SUMMARY INFORI COMMISSION ON CHICAGO LANDMARKS Peter C. B. Bynoe, Chairman Joseph A. Gonzalez, Vice Chairman Thomas E. Gray, Secretary John W. Baird Kein L. Burton Marian Despres Albert M. Friedman Valerie B. Jarrett Seymour Persky "RAN M-BU El>_ IGHTi 10410 and 10541 South Hoyne Avenue SUBMITTED TO THE COMMISSION ON CHICAGO LANDMARKS DECEMBER 1,1993 320 North Clark Street, Room 516, Chicago, Illinois 60610 312-744-3200; 744-2958 (TDD) City of Chicago Richard M. Daley, Mayor Department of Planning and Development Valerie B. Jarrett, Commissioner The Commission on Chicago Landmarks was established in 1 968 by city ordinance and given the responsibility of recommending to the City Council that specific landmarks be preserved and protected by law. The ordinance states that the Commission, whose nine members are appointed by the Mayor, can recommend any area, building, structure, work of art, or other object that has sufficient historical, community, or aesthetic value. Once the City Council acts on the Commission's recommendation and designates a Chicago Landmark, the ordinance provides for the preservation, protection, enhancement, rehabilitation, and perpetuation of that landmark. The Commission assists by carefully reviewing all applications for building permits pertaining to the designated Chicago Landmark. This ensures that any proposed alteration does not detract from the qualities that caused the landmark to be designated. The Commission makes its recommendation to the City Council only after extensive study. This preliminary summary of information, which summarizes the historical and architectural background and significance of the proposed landmark, has been prepared by the staff and submitted to the Commission. The report should be regarded solely as a preliminary document. It is subject to possible revision and amendment during the designation proceedings. Only language contained within the Commission's recommendation to the City Council should be regarded as final. COVER: A drawing and title bbdc from the promotional Sterature for American System-Buih Houses. The house shown is of a similar scale and design to the two houses budt in Chicogo in 1 91 7. FRONTISPIECE: Advertisement from the Chicogo Tribune, July 8, 1 91 7. Contents Introduction 1 Chicago's Two American System-Built Houses 2 Frank Lloyd Wright 8 Epilogue: Success from Failure 17 Appendices Criteria for Designation 21 Selected Bibliography 23 Acknowledgments 24 £bb e Karae at n r.ft !»tt this uanow or tf«« MS W (wraMMJ » t&nltt. T»* «.- f** S«aw »« wi iift [il if. J» |[»i Aaxrfan "*T*»S =ct sa&rrats! that *s tooriaa Sons: '^S^i** <«fc k» lifts Kit/*, tic? ttr ta^isj :«?&£*- " "*0W «r.K-^ «! la.u» &ou& iaaafc Bit! •^aidoaiu fay ^j nw il ^t piis* «ci* ouca a SBS & Disti nctly American j j|* . n J ii ■*!., m . w ■ n i lim n- 3©:': . 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'*"■■■ »i ■ 11*1— ,' : tocM..wwB«rrA , nvo orwi xw«cA?«;WMr»ii3C comtany - i * x~* imi ft ii t_ \ □ n.tr rHklwMt «* • x£-f£i?» Frank Uoyd Wrighfs American System-BuiH Houses Burhans-EllinwcxxJ & Co. Model House 10410 S. Hoyne Ave. Chicago, Illinois H. Howard Hyde House 10541 S. Hoyne Ave. Chicago, imois Date: Architect: 1917 Frank Uoyd Wright In the years preceding America's entry into World War I, the real estate pages of Chicago's newspapers became a major resource for city dwellers seeking to follow the "American dream" by building homes for their families. Every Sunday, large display advertisements vied for the attention of potential home- owners with offers of lots in outlying subdivisions and a variety of "build-to-suit" houses to meet any budget. Early in 1917, a particularly eye-catching series began to appear showing houses unlike the bungalows usually offered. Each was accompanied by seductively worded copy offering fine design and high ideals: Than't a bright, ch—rful horn* waffing for your family and you. A bettor horn*. B«H»r bulk, axcelltntiy planned, far mon livable. Man beautiful? Yes it will have that rare thing - genuine architectural beauty - designed by a leader of architects. You select your plan. It is bulk to your order - your own. Designed by America's great creative architect, Frank Uoyd V/right. Constructed by a system that guarantees a high grade building and a known price - no extras. In short, an AMERICAN HOME. Locator Map Ads like this, which were written by copywriter-turned- novelist Sherwood Anderson, were typical of those used to promote American System-Built Houses, a remark- able, but short-lived enterprise that offered a series of Frank Uoyd Wright-designed houses to the public at an affordable cost. After revolutionizing American residential architecture with his innovative custom-designed "prairie houses" at the tum-of-the-century, Wright was commissioned by the Richards Company of Milwaukee to produce a series of standardized designs that could be purchased and erected anywhere in the country. Potential homeowners could choose from a catalogue of Wright designs of varying cost and size. According to the manufacturer's claims, savings were afforded by the fact that all elements of the building, including wood studs, millwork, and trim were pre-cut to size using mass production factory methods, eliminating the need for costly, labor-intensive carpentry work at the building site and architect's fees. Chicago is fortunate to have two excellent examples of the American System-Built Houses. Of the handful of houses erected throughout the Midwest, only two are known have been built in the city before the United States entry into World War I ended the project. The Chicago houses are in a fine state of preservation and document a significant and overlooked aspect of Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural career. As individual buildings, they are in themselves important examples of Wright's contributions to international architectural development. The American System-Built Houses represent a major step in Frank Lloyd Wright's lifelong experiments in the use of machine-produced, standardized materials to create quality, affordable housing. Despite its potential, the American System-Built Houses enterprise was not a commercial success. Had the scheme caught on, the typical "Chicago Bungalow" potentially could have been a Frank Lloyd Wright design. Chicago's American System- Built Hoeses The Chicago American System-Built Houses were erected in 191 7 as part of a speculative subdivision developed in the far southwest neighborhood of Beverly. Sited a block apart in a subdivision known as "Ridge Homes," the houses constitute two of the best and most intact examples of American System-Built Houses in the country. Promoted in 1917 by the real estate firm of Burhans-Ellinwood & Company, Ridge Homes was one of many speculative subdivisions developed after the Chicago city limits embraced the far southwest side the early twentieth century. Like other subdivisions of the period, Ridge Homes offered city dwellers the suburban ideal of generous lots and convenient access to downtown to Chicago via commuter railroad. Ridge Homes stood out from other subdivisions by offering prospective purchasers Wright-designed American System- Built Houses as a house-and-lot package deal, ensuring the architectural continuity and high quality of the development. Because the Ridge Homes development was marketed for the upper-middle class owners, the houses represented the larger and more expensive American System-Built designs. Both were two-story, three- bedroom houses costing approximately $6,000 each, not including the cost of the land. The collaboration between the developers of Ridge Homes and the promoters of American System- Built Houses may have been the result of a mutually advantageous promotional arrangement. Early in 1917, Bunhans-Ellinwood & Company began construction of a demonstration model house in the Ridge Homes development using one of the upper-priced designs in the American System- Built Houses catalogue. While serving as a model to attract potential purchasers to the Ridge Houses development, the house was also promi- nently featured in newspaper advertisements promoting American System-Built Houses. In addition to the model home, a Wright- designed American System-Built House was erected in Ridge Homes for H. Howard Hyde, a cashier for the downtown offices of International Harvester Company. Similar in size and cost to the model house, the Hyde House was built from a different design from the American System-Built Houses catalogue, reflecting the diversity of houses offered and a desire to vary the design of individual houses within the subdivision. The majority of the executed American System- Built Houses known to exist today throughout the Midwest are modest cottages, making the two upper- scale Chicago houses critical for the documentation of Wright's designs for the project. The houses also W. 1041* «T. m in* rr A map of the Ridge Homes subdivision in the Beverly neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. The two Wright houses are shown in block. complement the fragile chronology of Wright's architectural development in the Chicago metropolitan area, being among the few extant houses erected in the area after 1 909 when the architect left his residence and studio in Oak Park, linois. Burhans-EIIinwood & Company Model House 10410 S. HoyneAve. A rendering and brief description of the Burhans-EIIinwood & Company Model House first appeared in an advertisement for American System- Built Houses published in the Chicago Tribune on June 3, 1917. The rendering varies in design and detail from the actual working drawings and the executed building, suggesting that it was a preliminary study for this particular American System-Built Houses design. Although the rendering shows a reversal of orientation from the executed building, the ability to reverse floor v V f ; ) » The Burhons-Ettnwood & Company Model House incorporates on open-air automobile shelter, reflecting the growing importance of the automobile in the early twentieth century. plans was an integral part of the preparation of plans for prefabricated housing. To reverse a plan for specific sites, the drawings were simply blueprinted backwards, creating a reverse image. The building permit for the Model House was taken out on July 17, 191 7, and the building completed by December of the same year. Construction was undertaken by P.D. Diamond, who held the fran- chise for the erection of American System-Built Houses on the South Side of Chicago and suburban Hollywood. Although built as a demonstration house for Burhans- EIIinwood & Company's "Ridge Houses" development, actual ownership of the house was held by Diamond. The Richards Company encouraged the construction of demonstration houses by American System-Built Houses franchise holders; consequently, a mutually advantageous agreement may have been worked out between Diamond, the Richards Company, and the Ridge Homes developers in erecting the model house. The expansive appearance of the Model House belies the inherent simplicity of plan and footprint that made the design of American System-Built Houses adaptable for construction on unspecified sites. To permit flexible siting on confined urban lots, the principal rooms are planned within a contained rectangular volume, a solution used by Wright in earlier custom-designed urban houses such as the Heller House (1897) and Walser House (1903) in Chicago, and his prototypical design for "A Fireproof House for $5000" published in the Ladies Home Journal in 1 907. The monolithic massing of the main part of the house is broken on the streetfront by a slightly recessed, vertical window bay, complementing the strong horizontal emphasis of the broad eaved roofs. A wing asymmetrically extending from the north side of the house incorporates a second-floor sun porch enclosed by a continuous ribbon of casement windows. Below, an open-air automobile shelter acknowledged the developing importance of the automobile in American family life. A transitional first-floor projection at the juncture with the main house defines Wright's character- istic use of a side, rather than a front, entrance and visually carries the second-floor sun porch above. Structural support for the end of the porch wing is pro- vided by projecting vertical members set in from the corners, creating a complex abstraction of surface planes and structural expression. _L 2^ lAY* 4- 5eAoijid Flioi K A! « iET t — i J_ BID SiC 5- L~ , A T t^=, hllh i i!r spaum %2>2,££„ j tf!> 4 1 M *1 ■r-I 1. t SI EH in< ; ..■ *. 3 L r aaj Tf:r / 1 ' pot a y .(- 11,1 ■f- ■*\ ... ^ jtr ^£_ a '■. i 3| /i /*s : - 1 y/ BID y £EC ^_ i A f y . .1 1 lr*~* = il 1 PORCH |Gibu|nc| Flodr <"*5i '< ■ A ft ^ZIP 1BBR 6 fl 31WR _j \ A V i"^51 ''' ^F— ffit luULi-f I HLfl T Sttt V-i- — \rn\m. inmnfr -Li EMuif i ■""•rr 3f:^Jl i,jii uraid ■*1"Spl9S2S"r Lie al designs in the American System-Built Houses catalogue, the plan of the Burhans- Btnwood & Company Model House was laid out on a two-foot module, in order to efficiently use standard lumber sizes. An unusual detail used in both of the Chicago American System-Built houses is the incorporation of a shingled falsework chimney cover at the top of the roof. The economies of the American System-Built Houses only allowed for the construction of a narrow brick chimney at the center of the house. Consequently, Wright visually widened its dimensions with a shingled casing to suggest the broad chimneys used in his custom-designed houses. Emphasis on the central chimney stack was an important aspect of Wright's designs, as it represented a central design axis for the design of the exterior and interior. Principal rooms of the first floor are planned as interconnected spaces, flowing on axis with the central chimney stack. The living room extends the full width of the house, with access to the dining room through double doors to the right of the fireplace or through a central entrance hall. The second floor is planned for three family bedrooms and a servant's room. The building remains in an excellent state of preservation, and remains largely as originally built. m 1 f^iimi^m^y m* The arrangement of window openings and wood trim on tfie H. Howard Hyde House belies the block- like form of is mossing and plan. H. Howard Hyde House 10541 S. Hoyne Ave. The American System-Built House erected for H. Howard Hyde chronologically predates the construction of the Model House by nearly two months, the permit having been taken out by contractor P.D. Diamond on May 16, 1917. The Hyde House clearly demonstrates Wright's ability to "break the box" enclosing conventional residential architecture of the period. The faceted variety of the street facade is particularly ingenious given the fact that the building is nearly self-contained within a rigid rectangular exterior envelope. At the first floor, punctured openings for the living room and sunroom windows are combined with wood strips to create a horizontally expressed asymmetrical base. Comer windows at the second floor dissolve the rigidity of the overall massing and visually accentuate the projection of the roof eaves. The main entrance is concealed behind the projection of the front porch. Inside, the principal rooms of the first floor are arranged on axis around the central fireplace chimney stack. The second floor is planned for three bedrooms, each with generous corner windows that provide ample light and ventilation while leaving maximum wall space for the placement of furniture. Like the Model House, all exterior and interior trim is composed of flat strips of unprofiled lumber. The Hyde House incorporates Wright-designed leaded glass windows consisting of simple geometric patterns executed in zinc came and clear glass. Ornamental glass was offered as an optional feature in American System- Built Houses and was not used in the Model House. Special Wright-designed furniture was also offered as an optional package, but there is no evidence that either the Hyde House or Model House incorporated any freestanding furniture outside of the standard built-in cabinetry. The Hyde House remains in an excellent state of preservation both inside and out. An addition to the rear of the house which slightly expands the rooms to the east was executed in materials matching those of the original house, suggesting that the work was executed at an early date. Second Ftoor JA U^ i si BED ^ ? >\ t 1 'TV 1 j ^ , f —* s I :r /"»LJ " h ^ ll _ T> V ^^^ y \r 13 1 ttl \{ ^ -TJl jjasKTi BED s TTn i i 1 \y The plan of the H. Howard Hyde Residence is largely confined within a rectangular footprint yet embodies an open flow of space around the central chimney stock. FionkuVayd Wright wosSQyeorsoW at ihe time the American System-Butt Houses project was being actively promoted in 1 91 7. Frank Uoyd Wright and Hie American System- Built House Concept No single individual transformed twentieth- century American residential architecture more than Frank Lloyd Wright. A native of Wisconsin, Wright had little formal architectural training before coming to Chicago in 1 887 at the age of 20, where he eventually secured employment as a draftsman in the architectural office of Adler & Sullivan. Under the guidance of Louis H. Sullivan, Wright learned to approach the practice of architecture as a creative abstraction of a structure's function, environment, and technology, rather than relying upon accepted conventions and historical precedents. Eventually assuming the position of chief draftsman for the Adler & Sullivan office, Wright's responsibilities included supervision and design development for many of the firm's residential commis- sions. Establishing his own office in 1 893, residential commissions continued to be a brge part of Wright's professional practice until his death in 1 959. Popularly referred to as "prairie style," Wright's early twentieth-century residential designs represent an approach to architecture that defies stylistic categorization. Through his buildings and writings, Wright challenged and redefined traditional concepts of residential design and construction. At a time when typical American homes were planned as box-like shells containing a rigid honeycomb of individual rooms, Wright's houses embodied a flowing, humanly scaled complexity that reflected ideal living conditions rather than rigid enclosures. Traditional styles and design conventions were replaced by creative abstractions of function, site, materials, and technology, shaped to the requirements of each individual project. Instead of the superficial decorative detail found in typical houses, Wright's designs incorporated simple surfaces that enhanced the inherent nature of the materials used. An underlying theme in Wright's work was the creation of affordable, high-quality buildings using mass-production machine technologies. Unlike many contemporary critics who viewed machine technology as an inferior alternative to skilled hand-labor, Wright argued that the machine offered the potential for attain- ing even higher standards of utility, quality, and beauty. By recognizing the inherent nature of materials and their ability to be economically shaped and enhanced by mass production technologies, high standards of design and craftsmanship could be made available to all. "The machine is the normal tool of our civilization;" Wright once wrote, "Give it work that it can do well." The American Dream by Machine Frank Lloyd Wright was challenged throughout his career by the development of quality, economically priced housing for the American family. Early efforts included the Waller Apartments, a low income housing project developed on Chicago's west side in 1 895, and the publication of prototype house designs in the na- tionally circulated Ladies Home Journal magazine between 1901 and 1907. A significant number of Wright's executed designs demonstrated the ability to create above-average housing on a limited budget, many of which were given national exposure through publication in major architectural periodicals. The combining of Wright's ideals for affordable housing and machine production became a commercial reality through his association with Milwaukee contractor and businessman Arthur L. Richards, who previously established a successful career erecting small residential projects. In 1916, Richards and a group of investors formally organized The Richards Company as a business entity to manufacture and market a prefabri- cated housing system based on Wright's designs under the name "American System-Built Houses." The confidence of Richards and his investors in the viability of marketing Wright-designed houses represented an affirmation of Wright's architectural reputation. Even at the height of his architectural practice, only a minority of residential clients were will- ing to commission a Wright design instead of the traditional houses offered by the typical architect of the period. Although he was able to maintain a fairly pros- perous architectural practice prior to 1910, changing public tastes in the next decade reflected a growing preference for convention rather than creativity. Wright's professional career was further hampered by controversies in his personal life, which generated nationwide publicity for reasons other than his archi- tectural achievements. Under the sponsorship of the Richards Company, Wright's studio developed a wide range of stock designs, and a grouping of prototype houses and apartment buildings was completed in Milwaukee by Prior to establishing the American System-Built Houses project, Arthur L Richards operated a successful home-budding business in Milwaukee. This cartoon appeared in a 1 904 Milwaukee Sentinel article. mid-1 916. By the end of the year a full catalogue of prefabricated designs was made available through newspaper ads and promotional materials. At least two dozen designs for houses and small apartment buildings were initially offered, with prices ranging from $2,700 to $3,500 for "small homes" and between $5,000 to $1 00,000 for larger buildings. (These prices were about 1 0-20 percent Jess than the prices of an average new house of the period.) For his efforts, Wright received a royalty from the Richards Company for each building sold and other financial incentives. Sales and construction of American System-Built Houses were handled through a network of local representatives franchised by the Richards Company. Buyers of American System-Built Houses were provided the design, materials, and construction at a set package price. Unlike other prefabricated housing companies of the period, which allowed purchasers to assemble their own houses, American System-Built Houses could only be built by an authorized contractor. Under this arrangement, the purchaser of an American System- Built House could be assured of a quality building at a set price without the uncertainty of cost-overruns and the risk of poor quality construction. Own Your Own Home: Redefining Prefabricated Housing The inherent generic nature of prefabricated housing presented a challenge to Wright in developing u sS i j a m. .i aMi© .w %m if T<- Many firms produced catalogues of prefabricated housing merchandiser Sears, Roebuck & Company. Traditional designs advertisement for Sears houses are typical of the period. ;, including ihe gfcmt mo3 order those shown in this c 1910 10 the American System-Built designs. Unlike Wright's custom-designed projects which were created for spe- cific clients and site locations, the American System- Built designs needed to have broad public appeal and the ability to be built on a wide variety of site condi- tions. In a lecture given in 1916 to promote American System-Built Houses, Wright recalled his initial reservations about the project: 7Ji« idea back of the American System has been in my head for some years. I have guarded it carefully, I wanted time to think in quiet of how the idea might be brought to the public without injury to the integrity of my own art. In his approach to the American System-Built project, Wright sought to improve upon earlier experiments in mass produced housing. The concept of erecting economical houses from prefabricated parts had already been in wide practice for decades. In the early twentieth century, numerous firms, including the giant mail order firm of Sears Roebuck & Company, offered to sell all the necessary materials to erect an entire pre-planned houses using pre-cut-to-size materials. Execution of the houses nevertheless required considerable skilled labor in excavating, masonry, plastering, exterior stucco and other specialized trades. Few elements were pre-assembled in the factory, differ- ing from present-day "prefabricated" construction methods in which entire modular building sections are factory fabricated and shipped to the site already assembled. Although the American System-Built Houses project used similar production techniques, Wright's designs differed radically in design and construction quality. While other companies appealed to popular tastes by offering traditional houses in a variety of eclectic styles, Wright refused to compromise his ideals in developing the American System- Built designs. Like Wright's custom-designed houses, the buildings were intended to embrace an ideal living environment through abstractions of form, function and technology. Interior requirements shaped the exterior enclosure, with traditional definitions between interior and exterior dissolved by exterior walls integrated with broad ribbons of casement windows. Principal rooms were planned as flowing spaces, minimally divided by non-enclosing partitions. Wright's characteristic use of 11 «ftfcft«fflE p gggEgg g ' i i ■■ i To giide the assembly of the American System-Built Houses, Wright's office prepared floor plans, devotions, sections, framing diograms, and other details for each individual design in the catalogue. The examples above are for the design used in the Burhans-Eflinwood & Company Model House. 12 The pre-shaping of buikfing e l e m ents alowed many of the details of the American System-Buft Houses to incorporate intricately fitted joinery, achieving a degree of strength and quality not often possible 'm conventional on-site carpentry. simply treated natural materials was well-adapted to the inherent nature of prefabricated construction, providing American System-Built Houses with the same distinctive finishes seen in his custom works. Challenged to create quality buildings that could be sold at costs below typical houses of the period, Wright's designs were devised to maximize the use of machine-produced standardized materials. All American System-Built designs were of wood-frame construction, allowing the efficient factory production of standardized framing members and trim. Factory shaping of wood members allowed the fabrication of complex joinery details that normally could not be achieved using stan- dard on-site carpentry methods, giving American System-Built houses a greater degree of quality and structural stability over conventionally built houses. Each design was developed on the basis of a two-foot module to albw economical use of standard lumber sizes with minimum waste. The placement of walk, doors, and windows in multiples of a two-foot grid also allowed the factory to make simple modifica- tions to the standard plan if necessitated by client re- quests or site conditions. While Wright may have initially supervised some of these custom modifications, much of the revision work was probably carried out by the factory without his personal consultation. 13 Assembly of the finished buildings were guided by two types of drawings furnished by Wright's office. The principal set of drawings indicated the elevations, floor plans, sections, and framing diagrams that specifically related to the individual requirements of each individual building design. Construction details for wall sections, window and door framing, and other standard elements were provided on drawings that interchangeably applied to other design models offered in the American System-Built Houses catalogue. The use of standardized detail drawings significantly cut down the number of drawings that had to be prepared for the overall project, and allowed the efficient production of mass-produced elements for the entire catalogue of designs. To address the problem of creating buildings that would be adaptable for unspecified sites, American System-Built plans show a greater degree of self-containment within a rectangular volume in comparison to the complex massing and projecting extensions characteristic of Wright's custom-designed buildings. Where the designs incorporated projecting wings or sun-porches extending from the main massing of the building, the plans were often adaptable to allow the deletion of modification of these elements if required by specific site conditions. Selling the American Dream: Marketing of American System-Built Houses With the introduction of American System-Built Houses to the commercial marketplace, the Richards Company had to compete with the aggressive promotional campaigns of other prefabricated housing companies. In formulating its own advertising campaign, the Richards Company sought to market the advantages of the American System by emphasizing the ideology behind its design and construction, and putting a commercial value on the name and architectural reputation of Frank Lloyd Wright. Handsome renderings executed by Wright's office were prominently featured in advertisements and promotional materials, accompanied by persuasively written texts by noted American writer Sherwood Anderson. Employed as an anonymous copy writer for the Taylor, Critchfield, Clague Company, a Chicago advertising firm, Anderson was at the threshold of na- tionwide fame as the writer of novels and short stories. 14 His book, Winesburg, Ohio, was released two years later in 1919. The American System-Built Houses ad- vertisements reflect a breezy informality that was char- acteristic of his later fictional works. Not only was Anderson challenged to sell a wary American public on the advantages of the American System-Built designs, he also had to sell the reputation of Frank Lloyd Wright. Undoubtedly working in close collaboration with Wright, Anderson portrayed the superiority of the American System-Built projects in the form of an impassioned one-on-one sales pitch that conjured images of beauty, economy, and the American way of life. Ifs a crying shame when you come to think o{ it — that men, real men, in this big free land should live their lives in houses not equal to the peasant's cottages in Europe. But things are going to change now. The genius of a really great man has been brought into the building trade in America. Frank Uoyd Wright, the greatest architect America has known, h pouring his genius into creating this great AMERICAN SYSTEM of houses for the American people. We want you to see the models of these houses. We want you to understand how the genius of this man has made it possible for every home builder to build beautifully without spending more to achieve beauty than he now spends for senseless ugliness. Here is what Mr. Wright has done. As on American you ought to appreciate it. He has designed many types of houses, each of them beautiful beyond belief, and each susceptible of infinite variation, and has worked out the design of these designs so practically lnaf they can be built by ordinary labor under ordinary conditions at from 10% to 29% less cost (lion the ugly houses we have all been building so long. For all its lofty ideals and expectations, the American Systems-Built Houses project lasted for less than one year. The appearance of Anderson's illustrated advertisements in the Chicago Tribune were overshadowed by front page headlines announcing America's entry into World War I. Shortages in labor and materials and a general uncertainty over wartime conditions abruptly stifled a booming housing market. Further complications may have derived from strained relations between Wright and the Richards Company over payment of fees and royalties, as evidenced by The advertis in g copy for the American System- Built Houses was written by Sherwood Anderson, whose employment wSh a Chicago advertising agency preceded his subsequent fame as a distinguished author of novels and short stories. 15 LlCA m !IM#Mfefi9jSM ItRANI< LI • r D'*W SSQ&tf ftBBfe 0P . RAN K* LlOYD * wfe 1 H I S5, iOk^- 5 Promotiond Kterature was iustrated with elegant renderings by Wright assistant Anronin Raymond. The graphic style and wood engraving process used in the preparation of these materials reflect Wright's interest in Japanese prints. 16 court records in which Wright sought to recover $1,535 from the firm in August 1917. Less than 20 of the American System- Built designs are known to have been built throughout the Midwest. Ten were constructed in Milwaukee (six survive); two in Evanston; one in Wilmette; one in Monona, Iowa; and one in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Richards Co. records are presumed lost, and a search of Wright's archives has revealed no complete listing of executed buildings from the short-lived project. Epilogue: Success from Failure As the residential housing market diminished at the beginning of the war, Arthur L. Richards dissolved the network he had established for the manufacture and sale of American System-Built Houses. Even as the housing market began to recover in the post-war years, Richards' subsequent construction ventures were largely confined to small residential projects in the Milwaukee area. The post-war "prairie-style" houses erected by Richards showed continued confidence in Wright's architectural ideals, but the designs themselves were entrusted to Russell Barr Williamson, a former Wright assistant who had previously worked on the American System-Built project. As far as can be determined, all were built by traditional construction methods, without using prefabricated components. Ridge Homes Although located over a block apart, the Model Home and the Hyde House stood throughout the war years in clear view of each other, separated by broad expanses of land awaiting a community of Wright- designed houses that was never to come. By 1 920, the gradual revival of the housing market encouraged Burhans-Ellinwood & Company to resume development of the "Ridge Homes" subdivision. Without the availability of the Wright-designed American System-Built Houses, the architectural firm of Aroner & Bacon was commissioned to design a series of speculative brick homes along the 10400 and 10500 blocks of Hoyne Avenue. Although an attempt was made to reflect the character of the Wright-designed homes in several of the brick houses erected beginning 17 in 1 920, their overall character fell short of the ideals of the earlier development. Being of no further use as a demonstration model house, the Wright-designed Burhans-Ellinwood & Company Model House was sold in 1 920 to Guy C. Smith, an economist with Swift & Company. Subsequent houses erected along Hoyne Avenue in the 1 920s displayed a variety of traditional historicized treatments, forever disrupting the architectural continuity originally envisioned for Ridge Homes. Wright's Influence on Twentieth Century Domestic Architecture For Frank Lloyd Wright, the years following the American System-Built Houses project were successful from a creative standpoint but difficult in terms of his architectural practice. Although he produced major projects like Tokyo's Imperial Hotel and the Hollyhock House and an innovative series of concrete-block houses in the Los Angeles area, Wright experienced a continued decline in commissions and professional recognition throughout the 1 920s and eariy 30s. With a lack of commissions to occupy his time, Wright spent much of his time writing architectural essays, the most famous being the continuing series "In the Cause of Architecture," published in the Architectural Record throughout the 1 920s. In an installment entitled Many aspects of tie design of the ubiquitous "Chicago bungalow" are Wright influences: overhanging hipped roofs, crisp fines, and art glass windows. Above, a design by the Radford Company, one of the largest suppliers of stock designs in the 1920s. 18 The Logic of the Plan," published in January 1 928, Wright included one of the American System-Built plans as an example of designing on a modular grid, noting the use of a two-foot spacing to "economize lumber." Despite his lack of recognition during this period, the influence of Wright's buildings and writings had firmly infiltrated into the mainstream of American architecture. Few buildings erected in the 1 920s and beyond could not acknowledge some sort of debt to the liberating innovations of form, plan, and technology developed by Wright over the preceding decades. Ironically, even the architects of traditional buildings found themselves assimilating aspects of Wright's innovations into their designs, while others creatively expanded his visions in new directions. Even the ubiquitous brick "Chicago bungalows" erected throughout the city's neighborhoods in the 1 920s owed their distinctive crisp lines, overhanging hipped roofs, and geometrical art glass windows to Wright's influence. The late 1930s marked a renewed affirmation of Frank Lloyd Wright's reputation as architect of international importance. The period between 1 935 and Wright's death in 1 959 were among the busiest and most productive of his career, resulting in such major commissions as the Johnson's Wax complex in Racine, Wisconsin, Fallingwater in Bear Run, Pennsylvania, and the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Wright never lost his interest in affordable housing, however, and continued to evolve new applications for the concepts originally introduced in the American System-Built Houses project. In the late 1 930s, Wright adapted many aspects of the earlier project in an ongoing series of moderately-priced dwel- lings known as "Usonian Houses." Unlike the mass- produced stock designs of the American System-Built Houses projects, each Usonian House was custom designed for individual owners and sites, but the two projects shared a similar use of standardized machine- produced component parts and assembly details that could be economically replicated for each building. Interest in prefabricated housing was revived as a result of the housing shortages following World War II. Although the production of prefabricated houses never stopped altogether, the industry experienced a renewed vigor in the 1 950s as numerous companies offered an expanded range of house designs, The prefabricated buildings offered in the 1 950s were 19 typically lackluster in design and quality, although they ironically offered many of the innovations that Wright had originated decades earlier. Even Wright himself re- entered the prefabricated housing market in the 1 950s, producing designs for a short-lived line of prefabricated houses offered by the Marshall Erdman Company of Madison, Wisconsin. Despite its short commercial life, the American System-Built Houses project of 191 7 was anything but a failure. The concepts reflected in the American System- Built Houses project represent an important step in the development of American residential architecture as interpreted through the genius of Frank Lloyd Wright. The two extant American System-Built Houses in Chicago represent the visionary combination of Wright's architectural principles with prefabricated housing. It "ss '-tng -news feca«w v ivkh the g«si*e5t . txwauxe the piincip-jl :K^vj.x.*.U£ >t his cfifims to p;;t ftre origin;;! theories ituo practice. Wright bad been designing juratet wnswuakHS svmcok snee 3950 asmg. materials Skc. woodt ssccJ aad concrete. Tte &o«se dSOwa on ibh page grew oui of a tone i between W'right and Marshal &rai prefabrKator. M she Ktart of this ptojeet Erdman toid WrigfH. "wc must .use «& *•" ■ Mp MMMt <*••*»■ «»■>.■<«< n*4tmmi »*Jii«w t i»r»tin t] >i«rni I Good New> About Homes THERE'S a bright, cheerful home waiting for your family and you. A: better home. • Better built, excellently planned, far more livable. , More beautiful? Yes, it will have that rare thing-genuine architectural beauty— designed by a leader of : architects. You select youV plan. It is builtj to your order— your own. Desiened by America's great creative- architect. Frank Lloyd WriAt. Constructed by a systejn which guarantees you a high grade building and a known price— no extras. In snort, an AMERICAN HOME. The icbst » not more but less. Terms of purchase are such _that every W'ly of steady income dan have the.r own AMERICAN HOME. This is an inviting, a cheering possibility, which can come true however small or large a home you wish. The builders whose names are beldw will help you accomplish thil Call upon them. Or, if none is near you. call at the office. 7 West Madison Street i OEO. «. CHAPMAN It S. JKJBMM* ** AMMJCAH HOME HUM COKfAHY ILUVWOOD A M-UK - . Cm.