Dream houses

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Description

A person's home is his self-image, his autobiography as ghost-written by the architect. Mark Twain's house suited him so well that he became convinced he had himself designed it. A more imposing self-portrait is Fenway Court, which ignores the Colonial past and industrial present to recreate a Venetian palazzo in Boston; the American industrialist as Renaissance Italian prince is seen in Vizcaya, built in a drained mangrove swamp. William Randolph Hearst's mother wouldn't buy him the Louvre, so when he grew up he built his own: San Simeon-the ranch to end all ranches, half the size of Rhode Island, a distinctly Californian place that combined glory on the refectory walls with ketchup in bottles on the table. Other houses visited in this program are Wright's Hollyhock House for Aline Barnsdall, Saarinen's Cranbrook House for George G. Booth, Henry Davis Sleeper's Beauport, and Peter Eisenman's House 6, whose thesis is that the good old days are tomorrow.