Goetsch-Winckler Usonian house

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Yes, the photos are mine as well! Just a collection of photos that I've shared on social media over time, plus a few I've curated specifically for the listing.

I appreciate the insight. The "second Usonian" idea is indeed what I wanted to confirm with this crowd. There are certainly works that were built in between Jacobs I and GW, however the order of building doesn't necessarily indicate the order of design. Wright dubbed the project that GW was a part of as "Usonia 2" in his plans (see below), and GW was the first of those homes designed (and subsequently the only one built). The project took a long time to get off the ground because of issues with financing, which could account for the delay. We don't want to mischaracterize the home, but would "Usonia 2" not be an accurate moniker for the property? Or is it possible he named the project "Usonia 2" to signify the first realization of his Broadacre City concept, and not necessarily to imply that it's "the second Usonian"?

[SDR]

Thanks, Nate. Now I'm wondering if we're dealing with a conflation of the Usonia 2 title and the "second Usonian built" assertion.

The last sentence of the entry in Taschen II (the second of the three-volume Wright monographs, published in 2009) for Usonia II(sic) (page 417) reads:

"Since Wright referred in his 1939 London lectures to his own home, studio and farm Taliesin as Usonia I, he chose for this project the title Usonia II (sic)." I am grateful for this answer to the riddle of the name applied to the Lansing proposal, which apparently has little to do with Broadacre City. (And now I want to know if your house was built just where it appears on the site plan . . .)

So, Usonia 2 seems an appropriate title to use in connection with your house (especially if it was built within the confines of the originally-designated property ?). But this is a separate matter from that of the order of design of the early Usonians---isn't it ? 3907 is the file number given to the G-W project---thus, the seventh project begun in 1939. The Usonia Lansing project (labeled Usonia I in the archive displayed at JSTOR) has the file number 3912. Jacobs I is project 3702.

It seems clear in any event that the house cannot be called the second Usonian designed or built. But an explanation of how the group, of which the Goetsch-Winckler was the only built component, was named might be a satisfactory substitution for that erroneous claim in your piece ? The distinction between Usonian as a house type and Usonia as a project designation must be made clear, in any event . . .

S

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(And now I want to know if your house was built just where it appears on the site plan . . .)

The home was never built at the site in the plan (approx. 2472 Hawthorne Ln., Okemos, MI), but was instead built about a mile and a half Southeast (2410 Hulett Rd., Okemos, MI). In their letters to Wright, after the collapse of the Usonia 2 homeowners collective, Goetsch and Winckler lamented that the property directly to the east was being used by the city of East Lansing for dumping garbage, and there was a "hog wallow" where pigs were being fed trash. Go figure They "found a more desirable plot on a knoll" in a more private area and built there instead. The orientation of the home on the new lot is roughly the same as in the original Usonia 2 plans. Wright took no issue with the change of venue.

I will update the listing to distinguish that the home was designed as part of a larger project dubbed Usonia II, removing all references to "second Usonian", unless you have further thoughts?

[SDR]

That sounds right. (I have made a number of minor edits and additions to my above post, for what that's worth.) Now it's just a matter---if others here have nothing to add---of deciding whether it's to be Usonia II (as I have always called it) or Usonia 2. What appears on Wright's drawings seems to favor the latter. Taschen, edited by Taliesin archivist Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, calls it Usonia II. The project as titled at JSTOR (and thus perhaps by the archivists of the collection at the Avery Library ?) is Usonia I. That I think must be ignored, pending an explanation from those or other sources ?

Among the drawings of the house reproduced in Affordable Dreams are two early ones titled "Usonia Two" and "Usonia East." I continue to find references to Taliesin in Wisconsin, in writings of the 'fifties attributed to Wright himself, where the property is labeled "Taliesin North." This has yet to catch on, to replace (one can hope) the discredited but persistent "Taliesin East" . . .

S

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I'm looking for a primary source of the quote "favorite small house" in reference to the home.

I had first seen it noted here on this brief Dwell article, but haven't been able to trace it anywhere. https://www.dwell.com/article/goetsch-w ... e-5aa0701b

Does anyone here know where this quote came from, and if it's true?

[SDR]

I had never heard it until now, I think---though it's possible that another building of Wright's, perhaps from another period, might have been so named ? Neither Dwell nor any other of today's shelter magazines or blogs should be relied upon for accurate information, in my estimation, where esoteric architecture at least is concerned. I squirm when I hear superlatives applied to possessions; it's impossible for me to separate them from boasts that imply superiority at the expense of one's neighbors (or in this case, of other Wright owners ?).

So, that's two reasonable objections to the practice, as I see it. The many qualities evident in the Goetsch-Winckler house (and it is one of my favorite Wright designs) speak for themselves, or can be proudly pointed to, without resorting to one-upsmanship ?

Now go forth, and sin no more !

S

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Official announcement on WrightChat for offering overnight stays: viewtopic.php?t=16883

[DavidC]

My Favorite Airbnb: A Spectacular Frank Lloyd Wright Home in Michigan


David

[SDR]

That's a nice little ode to this house, graced by several excellent photos. (No one else seems to have shot the corner of the living room looking through the door to the lanai.) And the writer/visitor leaves us a couple of tidbits on how to "operate" a Usonian, too !

S

[Roderick Grant]

The house looks better than I have ever seen it before!

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Thank you all!