I was watching the Olympics this weekend and was forced to watch the commercials as the Boy Child has made off with the remote and secreted it somewhere. A commercial came on for some product or other, I wasn't really paying attention, but the closing words caught me: "SC Johnson, a family company".
And that got me to thinking a little bit. Is SC Johnson still privately held? Well, a quick check of its website reveals that it is. Then I saw all of the products they sell: Shout; Windex; Mr. Muscle; Ziploc; Edge; Glade; Brise; Vanish; Raid; OFF!; Kabbikiller; Pledge; Scrubbing Bubbles. Many of us have, at one time or another, used some of these products, I assume. Most of us associate the SC Johnson company with household tasks and chores.
But how many of you associate SJ Johnson and Racine Wisconsin with an icon of modern architecture? With Frank Lloyd Wright? If you dig a little on the SC Johnson website, you will find a page concerning the architecture. I was going to extract from it here but there really is no point. Go take a moment and read the whole thing.
Here is a page with some excellent photographs.
Not every post needs to be an exhaustive treatment of a subject. Sometimes its enough to record the thought and point people in the direction to go and indulge their curiosity.
Posted by Random Penseur at August 30, 2004 08:30 AMWow, neat buildings there. It looks like a flock of tornadoes inside the building.
Posted by: Jim at August 30, 2004 09:06 AMI actually saw a Frank Lloyd Wright documentary on PBS recently where they dwelled extensively on the making of this building. It was fascinating. They did a lot of testing beforehand to see if those columns would hold the weight. I know they've had to do a lot of repairs through the years, but man, what a beauty!
Posted by: Mick at August 30, 2004 07:01 PM