E. Clarke and Julia Arnold House
Encyclopedia
The E. Clarke and Julie Arnold House is a Frank Lloyd Wright
designed Usonian home in Columbus
, Wisconsin
.
The Arnold house occupies a large site on the west edge of the city of Columbus and overlooks the farmlands to the west. It was built in 1955-1956 for E. Clarke Arnold, a successful Columbus attorney, his wife, Julia, and their growing family, from a design supplied by Frank Lloyd Wright. The Arnolds, like so many of Wright's clients, came to him for a house of their own after seeing a house he had designed for friends, in this case, for Patrick and Margaret Kinney, whose stone-clad Lancaster, Wisconsin house Wright designed in 1951.
This low one-story home is built of Wisconsin limestone, redwood board and batten
, and glass. It is one of Wright's diamond module homes, a form he used in the Patrick Kinney House, the Richard Smith House and a number of other homes he designed in the late 1940s and early 1950s. In this design, all the angles are either 60°or 120°, forming equilateral parallelogram
modules having 4 feet (1.2 m) sides. It was originally built with two wings set at 120° angles which gave the house a V-shaped plan with a living room wing, a bedroom wing, and a central core that contained the fireplace mass, kitchen, and utilities. This home featured a twist on the usual Usonian color scheme with Golden ocher floors instead of the signature "Cherokee Red."
Within three years of completion, the arrival of twins necessitated the construction of a second bedroom wing. Wright approved this wing in 1959 and the plans were in preparation when he died in April of that year. Wright apprentice and Taliesin
Fellow John H. Howe drafted a second, partly revised design, which established the final Y-shaped plan of the house.
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
designed Usonian home in Columbus
Columbus, Wisconsin
Columbus is a city in Columbia and Dodge Counties in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 4,991 at the 2010 census. Columbus is located about northeast of Madison on the Crawfish River. It is part of the Madison Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
.
The Arnold house occupies a large site on the west edge of the city of Columbus and overlooks the farmlands to the west. It was built in 1955-1956 for E. Clarke Arnold, a successful Columbus attorney, his wife, Julia, and their growing family, from a design supplied by Frank Lloyd Wright. The Arnolds, like so many of Wright's clients, came to him for a house of their own after seeing a house he had designed for friends, in this case, for Patrick and Margaret Kinney, whose stone-clad Lancaster, Wisconsin house Wright designed in 1951.
This low one-story home is built of Wisconsin limestone, redwood board and batten
Batten
A batten is a thin strip of solid material, typically made from wood, plastic or metal. Battens are used in building construction and various other fields as both structural and purely cosmetic elements...
, and glass. It is one of Wright's diamond module homes, a form he used in the Patrick Kinney House, the Richard Smith House and a number of other homes he designed in the late 1940s and early 1950s. In this design, all the angles are either 60°or 120°, forming equilateral parallelogram
Rhombus
In Euclidean geometry, a rhombus or rhomb is a convex quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. The rhombus is often called a diamond, after the diamonds suit in playing cards, or a lozenge, though the latter sometimes refers specifically to a rhombus with a 45° angle.Every...
modules having 4 feet (1.2 m) sides. It was originally built with two wings set at 120° angles which gave the house a V-shaped plan with a living room wing, a bedroom wing, and a central core that contained the fireplace mass, kitchen, and utilities. This home featured a twist on the usual Usonian color scheme with Golden ocher floors instead of the signature "Cherokee Red."
Within three years of completion, the arrival of twins necessitated the construction of a second bedroom wing. Wright approved this wing in 1959 and the plans were in preparation when he died in April of that year. Wright apprentice and Taliesin
Taliesin (studio)
Taliesin , near Spring Green, Wisconsin, was the summer home of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright began the building in 1911 after leaving his first wife, Catherine Tobin, and his Oak Park, Illinois, home and studio in 1909. The impetus behind Wright's departure was his affair with...
Fellow John H. Howe drafted a second, partly revised design, which established the final Y-shaped plan of the house.
External links
- All-Wright Site - Frank Lloyd Wright Building Guide - Wisconsin
- Althouse: The E. Clarke and Julie Arnold House and the Richard C. and Berenice Smith House — by Frank Lloyd Wright
- Arcaid - Image Detail E. Clarke Arnold House Columbus Wisconsin USA
- Wright In Wisconsin - Wright And Like Tours
- PrairieMod: Wright & Like 2008 Wrap-Up