Musings on Music (mostly)

"Rooms without a view are prisons for the people who have to stay in them." When I walk down Forest Avenue in Oak Park--a veritable gallery of early Frank Lloyd Wright homes built in the first decade of the 20th century, I now think "I'd love to shelter-in-place in those places!". Many parts of the houses are designed as nooks or alcoves (and in some ways the entire house is a cluster of mini shelters), each designed for a specific activity, like reading--each with a "porthole" of some kind to views in the landscape--a tree with a treehouse, a river view, a view tilted to a specific angle of the sun. Simply looking at how the windows (sometimes referred to as "knockouts") are placed on the exterior gives hints to its programming. A dreamer himself, Wright realized that creativity can be enhanced by looking out a window. The Glass Houses of Mies and Philip Johnson were architectural metonyms: being in the house meant always being by the w...