Plywood

When the Pope-Leighey was built back in the late 30's early 40's plywood was the new kid on the block in terms of construction. FLW made great use of it. He was using a basic sort of plywood, that is seen in the old summer camp cabinetry we remember from our youth. He used it for the kitchen cabinets, the cut out windows and the furniture.

Here is the best link to interior shots of the house and you can see how ubiquitous plywood is therein.

http://www.peterbeers.net/interests/flw_rt/Virginia/Pope_Leighey_03/pope_leighey_03.htm

We're using much more plywood than that. Plywood is encasing our house, both on the outside as well as the in. However, plywood has come into its own, and it can be beautiful. We're using a very pale domestic birch plywood on the interior walls, cherry plywood in the cabinets that Thom and the Brians are building and the brown/black stained cabinets from Ikea are birch (known for it's strength).

The combinations of the wood are beautiful indeed and I believe right in line with what FLW would have liked.

Here's a history of plywood copied from city soup. What about those Pharaohs?

The 1993 Hardwood Plywood Reference Guide, a publication of the Hardwood Plywood & Veneer Association states that, "in 1830, the piano industry became the first North American industry to use plywood. Wood & Wood Products Magazine's Centennial issue (1996) says that, "in 1890, the rotary cutting process was invented," and as a result of mechanization, plywood became increasingly affordable.

In 1929 a pamphlet published by the National Committee on Wood Utilization noted, "Plywood is a modern term describing an old product which did not receive serious technical and economic consideration until its adaptability to airplane and marine consideration was developed during exhaustive tests at the Forest Products Laboratory."

The word "plywood" which was created in America, received official sanction in dictionaries printed a few years later. That's plywood... veneers on the other hand, dated back to the early Egyptians in the times of the Pharaohs... about 4,000 years ago.

-citysoup.ca

We are not alone...whoahahhaha

We are not the first, nor will we be the last to decide to go back to the future and build a usuonian house. When we went for our second visit to the Pope-Leighey house in Alexandria Va, we were the only ones on tour and asked if we could really take our time. The docent knew exactly what we were up to and said, "sure, lots of people bring tape measures."

I don't think we were that organized. I had an old grocery list and pencil stub and Pat paced out the rooms while I wrote down the dimensions. You can buy a floor plan for any of the unbuilt Frank Lloyd Wrights houses from his foundation, but that will cost you a pretty penny, plus, then you have to abide by their rules and regs and they will have an advisor come out to tell you how it should all go down.

You can go on ebay and buy FLW plans to modify and/or just build.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Usonian-Style-home-by-F-L-Wright-architectural-plans_W0QQitemZ140344717622QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPlans_Blueprints_Guides?hash=item20ad327136&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14.l1262?refid=store#ht_2704wt_935

However, we knew we wanted to take the basic plan and modify it enough that we didn't want to do that. We had already designed our country home and built that without any problems...even after the dog ate the plans on the second day of framing.

A family out in Ohio designed and built their own usonian.

http://usonianredhouse.com/construction.html

This house, while it really looks like it could have been designed by FLW wasn't.

What these Ohioans did, and what we are attempting to do is bring that sense of FLW style back with modern materials- so our roof won't leak.

The inside furniture looks really like FLW's but I didn't like that style, and in his book, The Natural House, FLW discusses how difficult it was for him to design a comfortable chair. Indeed, he and Mamah Cheney had mission style chairs for their use at Taliesin.

The chair above is from TARGET.

Fireplaces.

A quick trip around undeveloped countryside will reveal exposed fireplaces; the lone remnants of former dwellings. The reason for this is that they were the sturdiest bits of the structures that no longer exist.

A hundred years from now, there won't be the same archeological artifacts because we have all gone whole heartedly for gas fireplaces. This is sad because our children won't have the same smoke filled rooms to clog their memories of good times and cursing by parents who forgot to open the damper.

An unvented gas fireplace has no need of a chimney, flue or damper. It just needs a gasline to feed it and can be placed anywhere in the house. You can even replicate the great dining hall from THE LION IN WINTER by placing your fireplace in the middle of the room. All you'd need would be a couple of mangy dogs fighting over the deer haunches and the illusion is complete.

The Pope-Leighey house needed its fireplace to be in the center, creating a wall between the living room and the kitchen. Frank Lloyd Wright used this, the strongest part of the house, to anchor his ceiling joists.

We're using steel instead and have moved our fireplace to the far side of the room because we, non-purists that we are, like a fire every morning by which to read our paper and sip our coffee. We don't have a cackling aroma filled room, but we do have a semblance of that which Prometheus stole from the gods and it's alot easier to flip a switch than chop firewood.

This lovely illustration show Prometheus bound, with his liver being eaten. This was the punishment that the Gods deemed fit the crime.

Usonian

We should hear from the bank this week about the construction loan for the new house we're building. It is based on a Frank Lloyd Wright usonian, the Pope-Leighey Home which can be visited in Alexandria Va.

Here's a link to the original

http://popeleighey1940.org

It didn't come up blue, so it may be best to cut and paste it. If we get the loan then this blog about building an old design that is so radical it is hard to get loan approval, will continue. Otherwise I may have to write about my new old-fashioned broom which I love so much.

Okay, here's a little lecture which is almost straight out of a Lloyd-Wright house tour. The odds are greatly in your favor that at one point you have lived in a house that was directly derived from Mr. Frank... The ranch house common to most post-war suburbs, is a descendent of the usonion. That's it for now. I have to go de-gunkify the stock simmering on the stove.