Esoteric Survey

Nepenthe (1949) by Rowan Maiden Located on Highway 1 in Big Sur, Nepenthe started as a three-story log cabin built by the Trail Club of Jolon in 1925.  Local writer Lynda Sargent began renting the cabin after the Trail Club stopped using it and eventually let Henry Miller stay there when he moved to Big Sur.  Then in 1944, Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth purchased the property and used it as a retreat during their short marriage. In 1947 Bill and Madelaine "Lolly" Fassett  purchased the land out of the divorce settlement from Hayworth. The initial plan was to use it as a vacation home but Lolly said   the site and its magnificent vistas were too vast, too wonderful to keep to themselves – “no individual can own it, it belongs to everyone”    They chose  Taliesin Fellow Rowan Maiden to help construct their vision.  Rowan studied under Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin West from 1939 to 1941. He married  Germaine, whose father was Frank Lloyd ...

Taliesin West served as Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home and school in the desert from 1937 until his death in 1959.  Wright's importance as an architect is immense, although one could argue that his role as a teacher might eclipse his buildings. Architects such as Richard Neutra, R.M. Schindler, John Lautner, Bruce Goff, and Paolo Soleri all spent time working for Wright. San Diego architects Sim Bruce Richards, Loch Crane and Frederick Liebhardt were also Taliesin Fellows. More information on Wright's legacy in San Diego can be found at  Modern San Diego . Frank Lloyd Wright and the Fellowship Source: Frank Lloyd Wright The mosaic was gifted to Frank Lloyd Wright by playwright and congresswoman Clare Booth Luce.  Every year, before the brutal summer hit the Scottsdale desert, Wright's operation was packed away and stored in this kiva. He then made the trek to Taliesin in Wisconsin. The dragon b...

Model by Sim Bruce Richards Frank Lloyd Wright’s Legacy in San Diego: the Taliesin Architects  at the La Jolla Historical Society  frames the remarkably rich portfolio of work with architectural drawings and models; period and contemporary photographs; as well as objects and ephemera. Furniture by Sim Bruce Richards Sim Bruce Richards children's table and sofa. Tile prototypes by  Sim Bruce Richards and Rhoda Lopez   The table was designed with a "milk-retaining edge". Jane Chapman pillows Loch Crane rendering for Crane II in Point Loma The Onion House by Kendrick Bangs Kellogg and Bill Slatton  in Kona, Hawaii (1961–62) Vincent Bonini, Bonini House (La Cañada, CA), 1955 Vincent was fiends with Eugene Weston, who lent him furniture for this Julian Shulman photo shoot--hence the Weston table. He would later join the firm of Liebhardt & Weston in San Diego. More information can be found at Mode...