Haroon Zaidi: Hanna House

Well this is probably going to be a relatively short post, I was just reminded of it while touring the Hoover Institute. 

I remember reading “Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand and being extremely inspired by it back in the early part of high school .  At the time I had an obsession (if you could call it that) of speaking in epigrams.)  One epigram of my own making that I had grown particularly fond of was a man is not defined by what he owns, but how he obtained those possessions is a reflection of himself.  Due to my nature, I had already wanted to build my own house someday.    My decision was that I would build a house like Howard Roark’s.

One of my family friends recommended that I consult the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, which I had seen before and been impressed by, but never really given consideration of building a house to.  However I became a bit more interested, because it was similar to the work of Howard Roark, although in retrospect it should be that Howard Roark’s work was similar to that of Frank Lloyd Wright.  So at one point I actually really became interested in the houses that he had built.  To actually see the Hanna House was truly a humbling experience, I had read about some of the architecture built by Frank Lloyd Wright and also been in some houses based off of some of his works, but never one built by him.  

To finally go into one of his houses was an amazing feeling; the whole experience was enhanced as the specific features of the house were described to me.    When you walk in the house there is a sense of individualism, vitality, and the courage to defy tradition; ingrained in the house itself.

Luckily I had taken pictures of the house while at the archives, so that’s convenient if I want to ever try to build my own home, but I feel as if that would be almost cheating, especially as Frank Lloyd Wright believed in building houses so that they coexisted with the natural surroundings.  Maybe I should try to be the provost, but Provost Etchemendy did say that if it’s your goal to be provost give up, so we’ll see.

Haroon