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Today's DailyWright photo shows the Robert Roloson Houses of 1894. The Artstor drawing file contains 23 sheets showing at least two versions of Wright's alterations to this building, which began and remained four houses built on three 25-foot lots on Calumet Avenue in the Douglas section of Chicago, south of the city center.
None of the published texts most commonly seen by Wrightians mentions two significant differences between one of Wright's proposals for this remodeling and what was built: in replacing the peaked gables of the top floor with a squared-off roofline he would also have added a fourth level to the rear of each house behind the central stair. Of less import perhaps, he would have replaced the four separate entrance doors with two shared entrances.
I made use for the first time of the "Comparison" function at Artstor: very helpful. The two section drawings (I have omitted the rearmost rooms on all plans and sections as irrelevant here) are at slightly different scales, unavoidably. A very light dotted line can be seen on the right-hand drawing showing where an additional level has been added behind the central stair:
Significant research by Greg M. Brewer on the Roloson project(s) was recently published in the 63-page 2020 number 1 issue of the Journal of Organic Architecture + Design titled "Rediscovering Frank Lloyd Wright's Roloson Houses and the Unbuilt Roloson Apartments."
Thanks to Randy Henning for reminding us of that resource; it was foolish of me to have forgotten its existence on my shelves. And the essay by Gregory M Brewer is uniquely important, being one of those watershed events that demolishes a long-held misconception, in this case about the genesis and subsequent development of the Roloson project. In fact the available drawings represent two distinct episodes, all of them the work solely of Wright. The Roloson Houses were built by Robert Roloson to Wright's designs; they were not an existing structure that Wright remodeled for the client. And the alternate version(s) of the plans and elevations are in fact a second phase of the work, accomplished when after only four years of ownership Roloson approached his architect to convert the four residences to twelve apartments. This project was not constructed, and the houses remained as they were originally built until being remodeled in 1981, when Wright's interiors were lost.
Three versions of these apartments were drawn, two with two bedrooms and another with three. Those seeking these designs among the drawings found at Artstor (link in the first post of this thread) will find drawings showing both types on the same full floor plan.
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Edited to change the last paragraph, indicating the correct number of versions and their respective bedroom count. The greyed drawing images in the initial post are of Wright's redesign of the building; (portions of) two of the three apartment designs are shown on the plan drawing.
