Texts From Last Night

Victim: Andy Yeo
Time: 3:43 AM

Ears are ringing. Sentimentality is the lowest form of human emotiion. Glve me a ring tmrw. Birds are singing.

Falling Water

My senior year of high school, I became immersed in the world of architecture, particularly with the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. The connection was an obvious subconscious precursor to my interest in juxtaposition. The influence of nature on his urban and residential buildings allowed for the blurring of two seemingly contradictory worlds. Whether it be the horizontal essence of the prairie homes or the formation of structure with the natural environment surrounding, Wright successfully interplayed this dichotomy. Ok, ok, you already know this. You’ve seen the pictures and blueprints a thousand times before. The anthology of his work on my coffee table is one of hundreds, thousands documenting his work (each one apparently not enough). A Google Image Search for “Falling Water” provides 11,800,000 results (in .38 seconds no less) that primarily involve Wright and his masterpiece. But in the age of abundant, two-dimensional-on-demand imagery, we lose the magnitude of the significance of the places and events themselves. Overstimulation begets underwhelming. Or…
“I am here.” Pointing to the ground I was standing on, these are the words I said after following the signs that said ‘View’ towards the iconic spot we’ve seen so many of the pictures taken from of the waterfall rushing through and below the Kaufmann’s estate. “This is amazing.” I repeated this over and over, so in awe of the building that the ineloquence of my words would have been alarming if I hadn’t recognized the brilliance of the space itself and the inadequacy of language to express my feelings for the architecture. Admittedly, it can take some reality checks to actually appreciate the reality of some events. The world of experience is a rich one, and the ubiquity of the media should not take that away. We should be so lucky to engrain in our minds the words of Sean Maguire’s monologue during the “Taster’s Choice moment between guys.” The slow rush of the water due to lack of rainfall in Mill Run, PA recently did not detract from my experience. I was there. I stepped on the fallen leaves, the dirt, the sticks around the house and touched the granite ledges lining the stairs, the masonry on the cantilevers. Jenna, Josh and Lou were there. Over 1200 miles, we’re back. But we were there. It was amazing.

Falling Water

Sean Maguire