Annals of architecture: Bathroom Edition

I feel that one of the dominant themes of this trip to Phoenix has been architecture, which is not to diminish my respect for the hot dog/Oscar Mayer motif that dominated our downtown Phoenix day. We started with the lush surroundings of the Sonesta Extended Stay Suites, where despite being anchored by a basketball court (architectural theme: locker room), we were treated to the luxury of dual bathrooms. Ron, discovering the bountiful bathroom situation, claimed the bathroom you see above and, in a rare declaratory statement, proclaimed that the seat in his bathroom would remain “up” for our entire stay and indeed it has.

Today was the day I dedicated to touring any large homes that will let random tourists in. I found two: the Wrigley Mansion and Taliesin West. We started our day at Wrigley Mansion.

William Wrigley was a poorly-behaved child growing up in Philadelphia in the 1860s. He ran away at age 11, lived on the streets of New York and then came home, only to be kicked out of school before he was 13. His father, desperate to tame his oldest son, put him to work in the family soap factory, where he stirred soap vats for years. By his 20s, he had struck out on his own, selling soap with a marketing plan that included free baking powder with each purchase. He soon noticed the baking powder was more popular than the soap and so he started selling baking powder with a free pack of gum. He quickly realized the gum was more popular than the baking powder and fast forward decades and decades and we have our Wrigley Corporation, sold to Mars, Inc for 23 BILLION dollars in 2008. From chewing gum.

We toured his Phoenix winter home today. Apparently, he spent about 6 weeks a year there. Built in 1931, it has 16,000 square feet and 12 bathrooms. Here is one of the bathrooms – each one is hand-tiled in a different color theme. Notice that the toilet seat is down, indicating Ron is not in charge.

Here is the entry foyer with a hand-painted ceiling:

We left Wrigley Mansion en route to Taliesin West, which is a Frank Lloyd Wright home. As we drove, Ron, who never seems to have a firm grasp on the details of our plans, asked what time we were seeing the Biltmore Mansion, which lies 1930 miles east of here, in Asheville, North Carolina.

I’ve been to Taliesin West before on a trip with my mom and my sister. I’m a huge fan of his houses – the clever spaces, hidden lighting and immersion into the landscape. Taliesin West was built in 1937 and is a stark contrast to the Wrigley Mansion, 17 miles to the west. It’s funny to think about two such innovative men, building such opposite homesites around the same time, in the midst of the Great Depression.

Here’s the front entry at Taliesin:

This is the living room. Even the furniture was built by Frank Lloyd Wright, using scrap lumber.

Here’s one more for you. It’s a partially underground theatre he had for concerts and plays.

We actually got to go into his bedroom and see an all stainless steel bathroom, but there were too many people for me to get a good shot of it. It’s crazy and doesn’t match the aesthetic of the house at all. Here’s a link: https://images.app.goo.gl/sFCSLu6VwgKwdYWM9

And that is it for us. We’re packing up and heading home. Phoenix has been good to us, even if it failed to be the warm weather destination we planned. The high today was 59, which looks to be pretty similar to the high in Seattle tomorrow. We’re hoping to travel more this year but cannot commit to anything – you’ll hear from me if we get to head out somewhere fun in May.