BURNAWAY Magazine presents ROAD TRIP, a summer photo series covering critics Lilly Lampe’s and Alex Robins’s path as they make a circuitous journey from Atlanta to Brooklyn. Below find final highlights from the road!
There were a few stops and sites that didn’t make it into our other posts, but are certainly worth mentioning:
We had an amazing pizza dinner in Robbinsdale, MN of all places at Pig Ate My Pizza. Not pictured: chicken mole pizza, ribs, and carrot and ginger soup. The farm to table movement has officially arrived in Minnesota.
Between Minnesota and Chicago we camped in Spring Green, Wisconsin, home of the House on the Rock, Taliesin, and not much else.
The House on the Rock is a large and unique structure designed by Alex Jordan Jr. which today houses a variety of automatons, collections of oddities, and a large merry-go-round.
There’s an eccentric air to the whole enterprise, which is today the most popular tourist attraction in Wisconsin.
Just a few miles down the road from the House on the Rock is Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin. Wright had high aspirations for Taliesin and intended it to be both his summer home and a teaching school for young architects. He moved in with his mistress, Mamah Borthwick Cheney, who had been married to his client Edwin Cheney, and her two children after leaving his wife and family behind in Chicago.
Taliesin, however, became a site of tragedy and grief for Wright. While Wright was away working on a commission in Chicago, a manservant by the name of Julian Carlton set fire to the building and murdered seven people, including Cheney and her children, as they tried to escape.
We didn’t have time to do the tour (and at $50 a head, it’s one of the more expensive Frank Lloyd Wright houses to see) but drove around the exterior.
In Buffalo, NY—our first stop after Toronto and Niagara—we did tour Wright’s Martin House. This sprawling multi-house complex is considered one of the best examples of Wright’s Prairie Style. It’s been beautifully restored and was a real treat to see.
Buffalo has several other notable architectural sites, including Louis Sullivan’s Prudential (originally Guaranty) Building. The exterior combines masonry and terra cotta detailing to a wonderfully ornate effect.
We couldn’t make a trip to Buffalo without stopping by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. Though we enjoyed the exhibitions, I was most taken with some gems in the permanent collection…
like Sol Lewitt’s Wall Drawing #1268 Scribbles, which fills a stairwell…
…Rachel Whiteread’s Untitled (Domestic), 2002 installed with Tracey Emin’s Only God Knows I’m Good, 2009, and Jenny Holzer’s Untitled (The Buffalo Installation), 1991.
We ended our summer adventures in Mill Run, PA at Wright’s famed Fallingwater house.
Built over a thirty-foot waterfall over thirty years after the Martin House, Fallingwater is a dramatic departure from the Prairie style and the finest example of Wright’s Organic work.
Thanks for following us on our travels!
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