Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2005 9:17 am
It could be argued that the Willey House, one of FLW's best works, was the first ranch house. But the classic 50s ranch house first needed the Willey ideas to be filtered through such architects as Cliff May and the firm of Anshen & Allen before they were ready for mass production. Wright's work was always too sophisticated and client-specific to translate directly into mass produced work. There was a wonderful cartoon published years ago in Architectural Record of a Levittown-type cookie-cutter developement consisting of endless Fallingwaters lined up rank and file.