Wooden Usonian Gate ?

Laurie Virr · Post by **Laurie Virr** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 5:17 pm

peterm:

Thank you for your kind words.

The fence was built at Valla Beach, New South Wales, for clients for whom I had designed a hemicycle. The radian module is supplemented by a 1200 mm on side 60/30 grid. The clients asked for something that was not the standard paling fence.

The Warren Truss came immediately to mind, as a consequence of the minor module. The supports, known here as stirrups, are galvanized steel, the piano hinge for the gate, stainless. There is no other steel in the structure: it was an exercise playing with scantlings, which were cut from Blackbutt [Eucalyptus pilularis].

dkottum · Post by **dkottum** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 10:57 pm

Some years ago I made a copy of a Bott gate plan offered on Ebay. Nicely done and colored, but slightly different than what was constructed. It was turquoise/green with some bright red elements, had an interesting automatic opening motor, and was of steel.

doug k

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 11:26 pm

The poster may want to look beyond Wright for an appropriate fence and gate. Here are a couple of generic MCM fence designs that I think suggest what could be done -- simply.

A gate could be made almost invisible, as a part of such a fence -- if desired.

Here's a local fire station gate pair. I'm amused by the different construction evident in the two leaves. The left-hand one is now gone, replaced by a temporary (?) unpainted plywood panel.

And then there's my own work -- studies for a driveway gate.

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Fri Sep 21, 2012 12:50 pm

Heard from Don Hoffmann today. He says he remembers the Bott gate as metal painted turquoise, and also that Homer Williams, an architect, is the current owner.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Sun Sep 30, 2012 8:41 pm

Our correspondent Josquin has kindly submitted detail information about the fence seen in the photo I posted above, which turns out to be a Lloyd Wright house, the F H Lubsen residence in Altadena, from 1940.

He notes that this photo appears in Gebhard and Von Breton, "Lloyd Wright, Architect," p 80.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Sun Sep 30, 2012 8:53 pm

Lloyd has drawn a lovely and well-crafted detail -- spoiled only by the fact that turning the batten and board upside down, as implicit in the gate design, negates the carefully-wrought weathering provision of the detail as drawn. Perhaps the maker found a way to correct that slight error ?

The trials of the architect never cease.

All for naught, now, apparently: Josquin reports that the current owner has chosen to stucco the house, on the reasoning that this will provide a lower maintenance cost "going forward" (as they say, these days . . .) !

SDR

josquin · Post by **josquin** » Sun Sep 30, 2012 10:17 pm

SDR
Thank you for the assistance.

goffmachine · Post by **goffmachine** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 4:50 am

SDR,

Your studies for the gate are very nice!
If you could come up with that for wood. I would love to see what you would come up with in iron.

All the best-Goffmachine

Craig · Post by **Craig** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 6:06 am

Not a gate but a garage door for Lloyd's own home:

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 10:25 am

Wow. So easy to draw, so difficult to build ? That's a pretty impressive design -- not a garage, evidently ? Not previously published, to my knowledge -- though I don't have the Gebhard book on Lloyd.

Goff, my wooden gate designs are predicated upon an all-glued construction -- thus eliminating the need for diagonal structural members. Lots of clamping involved ! Welded steel would have the same characteristic . . .

SDR

Paul Ringstrom · Post by **Paul Ringstrom** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 11:44 am

Roderick Grant wrote:Homer Williams, an architect, is the current owner.

That is correct. Mr. Williams was extremely gracious on our visit last year and went out of his way to accommodate our schedule.

www.wskfarch.com
WSKF Architects, Inc.
110 Armour Road
North Kansas City, MO 64116

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 1:13 pm

SDR, that is a garage door on Lloyd's Home & Studio, rebuilt in recent years as part of a major restoration of the entire building (which unfortunately included removal of a huge pepper tree that was tearing the garden wall apart). The garage was designed for a time when cars were small. Today it could accommodate some if the tinier autos, but anything out of Detroit in the 1950s would have stuck out about half way. The current owner drives a SUV that's on the stubby side and may fit.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 1:17 pm

Thanks, RG. As presently hinged and latched, it seems as if this door isn't designed to open to the full width of the opening ?

SDR

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 1:30 pm

It's a bi-fold. The quarter on the left can be used as a separate door individually, but the hinges between the two other quarters indicate that it still also functions as a bi-fold. A photo on page 105 of the Lloyd Wright book showing the original door proves the new one is an exact replica of the shabby, almost unusable original.

goffmachine · Post by **goffmachine** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 4:31 pm

SDR,

Ah... I see.
Japanese joints in your gates.
Super.

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Japanese ... 0881791210

http://www.io24x7.com/index.php?main_pa ... ts_id=6863

Wright Chat

Wooden Usonian Gate ?

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