[[wiki-architecture]] · [[Building Materials]] · [[ARCHITECTURE]] · [[000]] # Usonia Usonia () is a term that was used by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright to refer to the United States in general (in preference over America), and more specifically to his vision for the landscape of the country, including the planning of cities and the architecture of buildings. Wright proposed the use of the adjective Usonian, coined by a Scottish writer in the early 20th century, to describe the particular New World character of the American landscape as distinct and free of previous architectural conventions. The term also refers to an architectural style shared by a group of approximately 60 middle-income family homes designed by Wright based in 1934. == Usonian houses == "Usonian" usually refers to a style shared by approximately 60 middle-income family homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The Willey House, built in 1934, may have been the first Usonian house; the Herbert and Katherine Jacobs First House, built 1937, is often considered to be the first true "Usonian". The "Usonian Homes" are typically small, single-story dwellings without a garage or much storage. They are often L-shaped to fit around a garden terrace on unusual and inexpensive sites. They are characterized by native materials; flat roofs and large cantilevered overhangs for passive solar heating and natural cooling; natural lighting with clerestory windows; and radiant-floor heating. Another distinctive feature is that they typically have little exposure to the front/'public' side, while the rear/'private' sides open expansively to their view. This strong visual connection between the interior and exterior spaces is an important characteristic of all Usonian homes. The word carport was coined by Wright to describe an overhang for sheltering a parked vehicle. The Usonia Historic District is a planned community in Pleasantville, New York, built in the 1950s following this concept. Wright designed three of the 47 homes himself. After designing the Jacobs First House, Wright ultimately designed dozens of similar Usonian homes across the U.S. The Usonian design is considered among the aesthetic origins of the ranch-style house popular in the American west of the 1950s. === The FSC Usonian House === The Florida Southern College campus features a collection of thirteen Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, known as Child of the Sun. The most recent, referred to as the "Usonian House", was constructed in 2013 according to a 1939 Wright design for one of twenty faculty housing units. The 1,700 sq ft (160 m2) building includes textile-block construction and colored glass in perforated concrete blocks, and features furniture also designed by Wright. It is home to the Sharp Family Tourism and Education Center, a visitor center for guests visiting campus to see the Wright buildings, and includes Wright photographs and a documentary film about the architect's work at the school. == Origin of the word == The word Usonian appears to have been coined by James Duff Law, a Scottish writer born in 1865. In a miscellaneous collection, Here and There in Two Hemispheres (1903), Law quoted a letter of his own (dated June 18, 1903) that begins "We of the United States, in justice to Canadians and Mexicans, have no right to use the title 'Americans' when referring to matters pertaining exclusively to ourselves." He went on to acknowledge that some author had proposed "Usona" (United States of North America), but that he preferred the form "Usonia" (United States of North Independent America). Perhaps the earliest published use by Wright was in 1927: But why this term "America" has become representative as the name of these United States at home and abroad is past recall. Samuel Butler fitted us with a good name. He called us Usonians, and our Nation of combined States, Usonia. However, this may be a misattribution, as there is as yet no other published evidence that Butler ever used the word. Historian José F. Buscaglia reclaims the term Usonian to refer to the peoples, national ideology and neo-imperial tradition of the United States of America. Author Miguel Torres-Castro uses the term Usonian to refer to the origin of the Atlantic puffin used in the children's book Jupu the Puffin: A Usonian Story. The bird is a puffin from Maine, US. == Noted Usonian houses == === Precursor to Usonians === Malcolm Willey House 1934, Minneapolis, Minnesota Peters-Margedant House* 1934, University of Evansville, Evansville, Indiana. === Usonian Houses === Herbert and Katherine Jacobs First House, "Jacobs I", 1937, Madison, Wisconsin Paul and Jean Hanna House, "Honeycomb House", 1937, Palo Alto, California Benjamin Rebhuhn House 1937, Great Neck Estates, New York Andrew F.H. Armstrong House 1939, Ogden Dunes, Indiana Joseph Euchtman House 1939, Baltimore, Maryland Bernard Schwartz House 1939, Two Rivers, Wisconsin George Sturges House 1939, Los Angeles, California John and Ruth Pew House 1939, Shorewood Hills, Wisconsin Hause House 1939, Lansing, Michigan Sidney Bazett House (also known as the Bazett-Frank House) 1940 Hillsborough, California Goetsch–Winckler House 1940, Okemos, Michigan Gregor S. and Elizabeth B. Affleck House 1940 Bloomfield Hills, Michigan Rosenbaum House 1940, Florence, Alabama Theodore Baird Residence 1940, Amherst, Massachusetts Clarence Sondern House 1940, Kansas City, Missouri Pope–Leighey House 1941, Alexandria, Virginia Stuart Richardson House 1941 (built 1951) Glen Ridge, New Jersey Alvin Miller House (also known as the Alvin and Inez Miller residence) 1946, Charles City, Iowa Erling P. Brauner House 1948, Okemos, Michigan The Acres, Galesburg, Michigan Samuel & Dorothy Eppstein House 1949 Eric & Pat Pratt House 1949 Curtis & Lillian Meyer House 1949 David & Christine Weisblat House 1949 Parkwyn Village, Kalamazoo, Michigan Ward McCartney House 1949 Robert & Rae Levin House 1948 Robert D Winn House 1949 Eric V. Brown House 1949 Usonia Homes, Pleasantville, New York Sol Friedman House 1949 Edward Serlin House 1951 Roland Reisley House 1951 Kenneth and Phyllis Laurent House 1949, Rockford, Illinois Melvyn Maxwell and Sara Stein Smith House 1950, Bloomfield Township, Michigan Weltzheimer/Johnson House 1949, Oberlin, Ohio Donald Schaberg House 1950, Okemos, Michigan Karl A. Staley House 1950, North Madison, Ohio J.A. Sweeton Residence 1950, Cherry Hill, New Jersey Seamour and Gerte Shavin House 1950, Chattanooga, Tennessee Lowell and Agnes Walter House 1950, Quasqueton, Iowa Kraus House 1950, Kirkwood, Missouri Nathan Rubin House 1951, Canton, Ohio Muirhead Farmhouse 1951, Hampshire, Illinois Zimmerman House 1951, Manchester, New Hampshire John D. Haynes House 1952, Fort Wayne, Indiana Frank S. Sander House 1952, Stamford, Connecticut R. W. Lindholm Residence, "Mäntylä", 1952, Donegal, Pennsylvania (dismantled and relocated from its original location in Cloquet, Minnesota) Kentuck Knob 1953, Stewart Township, Pennsylvania John and Syd Dobkins House 1953, Canton, Ohio Bachman–Wilson House 1954, Millstone, New Jersey Ellis Feiman House 1954, Canton, Ohio John E. Christian House "Samara" 1954, West Lafayette, Indiana J. Willis Hughes house "Fountainhead", 1954, Jackson, Mississippi William L. Thaxton Jr. House 1955, Houston, Texas Louis Penfield House 1955, Willoughby Hills, Ohio Cedric G. and Patricia Neils Boulter House 1956, Cincinnati, Ohio Dudley Spencer House 1956, Wilmington, Delaware Donald C. Duncan House 1957, Donegal, Pennsylvania (dismantled and relocated from its original location in Lisle, Illinois) Evelyn and Conrad Gordon House 1957, Wilsonville, Oregon (later moved to Silverton, Oregon) Lovness House and Cottage 1957, Stillwater, Minnesota Robert H. Sunday House 1957, Marshalltown, Iowa John Gillin Residence 1958, Dallas, Texas Paul J. and Ida Trier House 1958, Johnston, Iowa ==== Usonian Automatic Houses ==== The Usonian Automatic houses were made with concrete blocks. An attempt on the part of Wright to further lower the cost of housing, the clients could actually be involved in the creation of the blocks and thus the construction of the building (such as in the Tracy House). Benjamin Adelman Residence 1951, Phoenix, Arizona Arthur Pieper Residence 1952, Paradise Valley, Arizona Gerald B. and Beverley Tonkens House 1954, Amberley Village, Hamilton County, Ohio Toufic H. Kalil House 1955, Manchester, New Hampshire Theodore A. Pappas House 1955, Town and Country, Missouri Tracy House 1956, Normandy Park, Washington Dorothy H. Turkel House 1956, Detroit, Michigan == See also == Usonia Historic District List of Frank Lloyd Wright works Polychrome Historic District, a similar effort to provide inexpensive housing, by John Joseph Earley == Notes == == References == == External links == Frank Lloyd Wright: Usonian House at PBS.org Usonia: Frank Lloyd Wright's Vision for America Archived April 7, 2004, at the Wayback Machine at Columbia University Inspiring Communities—Usonia The Post Usonian Project List of Usonian houses at archinform.net Specific houses John D. Haynes House Archived May 21, 2018, at the Wayback Machine Jacobs House The John and Catherine Christian House Pope-Leighey House Archived January 27, 2019, at the Wayback Machine, Usonian house in Alexandria, Virginia, open to the public Weltzheimer/Johnson House, Usonian house in Oberlin, Ohio, open to the public Rosenbaum House, Florence Alabama Building the Usonian House at Florida Southern College