Tag Archives: Frank Lloyd Wright

Headlines Du Jour ► Sunday, June 8, 2014

Howdy, Headliners. Today’s birthday boy is architect Frank Lloyd Wright. He made many Headlines Du Jour of yesteryear:

Let’s get right to today’s Headlines Du Jour:

THE BERGDAHL BEAT:

IN LGBT NEWS:

THE “P” IN GOP STANDS FOR “PERVERTS” AND “PREVARICATORS”

DISPATCH FROM DETROIT, ‘MERKA’S FIRST THROWAWAY CITY:

GUNS GUNS, GUNS:

FREE THE WEED!!!

ANOTHER EXCITING EPISODE OF COPS GONE WILD:

FOX “NEWS” IN THE NEWS AGAIN:

BOB BECKEL IN THE NEWS AGAIN:

NO LONGER PREGGY LEGGY MEGGY IN THE NEWS AGAIN:

VIDEO DU JOUR:

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Happy Birthday Frank Lloyd Wright

Dateline June 8, 1867 – Frank Lloyd Wright is born in Wisconsin. By the time he died at the age of 92, he would be considered the greatest architect that ever lived.

By 1956 Wright was so famous that the What’s My Line panel had to be blindfolded when he Wright appeared before them. And, as usual, Dorothy Kilgallen was the smartest person in the room.


If you were to remove all the buildings from the equation, Frank Lloyd Wright still lived a life that can hardly be believed. At the height of his initial fame, with a wife and 7 children, he ran away with a client’s wife. While in Europe he was denounced from pulpits across the country and he lost all commissions. People thought his career was over. However, he eventually returned to the States with Memeh Cheney and started all over again from the bottom.

Wright built Taliesin and restarted his career, reaching new heights. Then one tragic day in 1914, while Wright was off working on a building, a male servant set fire to Taliesin during a lunch Mameh was hosting. As people fled the smoke-filled dining room, Julian Carlton hacked seven people to death with an axe. Among the dead was Mameh Cheney and her two children. Wright was shattered.

But, it’s all about the buildings. It didn’t hurt that Wright was a consummate salesman and his #1 product was Frank Lloyd Wright.






More than anything else Frank Lloyd Wright changed the way all suburbs looked. His beautiful Prairie Home was copied tens of millions of times over by bad architects to become the ranch-style house that crowds out good architecture in our suburban landscape.

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Unpacking My Detroit – Part Two

Detroit, once the fifth largest city in ‘Merka, is home to some of the greatest architecture among ‘Merkin cities.

It’s sad to see it today. The decline of Detroit began as innocent urban sprawl in the mid-to-late ’50s, when I was just a kid. This was followed by early White Flight acerbated by the 1967 riot, followed by a total collapse of the tax base, leading to the elections of some very dubious mayors with dubious ideas. Today Detroit is an urban wasteland and, while that sounds like a cliche, it is not an exaggeration. Whole blocks—whole neighbourhoods—are falling apart. The city is considering turning land over to farming, just like in the good ol’ days when Detroit was a little settlement along the river. Oh! Wait!

On my last trip to Detroit I took dozens of pictures like the following:

© Headly Westerfield, 2012
Drive along any street in Detroit.  Eventually you will see houses like the above. You might see blocks like the above and below.
© Headly Westerfield, 2012
The housing stock that has gone to waste, and is now rotting before our eyes, is a national disgrace. It was within ‘Merka’s power to see that Detroit didn’t fall into the shithole. Now it’s too late.
© Headly Westerfield, 2012

Yet the same city produced Motown before it went into the crapper.

© Headly Westerfield, 2012

Not many cities can boast a Frank Lloyd Wright house. Detroit can:

© Headly Westerfield, 2012
© Headly Westerfield, 2012
© Headly Westerfield, 2012

© Headly Westerfield, 2012

Detroit is a city of extreme contrasts, which become more contrasting each day.

Other entries:

Unpacking My Detroit ► Part One

Unpacking My Detroit ► Part Three

Unpacking My Detroit ► Part Four