Goetsch–Winckler House

Edit links
Coordinates: 42°42′29″N 84°26′21″W / 42.70806°N 84.43917°W / 42.70806; -84.43917
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Goetsch–Winckler House
Usonian
NRHP reference No.95001423[1]
Added to NRHP12/13/1995

The Goetsch–Winckler House (also known as Goetsch–Winkler House) is a building that was designed by

Usonian architectural style, and it is considered to be one of the most elegant.[2]
The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995 and is #95001423.

History

In the 1930s eight professors from Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, formed a co-op and bought a 40-acre (16 ha)[3] tract of land in neighboring Okemos.[4] Two of them, Alma Goetsch and Kathrine Winckler (or Winkler), approached Wright asking him to design a community for them.[4] Wright's concept, derived from the Broadacre City plan, was to be known as Usonia I.[4] The community was to consist of seven houses and a caretaker's cottage surrounding a common farm, orchard, and fish pond.[4] Access to the houses was by a U-shaped road around the farm, with each house at the end of a long driveway and each with a private garden.[3] Although the design of each house varied, they did share common features such as flat roofs, accentuated horizontal lines, and simple massing.[5] Due to lack of financing, the project collapsed, and only the Goetsch–Winckler House was built[4] on a different site.[3]

After World War II, Wright designed houses separately for several other co-op members, although the only design that was built was for Erling P. Brauner,[3] also in Okemos, less than a mile and a half from Goetsch–Winckler House.[6]

Design

One of Wright's earliest Usonian homes,[7] at 1,350 sq ft (125 m2) the house is an "in-line Usonian", literally a house built in a straight line.[4] The carport, living room, dining room, kitchen and bedrooms all form rectangular spaces that slide past each other.[5] The living room takes up most of the house, with a chimney at one end in front of a workspace.[4] At the opposite end, two bedrooms, separated by a bathroom, open out on to a veranda.[4] The workspace exemplifies the Usonian interior, with its clerestory windows supplementing a bank of full length casement windows on the adjacent wall.[5] Despite its small size the house seems large due to built-in furniture and shelves.[5] Built-ins include the dining room table, a seat by the fireplace, a bar, a desk and bookcase in the workspace, as well as numerous storage spaces.[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. ^ Brendan Gill, Many Masks, p.406, Da Capo Press; 1998.
  3. ^ a b c d Robert C. Twombly, Frank Lloyd Wright: His Life and His Architecture, p.263-265, Wiley-Interscience; 1987.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Caroline Knight, Frank Lloyd Wright, p. 158, Parragon; 2004.
  5. ^ a b c d Leland M. Roth, American Architecture: A History, p.388, Westview Press; 2003.
  6. ^ "Suggested travel path between Brauner Residence and Goetsch–Winckler House". Google Maps. Google Maps. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
  7. ^ "PrairieMod.com". Archived from the original on 2011-07-15. Retrieved 2009-09-28.
  8. ^ Charles Willard Moore, Gerald Allen, Donlyn Lyndon, The Place Of Houses, p.176, University of California Press; 2001.
  • Storrer, William Allin. The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion. University Of Chicago Press, 2006,
    ISBN 0-226-77621-2
    (S.269)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Goetsch-Winckler House.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Goetsch–Winckler_House&oldid=1166678067"