The Bach House Usonian architecture?
Usonian is an abbriviation of USONA. The United States of North America

It was the home of the "common person"

Frank Lloyd Wright always had a passion for urban life.

In the 1950s, when he was in his '80s, Frank Lloyd Wright first used the term Usonian Automatic to describe a Usonian style house made of inexpensive concrete blocks. The three-inch-thick modular blocks could be assembled in a variety of ways and secured with steel rods and grout. Frank Lloyd Wright hoped that home buyers would save money by building their own Usonian Automatic houses. But assembling the modular parts proved complicated - most buyers hired pros to construct their Usonian houses

The Bach House Pre-Usonian style transcending Frank Lloyd Wright Architect. (c1915) N. Sheridan Rd. Rogers Park, Chicago IL.

RiCO

The floors had pipes that raidiated heat.


RiCO

These houses were made with materials that saved cost.


RiCO

The Usonian architecture was derived from the Prairie Style.

RiCO

RiCO --

Hi. Thanks for posting the images of the Bach house (c. 1915). It's a beautiful example of Prairie Style architecture, but I don't think it was Usonian which came a good 20 years later.

The entire Usonian concept was essentially the first "green" architecture. Wright was interested in cost-effective construction and energy usage as well as beautiful design for the middle class. It was hugely influential but cost much more to build than intended ... certainly more than most ordinary people could afford.

Here's a link to the Gordon House, which has been preserved in the Oregon Garden. The house was originally designed for its location on a bluff overlooking the Willamette River. In the late 1990s, some bonehead decided to demolish it so he could build a McMansion. Thank heavens it was moved and restored.

R.

Hi RiKKI,
Thanks for the discussion. Usonian derived from Prairie Style ("organic architecture"). Off of the top of my head the Usonian (coined by Wright in the 1930's and in the 50's Usonian Automatic") concept was conceived many years ealiar featured in some lady's journal "fire proof design" and came to life later.

Frank Lloyd Wright had many versions of these designs (engineering concepts)on a "back burner" sort to speak already drew up.

Also Emil Bach admired Frank Lloyd Wright homes.

Emil Bach House
Emil Bach co owner of the Bach Brick company is classified by Chicago Landmark status as a transitional period. Pre- "Usonian"?



RiCO

Ah, the Ladies Home Journal articles in 1901 is what you're referring too, right? That is, the small houses for the American middle class that he had had on the backburner (as you put it) for years?

I think we can agree that FLW was a brilliant designer and that his work after about 1910 was coasting (personal upheavals distracted him at the same time he was moving toward new design concepts) until 1915 when he built the Bach and Sherman Booth houses, which both revealed the direction he was headed.

I would still call them late Prairie. Transitional is such a mushy term that really doesn't mean much except to say "this is in flux". The Bach house seems much more similar to the Mrs. Thomas Gale house (1909) than to the Gordon Usonian house, which was as much about the social milieu during the 30s as about architecture.

Just one of my many opinions ... none of which are cast in granite.

R.

Perfect!

Frank Lloyd Wright through time perfected his art and many engineering concepts. He had many designs for many uses. And in the 30's perfected these designs and engineering concepts with the help of others.

Bach House c1915 Pre- Usonian?

RiCO

RiCO --

I just found a reference to a 1907 article that he wrote in the 1907 LHJ for a $5000 fireproof house. Have you read this? Just curious -- I'd love to get hold of it myself.

R.

BTW, since you are obviously a huge fan, maybe you have some books that you have found to be particularly useful in studying FLW?

R.

Bach House c1915


RiCO

Hi Rikki,

Well, I grew up in Hyde Park, Chicago, IL just off the University Of Chicago campus as a child where Frank Lloyd masterpiece Prairie Style, Robie house exist and among many other Frank Lloyd Wright designed homes. I have taken many tours as a child on 'field trips' of the Robie house so I'm well versed in The masterpiece Prairie Style.

I'm here in Edgewater Beach, Chicago, IL
as a succesful adult where alot of Wright's and the Prairie School of Architecture structures exist, and there is a wealth of information here that I'm sharing with the forum in the form of research, meaning books read and documentary seen or read, and research on the internet.

Currently I'm reading Franklin Toker's "Falling Water Rising" which so far is an excellent book! Highly recomended!.... And you Rikki? or anybody else?



RiCO

RiCO --

Thanks for the recommendation. I've put it on my Amazon shopping list. It's received excellent reviews and sounds like the perfect way to while away a winter's eve.

I have to confess that the last book I read about Wright was William Drennan's "Death in a Prairie House" about the murder of Mamah Borthwick Cheney at Taliesin in 1914. Hardly the stuff of die-hard architecture lovers, it was still an interesting read and delves into events preceding the murders and its effect on Wright and his subsequent productivity.

R.