Ya know, this touches on another thing that bugged me about the original design of the building. A fleet of architects traveled all over Europe for two years, researching epic architecture all over the place... ... and then came back and COPIED IT. They didn't use all of that fantastic imagery to design something new, and whole, and contiguous, and beautiful... ... they just copied a collection of the coolest rooms they had seen! The article continually references the original buildings/rooms of Europe that were copied into this mansion. And every time I'm like.... SO WHAT DID THE ARCHITECT DO?!? That's a draftsman's job: copy what's there. An architect should use all the original design as inspiration and design something new. That's the goddamn point. Man. I really wanted to see this house, but now... yeah... notsomuch. Been to the original ones. Don't need to see a dilapidated American copy... "...If you do it up yourself, you're responsible for how it looks. If you do it according to Hoyle you are merely exercising the will of the architectural gods..."
Something all my architect friends are incensed about Neoclassicism is straight bullshit. Always has been. Always will be. "Leave an exquisite corpse" was popularized by the goddamn Nazis for goddamn Nazi reasons. And you're absolutely right: this monstrosity was under construction the exact same time as Taliesin: And after the Gamble House.
