Frank Lloyd Wright's
SAMARA
John E. Christian, Owner


SAMARAQuest


Benton Fourth Grade Team

The Origamies

Katie Biehl / Diedre McCleary
Adrienne Smith / April Ward / Eddie Dowell

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SAMARAQuest
    1   What was your favorite part of working with FLW?
    2   What is your favorite chair?

My favorite part about working with Frank Lloyd Wright was his subtle (sly) sense of humor.

He often had a gleam in his eyes which meant that he was only half serious about what he was saying and was sort of "pulling your leg" in a humorous kind of way.

Early on, we asked Mr. Wright if he would design a house for us. This was at the beginning of one of our conversations with him and knowing full well that we had very little money with which to build a house.

With a twinkle in his eyes, he asked, "How much money go you have?" Then he laughed and we knew that even though we did not have enough money to build a house at that time, he was willing to design our SAMARA.


This turned out to be a nice bit of humor with respect to his intentions to design a home for our young family.


When we first spoke with Mr. Wright, we thought we wanted a basement. But, Mr. Wright said, "No basement - basements are damp and they accumulate junk." Then he said only half seriously, "If you don't use something within a year you should throw it away."

Shortly after we received our final building plans for SAMARA in 1955, I sent Mr. Wright a telegram asking him to reduce the size of the living room in the interest of saving building costs.

He telegramed back the next day saying, "I have never yet seen a living room too large. If anything yours is too small!" signed Frank Lloyd Wright.

My favorite chair from the standpoint of unique and innovative design is the Origami chair in the guest bedroom. However, it is not practical for me to sit there.

So, my favorite chair for relaxation and reading is the overstuffed chair in front of the television set in the living room. The natural light in the daytime and the deck lights at night are excellent for reading.

And when I want, I can open the television set with my "open sesame" control and tune in a channel of my choice with a second remote device. This all works very well and I enjoy that particular location in SAMARA.

I've enjoyed responding to your questions. To learn more about SAMARA, I encourage you to visit the other Benton Fourth Grade Team pages. You may also be interested in taking a look at the Benton SAMARAQuest Challenge.

The Benton SAMARAQuest Challenge is designed to expand your learnings beyond what you already know about Frank Lloyd Wright and SAMARA. The Challenge suggests activities for exploring things you're interested in learning more about in your studies of the world's greatest architect.

Be sure to visit other
Benton Fourth Grade Teams
to learn more about
SAMARA.
The Benton SAMARAQuest Fifth Grade Teams The Tour People / The Origamies / The Favorites
The Flat Roofs / The Fireplace People / The Philippine Mahoganies
Visit these other Benton SAMARAQuest Teams
Grade 3 / Grade 4 / Grade 5 / Grade 6

Return to the Benton SAMARAQuest Main Directory

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Copyright © 1998   All rights reserved.
The John Christian Family Memorial Trust, Inc. and LEARNING ASSOCIATES
Latest Revision September 30, 1998