Details - John Pew Houses

[matth_f]

Hello, I'm a French stundent, and first, sorry for my English.

For a schoolwork, I'll looking for some details about the John Pew Houses. For example, I do not know how it carries the floor of the living room between the wall of chemine and stone pillars.

Thank you for your answer.

MF

[SDR]

Thanks for asking, MF.

While I have never seen a framing plan of the Pew House, these photos of another building of similar size and siting might be useful, in making a guess.

Julius Shulman photos









This is the architect's site office at the Mutual Housing Association development, in Los Angeles, by A Quincy Jones. The date is 1946.

SDR

[matth_f]

Hi, thanks for your answer.

indeed, I believe that this solution approaches some. On a detailed cut of Frank, we can a metal beam. Except that in the solution for Pew house, the wall at the end is composed of two pillars and not of a parallel wall.
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[SDR]

This is the only cross-section (coupe) that I can find. Perhaps you have this too ? I do not have a corresponding longitudinal section, that might
show what happens at the far end of the "bridge."



Note the single 12" I.B. (I-beam). What sort of structural gymnastics take place to connect this deck, and the enclosure above it, to the fin-like
stone pier at the far end of the room, I cannot say.

Unlike some other modernists, including Jones, Wright preferred to conceal structure within the envelope of his buildings.

Sorry I cannot be more helpful. Anyone ?

SDR

[Olgivanna]

The house photo above reminds me of a few other Wright's un-built later designs. Once such, Massaro.

Wonder what came first? Wright's were all in the 1950's. Copy??

[matth_f]

Thanks a lot,

I will continue has to seek, I start to have some assumptions, I will show them to you for your opinion

Thanks again

[SDR]

Ah -- there are two fin piers. The "rear" one extends above the floor deck.

[goffmachine]

Please, can anyone help me with a detail of the window of the Pew house?
Im looking for a detail and/or section of the window of the Pew and/or Usonians from 1939-1940.
Thank you.

[SDR]

Which window ? Big, or small -- living room, or bedroom ?


SDR

[goffmachine]

SDR,
um...
I suppose all of them.(but mostly 1939-1940)
I was wondering the standard dimensions and widths of the frame etc.
Do they vary much between houses or was there a standard that Mr. Wright prefered.
For example...4 inch moulding? 3 inch width? heck I dont even know the name of the parts of the window. Sorry, Im not an architect . But I love it anyways.
Please help

[SDR]

Well, the Standard Detail Sheet would tell you much about Wright's preferred millwork details -- for many but by no means all of the later work.

I'll reproduce that here, and the relevant detail section drawing for Pew.

[g.dorn]

Im doing my own construction model of the Pew house.
As there appears to be an absense of any details on how this house was built, Ive' had a make a few considerations myself ( ie if I was detailing/building - what would I do - as a starting point).
I started by mapping out the 1200 grid ( 4ft) then adding the stone parts - to create a base set of locations for the timber parts ( floors, walls roof).

The floor framing in particular is interesting. According to the section drawing above - its taken through near the fire place, there appears to be only 1 steel beam - in line with the stone retaining wall ( to basement) and pier.

parallel to this steel beam, is 300 x 50 (12 x 2)at 600 c's (2 ft c's) floor joists - (according to my books a F11 LVL- 300 joists can span 5.7m single span),
From fire place to end of deck is 8 bays long x 1.2 = 9.6m, too long for timber joists. Therefore I reckon there would have to be a steel beam tangent across the 2 end piers picking up the joist- reducing its span and probably another tangent steel beam on the grid line that aligns with the overhead end of the roof terrace , thus making the joists span about 5.5m .
then another steel beam parallel to joists at the end wall that is supported by the basement /heater room wall.

However this all seems in contrary to the direction of the floor boards, which run parallel with the floor joists - unless there are 2 layers of floor boards tangent to each other, therefore I am now thinking that the building was built differently to that indicated in the section drawing.

Here is the framing based on my guess of section drawing



and here is the framing based on photos


photos indicating floor board direction

[g.dorn]

One of aspects shown in the drawings and the photos is the stone flooring - this appears to be at the entry, in kitchen and as a skirt to the fireplace.

Is this stone built on top of the timber joists, or on sand fill, or suspended concrete slab?

Is the basement under the kitchen or does the retaining wall form part of the basement stairs with a reduced basement area?

In the early scheme ( fire place on back wall of living, near dining) the drawings indicate a basement under the kitchen.

I found this photo showing a opening into the basement from outside.



So my guess is the basement is under the dining area and possibly kitchen - but its a mystery to me how the stone floor is supported.

And my prelim basement plan options - which shows the 4ft grid in light grey and flooring framing( version A) as dashed lines, stone as solid grey, showing basement to dining and kitchen areas

and with floor framing option B with reduced basement area

[Tom]

#1

Great thread.
The Affleck House is a similar mystery
With only one stone pier supporting cantilevered end.

(I hadn't realized there are two stone piers here at Pew.)

The exterior wood in the above color shot looks really good.
Wonder how the owner keeps the green mold under control?

[SDR]

Welcome, gdorn, and thanks for the new work and illustrations. While I can't answer your interesting question, I can supply more original drawings, at larger size, than have been displayed before. (Images can be opened in a separate window or tab, and enlarged.)

The earlier drawings show brick as the masonry material. Remember that any or none of these selected drawings will depict what was actually built. We are not sure whether the Taliesin file numbers were assigned chronologically; that claim has not been made as far as I know.

Perhaps none of this material will add to your understanding of a possible structure to this building. I do note, however, that some early section drawings show the main floor plate as considerably thicker than is typical (or is shown in the larger-scale section), suggesting room for crossing members ?

I cannot be sure from your illustrations---despite the written description of the options you're exploring---where steel is placed. Perhaps you could add indication of steel to your plan drawings ?


The drawings that were published in 1986, in volume 6 of the A.D.A EDITA Wright Monographs:


4012.15


4012.16


4012.19


4012.21


4012.26