[HN Gopher] "Final Usonian Home" by Frank Lloyd Wright Completed...
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"Final Usonian Home" by Frank Lloyd Wright Completed in Ohio
Author : rmason
Score : 59 points
Date : 2025-04-07 21:50 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.dezeen.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.dezeen.com)
| avonmach wrote:
| This is awesome, they do tours of one of his houses near me,
| thanks for sharing
| Loughla wrote:
| The houses he built are always very pretty, but they are just
| really fancy Brady bunch houses to my eye.
| brudgers wrote:
| _The house has received pushback from official Frank Lloyd Wright
| organisations such as the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation (The
| Foundation) and the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conversancy_
|
| From a practical standpoint this usually means that if you put
| this house in a publication about Wright, the Foundation and
| Conservancy will deny you use of their archival material and
| photographic access to their sites.
|
| Their behavior is why you rarely see Wrights work at Florida
| Southern College in books on Wright despite Florida Southern
| being the largest collection of Wright designed buildings
| anywhere, one of a few examples of his commercial work,
| absolutely amazing designs, and actually in ordinary use...worth
| a visit if you are passing by Lakeland on I4.
| ryandrake wrote:
| I was wondering if there was some practical, legalese reason
| for this "pushback." It seems that whenever someone tries to
| faithfully deliver on some other artist's vision, the original
| artist's foundation or estate or representatives will always
| chime in to say something like "Well, we disavow this work and
| it has nothing to do with the actual artist!" No matter how
| much love, care, and attention to detail in the derivative
| work. Happens a lot when a movie is based on a book. The
| adaptation is never good enough.
| brudgers wrote:
| Typically this type of organization exists to protect the
| "brand" in the interests of heirs...for example, https://shop
| .franklloydwright.org/?_gl=1*fsfezc*_gcl_au*NTk1.....
| dfxm12 wrote:
| _whenever someone tries to faithfully deliver on some other
| artist 's vision_
|
| "Trying" is not a meaningful bar to clear. Love or care
| doesn't matter, either. According to the article, the
| foundation says that the building is simply not built to
| Wright's spec, which is an objective measure.
|
| The owners don't outright deny this, using a handful of of
| qualifiers in response: "true to Wright's plan, _intent and
| spirit while also ensuring that the home would meet current
| building regulations. "_
|
| Saying your house was designed by a famous architect,
| especially one the stature of Wright brings a value and
| prestige that is worth claiming, like any other brand. On the
| flip side, if you own the brand, it is worth protecting from
| knock offs.
| brudgers wrote:
| _meet current building regulations_
|
| This is a synonym for "the worst construction allowed by
| law."
|
| If it wasn't designed to meet current building regulations,
| the construction would be illegal.
| gavinsyancey wrote:
| That said, building code changes over time, and even if
| Wright's original design met building code at the time it
| was designed, it likely doesn't meet current building
| regulations. I.e. it would be illegal to build exactly to
| the original design, or at least if you did it would be
| illegal to use the building.
| masfuerte wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_of_the_Sun#Gallery
| wnissen wrote:
| I'm curious what, specifically, the foundation claims is contrary
| to the plans. It's not like Wright himself built the houses (or
| did the drawings, for that matter). There's always been a process
| of modification when the contractor gets onsite and builds
| something. When Wright was alive he (or his secretary) would
| review pictures of the the resulting home and award a glazed red
| tile with Wright's signature engraved. That was the official
| recognition that you had a Frank Lloyd Wright home. Perhaps with
| all the litigation (such as with the Jean-Michel Basquiat
| authentication committee) the foundation is scared to get
| involved.
|
| I saw Riverrock over Christmas when it was 95% complete, and it
| does look really cool. Similar in a lot of ways, especially the
| living room, but quite a different floor plan. I hope the doors
| are a bit wider than the Louis Penfield house on the same site;
| even folks of normal width have to rotate sideways. Toilet in a
| narrow alcove, narrow cushions on the furniture, etc. Absolute
| commitment to design integrity, not always comfortable. Still a
| fascinating place to stay.
| Carrok wrote:
| > There's always been a process of modification when the
| contractor gets onsite and builds something.
|
| And famously, like in the case of Fallingwater among others I
| believe, he forced contractors to remove supports that the
| contractors deemed structurally necessary and had added,
| against his designs. In one case at least the contractors
| refused and Wright himself took a sledge hammer to them
| personally. At least that's what I was told by the tour guide.
| TylerE wrote:
| Worth pointing out that Wrogjt was usually wrong on such
| matters. Fallingeater is structurally comprised and has
| required substantial repairs over the years.
| Carrok wrote:
| I don't know if "usually" is fair. "Sometimes" sure.
|
| TBF what I'm referring to was not part of the building
| itself and not in need of repairs. It was a walkway area.
| dwater wrote:
| I've always found Wright's work beautiful and was a fan
| for some time, but after reading more about his life and
| work, and happening to visit Fallingwater on a very rainy
| day, my opinion has changed. His buildings are beautiful
| art pieces but they are not good homes. He was too
| cantankerous and self-righteous to accommodate the
| reality that a home needs to be maintained and changed
| over the years if it will continue to be functional.
| IAmBroom wrote:
| ... because, according to the engineering firm that
| reviewed the original design blueprints in this millenium,
| Wright's specifications for extra steel rebar in the cement
| were ignored by the contractors. In their opinion/analysis,
| the house would not have needed such repairs were it built
| to his spec in the first place.
| Animats wrote:
| Usonian homes were supposed to be for "middle income" people.
| What did this one cost?
|
| Of course it would need some structural improvements. Wright had
| some problems on the structural engineering side. Fallingwater is
| currently getting major structural upgrading.[1] There are
| arguments about whom to blame in the original construction, but
| it's clear that the aggressive cantilevered design didn't have
| enough safety margin.
|
| [1] https://www.architecturelab.net/fallingwater-
| undergoes-7-mil...
| themaninthedark wrote:
| I too would be interested in knowing cost.
|
| There is another comment that says that the contractor for
| Falling Water didn't follow design and include extra cement and
| rebar. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43621995
|
| I don't know how I feel about the Wright organization's
| pushback; on one hand this was built in 2025, well after
| Wright's death abet to original prints(with only non-visible
| modifications due to code) so I would not be willing to call it
| a Wright house based on that.
|
| However; if it is true to design, as much as possible(which
| happens in current builds too), then it is a Wright house.
|
| On the third hand, I think Wright would not agree... I remember
| hearing stories of him going into houses he built and
| rearranging the rooms back to how he had set them up. So
| perhaps they are doing what he would do?
| nothercastle wrote:
| Beautiful and completely unlivable like most architecture works
| Telemakhos wrote:
| What makes it unlivable to you?
|
| I did notice the lack of curtains or drapes on the bedroom,
| which would make it hard to sleep in the summer at a high
| latitude.
| crote wrote:
| Why do you believe so?
|
| Looking at some virtual tours, it seems to be a fairly solid
| design. I would probably disagree with a bunch of the
| furniture, but the architecture itself is fairly close to what
| I would expect in my ideal home.
| defrost wrote:
| Of etymological interest: The word Usonian
| appears to have been coined by James Duff Law, a Scottish writer
| born in 1865. In a miscellaneous collection, Here and
| There in Two Hemispheres (1903), Law quoted a letter of his own
| (dated June 18, 1903) that begins "We of the United States, in
| justice to Canadians and Mexicans, have no right to use the title
| 'Americans' when referring to matters pertaining exclusively to
| ourselves." He went on to acknowledge that some author
| had proposed "Usona" (United States of North America), but that
| he preferred the form "Usonia" (United States of North
| Independent America).
|
| ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usonia
| Pxtl wrote:
| I don't get the need to make Usonian an acronym. Either way,
| it's too bad the nomenclature got stuck in Wright's little cul-
| de-sac instead of being more widespread, I think all of the
| nations of the Americas would be ecstatic to have the word
| "America" and "American" back.
| badc0ffee wrote:
| This seems especially true in South America, in Argentina for
| example.
|
| But, not here in Canada for some reason. We are fine with
| terms like "North America" and "the Americas" being distinct
| from America.
| jamincan wrote:
| @dang Surely this is mistakenly flagged? This is interesting and
| hardly seems controversial or inflammatory.
| jmclnx wrote:
| What Beautiful a House. I wonder if any of his Usonian designs
| are still being built these days.
|
| Edit: Just found the reference and I need to learn to read :) So
| yes is my answer
| Pxtl wrote:
| It's beautiful, but fundamentally I've always found Wright's
| Usonian ideal - the US population living in rear-facing cottages
| in the forest - to be repulsive.
|
| I like forests. That's why I think they should be protected, and
| the best way to protect them is to not smear the entire
| population across them like very fine jam and carve infinite
| roads through them to provide them with transportation and
| government services like garbage collection.
|
| The idea of presenting a bare facade to the street and turning
| the front entrance inward only makes this vision even more
| antisocial.
|
| The man could make beautiful things but the planning principles
| needed to provide that beauty were fundamentally ugly.
| dylan604 wrote:
| "According to Dykstra, who served as a general contractor on the
| project with her mother Debbie, the three-bedroom, two-bedroom
| house in Willoughby Hills, Ohio was built using plans of Wright's
| Usonian called Project #5909, or Riverrock."
|
| Assuming 2-bathroom house? Why oh why has editorial review just
| become such a joke? This seems like such an obvious thing to
| catch.
| eszed wrote:
| Ha! I read right past that - and in your quote, too - with my
| brain filling in the expected "bathroom" instead of what's
| written. Few publications - and probably few primarily for the
| web - get _New Yorker_ -level copy-editor attention.
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