What You Need to Know About Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian Homes
“Usonia” isn’t just an architectural style that Wright popularized; it’s also a historic site with houses constructed to his vision of American utopia.
If you’ve heard of Frank Lloyd Wright, you may have heard of one of his most lasting endeavors: the Usonian house. Rather than referring to a specific structure, the Usonian house actually refers to a concept—better yet, a manifesto of housing and living— that he started crafting in the 1930s.
Located an hour outside of Manhattan in Pleasantville, New York, the Sol Friedman House (aka Toyhill) is one of a handful of Usonian-style homes Wright designed for the 1940s planned community now known as the Usonia Historic District, which was largely established by the architect’s apprentices.
Courtesy of Houlihan Lawrence
During the Great Depression, Wright saw the United States on the cusp of change: Middle-class households would lead simpler lives, but would still need good design, where elements like lighting, heating, and sanitation would be carefully addressed and landscape would serve as an inspiration. Amid an extended lack of commissions throughout that era, Wright developed his utopian vision for a new American landscape that embraced low-density suburbia and an architectural style called Usonian (derived from the term "Usonia," which Wright used to refer to the United States instead of "America.")
The 1938 Charles L. and Dorothy Manson House in Wausau, Wisconsin, challenged Wright to work within an original budget of $7,500. Located a couple hours north of the Taliesin East campus in Spring Green, the early Usonian-style house includes what some believe to be the first installation of Wright’s now-famous perforated window screens.
Photo by Bryan Hung
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The early hallmark of Wright’s Usonian house concept was that the homes would be stylish, but simple and small, and built at a moderate cost that was within reach of the average middle-income American home buyer. With an eye to economic construction, Usonian homes—which in many ways evolved from the architect’s earlier Prairie style—were built with low rooflines, tall windows, built-in furnishings, in-floor radiant heating, and a sense of flow between rooms. Ornamentation was minimal; materials like brick, concrete, and wood were prominently featured and left unpainted to express their natural color and texture. Usonian homes were typically situated on sites away from major urban centers, set back from the road and nestled into their surrounding landscapes.
The Gordon House is the only Wright design built in Oregon, and one of his last Usonian homes. It was completed in 1963, four years after his death. Originally located adjacent to the Willamette River near Wilsonville, the home was relocated to the Oregon Garden in Silverton.
Photo by Andrew Parodi
In plan, Usonian homes tended to be L-shaped and have open layouts, without the formal kitchen, living, and dining rooms of earlier American houses, showing Wright’s understanding of a cultural shift toward more informal gatherings. They were typically one-story structures with no attics or basements, and carports took the place of garages. The horizontal emphasis of Usonian homes would ultimately have a large influence on the popularity of ranch houses in the ’50s through the ’70s.
The 1952 Kenneth and Phyllis Laurent House in Rockford, Illinois, is the only handicap-accessible building designed by Wright, and it’s also a Usonian. Now, it’s open to the public as a museum.
Courtesy of Wright Auction House
The first Usonian home designed and built by Wright was the 1936 Jacobs House in Madison, Wisconsin. Wright designed each of his Usonian homes for specific clients, working with the families and naming the homes after them. In the late ’40s, a couple bought a 100-acre wooded plot in Pleasantville, New York, and enlisted Wright to plan a community based on his architectural and urban planning ideals. He designed a few of the Usonian-style houses in what’s now the 47-home Usonia Historic District, and approved the other plans designed by a group of his former students and apprentices, among them David Henken and Aaron Resnick.
In the 1950s, Wright designed a series of prefabricated Usonian-style homes that he called Usonian Automatics, made using interlocking concrete blocks. He hoped they’d further help save home buyers money, but assembling the modular parts proved complicated. Although Wright passed away in 1959, his Usonian-style architecture is still scattered across the country—and occasionally, a rare one hits the market.
Related Reading:
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Little-Known Gas Station of the Future
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel Was a Trial by Fire, But It Sparked His Most Famous Homes
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