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.