Muirhead Floor plans?

[JohnAdams]

Does anyone have the floor plan for this usonian home? I'm usually a good data searcher but cant find it. Thanks.

[Wrightgeek]

JohnAdams-

I would suggest that you try to contact Mike and/or Sarah Petersdorf, the current owners of the Muirhead Residence, which they also operate as a B & B, and which I highly recommend, BTW. They have a nice website for the property which would be easy to find via Google.

Sarah is the granddaughter of the original clients, and she and Mike did a fantastic restoration of the property a number of years ago. As a result they are very knowledgeable about the house, and they are also extremely friendly as well, so they will probably be willing to offer you as much information and assistance as is reasonable.

Good luck, and please tell them I said hello if you reach them.

[DavidC]

Does anyone have the floor plan for this usonian home?

You could look for a generalized version of the as-built floor plan in Storrer's "Companion". And I would imagine that either Monograph #7 (1942-1950) or Monograph #8 (1951-1959) (depending on which one Muirhead is in) and the "Complete Works - 1943-1959" would offer you some reproductions of the drawings from the archives that would be very helpful.


David

[Reidy]

You might try the Getty Center in LA (they'll make copies of letters, but I'm not so sure about drawings) or the FLlW Foundation at Taliesin West.

[pharding]

You can look at photographs of FLW drawings at the Getty, but you cannot photograph or copy them.

[Tom]

Floor Plan:
https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/285 ... 9078926373

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


Pretty sure I did not know of this house before now.
Cool floor plan separating the dining and kitchen in their own "pavilion".

[SDR]

(Heh. How things have changed for the better, in ten years . . .?)



The Muirheads wanted to feed their farm crew in a dining room semi-detached from the family residence, which explains the separated dining and kitchen.

https://muirheadfarmhouse.com

https://franklloydwright.org/site/muirh ... breakfast/

https://www.oldhouseonline.com/house-to ... farmhouse/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_an ... _House.jpg

S

[Tom]

Thanks - the Old House Journal article seemed to say that when the house was restored they found a whole stash of cypress plywood from when the house was originally built. So they carried through with originally designed yet unbuilt furniture plans!

Also - the enclosed walkway that separates the dining/kitchen "pavilion" terminates against the blank back wall of the workspace of the main house. A shift one module down would have aligned that axis with the passage thru the interior of the rest of the house just north of the living room - which seems more typical of Wright. Do you find that curious as well?

[Roderick Grant]

The shift was deliberate, in order to control noise between bedroom wing and service area. Originally the gallery at the east end was several units longer. The client complained, and FLW took a knife, sliced the drawing and shortened the gallery.

[Tom]

So - a deliberate move for a sound reason.

[Roderick Grant]

...and a design reason. The original extremely long gallery, had it not been truncated, would have been rather disturbing. Although children brought up in such a house might have enjoyed the ability to skate board during the winter.

[Tom]

Yeah - you're right about the kids.
I've always thought the Martin house gallery was "disturbing."
Never could put my finger on why, but you word here names it.
Articulating why it is disturbing ... would be worth the time of cogitation.

[Roderick Grant]

Re skate boarding: Has anyone ever tried to skate board down the Guggenheim ramp? Weaving in and out to avoid crashing into art lovers? That must be the Holy Grail of skate boarders.

[DRN]

Re skate boarding: Has anyone ever tried to skate board down the Guggenheim ramp? Weaving in and out to avoid crashing into art lovers? That must be the Holy Grail of skate boarders.

I have to believe it was tried with a board or rollerblades by a person on a construction crew during the 1990’s full shut down for the addition and renovation..., the ramp would have been free of art, visitors, and staff.

[g.dorn]

Those are an interesting set of drawings - looks like by someone who understood how to communicate the important stuff to get a building built.

roof framing plan
looks like only steel is at the carport cantilever, the rest is all 2 x 12 Rafters - at various levels - basically flat with an edge parapet - again it looks like the fascia beams support the intermediate rafters.

Looks like carport rafters are continuous and hung (i.e. below) the steel beams.

https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/285 ... 764937551

carport section


carport roof framing plan


section details framing - walls and roof
actually describes the usoninia board and batten wall corner junction!

https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/285 ... 9764937551

Sections
https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/285 ... 764937551

kitchen cabinetry
https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/285 ... 9764937551

kitchen and passage cabinetry
https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/285 ... 9764937551

elevations

https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/285 ... 9764937551