Pomegranate's "Usonian Houses" Carla Lind

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 12:00 pm

Yesterday found for $3 the palm size book "Usonian Houses" by Carla Lind.
Published by Pomegranate Books -San Francisco.
I'm sure many here have seen this series.
Some may have this book.

Page 12 is a interior shot of a room with a lit lamp in the corner.
The opposite page seems to identify the room as the Goetsch-Winkler house but it's ambiguous.

What interests me here is the book shelf in this shot: it's recessed into the wall.
The spines of the books are flush with the wall surface.
I don't remember ever seeing this detail in a Wright house.
...and I can't understand where in Goetsch-Winkler it would be in any case.
It might be in the first bedroom backing into the closet ...?

Anyone have a clue?

SREcklund · Post by **SREcklund** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 12:49 pm

I have the whole set on a shelf in my master bath ... you know, just in case ... I'll take a look at it tonight and see what I can see ...

dtc · Post by **dtc** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 1:41 pm

That is in the first bedroom and the door that is in the picture
opens to the lanai.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 2:30 pm

Yes -- but the question is, how is that recessed bookshelf possible. The answer may be that it intrudes into the closet shown in the second of the plans shown below. See notes.

"These shelves, which also open into the bedroom . . ."

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 3:11 pm

Bonus image: Early plan and view, from Monograph 6, Plate 328 (p 223). Shown here at more than double the published size.

Â© 1986 A.D.A EDITA Tokyo Co., Ltd. and by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation

This sheet is also published as Plate 8 in "Affordable Dreams" (Susan J Bandes, ed.), the source for the notes and plans above; here are the notes for the sheet:

DRN · Post by **DRN** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 4:12 pm

Tom: Why don't you ask Audrey, the G-W house's current owner?
Here is her thread with a link to her Facebook page:

http://savewright.org/wright_chat/viewt ... h+winckler

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 8:41 pm

Forgot about Audrey.
Will ask.
Thanks.
Isn;t this an unusual detail for Wright?

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Thu Oct 13, 2016 9:00 pm

I think it is; I can't recall seeing it elsewhere in his work -- of an period.

SDR

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Fri Oct 14, 2016 10:01 am

In the last paragraph of the notes to Plate 8, above, I believe the author misses the significance of the top-most roof and clerestory; these relate to the bathroom, not to the gallery, which appears to have its own full-height windows.

SDR

Paul Ringstrom · Post by **Paul Ringstrom** » Fri Oct 14, 2016 11:13 am

Pomegranate lost its FLW FDN license a few years ago. These books are out-of-print along with all of the other FLW products that they made for many years.

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Fri Oct 14, 2016 11:34 am

Audrey says yes this is her house. She posted a recent shot.
Don't know what I'm doing technically, but this links to a download of the photograph:

https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy ... e=58A97F2A

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Fri Oct 14, 2016 11:37 am

Aha. So, the question is, is that shelf original to the construction of the house, or an intervention by a later owner. I'm guessing it's original.

We'd need to see interior elevation drawings . . .

SDR

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Fri Oct 14, 2016 11:46 am

Here is what Audrey wrote back to me on her Facebook page which does not appear to be posted publicly, at least not yet:

"Yes, there is a recessed shelf on the entrance side of the room.
The colorful item in the photo is actually in one of the Gallery (hallway) storage shelves, and visible through a cutout someone made in the wall,
probably to run wires for media.
The cutout does not appear to be original."

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Fri Oct 14, 2016 2:23 pm

On the plan posted above labeled 'plate 28' there looks to be a desk or chest of drawers on the hallway side to where the bookshelf is.
Then next to that is a full closet.

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Fri Oct 14, 2016 2:36 pm

Check the head banner shot of the G/W House in
this link.
At the far right of the house second tall glass from the right it looks like natural light is descending from above through the roof.
At first I thought it was striking an interior brick wall but that's not correct.
What's going on?

http://thegoetschwincklerhouse.com/?p=59#comment-2957