Erdman Prefabs

DRN · Post by **DRN** » Fri Jun 08, 2018 9:10 am

Creating a thread for new discussions and links to pre-outage threads about the Erdman Prefabs.

Cass "Crimson Beach" Prefab 1:
http://wrightchat.savewright.org/viewto ... dc1806725b

Van Tamelen Prefab 1:
http://wrightchat.savewright.org/viewto ... 5aa8cd01d1

http://wrightchat.savewright.org/viewto ... c00d678246

Iber Prefab 1
http://wrightchat.savewright.org/viewto ... 9f926d23b3

Duncan Prefab 1 and Andersen "Flexivent" windows:
http://wrightchat.savewright.org/viewto ... 19dab4558e

Prefabs 1&2 on page 4:
http://wrightchat.savewright.org/viewto ... a92fe2fbb5

DRN · Post by **DRN** » Fri Jun 08, 2018 9:38 am

I'll open with a great picture taken in the Rudin house in Madison WI with Iovanna Wright at the foot of the stair. Her presence in the pic illustrates the scale of the room:

Forest · Post by **Forest** » Fri Jun 08, 2018 5:20 pm

I obtained these marketing materials from the Erdman company in the 1960's, after they had discontinued the Wright models.

The cover folder:

Forest · Post by **Forest** » Fri Jun 08, 2018 5:28 pm

The brochure:

]

Forest · Post by **Forest** » Fri Jun 08, 2018 5:31 pm

The Prospectus:

DRN · Post by **DRN** » Fri Jun 08, 2018 10:29 pm

Forest, many thanks for sharing these! I believe I had only seen the cover folder, maybe the first page of the brochure and nothing of the prospectus. This is great stuff!

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Fri Jun 08, 2018 11:00 pm

Wonderful. The Prospectus is a treasure; much of what constitutes the architect's approach to building is contained in it. "Upon Completion" is a fitting conclusion to the adventure of building a Wright-designed home . . .

Odd that, among the materials listed in "The Package," roof rafters are mentioned but not roof sheathing. We know a Wright roof might occasionally fail to satisfy -- but that's a bad way to begin, isn't it ?

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Sat Jun 09, 2018 10:18 am

Thanks for posting. I've always thought the Erdman prefab was the dullest home Wright every designed...if in fact he designed it. But there is a "Crestview" model in the brochure that seems much more interesting.

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Sat Jun 09, 2018 11:29 am

You do realize, Matt, that the Crestview model is not one of FLW's?

The Erdman Prefabs are a set of houses that must be experienced directly to be fully appreciated. I have been in McBean, Mollica and Zaferiou, all of which are very charming, though less "Wrightian" than most of FLW's work. One disconcerting detail is scale, which is somewhat larger than what one familiar with FLW's work might expect, as a result of the scale of the Andersen Windows.

While the one-story versions are solidly within the MCM mode, the 2-story McBean House has more of the FLW magic inside.

DRN · Post by **DRN** » Sat Jun 09, 2018 12:07 pm

I agree with Roderick that the Erdman houses are best experienced in person. So far, I have only been inside one story models. They are very pleasant, well appointed houses...a different vibe than WrightÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s other work in proportion and detail, but quite good when judged on their own terms.
The two story Rudin house will be on the tours at the FLWBC Conference this Fall, IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m looking forward to seeing it.

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Sat Jun 09, 2018 1:58 pm

I assume that the Wright Erdman house we know is the only design he contributed. The Crestview design seems more spacially interesting to my eye. I don't know much about the Wright design other than it's a rather plane long box with little of the movements of his other designs. Perhaps this was a requirement of prefabrication?

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Sat Jun 09, 2018 8:46 pm

Let's look at the published Taliesin plans of the various Erdman types.

Erdman I:

Monograph 8 (Ã‚Â© 1988 A.D.A EDITA Tokyo Co., Ltd. and by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation), p 220. This plan appears in Storrer, S.407, 408, 409, as the Jackson, Duncan, Iber, Post, and Cass residence. As S.410 (Zaferiou)
and 411 (Mollica and LaFond), it has a utility room added off the kitchen.

These elevations, found in the Monograph, belong to the Taschen plan immediately above.

Ã‚Â© 1988 A.D.A EDITA Tokyo Co., Ltd. and by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Sat Jun 09, 2018 8:53 pm

Erdman II plans.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Sat Jun 09, 2018 10:47 pm

The fine Arthur Siegel interior of the Rudin house, with Iovanna, and three additional photos of the house by Siegel as found in Taschen III.

photos Ã‚Â© 2009 by TASCHEN GmbH and by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation

And interiors of the other built Erdman II, by William Allin Storrer.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Sat Jun 09, 2018 11:08 pm

And, a surprise: a third offering to Marshall Erdman by Mr Wright, which he labeled House "C." Here, as the very last entry in the final Monograph (and nearly the last in the third Taschen volume),
we find Wright proposing a simple, compact single-story suburban three-bedroom, one bath home, in layout not unlike any number of contemporary houses built in the postwar years in America.

And he sums up his own search for the family home in this efficient plan, once more centering the main space with a chimney mass about which the living, dining, and kitchen functions pinwheel.
The house employs the same two-by-four foot vertical unit, reducing the number of vertical courses to a new minimum and producing an exterior expression more felicitous than the type II prefab
by virtue of its low profile. It would be great to find a section view of this little house, to see how he manages the needed extra height beyond the three vertical units seen on the elevations and in
the view drawing. Apparently, the strong battered base -- a water table deluxe ? -- is actually a low pony wall on which the wooden construction sits, leaving a hefty masonry "baseboard" around
the perimeter of the interior ? The elevations and perspective conceal the full height of the entry door . . .

Every interior door in the house is an accordion unit. The creative architect always stays a step ahead of the competition -- right to the end ?