History
Born in New York, René Silvin grew up in Swiss boarding schools. After earning his bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University in 1970 and an MBA from Cornell in 1972, he spent 25 years in the investor-owned hospital industry. He rose to the head of the international division of American Medical International, Inc., which owned and operated hospitals in 10 countries.
Since retiring after surviving a late stage cancer, René has published five books, including a memoir about his friendship with the late Duchess of Windsor and a history of Palm Beach, Florida seen through the eyes of the famous society architect, Addison Mizner. His latest book, “SS Normandie: The Tragic Story of the Most Majestic Ocean Liner,” is a historical novel that brings to life the magnificent 1930s French line, Normandie, which met its tragic end during WWII.
He continues to add lecture topics which offer well-researched, glamorous stories with historical significance, infused with personal experiences. These include a history of transatlantic ocean liner travel, the history of Mar-a-Lago, and his newest one about the perils of being too rich.
René lives in Palm Beach, FL and is listed in Who’s Who in the World (1988). He is the vice-chairman of the Palm Beach Landmarks Preservation Commission.
A much sought-after lecturer on the Duchess of Windsor, Addison Mizner, the SS Normandie and Mar-a-Lago, René has become one of America’s leading authorities on all four topics.
Frank Lloyd Wright
The Dramatic Life of America's Most Controversial and Creative Architect
Live In-Person Only.
Frank Lloyd Wright has been called the greatest American architect of the first half of the Twentieth Century. During a career that spanned seven decades, he worked on over a thousand projects, five hundred of which were built. Many of his structures are still studied by students from all over the world.
Born in rural Wisconsin in 1867, Wright had a tumultuous personal life punctuated by many professional vicissitudes and scandal, which make his story feel like a dramatic work of fiction. He married three times, had eight children, and remained productive and creative until the day he died in 1959, at 91 years of age.
Wright’s most famous residence is Fallingwater, built in 1935 in Mill Run, Pennsylvania. The American Institute of Architects named Fallingwater the “best all-time work of American architecture” and the Smithsonian Institution lists it as “one of the 28 places to see before you die.” The breathtaking structure is still studied by dozens of architecture students and visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists yearly.
Wright’s other most famous lingering legacy is the extremely controversial Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum at Fifth Avenue and 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Wright’s work on this unique, cylindrical structure, began in 1943 and opened 6 months after Wright’s death in 1959. Wright said his distinctive museum would make the nearby Metropolitan Museum of Art “look like a Protestant barn.”
Wright’s homes transformed the way we live. He is the inventor of “organic architecture” and the open plan for family life, expressed in different ways through his horizontal Prairie Style homes, the textile-block structures, the carport, and the more affordable “Usonian” houses.
Wright’s legacy lives on due to the unique contribution of his styles and because of the on-going work of his many disciples, who studied at Wright’s “Fellowship” at his home-office of “Taliesin West” in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Wright’s body of work also includes hotels, office buildings and churches, which René will describe using over 200 slides, renderings, newsreels, and interviews, giving the audience a feeling of living with this unusual, often called arrogant genius.
Register Early! There is a $5 charge for registering on the day of a one-time lecture or event.
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| Course # F1R2 — One Time Event
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| Place: | Auditorium, Lifelong Learning Complex, Jupiter Campus |
| Dates: | Thursday, November 30 2023 |
| Time: | 12 - 1:30 PM |
| Fee: | $30 / member; $35 / non-member |
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