Article on Wright Houses in St. Joseph and Benton Harbor, Michigan

[juankbedoya]

The Schultz plan has been compared to the Erdman 1 plan. The functions are placed differently, and the entry opening and the fireplace both switch positions---but the forms are remarkably similar, and different from other Usonians, in particular the semi-encircled dining space and the pair of rooms to the right of the main volume.

The Erdman plan came first; perhaps (and accounting for a different program from the client ?) the Schultz plan is a re-thinking of the Erdman design, providing for a more efficient and pleasant entry path and introducing a guest or master suite, or a home office or even a workshop, that is isolated from the living and bedroom spaces, without significantly enlarging the plan.

The Erdman kitchen is unusually large for a Usonian---one of the nods to convention that the design incorporates ?

I love Schultz plan because of his efficiency and privacy. Two points connect all the house. The entry goes independently to the library, master bedroom, living room, dining room and "workspace". Five spaces through one point. The other point is the children's entrance. It goes to the children's bedrooms, basement, laundry and game room. I was in love of Weisblat house plan but maybe this is even better. Wright's kitchens will always be a controversy. I cook, I love to cook but I couldn't cook in a "workspace" like Rosenbaum, Pope Leighey, Mossberg, well you know better than me. I try to figure out what Wright was thinking about a kitchen and the design of a kitchen. I think for him was something like a secondary space. I'm surprised as well about the size of the Erdman kitchen. Is almost half size of the living room while other usonians had bigger living areas with a very small kitchen like I mentioned.

[Roderick Grant]

I have known several professional chefs, all of whom bemoaned the large kitchen in the home, preferring minimalist spaces. Large kitchens mean a lot more walking. For myself, I prefer the galley style, with not enough room for more than myself; when I cook, I do it alone, no help or interference with anyone snacking on brie, drinking Chablis and talking. My current kitchen (I have had a lot of them over the years) is 8'3"x10'0". Perfect!

[SWSinDC]

Speaking of Schultz, stumbled onto this over the weekend: https://www.newsweek.com/frank-lloyd-wr ... ic-1577442.

[juankbedoya]

I have known several professional chefs, all of whom bemoaned the large kitchen in the home, preferring minimalist spaces. Large kitchens mean a lot more walking. For myself, I prefer the galley style, with not enough room for more than myself; when I cook, I do it alone, no help or interference with anyone snacking on brie, drinking Chablis and talking. My current kitchen (I have had a lot of them over the years) is 8'3"x10'0". Perfect!

I'm not talking about a huge kitchen... only a more decent kitchen according to the living area it serves. Yours is normal. How do I cook for 30+ people in a space like first Rosenbaum kitchen? (7'9"x5'9").... or 40+ people at Mossberg in its kitchen. Wright loved meetings, his living rooms are very very big but with small or tiny kitchens. Rosenbaum living room is 13 times bigger than its "workspace". There should be a suitable proportion between both.

[SDR]

For a fair comparison, shouldn't we choose either the wall-to-wall dimensions of the space, or the area of exposed floor ? In a given kitchen these numbers vary considerably . . . the difference expressed as a percentage increasing considerably as the room size decreases !

S

[Rood]

We can only wonder if Mr. Wright every cooking anything on his own in his entire life, and if true .. if that had something to do with his preference for small "workspaces". Except that we were told he was much influenced by the kitchens he found aboard cross-country trains ... which had to serve hundreds of people on a daily basis. Has anyone ever seen a kitchen aboard a train?

The kitchen serving the Fellowship at Hillside is huge ... and on two levels, as is the kitchen at Taliesin West ... but there much, much smaller.