Architecture Wednesday: 10 Usonia Road

About an hour north of New York City sits the Usonia Historic District, a planned community of homes that were built in the late 1940s on a 100-acre rural tract in Westchester County. While the neighborhood’s layout was planned by Frank Lloyd Wright, the homes were designed by a handful of his peers and apprentices, including Paul Schweikher, Aaron Resnick, and David Henken—a Wright apprentice—who served as the primary coordinator of the project and designed more than a quarter of the district’s houses, including this three-bedroom, two-bathroom home at 10 Usonia Road.

Meticulously preserved over the last several decades, the single-story home, which sits tucked away on a one-acre lot, has had just two owners—it last sold in 2009—and maintains most of its original design and charm. The current owners have only modernized the kitchen and bathrooms, and preserved the original details, including the sleek, vaulted wood ceilings, skylights, windows, and cypress walls. To prioritize the lush lot, Henken designed the rear of the single-family home to feature expansive glazing while the front façade was mainly concrete, and the owners made sure that did not change.

The 1,904-square-foot residence features an oversized fireplace which anchors the quintessential Usonian circular flow; on one side, the open kitchen, fully modernized, features custom walnut cabinets, state of the art appliances and heated floors while on the other, dining and living areas have walls of glass that open to the gardens. The architectural vaulted wood ceilings, skylights, cypress walls and windows invite nature and light into the space while a bluestone patio expands the living area into the yard. The primary suite is a sanctuary with a bathroom that rivals a spa: white travertine walls, heated floors and a freestanding tub. There are two other bedrooms that also open to the outdoors, and a full bath.

This Usonian home is listed for $1,395,000.

Dwell

Architecture Wednesday: Frank Lloyd Wright's Charles F. Glore House

Kill me now. This is an original Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian-style house—smaller than his sprawling Prairie style residences, with little ornamentation and no basements or attics—in the Chicago suburb of Lake Forest that just sold for nearly $3 million, and I missed it!! Kill me now.

This, the Charles F. Glore House, built in 1954, is the only Wright work in Lake Forest, and of course it features Wright trademarks like clerestory windows, built-in bookshelves, mahogany panels, four fireplaces—three of which are cantilevered—and an abundance of brick. The home has been updated, but in a way that doesn’t detract from the FLW-style; a formal dining room was added after enclosing a portion of the deck, and the windows have been upgraded. In additional, the traditional FLW red concrete floors, on the main level, have been replaced by gray concrete floors resulting in a brighter look that contrasts with the extensive woodwork.

The house sits on a nearly two-acre lot, just one block from the lake, with over 4,300 square feet, four bedrooms, four baths, large living areas, and expansive outdoor spaces.

The entry runs along the front of the house and also acts as a library space, as well as a spot to marvel the suspended staircase to the second floor. Off that hallway is the dining room and wet bar addition to the home, but it’s what’s at the end of that long book-lined hall that’s the prize.

As in many of Wright’s designs, most of the bedrooms in the home are not large, because, he felt, it forced the residents to congregate in the main common areas. But why would you not, when the living room has dramatic double-height cathedral windows that open out to the park-like setting of the backyard. Upstairs, there are the four bedrooms; the master suite with en suite, fireplace and private terrace; a large guest room with walls that move to open it to the living room below; and two additional bedrooms.

The kitchen has also been updated, as have the bathrooms, but with cabinetry and counters that recall FLW’s original design, but make the rooms more efficient for the 21^st century.

I can’t with this house… it’s too big for us, but what I wouldn’t give to call it home.

Click to emBIGGERiate ...

Dwell