Proposed Layout Strategy

I have specifically chosen to document the neighbouring buildings that lie on the same street as the Wright Usonian projects (as opposed to just any adjacent building) so that their addresses might be used as a connective device.

By laying out the images on a single sheet in address order, with the address numbers indexing each image, and by including the street name in the title of each piece, the connection between the buildings is revealed in a relatively didactic manner that minimizes visual clutter.

Examples of possible layouts for each of the locations explored so far, with their proposed titles, are shown below. Note that all sheets would be the same height. Click to enlarge.


Toepfer Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin (Jacobs First Residence)

Skieway Road, Los Angeles, California (Sturges Residence)


Adams Street, Two Rivers, Wisconsin (Schwartz Residence)

Glencoe Way, Los Angeles, California (Freeman Residence)

Jacobs First Residence, 1936

See the Yukio Futagawa post below for scans of other contemporary images of this building.

George Sturges Residence, 1939

See the Julius Shulman and the Pedro Guerrero posts below for scans of historic images of this building.

Bernard Schwartz Residence, 1941

The Bernard Schwartz Residence is of particular interest as its origins can be traced back to a Life Magazine article from September 26, 1938 entitled "8 Homes For Modern Living." See the Guerrero post for a scan of a historic image of this building (note the similar vantage point employed below).


Luke and I were fortunate enough to spend two nights living in the Schwartz Residence late in our trip, permitting extensive documention in several different light conditions. Shown below are two options for each of the buildings documented.

Harriet and Samuel Freeman Residence, 1921

See the Julius Shulman post for a scan of this historic image, which was on display on an easel when we visited the Freeman Residence with Ken Breich, Director of the USC Historic Preservation program (the current owners of the building).

As the Freeman Residence is in quite poor condition and is under restoration, photographs of the building will have a different effect then the others - perhaps this project is best left out? The juxtaposition of the caretakers BBQ and the recognizable form of this architectural landmark is of interest to me - perhaps this project can exist as a visual foil to the others.

Museum of Contemporary Photography - Beyond the Backyard

Museum of Contemporary Photography - Beyond the Backyard

I was fortunate enough to view this show on its opening day in Chicago, IL. To be discussed further pending research into contemporary artists of particular interest - most specifically Bill Owens.

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Resonant passages from the show catalogue:

"Starting shortly after World War II, however, the nation experienced a second, more dramatic suburban expansion, and during this period the backyard's role shifted from being a decorative backdrop to a place integrated with daily life."

Wright's Usonian residences broke from the norm by prioritizing backyard space - the backyard usual acted as the focal point for the glazed side of the building.

"Bill Owens completed a groundbreaking study of suburban living in Livermore, California . . . . In the end, though, Owen's photographs, while exuberant and largely optimistic, reveal a deadpan sense of humor and an occasionally confounding mix of empathy and irony: what first appears as an ideal can take on tarnished or even farcical manifestations."

Pedro Guerrero - Picturing Wright: An Album from Frank Lloyd Wright's Photographer

Pedro Guerrero - Picturing Wright: An Album from Frank Lloyd Wright's Photographer

Lee Friedlander - Sticks & Stones: Architectural America

Lee Friedlander - Sticks & Stones: Architectural America

A resonant statement from the introductory essay by James Enyeart:

"Whether he's representing modest vernacular buildings or monumental skyscrapers, Friedlander liberates them from our preconceived notions and gives us a new way of looking at our surrounding environment"

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Perhaps less related. Friedlander's compositions are more abstract, less spare, more formal and ultimately, for me, less satisfying. Provides a visual link between the formal compositional strategies of the architectural photographers (which I believe typifies my style) and the content-and-collection driven strategy of Shore.

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Stephen Shore - American Surfaces

Stephen Shore - American Surfaces

Stephen Shore was a new and important discovery for me during the trip.

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Resonant passages from the introductory essay by Bob Nickas:

"The pictures in American Surfaces, taken over a twenty-two month period between 1972 and 1973, were not published in book form until 1999. That book, now out of print, comprises 77 plates, none of which is identified by location or date . . . . Here, with 312 plates, identified by city, month, and year, we are able to trace the artist's journey, to vicariously inhabit his everything/everyone mind, from beginning to end."

"The urban and commercial sprawl of the mid-to-late 1970s/early 1980s would threaten to envelop America in a dulling sameness, depriving much of the country of its distinct character and its people of their sense of place. This is, in part, what Shore hoped to, and did, capture."

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Shore's route, from NYC to Maryland. through the Carolinas the the South and then the Southwest, and finally towards Oklahoma City and Chicago, covers much of the same territory as our trip. While Shore's imagery featured much more than just buildings, his simple, frontal compositional style when targeting vernacular buildings resonates with mine. Plus, I'm in love with Kodachrome colour.

Julius Shulman - A Constructed View: The Architectural Photography of Julius Shulman

A Constructed View: The Architectural Photography of Julius Shulman

Shulman is perhaps second only to Ezra Stoller in the annals of modern architectural photography in America, having documented Jon Entenza's Case Study project for Arts and Architecture magazine. He also shot many of Wright's west coast projects.

Yukio Futagawa - Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian Homes

Yukio Futagawa - Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian Homes

In The Beginning, There Was Man-Venture

In search of Usonia, Luke Stern and I set out on a six-week, 18,000km road trip in May and June of 2008.

Significant organized visits included:

-Los Angeles: Hollyhock, Freeman and Ennis Residences, as well as Eric Wright's home under construction, and meetings with Martin Weil, an FLW restoration architect and Melvin Green, an FLW restoration engineer
-Palo Alto, CA: Hanna Residence
-Bartlesville, OK: Price Tower
-Florence, AL: Rosenbaum Residence
-Washington, DC: Pope Residence
-Western Pennsylvania: Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob
-Detroit: Turkel Residence
-Okemos, MI: Goetsch/Winckler Residence
-Chicago: Robie House
-Racine, WI: Johnson Wax Headquarters
-Madison, WI: Jacobs I and Jacobs II Residences
-Two Rivers, WI: Schwartz Residence

We were also able to informally view the exterior of an equal number of additional FLW buildings, including the fabulous Price Residence in Paradise Valley, AZ; the dramatically cantilevered Sturges Residence in Brentwood, CA; the elegant Millard Residence in Pasadena, CA; the Affleck and Smith Residences in Bloomfield Hills, MI; the Galesburg and Parkwyn communities in suburban Lansing, MI; a series of American System Built homes in Milwaukee, and a pair of Erdman Pre-fabricated designed by Wright in Madison, WI.

A review of our travel blog is a recommended first stop, as it provides the experiential context for this project. Specific "Usonian" locations featured on the blog include:

Taliesin West, Scottsdale AZLykes, Adelman and Boomer Residences, Paradise Valley AZ
Jester Residence (at Taliesin West), Scottsdale AZ
Freeman and Hollyhock Residences, Los Angeles CA
Price Tower, Bartlesville OK
Rosenbaum Residence, Florence AL
Kentuck Knob, Mill Run PA
Weltzheimer-Johnson Residence, Oberlin OH
Goetsch-Winckler Residence, Okemos MI
Johnson Wax Headquarters, Racine WI
Taliesin, Spring Green WI

The Proposal