For sale: Nu-sonian in Lake Wylie, SC

DavidC · Post by **DavidC** » Sat Jan 30, 2016 5:29 pm

peterm · Post by **peterm** » Sun Jan 31, 2016 7:45 pm

Close, but no cigar. The brick and floor colors clash in a most unpleasant way...

Wrighter · Post by **Wrighter** » Mon Feb 01, 2016 7:57 am

True, but a different floor and you'd really have something here. Says "built by associates of Frank Lloyd Wright." Wonder what they mean by that?

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Mon Feb 01, 2016 1:01 pm

The floor bothers me, and wall-to-wall carpeting is not right for Usonian. The cost of correcting it would be excessive, unless it were covered by a skim coat to abolish the slightest image of the joints showing through, and then covered with Taliesin red linoleum. Also, the bricks seem to be of the recycled 'antique' look, which I have never liked; looks contrived. But from the standpoint of design, it's quite stunning.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Mon Feb 01, 2016 4:32 pm

The differences between Wright's Usonians and any number of "nusonians" would fill a book if listed to completion. Which would you say is the more grievous error: imitating poorly a Wright design, or calling something "Usonian" when it is, in fact, something else ?

I find the brick and tile colors, here, to be from the same part of the red spectrum. Perhaps the textures of brick and tile contradict or clash; I don't find it hard to look at. I might not use either of these materials, as shown, in my own home -- but the result isn't deplorable, as I see it.

SDR

peterm · Post by **peterm** » Mon Feb 01, 2016 8:07 pm

Deplorable? Maybe not. But lovely? I don't think so...

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Mon Feb 01, 2016 8:26 pm

Lovely ? Maybe not. It's no Lamberson ! Stunning ? Depends on who you ask. Roderick speaks of the design, not of the material palette.

SDR

peterm · Post by **peterm** » Mon Feb 01, 2016 9:41 pm

Oh, I agree 100% with Roderick... The design is nice, the detailing poor, and probably prohibitively expensive to correct.

That's why I initially wrote "close, but no cigar".

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Mon Feb 01, 2016 11:17 pm

"Correcting" a perfectly sound and serviceable floor because it doesn't look enough like Wright's work, here, is like decorating a Usonian with flowered wallpaper because the house doesn't look "homey" enough. Leave it alone, and look elsewhere . . . ?

Judging all residential architecture in terms of Wright's work is a losing proposition, it seems to me. There is room in the world for many kinds of building -- to suit the many kinds of people looking for a place to live. Even the Wrightian also-rans deserve to be judged on their own, it seems to me, rather than being compared to "the real thing" and (inevitably) found wanting.

Perhaps I'm misinterpreting comments here and elsewhere, on the subject of Wright and Wrong ?

SDR

peterm · Post by **peterm** » Mon Feb 01, 2016 11:57 pm

I'm not suggesting that the tile floor and carpeting need to be changed in order to more resemble a Wright house, rather that they look wrong to my eyes. That choice of brick with that particular glossy tile and all of those distracting grout lines just looks bad. Careful consideration of color and texture are always important in design. And there is no graceful geometric relationship between the sizes and shapes between the brick and tile, creating a strange problem of scale...

A dark charcoal or green slate floor, cork, linoleum, vct, brick matching the walls, maybe even oak hardwood would all better compliment the design, in my opinion.

Architects like Harwell Hamilton Harris, Gregory Ain or Schindler all deviated from Wright's choices successfully. It's about a certain artistic sensitivity...

Craig · Post by **Craig** » Tue Feb 02, 2016 6:10 am

Well maybe the photographs emphasize the floor tile more than when one is actually in the house. It could simply be a matter of the lighting used to take real estate sale photos. While I'm also no fan of recycled brick (is there a formal name for it?) in this case it was probably the best choice against the flat terra cotta brick flooring as a solid color brick would have been too much monochrome.

shuamort · Post by **shuamort** » Tue Feb 02, 2016 9:33 am

All I know is that I don't want to sleep on that bed in the study.

Paul Ringstrom · Post by **Paul Ringstrom** » Tue Feb 02, 2016 1:52 pm

I really like this paragraph. It succinctly sums up many of the problems observed in the critiques of architecture that have appeared on Wright Chat i.e., that it is possible to have good architecture that does not mimic Wright.

SDR wrote:Judging all residential architecture in terms of Wright's work is a losing proposition, it seems to me. There is room in the world for many kinds of building -- to suit the many kinds of people looking for a place to live. Even the Wrightian also-rans deserve to be judged on their own, it seems to me, rather than being compared to "the real thing" and (inevitably) found wanting. SDR

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Tue Feb 02, 2016 1:58 pm

I notice it says "contract pending." Now the photos are not available. Whether it's 'lovely' or atrocious, it has sold quickly. It is so much better than so much of the stuff on the market, I feel as if we are niggling somewhat about its flaws. The bricks could be fixed without too much ado by adding some sort of coloring to make them uniform, but the floor really needs tending, whether it's in a FLW knockoff or McMansion. It looks like something one might run into in a subway station or a public rest room, the two of which are not necessarily dissimilar.

Paul Ringstrom · Post by **Paul Ringstrom** » Tue Feb 02, 2016 2:12 pm

http://www.dyebrick.com