George Furbeck listed

Sequoia · Post by **Sequoia** » Sun Feb 10, 2013 3:34 pm

George Furbeck home can be seen at Wright in the Market
http://savewright.org/index.php?page=33&id=131

DRN · Post by **DRN** » Mon Feb 11, 2013 12:42 pm

Is the street facade and entrance door to Furbeck in its original configuration? The central door under little to no cover, seems out of step with Wright's other designs emerging by 1897, almost like a front porch that was enclosed at a later date.

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Mon Feb 11, 2013 12:56 pm

Yes, the front porch was enclosed, and enlarged. Also not original, though not showing in the post, is the ungainly third floor addition toward the back end of the house. Fully restored, it would still not be one of Frank's winners, at least on the exterior, but it would look a lot better. Inside, it's kinda quirky. The plan really doesn't work very well.

DRN · Post by **DRN** » Tue Feb 12, 2013 11:36 am

Wright used octagons, or segments of them, in his floor plans for a period from 1887 to about 1900, then never again. Rarely, a 45 degree angle or 45/45/90 prow crept into his work 1900 to 1935, but after that period, a 45 degree angle is truly rare in Wright's work. Why?

Was it that the octagon will not nest in a regular grid like a square, rectangle, triangle, parallelogram will?

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Tue Feb 12, 2013 11:50 am

That's exactly the case, DRN. The Oak Park Studio uses octagons expertly, with the studio and library octagons kept apart by the office/entrance. Only the upper part of the studio is octagonal, blending into a square at the lower level, so the structure only appears to be an octagon.

What doesn't work at Furbeck is the cluster of the two octagonal towers and the octagonal living room. The composition might have worked better with squares. Also, the two odd niches in the dining room seem unconvincing.

Rood · Post by **Rood** » Tue Feb 12, 2013 10:04 pm

DRN wrote:Wright used octagons, or segments of them, in his floor plans for a period from 1887 to about 1900, then never again. Rarely, a 45 degree angle or 45/45/90 prow crept into his work 1900 to 1935, but after that period, a 45 degree angle is truly rare in Wright's work.

Perhaps the final instance of the 45 degree angle may be found in the plan for Penfield 2 from 1959.

dkottum · Post by **dkottum** » Tue Feb 12, 2013 11:46 pm

Would Taliesin West be considered a 45 degree plan?

doug k

krietzerjak · Post by **krietzerjak** » Wed Feb 13, 2013 2:09 am

I think there was a later project with an octagon living room, possibly "Vincent Scully" project (1948), I think.
I toured the George Furbeck house in a Wright Plus tour. Nice art glass windows in the (downstairs) octagons.

Andy

pharding · Post by **pharding** » Wed Feb 13, 2013 10:46 am

DRN wrote:Wright used octagons, or segments of them, in his floor plans for a period from 1887 to about 1900, then never again. Rarely, a 45 degree angle or 45/45/90 prow crept into his work 1900 to 1935, but after that period, a 45 degree angle is truly rare in Wright's work. Why?

Was it that the octagon will not nest in a regular grid like a square, rectangle, triangle, parallelogram will?

45 degree geometry after 1900 appeared in Hickox, Bradley, Davenport, Willits, Robie to just name a few. He used this primarily for bays.

Macrodex · Post by **Macrodex** » Wed Feb 13, 2013 11:54 am

It looks like there are some 45-degree walls. On an aside note: the Scully project, to me, is one of the stranger designs.

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Wed Feb 13, 2013 12:52 pm

Didn't TA recently build Scully for someone?

DavidC · Post by **DavidC** » Thu Feb 14, 2013 7:15 am

A version of Scully was built in 1984 for a Mr. West in Manassas, VA.

David

DavidC · Post by **DavidC** » Fri Aug 09, 2013 8:32 am

Deal Estate: Frank Lloyd Wright + Octagons + Good Price = He - [5:24]

David

peterm · Post by **peterm** » Wed Mar 05, 2014 10:30 pm

Furbeck sold:

http://chicago.curbed.com/archives/2014 ... -sells.php

outside in · Post by **outside in** » Thu Mar 06, 2014 10:12 am

I'm a little worried about this event, and perhaps others could chime in with their opinion. 650k seems like a incredible bargain for this home, and it makes me wonder why it sat for so long, and why the final price was so low. Unlike many Wright "fixer uppers" the house appears to be in pretty good shape. Though not as distinctive as some of the later Prairie Homes, the spaces inside are interesting and complex, i.e., what one would expect from FLW design.

Wright homes are sitting on the market for a very long time, and, it seems, selling for a fraction of their appraised value. Yet builders are knocking down historic homes to build McMansions throughout upscale 'burbs at an incredible rate. Could it be, that our culture has moved away and beyond treasuring these homes as desirable places to live? Is this the ultimate outcome of the housing crisis, or has the reputation of FLW homes as money-pits become accepted as fact?