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


SAMARAQuest


Benton Sixth Grade Team

The Waterfalls

Samantha Powell / Joe Lohman
Brittney Adwell / Brock Dawson

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SAMARAQuest
    1   How much did SAMARA cost- the planning and the materials           and the construction?
    2   How long did it take to design SAMARA?
    3   Any funny stories?


I like the name "Waterfalls" for your team because Mr. Wright loved waterfalls. In fact he said that every home should have its own waterfall.

Frank Lloyd Wright built his most famous house over a waterfall in Pennsylvania and named the house Fallingwater after its natural setting.

You may recall that my wife and I had just been married when we first talked with Mr. Wright in 1950. We had limited resources, meaning that we had very little money.

Because of that, we were in no hurry to have the house built. So, over the next 5 years we continued to meet once or twice a year with Mr. Wright to discuss the kind of home we wanted.

Mr Wright completed his plans for SAMARA during 1954. He gave the plans to us personally on January 1, 1955 at Taliesin West, his winter home in Arizona.

We had an agreement with Mr. Wright that we could build SAMARA and then add his more detailed plans to the house as we lived in it. And that's what we did.

We moved into SAMARA in 1956. A number of major items were added over 41 years while we lived in the house. Examples include the brick driveway, the copper fascia all around the roof-line of the house, the landscaping, and the oriental accent pieces.

Inside, several pieces of furniture have been added including the dining room table and chairs. The SAMARA rug and pole lights are further examples.

I have not kept close track of the cost of every item added to the house since we moved in.

Thus, I do not have a clear idea of the total cost of the now almost complete SAMARA.

A few of Mr. Wright's designed houses are always on the market. To give you some idea of their values, selling prices typically range from $550,000 to over $1,650,000.


This is the Donald Schaberg House in Michigan. It was designed in 1950, built in 1958. Like SAMARA it is one of Wright's last creations.

The Schaberg House is much larger than SAMARA and sits on close to 7 acres of land overlooking a quarter mile of privacy. This spacious 5-bedroom, 4-bath home has a pool. It is built of brick and hand-split cedar shingles, cypress and mahogany frames and panels. Like SAMARA, it has spacious walls of glass.

The cost is 1.65 million dollars. Like SAMARA, the Schaberg House includes all original furnishings, library and documentation.

Referring to the cost of the House reminds me of a funny story. By the second time we met with Mr. Wright in 1950, he knew that my wife and I had limited funds with which to build a house.

At that time in the middle of our conversation, I asked, "Mr Wright will you design a house for us?" Keep in mind that he was 83 years old at the time.

Mr. Wright looked around the room, cleared his throat, and hesitated like he was going to say "No, I'm much too busy," or something like that.

But instead of saying no he enthusiatically said, "But, of course, I will design you a house." But then with a characteristic gleam in his eyes which he often had when he was only half serious, he turned to my wife and asked, "How much money do you have?"

We were both taken back thinking that this question probably meant the end of our dream of a Wright designed home. But my wife recovered quickly and with a gleam in her eyes said, "Well, Mr. Wright we have no money."

We all laughed like it was a joke and that was the last time we discussed the probable cost of the house with Mr. Wright.

I've really enjoyed responding to your team's questions. To learn more about SAMARA, I encourage each of you to visit the other Benton Sixth 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.

Visit the other
Benton Sixth Grade Teams
to learn more about
SAMARA.
The Cherokee Reds / The Waterfalls / The FLWs
The Winged Seed People / Winged Seeds / The Pinecones

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