PBS/APT show "Articulate with Jim Cotter" : FLW

[SDR]

Caught the end of the video, on its second time around, locally.

Yes, the thicker shelves in Wright's Usonians, right from the start, are made to be a part of the scene. From at least the 'thirties, if not earlier,
the 3/4" board is the standard panel thickness in the home, if not throughout the building interior entire. As stylist extraordinaire Wright knows
to "do better" than the standard---to sculpt rather than merely to build ?

Jacobs I sets the example, for a number of details found again (and again---as at Sweeton, fifteen years and a world war later) in the board-
and-batten Usonians. The extra-wide (and uniquely contrasting-colored) batten, seen everywhere in and out of Jacobs, is echoed by an rec-
tangular batten surface-applied to plywood panels, at Sweeton . . .


. .

The Sweeton bathroom contains corner shelves like the ones at the Jacobs dining nook:




And, the Jacobs shelves are edged with a matching "molding," likewise echoed at Sweeton . . .




. . . and, as the man said, the edging stiffens the shelves, for those who like their styling grounded in structure !

S

[outside in]

Its probably been mentioned before, but the shelving was an integral part of the wall construction, as it provided lateral bracing to a long, tall (9 ft.) wall only 2-1/4 inches thick. The thickness of the front edge also concealed the horizontal support brackets.. not purely an aesthetic decision by any means.

[SDR]

Thanks. I wonder if any of these sandwich walls have exhibited a change of shape, not end to end but top to bottom.



How many houses were made with vertical boards, rather than plywood, as the center wall ply ?
I wouldn't expect a sheet of 3/4" ply to have quite the same stiffness as a row of boards . . .

Jacobs

Richardson


Early Usonians with shelves supported by individual rectangles ("fin supports"). Rosenbaum has a stiffener (?) above the shelves.

Rosenbaum

Jacobs