What has been lost.

By on Jun 11, 2017

“”In 1931, Pauline Schindler rented the Storer House after splitting from her husband, the Modernist architect R.M. Schindler, who had worked under Wright. She sent a letter to Wright’s third wife, Olgivanna, praising the house and mentioning the way the living room made her feel — and making a comparison to dramatic literature that could hardly have been more nuanced or perfect.

“The room in which I sit writing is a form so superb that I am constantly conscious of an immense obligation to Mr. Wright,” she wrote. “Such superlative joy does it give us, like a drama of Sophocles.””

This is a quote of a quote from an article in the LA Times about Frank Lloyd Wright’s 150th birthday and the houses he designed in Hollywood. The point of my excerpting it is not for what it says about Mr. Wright but for HOW it says it. Where is this sophistication, this class, this ability to convey feelings like this today? So simple, so accuratel so eloquent, I simply cannot imagine ANYONE in Hollywood today expressing their feelings like this, in fact, I have trouble imagining anyone in Hollywood experiencing feelings like those expressed here. (And can you imagine anyone taking the time to write a letter expressing such feelings to the spouse of the man responsible? – I can’t.)