On reflection, I thought this Randian Fantasy Island sounded a lot like Taliesin West in Scottsdale, AZ, the winter home and architectural "school" (read: sweatshop) of Frank Lloyd Wright, one of the 20th century's greatest egomaniacs and bunko artists. Wright lived here in his usual seigneurial style with his guard-dog of a wife, Olgivanna, presiding over an adoring court of architectural apprentices whom Wright exploited mercilessly -- paying them, as I recall, little or nothing for endless toil. Each evening after dinner, Wright, Olgivanna and these courtier-apprentices would retire to a spacious room where Wright and Olgivanna (seated on a raised platform) would dispense lofty wisdom to Wright's worshipful followers. In checking further, I was not at all surprised to find this entry in Wikipedia: "The architect hero Howard Roark of Ayn Rand's Fountainhead is generally thought to be based on Wright, although both Rand and Wright denied this."
Carl