KRVIA Encounters
Genevieve Castelino
Frank Lloyd Wright is recognized by the American Institute of Architects as "the greatest American architect of all time.” In a prolific career spanning 70 years, Frank Lloyd Wright designed 1,114 architectural works including museums, offices, churches, libraries, hotels and homes. 532 of these designs were built. Eight of Wright’s buildings are on the UNESCO World Heritage list – including his iconic Fallingwater House built over a waterfall, and the Guggenheim Museum in New York City (both of which are also National Historic Landmark buildings)
Architect and filmmaker Genevieve Castelino will offer an inside view into the research process involved with staying true to Wright’s design while restoring a historic house. She will weave the story of the house, its history and place in a changing America over the past 80 years.
She fell in love with Wright’s architecture as an architecture student in India 35 years ago. In this presentation, Genevieve will share what it feels like to live in The Christie House designed by
the architect she so admires.
The Christie House is one of only 60 homes built using Wright's design philosophy for Usonian architecture. Targeted for the middle-class during the Great Depression of the 1930s,
Usonian homes were to be simple, affordable, and aesthetically pleasing. They were built using right’s principles of Organic Architecture – “Usonian homes were crafted using natural materials such as wood and stone, with elements that could be mass-produced for maximum cost-effectiveness, yet custom-tailored to suit the individual needs of every homeowner in order to create, in Wright’s words, “a harmonious place in which to live.”
BIO:
Genevieve Castelino is an architect, writer, and award-winning filmmaker. She was most recently the Chief Operating Officer of Merchant Aviation, a full-service aviation consulting
firm focusing on global airport infrastructure development initiatives. Since retiring from this
2
Christie House | KRVIA Presentation
position, Genevieve has returned to her writing and filmmaking initiatives. Her writing credits include an adaption of a play for Lincoln Center Theater Director’s Lab. Her work has been ublished in the North American Edition of India Today. She has won three consecutive Telly awards for her work on films for various nonprofit organizations. She is currently at work on a memoir. Genevieve has a BFA in Communication, Film and Video from the City University of
New York and a Bachelors in Architecture from the L.S. Raheja School of Architecture, Mumbai.
