Glore Residence - Lake Forest

[DavidC]

For sale: $2,275,000

170 N Mayflower Rd, Lake Forest, IL 60045


David

[Tom]

Certainly the most comprehensive view I've ever had of Glore.

[SDR]

Yes. Don't know if I'll ever get used to those gray floors---but it's a beauty isn't it. And yes, there's more in this photo set than we've seen---like the bedroom fireplace, or the other bedroom with pierced-block wall fading into the roof ?

S

[Roderick Grant]

The brickwork is very handsome. The alterations to the plan may have made the house more livable (?), but did not help the beauty and grace of the original plan. Seems like this house has been on the market more times than I can count.

[SDR]

At some point, one or another of the many owners of this house might have wondered why they were walking the distance from their dining to their living room, through a long gallery that serves mainly as an extended library---a part of the plan made necessary to accommodate the string of bedrooms above. (The plan---and the walk---might have been shortened if the guest bedroom extended to the end of the house . . . but this would have removed one of its principal charms, namely the double height living room and its romantic bedroom balcony.)

So, the adding of usable space, perhaps for a game room or an expanded dining room, might have seemed logical. In any event, that's what was done.

Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer was at pains, in writing about this house, to tie it to an earlier and unbuilt design which also centered on a connecting gallery, in this case a longer and even more lightly-used one. The client's wife was an artist who desired hanging space for paintings---but in this case the gallery, glazed on both sides, presumably could not have performed that function. In any event it supported its own long bedroom wing, with a stair at each end.



Pfeiffer Storrer




plans © W A Storrer




Pfeiffer Pfeiffer/Goessel







drawings except as noted © The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York)

© 2009 by TASCHEN GmbH, © 1986 A.D.A. EDITA Tokyo Co., Ltd. and by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation



The gable roofs of both houses consist of unequal-pitched halves, a feature Wright deployed repeatedly in this period. His characteristic use of whole numbers is in evidence even here: the pitches at Glore are 3 in 12 and 9 in 12. (At a comparable example, the 1950 Sweeton residence, the numbers are 1 in 4 and 2 in 3.)

S

[Roderick Grant]

I suppose if the long walk from the dining room to the living room were the reason for altering the design, they could more easily have set a couple of chairs along the way so their guests could catch a second wind. I suspect the change to the dining room had more to do with accommodating more guests at the table; the original dining room was rather small.

I was referring to the awkward connection of the new garage to the house. And according to the new plan, they now have two breakfast rooms. One for days of the week with an 'r' in it, and the other for those without?

[SDR]

Comparison of current Realtor plans and Storrer's 1993 plans (center):



© 1993 by William Allin Storrer


Realtor plans © 2020 PALO DOBRIK photography and by realtor.com®

[SDR]

Current first-floor plan rotated, for legibility of room designations (open in new tab):

[Rood]

Don't know but that the long walks (and drives!) to meals at Taliesin and at Taliesin West would make the walk from the Glore dining room to the living room a rather elegant affair, putting family and guests in an entirely new setting, making their final arrival a welcome opportunity to sit and relax at their ease Can't you just see long gowned women and tuxedo-clad men waltzing through those gorgeous spaces, stopping here and there to chat?

[SDR]

Heh-heh. Sure . . . I suppose every house was tailored---to some degree at least---to what the client asked for, what Mr Wright learned or deduced about their "lifestyle." A large party could certainly have filled all parts of the Glore "mansion" with happy guests.

And then, there's always indoor bocce---or curling, or duckpins---for those rainy afternoons ? Terrazzo would be ideal . . .

S

[juankbedoya]

Beautiful Usonian house but choosing to go with a new gray concrete floor versus recalling the cherokee red I think was unfortunate;

Here is a link:

https://chicago.curbed.com/2017/6/5/157 ... an-beidler

I would prefer the cherokee red, but I understand the decision. One of the things that I hate about usonians is its colored concrete floor, its a painted floor and it has a terrible and ugly aging. Pictures of many houses shows that. It's not a floor for a lifetime. In the other hand it's a contradiction with the "natural house". If the floor would be only in concrete, then is natural and the aging would be good. But a kind of paint for traffic it's not a good idea. It looks beautiful for some years, but later.... OMG.. I remember pictures of the Hanna house and many others and the floors usually goes outside and the result is even worst. Later people have to paint it again, let's say... maintenance issues. I love usonian houses but I would not like to be in the shoes of who has to keep it.

[SDR]

Juan, I think you---and apparently the current owners---don't have the right information about Wright's Cherokee red slabs. The color was not painted onto the concrete, it was applied in powder form to the slab when it was freshly poured, and worked into the surface. It thus became an integral part of the slab---and was meant to be kept waxed.

(It's true that not every Usonian slab was colored that way; it was a difficult process to carry out for some; for virtually every builder it was a first-time experience, not the best recipe for success. Some floors were painted, either initially or later. Paint was never a permanent solution.)

I need to get the chronology of ownership straight. The Curbed article is exactly three years old; the Beidlers mention a previous owner enclosing the "deck" (a sheltered terrace), while they take responsibility for the change in color of the slab. Paul Harding refers to his work on the house---which included the enclosure---in this 2007 Wright Chat thread. Note that the slab, inside and out, is red. http://wrightchat.savewright.org/viewtopic.php?t=2371

So, it was the current owners---now selling the house---who were responsible for the gray concrete---which on vertical surfaces like stair risers and that large patch in the dining room (too bad matching brick couldn't have been found for that area ?) looks like modeling clay . . .

At any rate, the Curbed piece does provide the largest photos published to date. One sees that glass or plexi panels have been inserted between the staircase suspension rods, a reasonable precautionary improvement I suppose. The complaint about the difficulty in redoing the in-floor heating is odd when one reads that the floor was "removed" to correct the patching and change the color. It seems from the client comments that they were unaware that paint was not the correct and original method of achieving the desired color. Brown rather than red, as found in a couple of other Usonians, might have preferable to "clay gray" ?

Perhaps a brave (or fanatical) new owner will take on the challenge, removing the floor again to install modern hydronic heating circuits and choosing a new color for the slab. Perhaps Wright's circular pool could finally be created as well ? We'd all cheer, I'm sure !

S

[juankbedoya]

At some point, one or another of the many owners of this house might have wondered why they were walking the distance from their dining to their living room, through a long gallery that serves mainly as an extended library---a part of the plan made necessary to accommodate the string of bedrooms above. (The plan---and the walk---might have been shortened if the guest bedroom extended to the end of the house . . . but this would have removed one of its principal charms, namely the double height living room and its romantic bedroom balcony.)

So, the adding of usable space, perhaps for a game room or an expanded dining room, might have seemed logical. In any event, that's what was done.

Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer was at pains, in writing about this house, to tie it to an earlier and unbuilt design which also centered on a connecting gallery, in this case a longer and even more lightly-used one. The client's wife was an artist who desired hanging space for paintings---but in this case the gallery, glazed on both sides, presumably could not have performed that function. In any event it supported its own long bedroom wing, with a stair at each end.

drawings except as noted © The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York)

© 2009 by TASCHEN GmbH, © 1986 A.D.A. EDITA Tokyo Co., Ltd. and by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation

The gable roofs of both houses consist of unequal-pitched halves, a feature Wright deployed repeatedly in this period. His characteristic use of whole numbers is in evidence even here: the pitches at Glore are 3 in 12 and 9 in 12. (At a comparable example, the 1950 Sweeton residence, the numbers are 1 in 4 and 2 in 3.)

S

Thanks for bringing this project. I found Pike house some months ago and is one of my favorite unrealized works. It's much more interesting than Glore, with that unusual ground floor. (same drawings in color)

[SDR]

Color is always nice---and that last view drawing is somehow unusual for a Taliesin persective. (It also has the telltale marks of the perspective method, a row of transfer ticks from the plan---not seen---to the view drawing.)

But the colored plan isn't clearly printed; the black and white reproduction of the same sheet has notes that can be deciphered---mostly.

In close-up, the circular element attached to the carport is labeled "Heat and Utilities." But above that is a handwritten note that I can't read. And it's too bad we have no bedroom-level plan.

It isn't clear just where the entry is; one of the row of glazed doors---as at Goetsch-Winckler ?

[juankbedoya]

Juan, I think you---and apparently the current owners---don't have the right information about Wright's Cherokee red slabs. The color was not painted onto the concrete, it was applied in powder form to the slab when it was freshly poured, and worked into the surface. It thus became an integral part of the slab---and was meant to be kept waxed.

(It's true that not every Usonian slab was colored that way; it was a difficult process to carry out for some; for virtually every builder it was a first-time experience, not the best recipe for success. Some floors were painted, either initially or later. Paint was never a permanent solution.)

I need to get the chronology of ownership straight. The Curbed article is exactly three years old; the Beidlers mention a previous owner enclosing the "deck" (a sheltered terrace), while they take responsibility for the change in color of the slab. Paul Harding refers to his work on the house---which included the enclosure---in this 2007 Wright Chat thread. Note that the slab, inside and out, is red. http://wrightchat.savewright.org/viewtopic.php?t=2371

So, it was the current owners---now selling the house---who were responsible for the gray concrete---which on vertical surfaces like stair risers and that large patch in the dining room (too bad matching brick couldn't have been found for that area ?) looks like modeling clay . . .

At any rate, the Curbed piece does provide the largest photos published to date. One sees that glass or plexi panels have been inserted between the staircase suspension rods, a reasonable precautionary improvement I suppose. The complaint about the difficulty in redoing the in-floor heating is odd when one reads that the floor was "removed" to correct the patching and change the color. It seems from the client comments that they were unaware that paint was not the correct and original method of achieving the desired color. Brown rather than red, as found in a couple of other Usonians, might have preferable to "clay gray" ?

Perhaps a brave (or fanatical) new owner will take on the challenge, removing the floor again to install modern hydronic heating circuits and choosing a new color for the slab. Perhaps Wright's circular pool could finally be created as well ? We'd all cheer, I'm sure !

S

I should have said it's a "kind" of painted floor. I have seen the process and I suppose is correct. The usonian house for the Florida Southern College has all process well documented. In fact below I'm gonna leave the link about the concrete slab. But Anyway the powder form you said is the "paint" I mean. I don't think it's a floor for a lifetime. As I said I have seen many many of those cherokee red slabs and through the years has a terrible and ugly aging. I hope the next owner be a "Wright" person for the house not like Olfelt house owner. About the circular pool, I knew it's not possible beacause of the ravine restrictions with the local building codes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4k0qR-xzvg