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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

> A case in point is his furniture designs.  In regards to his chairs, he is
> quoted as saying that if you want to be comfortable, go to bed.

Practicality was not FLW's strong suit in his houses, although some of his 
commercial designs worked very well. Nor were his buildings built to last. 
Most have needed extensive repairs, including Fallingwater, his most 
famous. I wrote here how disappointed I was when I first visited Taliesin 
West and saw the poor masonry workmanship. Turns out he was out of funds, 
as usual. Reminds me of Jefferson. Turns out the work was done by the 
apprentices, the architecture students who were his workers, doing his 
grunt work, even doing his laundry. They paid good money for this. In that 
regard he was a model for Paolo Solari, who also uses unpaid workers to 
build Arcosanti.

Wright was an egotistical, imperious, lying scoundrel. But his designs 
mesmerized, and continue to mesmerize people, not least because he was a 
showman, a self-promoter. In spite of all this, he failed to make the 
Usonian design accepted by the masses for whom he claimed to be building.