technological and material terms). It certainly doesn’t look like it was conceived over 40 years ago.

The guitar and a virtually identical bass version, were made for only a very short period of time (1969 to 1971) as Ampeg and Armstrong fell out over money, and this has resulted in a relative scarcity of original versions. It is because of this (and their sound of course) that they can command a large price tag, which these days can be anything from about £2500 upwards (although the bass’s are a bit cheaper…)

Along with Dave Grohl, famous players have included Ronnie Wood, Geezer Butler on bass from Sabbath, Greg Ginn from Black Flag and John Frusciante from the Chili Peppers…

One more thing of possible interest to people like me, is that Dave Grohl’s guitar appears to have the four Black Flag stripes on the body (much like Greg Ginn’s above).. What I don’t know is if this is a homage thing on Dave’s part, or is actually the same guitar…

Answers on a postcard please…

Underground Guerrilla Signs..

My friend Darren sent me a link to these rather excellent alternative London Underground signs…

Apparently they’ve been appearing for some time now, but like 99% of passengers, I’m sad to say I’ve missed them..

They’ve been done so well, that to a regular commuter, their utter familiarity as part of an accepted, everyday visual clutter, results in them becoming almost invisible, losing all meaning beyond their colour and shape..

Well it’s a lesson learnt for me. I usually pride myself on at least attempting to see beyond the day to day, and resist the automatic filters that city life can generate.

Rest assured, that I will certainly be keeping a much sharper lookout for these signs from now on… How I would’ve loved to have noticed Shepherd’s Pie, overground, Gas mark 4 on a journey into work, it would have made my day…

2012 Olympic Branding…

The whole Olympic 2012 restrictions on branding and advertising are so draconian and ridiculous that it’s difficult to take them seriously…

Badminton players (quite rightly) get expelled for not competing properly, but all other forms of competition are explicitly banned: money can only be got via Visa machines (which then don’t work) local traders have to change the names of their business to avoid prosecution, and chips can only be bought from you know who. I can’t work out if this is the power of advertising or simply the Power of the State…

There are two things recently that have caused me to stop and wonder at this convoluted state of affairs…

Firstly, the seemingly omnipresent Beats by Dre headphones on the heads of the swimmers in Zaha’s very excellent swimming pool… the only bit of non sponsored branding in the entire place… The justification apparently is that these “special” headphones are used to block sound out, so the swimmers are not getting their last fix of Metallica/Kylie/ Daft Punk, they are in deep concentration mode…

You have to give it to the Doctor.. breaking the rules with such elegance and simplicity by giving stuff away… genius

The second thing that has struck me is that something is missing… something that has become so ingrained in my visual conscious that it’s taken me a while to notice..

Where are the famous three stripes on the arms and legs of the Olympic Volunteers shiny Adidas clothes… It must be the first time that the company has made clothes without stripes… I’m surprised the sewing machines didn’t explode with the paradox…

I bet that was a difficult meeting: Yes you can make ten’s of thousands of uniforms and official sports kits but no, you can’t put your most distinctive feature on any of it.. Take a good look at the photo to the right, you will never see it’s like again (well, not for another four years anyway, unless Nike get their act together of course…)

And has anyone else noticed how much they look like Sainsburys uniforms without the stripes?… “Excuse me young man, can you tell me the way to the sports (section) please?”

Oh the irony…