Frank Lloyd Wright Genius or hack?

Question

A lot of people like him and they charge like $25 to see Falling Water but I don'y know what the fuss is all about.

Answer 1

They guy was a hack pure and simple! His houses and buildings didn't stand the test of time. Most of his houses need
costly and extensive repairs from the day they were built. His houses were nice to to look at but not to live in. The sky lights
were a constant problem in the Martin house. The Martin house also contained half walls and levels that the nearly blind
Mrs. Martin kept walking into and fall down. Falling water should have been named falling down water because it is sliding off its foundation. The furniture he designed isn't very conformable either with hard seat and straight backs. His personal life was also a mess he dumped his wife for the wife of one of his clients and he abused and neglected his children. His life like his works were nothing more than a pretty outside with a rotten core.

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Answer 2

Some believe that architects deal only with brick and motar while others understand that they also deal with space (the part of a building not filled with brick and motar!). Many consider Frank Lloyd Wright a genius for his creative use of space. His work has inspired others to create huge foyers in ornate buildings where a "tunnel" would have been much cheaper. Consider that in an art museum, the most honored painting may reside in a room all its own. Space says something and honors people. But to each his own. Yo-Yo Ma might be considered a hack by anyone who is tone deaf.

Answer 3

Architect...innovator.....

human being

I'm not a huge fan, but based on the standards of the time, he was fresh, new, and visionary. You also have to consider that he was creating "outside the box", as it were, with materials which did not have the resilency that many of the newer, manufactured, materials have. It's likely with those materials, his buildings would have had fewer structural problems.

I'm not a Piacasso fan either, but I don't feel that gives me the right to declare him a hack...or a genius. I can only look at what he did in the context of his time and see where he brought a new dimension to the art world...like Wright did to architecture.

I guess my response would be...if you aren't a fan, don't spend the $25.

Answer 4

As far as certain houses of his needing constant repair, that is because he didn't really know construction methods and experimented alot with his students/cheap construction labor. I am referring, of course, to Taliesin West. They were "archi-torture" students, not construction company employees. His concepts towards design were revolutionary in the sense that he decided to build out instead of necessarily up to create more "space".
And, no matter what you think of him, maybe he was cracked up a bit. After all, his servant once boarded up his family's house, barricaded all but one door, set the house afire, and hacked each family member with an axe as they came out the only exit. That would have some sort of "cracking" effect on anyone.

Answer 5

Wright's designs were dull, cold, uncomfortable and many times not practical to build. In addition, he wanted to control the inhabitants up to the point of insisting on building in all of the furniture.

The furniture was also uncomfortable, dark and had little aesthetic appeal.