Jacobs I / Video

[RJH]

Enjoy! (Make sure to watch all 3 parts)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_EY9Eds ... ed&search=

Designed and constructed in 1936-1937, the First Herbert and Katherine Jacobs House is located in Westmorland, Madison, Wisconsin.
This Frank Lloyd Wright designed house is the purest and most famous application of Wright's Usonian designs.
(1992)Katherine Jacobs visits the current owner of this house, James Dennis, and is joined by Benjamin Dombar original supervising apprentice architect at the time of construction. Famous Japanese Architect Raku Endo, also appears in the video.
The spider & Bee's have since been eliminated.[/quote]

[rightwaswright]

I'm not surprised that Bennie Dombar worked on Jacobs I but I had always assumed that Jack Howe also worked on it. Dombar doesn't mention him. Perhaps Howe just did the renderings.

[Mobius]

OOOH!

I'm very excited about these videos and have downloaded them in .FLV format to watch later. As you will know, our house design is very heavily based on Jacobs 1, and we are due to sign the building contract next week.

I have countless photos of the house, but many areas are missing in my photographic coverage of the home.

Thanks very much for finding these Richard.

[SDR]

The sound and video quality is unfortunate, but Mrs Jacobs is a delight. One wishes that more pertinent questions had been asked; "When was the house built ?" could be answered with a little reading.

We take what we can get from such serendipitous encounters. . .

Thanks for the links. SDR

[Michael Shuck]

I was in the Jacobs house last week. I continue to find it odd how the homes in person differ from the photographs. The owner was out of the country and the caretaker was kind enough to arrange a self-tour of it. My pics are on my Flickr site mentioned in another post here. It's interesting that we talk about how a house looks, but I think what most of us actually do is sense how a house feels. Jacobs I has a great feeling to it. It is so on the other end of the spectrum from a Prairie house. This house was lived in...a book laid here, a shirt hung there. A stack of travel brochures on the table. It was cool to just see one of these houses as it was being lived in and not meticulously arranged for photography for a book or article. I think that adds even more to the character. I'm not sure the average person on the street would appreciate this house. They would mistake the materials of it as being crude or simplistic, but it is in those materials that Wright works his genius. I think it's an awesome house. I find it greatly reassuring that people with a passion for Wright's architecture do, too.

[SDR]

I assume that the interior walls and ceiling being of the same wooden "fabric" is a part of the feel ? This is almost unique in Wright, as is the pine/redwood pairing. The ceiling was covered in plywood at first (think Goetsch/Winckler), then improved to Wright's "upgrade" specification as time and cash became available to the Jacobses.

Was the brick cool to the touch ? Were the clerestories and tall doors open enough for a cross breeze ? I assume it might have been a warm day !

What sounds did you notice ?

SDR

[outside in]

Sorry to be such a nerd, but the original ceiling on the Jacobs House was a Celotex product, panels composed of high-density pressed paper products. (I believe there may have been asbestos in the mix as well) but yes, the Jacobs went back to Wright when they had a little more money and he drew the ceiling plan that currently exists in the house.

[SDR]

Ah -- thanks for the correction.

I wonder what the layout was for the first ceiling, and whether there were battens. Are there interior photos in that '38 Architectural Forum issue ?

SDR

[Roderick Grant]

The original ceiling can be glimpsed on page 43 of Katharine's book, "Building With Frank Lloyd Wright." It was just celotex, or something of that sort, without any trim, following the 2 x 4 grid. It looked institutional and cold. The new ceiling is a wonder!

[SDR]

Thanks -- that's it. I bought my copy in 1979 -- haven't looked at it in a while ! [Anybody who can indentify the vehicle parked in the carport and visible through the front door, in that photo, gets my vote. I know late thirties makes and models pretty well, I think, but I've never seen those headlights (?) on anything. . .!]

SDR

[Michael Shuck]

I've posted two ceiling photos of the Jacobs I taken last month in Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeshuck/

[Roderick Grant]

SDR, the only thing I can think of is that odd three-wheeled car that Buckminster Fuller designed, although I'm sure it is not that.

[SDR]

Well, you're on the right track. Another candidate might be the Stout, a three-wheeled rear-engined fuselage from the same period. But I don't think so. Terraplane ? Hupmobile ? Graham-Paige ? I make out a period-normal front (?) bumper. . .




The lovely photo is by Herb Jacobs. Too bad he's not around to help us.

SDR

[archfan]

Could this be the back end of the same car? This is a photo from construction.

http://tinyurl.com/2egjf4

And one more, although this could be anyone's car:

http://tinyurl.com/2w5uhg

I've been looking at the site below to see if anything looks right. I was focusing on the mid '30's, but it occurs to me the photo could be from later...

http://www.hubcapcafe.com/ocs/cs_index.htm

[Roderick Grant]

The first car looks like a Chrysler product, possibly a Dodge. The second is definitely GM; perhaps a '35 Buick.