Tasteful Friends: I Present "The Ennis House"

No way. I don't want to live in an Aztec temple.

You *know* the roof leaks. You know the hallways are tight AF. You know the rooms are buggy AF and that your furnitue won’t fit.

Wright sucked shit as an architect.

Butt ugly.

Looks like a frat / club house for douchebag wannabes who are into secret society magic cult stuff.

Love it.

I have always loved that house. I think they recently did a bunch of work on it to fix the various engineering issues.

We love it!

That kitchen! Ugh.

I was there for a conference about 2o years or so ago. Needed a lot of work. Done know if they've fixed or not but it was beautiful.

Except for Fallingwater , most of Wright is overhyped. ALL his LA houses are the worst of his work. Think he was experimenting with concrete block. But as everyone soon learned, it’s ugly as shit.

Would anyone reallly want to live in Falling Water? Even its owner called it "Rising Mildew".

1....300,000 per year in taxes.

2. ....as a historical landmark, you have to allow tours (I think you have to designate 1 day per month for the public).

3. ....beautiful, but the maintenance must be a nightmare.

It really is iconic -- totally unique, and I love that about it.

That said, it's more of a museum than a house; the whole atmosphere is way too cold (ironic, in a climate like LA's) to be lived in IMO.

But the view alone!

Wait, I just realized: the fireplace for the living room is situated on the far side of the hallway? Behind the row of columns? WTF?

Definitely not a house to be lived in.

For $5K, you can buy the next Aztec temple house down the hill on Franklin. The Sowden House. Also made out of molded blocks made out of cinder block material.

Err, $5M

"I Present "The Ennis House""

Jacked, I Swear!

didn't the mad doctor who killed the Black Dahlia live there? He killed girls there with John Houston. At least that's the urban legend.

His best houses are from his earlier period and are all in Chicago, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

r18, no one knows who killed the Black Dahlia. It's an unsolved mystery.

It was used as the haunted house in "The House on Haunted Hill," which made it look both creepy and depressing.

R2 you have a good point. I've always thought his stuff looked beautiful, but unlivable.

R18, you're thinking of the Sowden House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright's son.

Seems more like a public space (maybe a library) than a private residence. The only room that felt like a residence was the pool table room.

i kinda like the black and red bathroom

oh, right, r23. That's the house! God, it's creepy as fuck!

Is Vincent Price buried there?

r26.....Its also featured in that new Chris Pine series.....

The Guggenheim is striking but ultimately unworkable as an art museum.

Wright's houses are notoriously expensive to maintain. They were built to appeal to the eye, not the billfold. The architectural standards of his homes are not always good. These houses fall apart fast in many cases and need constant and extensive ongoing maintenance to counteract that. This very house was falling apart before the expensive renovation. Retaining walls around the house that held it up on that hill were rotting and falling apart making the structure unsound in areas.

The same thing happened with Falling Water in Pennsylvania. At one point visitors were not allowed to go out onto the terraces because they were in danger of collapsing into the water below.

Besides the purchase price you've got to have very deep pockets and be willing to shell out for constant repairs in this place. Frankly, I think it should be bought by some arts consortium and turned into a museum and social gathering facility. I just can't see this place as a private residence.

R25, that's pretty funny, since Wright had left the project by the time the bathrooms were done!

I love the Sowden House (Black Dahlia suspect doctor). One season of ANTM was filmed there and it actually was beautiful and seemed like it would be a cool place to live and entertain.

[quote] I think they recently did a bunch of work on it to fix the various engineering issues.

Coincidentally I was thinking of this just yesterday when I watched The Fountainhead on TCM. They spent millions repairing the earthquake damage and the decades of general deterioration, but nevertheless it really is a failure. It and so much of Wright's work was built mainly to be a dramatic view from the outside, not to live in comfortably.

My favorite description of Ennis is "a Mayan temple if built by Albert Speer".

[quote]r20 no one knows who killed the Black Dahlia. It's an unsolved mystery.

Daddy was the Black Dahlia killer!!

Does it still have the vat of acid in the basement? Or the scary old lady with cataracts who sneaks up behind you and then glides out of the room on roller skates?

Sadly the old lady has left us but we still have her hit record to remember her by.

......

Oh come on!

Any of us would live there like a shot if we could afford it. Looks iconic!

Perfect for human sacrifices.

And what a view!

R38, of course this is an iconic house. Fon't expect the stupid queens of DL to know better.

Case in point, R2. Boy, what a stupid cunt.

*Don't expect

Now everybody knows R40 is the stupid cunt.

You mean ever stupid cunt like you, R42? Please MARY.

I would be afraid of mummies

What about daddies?

This is an excellent documentary about FLW in LA done by the PBS channel out there. Most interesting is the last house he did for the Freemans, because you don’t hear or see much about it. It is owned by USC and is in a state of ruin. I highly recommend this video if you want to know more about this period, I’ve seen a lot of exhibits and visited many houses, but this had new information and insight.

It seems ideal for a family of vampires

I love this house, always have.

FLW’s houses make me cum.

I love this house but I would only want it as a second home.

And what, pray, would your first house look like, R49? This one is hardly a weekend house.

[quote]as a historical landmark, you have to allow tours (I think you have to designate 1 day per month for the public).

Absolutely not, R12.

[quote] It is important to note, however, that designation as an NHL does not necessarily make a property open to the public. Property owners retain all property rights and, thus, can choose whether or not to open their sites to visitors. Please check with an NHL before you make plans to visit. [National Park Service info on the National Historic Landmarks program -- the only national landmarks program in the U.S.; no other landmarks at state or local level have such a requirement. - see link]

In some countries allowing visitors access to a national landmark property in private ownership *may" be a requirement, usually not based on the landmark status alone but a requirement tied to accepting national money toward the preservation or maintenance of a designated property.

....

I love it! If you can afford $19,000,000 for the place I don't think maintenance costs would be a primary concern. As to the Albert Spier remark, I liked his aesthetic, but not anything having to do with the government he served.

This would be something you purchase with your undertaxed passive income and then deed to an dweeby and responsible architecture program.

If any of you enjoys moving your furniture around as a form of therapy, FLW homes are NOT for you. Everything is supposed to remain where he placed it. Don’t add your personality and don’t remove his. It’s like the ghost of a huge siamese cat is watching your every move.

R54 Are you a writer? I love the turn of phrase

I would be afraid of mummies.

Florida Southern College and its FLW buildings in of all places, Central Florida.