She takes our breath even as she lifts our spirits, Winged Victory, Niké of Samothrace, once a votive offering to now defunct gods, a memorial, perhaps, to a battle won long ago, long since forgotten. Or rather not all of her, not the full statue, but the assembled fragments we know and have known for well over a century, who still moves us and takes us to the point of flight, our imaginations, our spirit propelled by her incompletion, by what is missing, by what might yet lie beyond.
THOUGHT
FEELING
ACTION
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Building, massive, firmly anchored, yet energetic, lifts us in a different way, taking us back a century ago, to memories left behind, to enterprise, to values, to maxims, to the spirits that once inspired them.
SIMPLICITY
TENACITY
STABILITY
LIBERTY
EQUALITY
FRATERNITY
INTELLIGENCE
JUDGMENT
INITIATIVE
In short, if the incentive that results from the family-gathering under conditions ideal for body and mind counts for lesser errors, cheerful alacrity and quickened and sustained intelligence in duties to be performed, we have created some very real values.
Frank Lloyd Wright
HONEST LABOR
NEEDS NO MASTER
SIMPLE JUSTICE
NEEDS NO SLAVES
ALL THINGS WHATSOEVER YE
WOULD THAT MEN SHOULD DO
TO YOU DO YE EVEN SO TO THEM
ASK AND IT SHALL BE GIVEN YOU
SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND KNOCK
AND IT SHALL BE OPENED UNTO YOU
CO-OPERATION
ECONOMY
INDUSTRY
SINCERITY
HUMILITY
COURAGE
ADVERSITY
REFINEMENT
SYMPATHY
ASPIRATION
TRUTH
NOBILITY
GENEROSITY
ALTRUISM
SACRIFICE
CHEERFULNESS
PATIENCE
CONTENTMENT
INTEGRITY
LOYALTY
FIDELITY
FAITH
HOPE
CHARITY
PRUDENCE
LEARNING
WISDOM
IMAGINATION
JUDGMENT
INITIATIVE
.
According to one newspaper account, “everything removable has been stripped by vandals. Lighting fixtures, door knobs, plumbing, and even part of the copper roof have been torn away systematically by thieves.” Another stated, “Every double-paned window is shattered. The tall iron grate which graces the entrance has toppled from rusted hinges. The iron fence topping a low brick wall around the structure went into a wartime scrap collection.”
Jack Quinan/Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Building
All that remains today—and that wall had to be rebuilt.
.
Essay and credits coming. . . .