OK, the Pappas House is considered the most important Frank Lloyd Wright house in Missouri. So why is it still available? (hopefully because the family is holding out to make sure it's preserved)
Basically, the family took it down to take a break and to consider their options moving forward. They have no immediate plans to relist the house. Interest remained large, including one offer being made, but that failed to materialize. Iy was also taken down since this time of year is when home sales slow down.
^There's nothing "wrong" with it, per se, apart from a lack of editing. But it moves away from the language of the generic press release into the colloquial and personal fairly quickly. And at the end it gets almost political, which is rarely a good choice when you hope to stay friendly with your neighbors and relatives. Mind you, there's no crime here of which I'm not guilty myself: I post under-edited things to this forum, my blog, and even my website from time to time. But all of my stuff is pretty small-time. (And I do try to keep my politics away from the more professional stuff . . . for reasons.) It's not a clear case, but it does go weird. Getting carried away is itself pretty dang weird for this sort of thing, I'd say. Maybe not for an interview in person. (We all get passionate about the things we love.) But it's odd for a press release.
Of course, there's room to argue that we SHOULD be less sterile with our language: that it's more authentic, and that this will speak better to the contemporary audience. Perhaps the bland and corporate is on its way out. And in the end we all are political, so it's not too surprising that our politics will creep in at the edges every now and then even if we try to keep them out. (And maybe that too is okay. Right now we have some big decisions to make that will resonate far into the future. Assuming we don't screw it up too badly, that is.)
But anyway, I think that's why it's a little weird. It reads like a post that I made here on the forum at three in the morning while drunk. That's pretty normal here, but more than a touch odd in professional life. (Also note: I am an artist and stagehand. So I am expected to be weird. Weird is normal in theatre.)
^If you rent you get a one use passcode? Good question, that. I worry this will be a bit of an overglorified AirBnB, but . . . I could see myself paying to stay there. Just to stay there and take it in. Every time you get to hang out casually in a masterwork it's worth it.
^That may be why they're talking about a "preservation easement." That bit is something of a mystery to me. Easements are usually about access: the power company has an easement to run their power lines across your property and to access and maintain them, right? So maybe the "preservation easement" is their way of saying "we hope we can slip this past the covenant somehow." Given that the house significantly predates the existence of Town and Country maybe they even have legs. Not sure. This is doubtless a question that a team of lawyers will be looking into.
It was interesting in that Cynthia, one of the Pappas daughters who grew up in the house, talked about her parents’ love of everything FLW. It surprised me that her parents did actual building, well some of the building, themselves. The cement blocks that form the house were commissioned, but Mr. and Mrs. Pappas did some of the laying of these blocks. She said her mother did glazing in the living room.
The floors in this house are in fabulously beautiful condition. They are? Red cedar? I think that’s it. My favorite thing about the living room is that it has varying ceiling heights.
They don’t know the square footage of this house they have estimates that range from 2000 to 3000 ft.² The main house doesn’t seem very big to me, But by the time you factor in the big entryway and the large room off of that, it might be 3000 ft.²
The roof leaks quite a bit. Cynthia said that was true throughout their stay in the house. Apparently that is a signature of FLW houses, leaking roofs.
The floors in this house are in fabulously beautiful condition. They are? Red cedar? I think that’s it. My favorite thing about the living room is that it has varying ceiling heights.
