My friend Marie is staying with us at the moment. So far the weather has been appalling - we even had a tornado warning siren sounding in our area on Thursday night (we helpfully found out 24 hours later what the dreadful noise had been - we totally ignored it at the time, assuming it was a dodgy burglar alarm). However, after using the terrible downpour as an excuse to watch 12 episodes of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip in two days, we managed to make it off the sofa this afternoon to visit Pope-Leighey House, a Frank Lloyd Wright property in Virgina. The house was built in Falls Church, Virginia for the Pope family in 1940 and has a very interesting history, having been sold to Robert & Marjorie Leighey in 1946, and twice re-located brick-by-brick from its original location. The house is regarded as an outstanding example of Lloyd Wright's Usonian architecture (Usonia stands for 'United States of North America' and was a term invented by Lloyd Wright to describe his vision of a utilitarian house which could be made of sustainable materials and was within the financial reach of the modern American working class family). The single-storey houses have low horizontal roofs, flat lines, open living areas, and a simple design breaking down the barriers between the interior and exterior spaces. Using materials such as concrete, brick, wood and glass, Wright boasted that he could build a house for $5000 - a bold claim, as he was notorious for going over-budget (the Pope house originally came in at $7000). Thus, the house is small (1200 square feet), has no attic, no basement and little storage. As at Fallingwater, Lloyd Wright also designed the furniture for the house, all of which was wooden, modular and perfectly suited to its environment. Simon came with us on the Pope-Leighey House tour and made a valiant effort to look interested when our guide was describing the furniture. After a severe struggle with his eyelids, he paid her the ultimate compliment and fell asleep bolt upright (a courtesy he has also previously extended to such august company as President Khatami and the French Ambassador to Iraq) as she was elaborating on the stencil designs used in the windows.
I'm becoming more and more interested in Lloyd Wright. Both the properties we have visited so far have made me want to adopt a similar minimalist approach - to come home, clear out all our junk and live happily ever after with a handful of carefully selected books, a neatly displayed tea set and a Picasso. A couple of Frank Lloyd Wright properties have now opened as B&Bs, and this property in Ohio is available for short term rental, so one is able to get a real feel for what living in one of them is like. Better still, one could opt for one of the FLW houses for sale. This 'Wright on the Market' website gives details of available properties. I quite fancy the one in Virginia Beach - a snip at a cool $2.5 million.
It was a lovely afternoon out, but I have since discovered this video tour of the Pope-Leighey house on You Tube - looks like we could have saved ourselves an hour-long drive either way. That equates to at least two additional episodes of Studio 60. And now I have found this Frank Lloyd Wright on the Web site, I need never leave the comfort of our home again.
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