This house and Taliesin West are great examples of how beautiful space can be created with the most ordinary and rustic of materials, especially if they appear to be gathered from the surrounding landscape.
doug k
Fir Tree House
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Roderick Grant
- Posts: 10575
- Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 7:48 am
Can you imagine this amount of excitement over the Davis House? Here are two houses, much the same in character, but detailed so differently that one is outstanding while the other is almost odd and decidedly bland.
SDR, I wonder if FLW did design the upholstered back segments of the banquet (images 12 and 13). It doesn't look like his work. More interesting is image 10 showing the canted boards interrupted by the cushion on the seat by the fireplace. The yellow is a perfect choice; all the rough and tumble of the house is balanced by an inviting, soft-colored fabric.
The hanging light fixture (12, 13) is magnificent!
SDR, I wonder if FLW did design the upholstered back segments of the banquet (images 12 and 13). It doesn't look like his work. More interesting is image 10 showing the canted boards interrupted by the cushion on the seat by the fireplace. The yellow is a perfect choice; all the rough and tumble of the house is balanced by an inviting, soft-colored fabric.
The hanging light fixture (12, 13) is magnificent!
Great house, good to finally see it.
The substructure in the living room brought to mind a lamella frame, not that it is a lamella, but it is reminiscent of one.
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=46044
The substructure in the living room brought to mind a lamella frame, not that it is a lamella, but it is reminiscent of one.
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=46044
Thanks for that, Doug -- there'd be no way to know about that detail without your inspection.
Right, RG -- it doesn't quite look like Wright. A sympatico designer, though ? Modular repetition . . .
The lounge chair is interesting. Do we suppose all the furnishing are by Mr Wright ?
Lamella dome at my home-town amusement park:
Right, RG -- it doesn't quite look like Wright. A sympatico designer, though ? Modular repetition . . .
The lounge chair is interesting. Do we suppose all the furnishing are by Mr Wright ?
Lamella dome at my home-town amusement park:
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Paul Ringstrom
- Posts: 4400
- Joined: Sat Sep 17, 2005 4:53 pm
- Location: Mason City, IA
Wouldn't this violate TRUTH and HONESTY in the use of and nature of materials? I think E. Fay Jones treated this type of interior super-structure in a more honest way by leaving the steel connectors exposed.dkottum wrote:Curious how the were joined I climbed up for a look. The cross member was butted and fastened to the through member with perhaps a 1 1/2" x 1/4" steel plate about 6' long, one on top and (I think I remember) one on the bottom, lag bolts about a foot apart fastening the steel to the wood. The (fir?) structural members were then wrapped on the three visible sides with 1/8" Luan plywood.
Another trick from the magician.
This is the equivalent of using brick walls on a cantilevered balcony in the Harold Price Jr. House: http://rbeuc.freesuperhost.com/english/ ... use33.html
of desert masonry on a cantilevered balcony in the Arch Oboler House: http://savewright.org/wright_chat/viewt ... 9cfc7b6369
As Wright could have said: "Don't do as I do, do as I say."
Owner of the G. Curtis Yelland House (1910), by Wm. Drummond
What a treat to see a lesser known work. It makes me wonder what other seldom-photographed homes are out there. Price is one of them. This was has a terrific mix of style and rustic cabin-ness. The use of shingles on the exterior walls is pretty unique, and I can't think of a house with such a variety of designed furnishings. Love to see the furniture detail sheets, but alas I'm no long in LA with access to the Getty.
Deke
Deke
I must say, the Friedman home is in better shape now than at any previous time. When I spent the night there in the 70's, there was no lush lawn, and no pool. Acreage in front of the living room down to the stream and mountain-side to the west was used for cattle-grazing, and the ground was brown-dry, heavily overgrazed, and very rocky ... and ... strewn with dried cow-dung ... all right up to the living room terrace.
The house is about 20 miles east of Santa Fe, maybe ten miles north of Interstate 25 and just off NM Highway 63. Indeed, the back of the house is barely 50 feet west of Highway 63, only it is so well concealed behind bushes that ordinarily you wouldn't know it was there. The entry gate south of the house gives it away, of course, only you have to look close or you'll drive right on by.
I am surprised mention has not been made of the living room "rug".
N.B. By the way, SDR, the photos are by Trevor Tondro ... not BBP
The house is about 20 miles east of Santa Fe, maybe ten miles north of Interstate 25 and just off NM Highway 63. Indeed, the back of the house is barely 50 feet west of Highway 63, only it is so well concealed behind bushes that ordinarily you wouldn't know it was there. The entry gate south of the house gives it away, of course, only you have to look close or you'll drive right on by.
I am surprised mention has not been made of the living room "rug".
N.B. By the way, SDR, the photos are by Trevor Tondro ... not BBP
Last edited by Rood on Mon Apr 01, 2013 9:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Education Professor
- Posts: 594
- Joined: Tue Jul 05, 2005 3:10 pm
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Laurie Virr
- Posts: 472
- Joined: Sat Jul 25, 2009 5:32 pm
I met Richard Davis and toured his house in 1964. He was flamboyant, but kind and generous.
Frank Lloyd Wright must have assessed his personality, and decided that he was a candidate for a scheme that the architect first envisaged a quarter of a century previously, but never had realized in built form.
The house was a great disappointment. The sense of human scale that is the overwhelming characteristic of the architect’s designs, was nowhere to be experienced in the living/dining area. Rather than being designed from the inside out, it appeared that the reverse was the case: the external form dictated everything.
Internally, the excessive ceiling height in the living/ dining achieved little other than increase the volume of space to be heated in a MidWest winter.
Regretfully, I had to assign the house to that group of structures that Frank Lloyd Wright determined to build,
come what may. In that respect, Richard Davis joined Harold Price and Solomon Guggenheim.
I departed Marion, Indiana, with the conviction that had the Lake Tahoe scheme proceeded, the barges would have been top heavy. The fir tree theme had been taken a stretch too far.
Frank Lloyd Wright must have assessed his personality, and decided that he was a candidate for a scheme that the architect first envisaged a quarter of a century previously, but never had realized in built form.
The house was a great disappointment. The sense of human scale that is the overwhelming characteristic of the architect’s designs, was nowhere to be experienced in the living/dining area. Rather than being designed from the inside out, it appeared that the reverse was the case: the external form dictated everything.
Internally, the excessive ceiling height in the living/ dining achieved little other than increase the volume of space to be heated in a MidWest winter.
Regretfully, I had to assign the house to that group of structures that Frank Lloyd Wright determined to build,
come what may. In that respect, Richard Davis joined Harold Price and Solomon Guggenheim.
I departed Marion, Indiana, with the conviction that had the Lake Tahoe scheme proceeded, the barges would have been top heavy. The fir tree theme had been taken a stretch too far.
A good quality satellite photo of Friedman is available on GoogleEarth and GoogleMaps. Follow NM63 north from Pecos about 5MI (it follows the river). The characteristically angular roof will be visible on the west side of the road...Rood wasn't kidding when he said it was close to the road. Was it flood plain avoidance, or locating at the highest elevation on the property from which to survey the view that drove the placement?