Fay Jones story on public radio

jay · Post by **jay** » Thu May 10, 2018 12:59 pm

10 minute segment beneath the photos... Sounds like a great project.

http://kuaf.com/post/u-preserves-fay-jo ... s#stream/0

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Thu May 10, 2018 11:12 pm

It's always good to see what an architect builds for his own family. Any differences between that, and his work for clients, might be telling.

What do readers seen in Fay Jones's own home ? In photo #5, I think we're looking at a headboard. I like it . . .

SDR

DRN · Post by **DRN** » Fri May 11, 2018 10:32 am

The element in pic #5 is the wardrobe (doors on opposite side) against which the Jones' daughters' single beds were placed sideways. The lights served as reading lights above the heads of the two beds. There are also desks, apparently in storage during restoration, which further screened (but did not enclose) the girls' sleeping area of the basement. Fay's home workspace was near the protruding boulder.

I see the Jones house as a pattern book or a "dictionary" of Jones' own grammar of architecture. It appears to me as his first mature statement in that language which he used in innumerable variations throughout his career.

It should be noted that FLLW visited this house in 1958 during a lecture tour UofA and OU. Wright was very complimentary of the house and "invited" the attendees of the lecture to seek it out as an example of organic architecture well suited to its region and circumstance.

HABS drawings of the house:
https://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.ar1146.sheet/?sp=1

HABS data sheets:
http://cdn.loc.gov/master/pnp/habshaer/ ... 46data.pdf

Some pics of Jones' residential work; the Jones house is in included in 1955:
http://www.usmodernist.org/fjones.htm

A complimentary letter to Jones from John Howe:
http://digitalcollections.uark.edu/cdm/ ... 11/rec/117

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Fri May 11, 2018 12:56 pm

The art of designing the small house. If an architect can do that well, he can do anything.

The fireplace opening is interestingly finished (photos 6, 7). I would like to see detailed drawings of that to understand exactly how it was done.

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Fri May 11, 2018 1:17 pm

The first EFJ house I saw published was for Calvin Bain, in HB Oct. '59, page 244. The photos in the US Modernist show a house for Richard Bain (1956), which is probably the same one plus an addition. Not much of the house is shown. It was one of my favorite apprentice houses back then.

DRN · Post by **DRN** » Fri May 11, 2018 1:21 pm

The fireplace opening is interestingly finished (photos 6, 7). I would like to see detailed drawings of that to understand exactly how it was done.

During a Spring 2016 FLWBC tour of Jones' residential work in and around Fayetteville, it was noted the striations in the lintel at the fireplace opening were done by Jones himself with a stick. The random vertical scoring was meant to visually blend the fine cement plaster covering the hood's steel support with the coarse stone above. Variations of this detail appeared on a number of Jones' fireplaces in the 1950's and '60's.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Fri May 11, 2018 1:45 pm

At first glance the lintel texture resembled (to me) the result of water dripping or running down a semi-soft mineral surface -- and then inverted.

The house as photographed seems rough-textured and a bit raw -- in an attractive way -- compared to his client houses.

SDR

Wrighter · Post by **Wrighter** » Tue May 15, 2018 3:55 pm

During a Spring 2016 FLWBC tour of Jones' residential work in and around Fayetteville, it was noted the striations in the lintel at the fireplace opening were done by Jones himself with a stick

I heard the same thing from Glen Parsons, though he said that Jones told him that it represents the smoke rising from the fire. In our own house, the striations are wider and less regular in appearance--much rougher and irregular look overall.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Tue May 15, 2018 9:14 pm

Free-form decoration is a bit of a surprise, from Fay Jones. Good to know he could attack material directly, when called upon by the Muse . . . ?

SDR

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Thu May 17, 2018 10:14 am

The plan makes an interesting study. Circling around the chimney is the stair, which separates the private from the public spaces on the principle level. The stair
baluster provides the only physical separation of the bedroom, whose bath is conveniently shared with the public space. One thinks of the Berger house of Wright . . .

http://cdn.loc.gov/service/pnp/habshaer ... 00005v.jpg

SDR