An Untouched Frank Lloyd Wright House Is For Sale

[ken]

Rosenbaum House

The original part was built in 1939-40. Later addition with a larger kitchen was added in 1948. Found some pictures of the kitchen. I guess the cabinets may be from 1948. I doubt the countertop is. Obviously the fridge is a modern unit even though its been painted brown to match the cabinets. Has a modern black dishwasher. And the Frigidaire range is a 1956. The Rosenbaum's lived in it until 1999. The city of Florence, AL then acquired it and restored it. According to the website it is "meticulously" preserved. I can see wanting to keep the range. But whoever was in charge could have done a better job on getting a fridge and dishwasher from the same time period. They were probably the ones in the house when the city got it and they just left it that way.

 

[helicaldrive]

He was such a genius at

First considering the plot of land a house was going to be placed on, and then designing a home to complement the contour of that unique piece of land. That home totally depends upon that unique piece of land for its beauty, and would not be as stunning on a typical flat suburban lot.

Most people and architects do the opposite of FLW -- they design their house to look like they want it to look like in the abstract, and then stick it on the lot whether it looks good there or not.

Originally that home was probably heated radiant style with hot water pumped through the slab floor so it would not feel cold and drafty. FLW did not believe in basements -- although the Dana Thomas FLW house in Springfield, IL has one (with a bowling alley). His interior walls were solid, comprised of the same building materials as the rest of the house, and integral to the structure. No pedestrian hollow plastered or drywall walls for him, so forced air heat with ductwork was not an option. But in many of his Usonian homes, that slab plumbing has long since worn out, and people don't want to tear up the original slab floor to fix it, so they resort to heating with electric baseboard heaters. The same considerations make it difficult if not impossible to air condition one of his Usonian homes too. When he was designing Usonian homes, air conditioning was not common yet. They are stunningly beautiful and ingenious homes, but in some respects impractical or challenging for everyday life as we know it.

Hopefully this wasn't too much of a crashing bore for those who already know all these things. :-/

Such a joy to see a FLW house kept original inside!

I wish he could have lived and designed buildings and homes forever.

 

[helicaldrive]

Hmmmmm

There is some kind of a vent in the kitchen ceiling -- looks like return air for a forced air system....

Does anybody know about this particular house?

The way he designed the natural light in that kitchen is sheer genius!

 

[helicaldrive]

Sorry. :-/

Should have read the article first. This one does have a basement, so prob does have forced air.

 

[circlew]

Thanks Ken!

for the additional information. I remember the range was a pre '57 model but couldn't remember what the control panel looked like. I do remember the sink and faucet were rather new. I do recall the kitchen as being rather dark.

I'm sure I'd remember more about it if I had felt well when I was there. I went on to Mississippi the next day, and just didn't feel right the whole trip. Ended up going to the ER as soon as I got back into Cincinnati. Found out my sodium and potassium were all out of whack.

 

[davey7]

FLW houses are notoriously hard to heat - he was intransigent about insulation, double-glazing, etc and insisted he knew best (read, for instance, "The Natural House" where he says stuff like that*). While radiant heat is great when engineered correctly, he often didn't engineer it properly and didn't allow contractors to adjust the design to heat better. When the builders insisted it would get done right. His first solar houses were awful too - the Kecks did it way better (Keck & Keck, Chicago area modernists & solar pioneers, almost as prolific as FLW but not as well known - they did almost exclusively large suburban & rural houses).

He would do AC when forced to or the budget allowed - I believe (but not 100% certain) that Wingspread - the Johnson residence north of Racine - had it from day one. It's bigger problem was the leaky skylights. This one is open to the public and if you visit, you'll get the story of Hib Johnson calling up Ole' Frankie at Taleisin West during a dinner party in the presence of the Governor of Wisconsin and one of the state senators to complain about the leak... It's a free tour (with reservations required) and you can do with with the SC Johnson HQ that he designed - you get to see the research tower now too.

One wonders what he would have made of "open plan" or open concept - he always (or usually/often) tucked the kitchens away as "workspaces" in a rather misogynist manner. And they were often too small to boot.

I've been in several of his houses (most recently a very large and expensive one in the North Shore of Chicago) and they can be incredible - genius even - but difficult to live with because of that. This one looks so impeccably maintained that keeping it that way should be easy.

* He had the right idea at the Robie House, but it wasn't fully installed or designed - Reynor Banham talks about this in his book "The Well-Tempered Environment" however, others argue that he is incorrect. There was a well or pocket under the south facing windows (which are shielded perfectly from summer sun) which had a steam pipe installed but not "radiator" or convector which would have washed the windows with heat (the north windows, not to the floor, have radiators concealed under them) and the house required big, honking free-standing radiators to be installed to heat the main rooms.

 

[iheartmaytag]

I love FLW designs, but with that said.  As much as I admire the architecture, sometimes he didn't think the functionality through.  I don't know about private houses, but most of his commercial building leaked like a  colluder. 

 

The Johnson Wax building comes to mind.  I love the design, but the lilly pad lighting must have been a predictor for the building itself, because they couldn't stop the leaks with a train load of Flex seal.

 

Here locally the WSU campus has the FLW Corbin Education building.  Though the building was originally designed for Saudi Arabia may be a clue as to not using a flat roof with walk ways in Kansas.  FLW did donate the design to WSU and it was built in 1964. 

 

Again I absolutely love the building, unless I was sitting in a classroom at 2:30 in the afternoon with the sun scorching through the 10 ft high wall of windows.  The ventilation system that perpetually smells of swamp gas and mold is always inviting.  So you have to look past that and marvel at the straight line, minimalistic, spacious design.

 

Another problem WSU had with the Corbin Building is that FLW society maintains control of the architecture.  The owners must seek permission from the society to do any modifications, down to the shape of the bushes to the number of fishes in the fountain.  When the university decided to attempt a remedy for the glairing sun in afternoon classrooms, it took nearly three years for the society to approve the installation of the sun screens that helped, but did not alleviate the problem.  Curtains and drapes are/were not allowed.

 

 

http://www.wichita.edu/thisis/buildingtour/?tour_sysid=19

 

[ken]

As beautiful as his design work is and as much as I might admire it holding form over function is BS IMO.

 

[sudsmaster]

One thing I noticed with the FLW home featured in the OP, is that its window designs, such as the slit like vertical windows and high horizontal slit windows, appear to share a design motif with maximum security prisons.

 

[iheartmaytag]

Sorry for the Hijack

I just wanted to share an article today about some of the Wichita FLW designs. 

 

Celebrate Frank Lloyd Wright’s birthday at one of his buildings here

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/living/travel/article153987314.html#storylink=cpy

 

http://www.kansas.com/living/travel/article153987314.html

 

[iheartmaytag]

For FLW's birthday

An article about others in the region.

http://www.kansas.com/living/travel/article153987894.html