25/1/13 – Usonian House and Beer Sommelier

This afternoon we set off for the Guggenheim for a second attempt to see the Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian House. It was an unexpected surprise to be admitted to the museum and have the staff apologise that the Picasso Exhibition was now closed. How amusing it was to see it all in boxes ready to be shipped out!

The FLW exhibition was in a side gallery and unaffected by the flow of disappointed tourists who, as this was their only day in NYC, were devastated that the museum was ‘empty’. It was interesting to see a complete historical record of how it came to be that, in 1953, Mr Wright’s vision for affordable housing in an ‘American style’ was built and put on display on the site of what was later to become the current Guggenheim Museum.

In addition to the Usonian house an accompanying temporary pavilion housed a display entitled ‘Sixty Years of Living Architecture: The Work of Frank Lloyd Wright’. It consisted of models and plans of a selection of Mr Wright’s most famous and most innovative designs. Unfortunately the pavilion collapsed under the weight of an unexpectedly heavy snowfall and the the display was forced to close earlier than scheduled. Work on the current (permanent) structure for the Guggenheim Museum started in 1959 but Mr Wright unfortunately did not live to see it finished.  

We left the Wright exhibition with ‘unexpected snow’ playing on our minds … so imagine our surprise as we emerged onto 5^th Avenue only to discover that a light sprinkling of ‘unexpected snow’ was making getting a cab extremely difficult. We had arranged to meet and share a meal with Josh and Oscar Skala at Café D’Alsace later that night and it took us an age to get there, but fortunately we managed to arrive on time and sat down to a lovely long dinner and conversation with the two of Steven and Lousje Skala’s three sons.

Steven is one of Peter’s long time ‘Brisbane Grammar’ friends and despite the fact that we live in Perth and the Skalas now live in Melbourne the two families have always remained in touch. Apart from the excellent food we enjoyed the teachings of our very first encounter with a ‘beer sommelier’ – yes there is such a thing and according to Oscar Skala ‘this has to be the best job in the world’! The beer menu at café D’Alsasce is extensive (some 130 different brews to contemplate) and we were advised on the perfect accompaniment for each course including a sweet beer to go with their desserts. I’m sure the Skala boys not only enjoyed the beers but also the stories about their grandmother and their dad’s schoolboy days that were divulged during the night!