Fall Tour

Taliesen Estate, Spring Green, Wisconsin, October 2009. It's quieter as the season winds down.

It's the best time of year ...

... for the tour.

Taliesen Estate, Spring Green, Wisconsin, October 10, 2009.

Chapel Reunion

Unity Chapel, Taliesen Estate, Spring Green, Wisconsin, September 2, 2014. Look around for some history.

A Side Excursion, in Three Takes

During one of the annual, Lithuanian-school picnics, my Dad escorted a few of us to the nearby Fabyan estate.

Near Geneva, Illinois, June 1967. I do not appear in this photograph because I am taking the picture (you can see the camera strap here).

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"While the Fabyans lived on the estate, they employed more than 60 people in positions and maids, gardeners, chauffuers, scientists and farmers. They even employed a sculptor to create numerous stone and concrete fountains, statues and furniture as well as cages for the various wild animals they brought to the [Fox] Riverbank."

Birthday Reunion

Taliesen Estate, Spring Green, Wisconsin, September 2, 2014. Today is Frank Lloyd Wright's birthday; here, again, is the Romeo and Juliet Windmill.

(Taliesen is one of our favorite places. We try to get there at least once each year.)

Early-Spring Drive

Madison, Wisconsin, May 2015. Let's do something different.

Autumn Tour

Taliesen Estate, Spring Green, Wisconsin, October 10, 2009. Several years ago, the leaves changed color later in the season.

Remembered

Taliesen Estate, Spring Green, Wisconsin, September 2, 2014. A century has passed since the murders at Taliesen I.

Wright Walk, in Three Takes

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Oak Park, Illinois, May 2008. Mr. Irene and I return to home territory to tour Mr. Wright's works.

You don't care for RVs?

Consider this.

"So … one of the most significant works in the history of architecture is the prototype for America's architectural Anti-Christ?"

PrairieMod mocks a headline calling Frank Lloyd Wright's Winslow House the first "McMansion."

(Here's why I am interested.)

UPDATE: I've revised this entry to reflect the edits posted at PrairieMod.

"Frozenwater" at Fallingwater

The "polar vortex" freezes the falls at Fallingwater.

(Via PrairieMod.)

Property Listing

PraireMod reports the William Winslow House is on the market. Mom visited the home during a house call in the early 1960s.

Mark your calendars.

Laurent House to open as a museum on June 8, 2013.

(Via PrairieMod.)

Maywood Architecture

My childhood home stood on a street that ran perpendicular to the banks of the Des Plaines River. Across the river, to the east of our home, began the tony suburb of River Forest, and beyond River Forest, was elegant Oak Park.

Both River Forest and Oak Park are home to architectural gems. I attended high school in River Forest, and Mr. Irene's high school was in Oak Park. We each often rode past famous homes, including the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio. My Mom made a house call to the William Winslow House.

Fewer people know about the architectural history of Maywood, the suburb that began three blocks to the south of our home. Many unaltered, historical homes—both Victorian and Prairie-Style houses—stand in Maywood. Today a friend pointed me to a new video, The Historic Homes of Maywood. It's worth a look.

(Via Chicago Curbed.)

The Week Before the Wedding

Mr. Irene and I were busy the week before we got married. A young couple had befriended me when I lived in Venice, and the two flew to Chicago for the wedding. The husband, an architect, had been to the United States earlier, but his wife had never traveled overseas. We therefore spent about five days sightseeing in Chicago.

We took our guests to the spots that were important to us. We toured the Evanston campus of Northwestern University, where Mr. Irene and I had done our undergraduate work. We stopped at Daley Plaza, and we rode up to the top of the John Hancock Building. We also spent at day at my beloved Brookfield Zoo.

The Venetian visitors were interested in American food, so we ate at places like Ed Debevic's and McDonald's. We ordered take-out ribs from Russell's Barbecue in Elmwood Park.

Our schedule was so packed that we barely had time to think about the wedding day. On the day of our rehearsal dinner, for example, we did a walking tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright homes in Oak Park, we visited the Robie House, and we wandered around the campus of the University of Chicago. We were running late as we returned to our respective homes. When I drove into the driveway, I saw that my Dad's twin sister, Jonė, and her husband, Kadis, already had arrived from Toronto for the wedding.

I quickly changed for the small gathering at a Polish restaurant. I was so late, that I painted my nails in the car on the way to dinner.

Chicago, Illinois, June 1, 1989. Mr. Irene and I pose for a photo at Daley Plaza as we hosted our Venetian wedding guests. My Mom knitted the white cotton, lace sweater that I wore.

Gingerbread House ...

... done the Wright way.

Death of the "Little Princess"

Svetlana Alliluyeva has died.

UPDATE: There's more here about Alliluyeva's connections to Wisconsin.