Frank Lloyd Wright Trip #1- Jacobs 1, Madison, WI

Jacobs 1

Built in 1937, Jacobs 1 was Wright's first Usonian home to be built. This was Wright new design that was both practical and efficient, he called these houses the affordable one family homes. They were said to be Wright solution to the nations housing shortage.

 

Each of the Usonain homes were designed to fit the surrounding and budge of the clients. The Usonains were advertised as being able to be built for $5,000, and Jacobs 1 was built for that much, but if you know anything about Wright the budgets were pretty much a joke to him.

 Wright would place the front of the home on the front edge of the lot so as to utilize and enlarge the back yard. He also designed the front side of the house to be plain & unattractive to thwart unwanted guest.

 The home was an L plan, with one wing being the living and dinning room and the other wing being the bedroom wing. The bathroom & kitchen sat in the corner of the two wings.

The back side of the house has a much more open feeling, the windows and door open up extending the living space to the outside and giving the house a bigger feeling.

The Jacobs house is a beautiful start of the Usonion homes and after visiting I can see many similarities between this home and Cedar Rock.

Frank Lloyd Wright Trip #1- Gilbert House aka The Airplane House, Madison, WI

The Gilmore House aka The Airplane House

This house is classified as a prairie style home. Eugene A. Gilmore was a law professor at UW and had bought this parcel of land with the intentions of having another architect design him a home. After reading an essay written by Mr Wright, as well as an unsatisfactory design from his previous architect, Gilmore commissioned Wright to build him a home.

 

The first floor of the home includes a library, as well as a living & dinning room. 

 The second floor of the home has 4 bedrooms.

When we pulled up to the house I noted it was at kind of an angle, after reading into it later I found out Wright did that to create privacy (not uncommon with a Wright house) as well as to take advantage of the morning sun. 

This house was given the nickname "The Airplane House" because of the broad straight lines of the design.

Frank Lloyd Wright Trip #1- Walter Rundin House, Madison, WI

insert giant warning here-> I know my fingers are in all of these.. oops!

 

This is the Walter Rudin House, this is actually called a Erdman Prefab House. Marshall Erdman commissioned Wright to design him a house that can be put together in one location & assembled at another. When all was said & done Wright had actually made 2 designs for Mr. Erdman, named Erdman Prefab #1 & Erdman Prefab #2. The Rundin House is actually design #2.

 Research that I've done says that #2 was a square, 2 story home with a 2 story living room. The master bedroom, 1 bathroom, the workspace (aka the kitchen), and utility room were on the ground floor. The second floor had a balcony on two side, 3 bedrooms and a second bathroom.

Because I went in the spring there was not much growing (it gave me a good view of the house), but I guessing the wooded area is beautiful when during the summer.

Frank Lloyd Wright Trip #1- Unitarian Meeting House, Madison, WI

Now that college is over I have time to do the Frank Lloyd Wright road trips I've been dreaming of! It started out being a trip to Madison to meet up with my aunt & uncle to go the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum, and we ended up seen half a dozen Wright buildings! :)

This one is known as the Unitarian Meeting House in Madison. Wright was commissioned to build the meeting house in 1946. Wright constructed the meeting house using native stones, wood, glass and copper. In order to cut cost member of the church hauled the limestone from a local quarry. Wright agreed to take on this project with minimal fees and even aided in fund raising for the building by giving 2 benefit lectures.

This red block is know as a Signature Tile. From what I'm told there are only a handful of buildings that Wright decided to place these on. It is said that Wright received them as a gift from one of his apprentices mothers & decided to distribute them to only his favorite buildings.  The Unitarian Meeting House is one of them, another is Cedar Rock in Iowa (I was actually lucky enough to give tours at this house for 1 summer, and that is where I got my information about the tiles)

These pews are kind of unique, they are hinged at the seat and can be folded down & moved to create more room. When I looked at them I noticed that they are made of veneered plywood (like the chairs at Cedar Rock), I was told Wright like to use the plywood because it was inexpensive & he like the way it looked with the veneer. 

 Wright was said to design the front of the building in this manner to give it the outline of hands folded in prayer.

When we were there they had not started the touring season yet, so hopefully on road trip 2 I get get the full tour :)

My First Entry

I had to make this for my webdesign class. But who knows, maybe I'll actually use it!