Wright Vision - Van Dusen residence 1939

[g.dorn]

Van Dusen Residence project of 1939 (unbuilt) seems to have gone thru a couple of revisions.

https://library.artstor.org/#/search/ar ... e=1;sort=1

The first plan (just a guess) has some really interesting aspects for a small Usonian house.

Its layout is divided into 2 sections -
1- kitchen/ living/ terrace - made up of 2 spacial units of 6 x 6 ( a unit of space being 4' x 4')

2- bedrooms/bathrooms made up of 3 x 3 , 3 x 3 and 4.5 x 3 units

There are 2 largish bedrooms with each its own bathroom
The built in seating is more in the dining space than the living space

the Living Dinning corner view out is blocked off rather than open

it has a hint of goetsch/winkler and also the Pew layout - in that you enter next to the kitchen , walk past the fire plac to enter the public space, then go around the fire place to get to the dining area

Entry is quite hidden, with interior entry space having 2 doors - Im kinda surprised that the diving wall wasn't rotated 90 degrees so that the bedroom had more privacy.
The dining area seems to have same high ceiling ( 9 units) line as the living room and thus lacks the usual intimacy

Both bedrooms have corner windows - suggesting a open space - compared to the living room










drawings from artStor

Vandusen residence
1939
Usonian
unbult vision

[Tom]

Two versions of this very compact Usonian in the file.
Thanks for calling it to attention:

File:
https://library.artstor.org/#/search/ar ... e=1;sort=1

[g.dorn]

here some screen shots of my model of it.

slab and brickwork


board and battten walls


lower roof framing


upper roof framing


rear 3D


Sections

[g.dorn]

Yes 3 versions - I gather development of the idea - seems to have to have progressed to basic construction drawings.


2nd version has a slightly altered plan

- main living terrace is reduced - well fair enough -look at all that brickwork below floor level!

- bedroom wing is rearranged - main bed now has a Westerly aspectLiving room now also gets direct westerly sun and has more privacy from the entry.

[g.dorn]

version 3 - has the plan flipped on its north/ south axis.

Such that carport is now on west side
living on west
bedrooms on east - master bedroom now very private

otherwise layout is of similar ilk to previous plans
however

- roof lines have been rearranged such that
- kitchen seems to has lost is lantern
- living glass wall now has lower soffit with lantern over
- access from yard now possible to living terrace

All that glazing would make the area adjacent to the terrace fabulous on cold day - if the sun was shining!

[SDR]

Huh. Well done. In the third version neither bath is now accessible without entering a bedroom. That's atypical, for Wright or anyone else.

S

[juankbedoya]

version 3 - has the plan flipped on its north/ south axis.

Such that carport is now on west side
living on west
bedrooms on east - master bedroom now very private

otherwise layout is of similar ilk to previous plans
however

- roof lines have been rearranged such that
- kitchen seems to has lost is lantern
- living glass wall now has lower soffit with lantern over
- access from yard now possible to living terrace

All that glazing would make the area adjacent to the terrace fabulous on cold day - if the sun was shining!

Very interesting to see this version with variations for the position of the bedrooms and specially the terrace which usually is in front of the living room. Here it goes to the corner and someway it becomes a terrace for the living room and the bedroom. Although most of his houses are more and more similar, it's always a pleasure to find some "new detail'.

[SDR]

By many accounts, each of these versions of the Usonian "formula"---each twist and turn, each new arrangement of the necessary spaces---was made in response to the particulars of the site: climate, terrain, solar orientation, access, as well as to client preferences. But another set of inputs would come from the designer's own tastes, habits, preferences, previous accomplishments and current interests. So, at any given point in time he might have been working through some fresh ideas about spacial arrangement or about form, and he would naturally be looking for opportunities to exploit those ideas in a real-world exercise.

Thus, it should be clear that, for a given client with a given piece of property to build on, a very different house would have been designed by Mr Wright in 1910, in 1920, in 1930, in 1940 and in 1950. The question becomes, how different would a 1938 design be from one made in 1941---or in 1946, or in 1949 ?

S

[Tom]

Here's a shot of the carport framing.
I cannot tell but wonder if the steel beams over the brick corner are stacked or welded in plane as in the Sanders project.
I think they must be in plane.
A lot of effort and expense goes in to making these carport wings (then there is the build up of floor slab against the slope).

Van Dusen:


Sanders:

[SDR]

There we are. I've been waiting for years to see that detail in Wright. Talk about "continuity" . . .!

S

[Tom]

Here's the sheet from the Sanders file, thought you had seen this:
https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/286 ... 0434792893

[SDR]

Thanks---no, I never looked at that sheet.

So, how often does that junction occur in, say, the carports, I wonder. Since he was always trying to minimize the thickness of planes (though not, apparently, in the Alsop carport ?), I would think that detail would get a lot of use. Requires some major field welding, typically . . .?

S

[Tom]

I think I've seen crossed beams at Goetsche/Winkler (working from memory) .
Saw this Sanders sheet only last week.
First time I've seen the detail explicitly on a sheet, although have often wondered if it occurred in other projects.
Affleck's main living deck comes to mind - don't think Pew would have used it though.

[SDR]

Here's the Goetsch-Winckler (copy spelling) carport structural plan:




. . .and a corresponding elevation. I have never understood why the architect wouldn't have wanted to take advantage of the opportunity here---not always present---to use the chimney as a fulcrum rather than simply as an attachment point, for his steel . . .

[g.dorn]

<snip>

Van Dusen:


<snip>

what interesting about this section of the framing, si that the left steel beam goes through the kitchen wall t to the fireplace brickwork, this beam is at the carport roof level, which is lower than the kitchen roof level - in other words , exposed in the kitchen.
I wonder then if the thought was to create a shelf between the kitchen and dining area at that level to incorporate and hide this beam.

Given that the 3rd design mirrors this part of the building, its framing plan indicates a brick wall and light deck.