Wright Chat

Could this be an interesting project for a Wright Chatter?

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/202- ... e=txtshare

An interesting house...neat even. The designer definitely knew of Wright's canon.
I'd seriously consider removing the wood framed and drywalled addition with its redundant kitchenette.

I don't understand the price: $160K, $673/mo. on 4 acres in a beautiful neighborhood in the home of Post Toasties and Kellogg's Corn Flakes. Too cheap. There must be something wrong with it.

Judging by the number of presumably dead cars strewn around the house when viewed on Google Earth, I'd say it's in need of a little love ...

The architect was clearly a fan of Wright's Walker house windows...

I like it. And to be a good bet on wooded land, it needs only a metal, slate or tile roof to be secure from almost any surprise holocaust ?

The interiors are only marred, if at all, by the band of vertical boards, above the "datum," that want so much to be horizontal !

S

Roderick Grant wrote:I don't understand the price: $160K, $673/mo. on 4 acres in a beautiful neighborhood in the home of Post Toasties and Kellogg's Corn Flakes. Too cheap. There must be something wrong with it.

There are some condition issues.

So was the previous owner a ham radio hobbyist, or did they just have really poor TV reception in that location before they got the satellite dish? That's a damn sturdy antenna tower for a residential site.

I wonder how many farm silos and/or windmills have doubled as antennae over the years . . .

S

SDR wrote:I like it. And to be a good bet on wooded land, it needs only a metal, slate or tile roof to be secure from almost any surprise holocaust ?

The interiors are only marred, if at all, by the band of vertical boards, above the "datum," that want so much to be horizontal !

S

I thought the same thing. Verticality can be effective, but in this case, I was already considering ripping them out in my imaginary renovation!

The only way that was going to work was if the color of that boarded band was completely consistent -- as the designer may have expected. Architects learn and re-learn the same lesson: specify everything.

The benefit of short boards is that all joints are part of the aesthetic system -- and the carpenters can use fall (scrap) from other work for the pieces. The first reason perhaps explains so many examples of vertical-boarded siding in the modernist canon . . .

SDR

Quite interesting. The architect clearly "got it" in terms of Usonian style. And terrazo floors throughout ain't cheap. The vertical boards didn't jump out at me so much as the oddly angular fireplace. This may have been an instance where observing the grid results in some odd and severe angles. My "mental renovation" would include some cabinets or a table to either side of the fireplace to soften those sharp corners.

It's a remarkable construction, isn't it. The Mesa/Walker fenestration is icing on a substantial and interesting cake.

S

I don't have a problem with the angular fireplace. I think it's fascinating. The blank white-painted gypsum is unfortunate, however.

My other quibble is with the brick corners not cut to angle, but that would have been a tricky job.
What should be done with the plaster-board walls?
And who is the mystery architect?

The proper method of producing odd-shaped brick is to form it at the manufactory. I'm not aware of a Wright building with original cut corner brick.
When his clients could not afford the expense -- or perhaps when Mr Wright preferred the "woven" corners -- the result was the same as we see here.
There are numerous examples of both approaches in the catalog of Wright's work, though I believe the majority of them date to the Prairie years . . .

SDR