WRIGHT'S SMALLL DIAMOND MODULE DESIGNS: THE PATRICK KINNEY HOUSE
Bernard Pyron
William Storrer says that the "... Prairie School had died out
by the early 1920s. In the Prairie era, Wright had created an American
- some would say only a Midwestern - architecture. He had not,
however, created a Democratic architecture (1)." Wright's democratic,
more affordable and compact houses from 1936 to 1959 were called "Usonians."
The Prairie homes of about 1901 to 1913 are larger than the Usonians, since
they were designed for the Upper Middle Class. And because there was a
lingering caste system at that time in America, in part because these
mansions contained quarters for live-in servants they were larger than
they might have been. In addition, many of the prairie homes had an extra
entry for servants and delivery men, while the family and guests entered at
another door.
(l) http://www.franklloydwrightinfo.com/wasfllwbio.html
Wright broke out of the box in steps. Over a period of a few years he
developed ways of making interior space in his big Prairie houses
flow in and around jogs in
walls, into other spaces,and he varied the ceiling heights to structure
space vertically.
With its horizontal lines and hip roof, the Malcolm Wiley house (1934) of
Minneapolis reminds us of the horizontal look of the Prairie houses. But the
Wiley house can be considered as a direct forerunner of the First Jacobs
house, known as the first of Wright's Usonians. Like the Jacobs house, the
Wiley residence is compact and simplified to cut costs and to make it more
functional.
WRIGHT'S WISCONSIN POPULISM
In his fall 1952 talk at the University of Wisconsin student Union
auditorium Wright
said "A Democrat is born hating the government." By Democrat he did
not mean the Democratic Party. He defined Democratic as the freedom and
dignity of the individual, an ideology that came out his Wisconsin Populism and
Progressivism. Progressivism, and Populism before it, had upheld the common
people and were both critical of the rich - and what we would now call
the ruling
elite. The more agrarian populism of the Midwest, Texas and the South, as well
as Wisconsin Progressivism were also critical of government. Wright's Usonian
architecture for the common man was inspired by his Progressivism,
which was influenced
by the earlier agrarian populism.
Progressivism taught that the common man
is capable of improving himself and the whole society might be improved.
To Wright, the Middle and Lower
Class people might be raised up to appreciate great art and to develop as
individuals in a free, democratic culture. His organic architeture, he thought,
was a major way common people could be elevated. Wright thought
his architecture would edify the Middle and Lower Middle Classes. He suggested
to me in the fall of 1957 that I was studying his houses of the
fifties for "my own edification."
Progressivism rejected
Social Darwinism, the position taken by
many of the rich and powerful figures of the day. Social Darwinism
was the philosophy which said that the rich deserve to rule over the common
people because they have proven themselves fit to do so. Populism and
Progressivism
also opposed corruption in the financial and business
worlds and in government.
THE SPIRITUAL SIDE OF WRIGHT
On religion, Wright said:
" I prefer to say that nature is the only body of God that we shall
ever see. If we wish to know the truth concerning anything, we'll find
it in the nature of that thing.(2)
(2) >
Romans 1: 25 points out that many people, like Wright,
prefer to worship creation rather than the creator. Wright was clearly
not a Christian. He was not a driver of an avant-garde art
wrecking machine like most other Masters of Modern art, especially
the surrealists, who attacked Chjristianity..
Wright drew inspiration from Taoism, and especially from Lao Tse.
In his Autobiography, he claimed to have been into Celtic Druidism.
His last wife,Olgivanna Hinzenberg, was into mysticism, a follower
of the mystic Gurdjieff, who visited her and Wright at Taliesin.
In addition, Wright's beloved mistress,
Mamah Cheney, wife of Edwin H. Cheney, was
as independent as Wright. She translated feminist books on free
love, from German
and Swedish, and promoted the early feminist agenda (3)
(3) http://www.oprf.com/flw/bio/cheney.html
In his review of the book,
The Fellowship, by Roger Friedland and Harold Zellman, Storrer says "Mamah
was a
translator of the work of Swedenborg, and it is that influence that
fed Wright's spiritual
world." Swedenborg was a mystic, and even a gnostic. So two of the
four women in Wright's life were into mysticism.(4)
(4) http://www.franklloydwrightinfo.com/
BY 1915 WRIGHT TURNED TO DESIGNING FOR THE COMMON PEOPLE
It is easier to see how Wright's Wisconsin Populism and Progressivism
led him to finally
turn from his Prairie houses for the Upper Middle Class to finding
ways to create
affordable houses for the Middle and Lower Middle Classes which also reached
the level of art.. Unitarianism, Taoism,.
Druidism and mysticism are not populist, and neither is gnosticism.
In fact, to a great extent mysticism comes out of gnosticism in which
a small elite claimed to
have the secret knowledge that can enlighten a few of the unenlightened.
After he stopped designing Prairie houses, and got back from Europe, Wright
turned his attention to designing homes for the lower middle class.
His first designs
were for Arthur l. Richards, using the American System Built home
process. Four
duplex apartment units and two bungalows were built in Milwaukee in 1915-1916.
Lumber was cut at a factory and shipped to the sites to be assembled,
which reduced
the cost of the dwellings. Later, during the fifties, Madison builder
Marshall Erdman
constructed two versions of Wright's Pre-Fab Plan Number One in Madison. The
first built was the Eugene Van Tamelen house (1956) on the south edge
of Madison's
Crestwood, which was largely surrounded by woods in 1956. This is the
only Wright house I was in during its construction.
Five houses were built using the Pre-Fab Design
Number one. A second pre-fab in Madison, on the South Belt Line, the
Arnold Jackson
house, is based on
the Number One pre-Fab Plan
but uses stone rather than the masonite of the Van Tamelen house(1956).
Wright's
goal was to create houses that the common people could afford, and yet
would also rise to the level of art. He did not fail in this goal,
either in his pre-fabs of the middle fifties,
nor in his Usonian
square and diamond module houses of the thirties, forties and
fifties, which did
not use the pre-fab method of construction to any great extent.
WRIGHTS CONCRETE BLOCK CALIFORNIA HOUSES OF THE TWENTIES
In the twenties, a few years after the American System Built homes,
Wright did his textured concrerte black houses
in California. These are the Millard, Storer, Freedman and Ennis
houses. In these
houses textured concrete blocks, many of which have designs on their surface,
were laid on top of one another rather than staggered as in the conventional
way of laying blocks. Wright wanted to use this concrete block system in his
San Marcos In the Desert project which was not built due to the Stock Market
crash of 1929. However, he did make use of a simplified version of his concrete
block system - without the designs on the face of the blocks - in some of his
Usonians of the forties and fifties. For Example, the Ward McCartney (1949)
house of Parkwyn Village, Michigan, based upon the diamond module, is
built of concrere blocks laid one on top of another.
FIRST HERBERT JACOBS HOUSE OF 1936
About a quarter mile northwest of the Duck Pond parking lot at the edge of
the Arboretum on Madison's west side sits the First Herbert Jacobs house.
I was in it in 1956 and drove by it numerous times. In this house Wright laid
down a large part of his domestic architectural grammer for the Usonians
to come. The First Jacobs house is based upon a unit system, in this
case, a two by four foot module. Most of Wright's walls follow the unit lines,
though a few.walls fall between the lines of the grid system. The
house has 1,500
square feet and the reported cost was $5,500 in 1936, including Wright's
fee of $450.
In the First Jacobs design the kitchen is small in size but it is at the center
of the junction of the two wings of the "L" shape. A gap in the wall
separating
the kitchen from the living area allows easy access from one room to another,
while another gap allows access to the hall of the bedroom wing. There are two
larger bedrooms in the bedroom wing
of the "L" and one smaller one at the end. The "L" shape of the house
partially encloses a garden rather than the courtyard that a Prairie house might
open to. Rows of tall French-window doors are found all along the side of the
livingroom facing the garden, and there are some on the garden side of the
bedrooms. The house tends to be closed to the street.
Part of the vocabulary Wright esablished for his Usonians in this house
include the poured concrete floor with heating pipes embedded in it,
and wood sandwich walls which make conventional 2 x 4 studs unnecessary,
and the cantilivered carport, replacing the garage. He did not always
use his system of wood sandwich walls, but sometimes substituted
concrete block or stone.
First of all, the 1936 Herbert Jacobs house is relatively small and compact,
which is true of many of his Usonians though some are larger in size.Second,
he put the bedrooms on the ground floor rather than in a second
floor.And the entire
house is made up of only one floor. A short bedroom wing runs off the
central kitchen area with a hall along one side. The kitchen is
decreased in size
and Wright got rid of the Victorian dining room. The kitchen which
Wright called
the workspace adjoins the living space. The First jacobs house has a flat
roof, unlike many later Usonians with hip roofs.
THE UNIT SYSTEM HELPS CREATE COHERENCE
The box room is created by four 90 degree angles. So, to began breaking
out of the box, Wright might have gotten rid of all or many corners that are
90 degrees, and replaced them with 120 angle
corners. The hexagon is a six sided geometrical form with each side having
120 degree internal angles. And a octagon is an eight sided form with
135 degree internal angles. To find the internal angle of any polygon,
multiply the number of sides by 180, subtract 360 and divide by the
number of sides. To find the internal angles of a regular square polygon,
that is, a box form, 180 times 4 equals 360. Divided by 4, we get
four angles each of 90 degrees. The same formula worked out for a
hexagon gives us 120 degree angles and for an octagon it yields
135 degree internal angles. Use of 135 or 120 degree internal angles
breaks away from the strict box form to some extent. The octagon is
close to being a circle and Wright eventually went to the circle or semicircle
as his unit of design.
NONRECTILINEAR AREAS IN THE NAKOMA AND SAN MARCOS
IN THE DESERT PROJECTS
Wright experimented with 135 degree angles in his Lake
Tahoe Summer Colony of Emerald Bay in California in 1923.
And in his Nakoma Country Club Project for Madison, Wisconsin of
1923 he used some nonrectilinear angles, as well as his "Wigwam" steeply
pitched hip roofs. A central area of the Nakoma Country Club Project
is an octagon form, with eight sides and internal angles of 135 degrees.
The Lake Tahoe and Nakoma Country Club designs were never built (5)
(5) http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/flw/images/flw0062.jpg
Then in 1928 Wright created an interesting dining room for the hotel
that was to be part of San Marcos In the Desert. Designed for Alexander
Chandler, this complex was to be built at the base of the Salt River Mountains
south of Phoenix. Wright designed the concrete blocks to be used in the
hotel and in the individual homes.
Fig One would show the 90 and 120 degree angles of the main part of the hotel
dining room. He drew lines for the plan which form the double
equalateral triangles,or diamond shapes, that we find in the smaller
Robert Berger
and Patrick Kinney homes of the early fifties. The upper level of the hotel
also shows his use of the triangle(6)
(6)http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/flw/flw06.html See this web site for
the floor plan of the hotel of the San Marcos In the Desert Project.
Individual homes were to be included in the San Marcos In the Desert complex,
and Wright designed two of these homes. The Wellington and Ralph Cudney
project floor plan
of 1928 that would be shown in Fig Two was also created using the
diamond module grid system,
yielding 120 and 60 degree angles. The Cudney project of 1928 anticipates
the 120 degree internal angles of the Paul R. Hanna house (1936) of Palo Alto,
California, based on the hexagon, and the diamond module homes of the
fifties. See http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/flw/flw06.html for the floor
plan of the Cudney Project.
THE PAUL R. HANNA HOUSE OF 1936
Fig Three would show the Hanna house floor plan with the interlocking
hexagons drawn
on the walkways around the house (7).
(7) Stanford Historical Society Newsletter, Vol 2, No 2/autumn, 1977.
the floor plan of the Hanna house. Its within a pdf file and several
pages into the file.
In the Hanna house, Wright laid out his floor plan based upon the 120
degree angles of the interlocking hexagons. When a wall turned, it turned
at a 120 degree angle and after the turn it was parallel to the opposite
side of the hexagons.
But by about 1950 and the Robert Berger house, Wright was using his diamond
module floor plan. He started the plan of this house by drawing lines on
paper, such that the intersecting lines create many diamond shapes. The
diamond shapes are two equilateral triangles joined together. The angles
within each diamond shape - double equilateral triangles - are 120 and 60
degrees.
Unlike the Hanna house floor plan in which Wright used all 120 degree
angles, in the Robert Berger house of 1950 he used some 60 degree
angles, creating the sharp points of his plan. For example, the "fins"
coming out of the Berger plan end in a 60 degree angle.
The Stuart Richardson house of Glen Ridge, New Jersey, designed in 1941
but built in 1951, is another example of Wright's rare use of the interlocking
hexagon unit system. This plan makes use of 120 and 60 degree angles.(8)
(8) <
By the time Wright got his first fully nonrectilinear house built in
1936, the Hanna house, he had developed
a new grammer for American domestic architecture. Even in his Prairie homes
and later 90 degree angle houses, he had broken out of the box interior space.
Wright is said to call the architecture of the International Style
"Flat chested architecture." The buildings of the International Style
by architects like Mies Van Der Rohe,
Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier
had flat surfaces, and box interior space, even though they sometimes
put a lot of
windows in their walls.
In his rectilinear 90 degree angle
designs, Wright broke up the monotony of the four walls and ceiling which
create the space of a room as a box. He jogged walls to avoid the
monotony of long straight lines, created
partial partitions within spaces, and created partial ceilings so that
he broke out
of box space in the vertical dimension. His lighting decks, many times
decorated with greenery and Sung dynasty vases or contemporary
pottery, broke space in the vertical and allowed it to flow above the
deck. A whole wall was someimes replaced by tall
french-window doors. . He put rows of windows up under
the ceilings and eaves to replace the single windows that broke the continuity
of a wall.. "Rooms" were opened to the next "room" by elimination of
doors. Wright made space flow in and out and up and down. He created.
interior space that was ever changing as one moved through it.
The sculptured external
form of his buldings are expressions of his interior space. In many designs
he carried an element of design used to structure interior space to the
exterior to add to the complexity of the exterior. But he nearly always created
a basic structure first of all, a theme, and/or a geometric modular system.
His complexity did not become chaos because it was complexity within
a system which structured complexity.
He used the hexagon and later the diamond module system to go farther than
before in "breaking out of the box." He said something in one of his talks
about his waging war on the box and having a delightful time of doing
it. Her added
that he had become a curiosity in dong so.
Nonrectilinear module systems - for Wright the 120 degree hexagon, the
120 and 60
degree diamond module and the circular module - became means for creating
more interesting interior spaces than is possible with the 90 degree angle
structure. Adding the 120 degree and 60 degree angles to Wright's
older vocabulary of interior space gave the viewer the possibility of even more
unexpected unfolding of space before him as he walks in such a house.
The first secret of the unity of Wright's diamond module houses is their unit
system. Parallel lines are first drawn on the paper and the floor
plans are laid
down on these lines which at their intersections form double equalateral
triangles, or a diamond shape. Each area of the house is composed of a given
number of units. The unit system makes it easier to work out
proportions, and the
consistent 60 and 120 degree angles add to the unity of the house. On topof this
unit system, Wright added his genius in integrating the dimensions of
architecutre,
the floor plan with three dimensional space, and interior space with
exterior form.
The Hanna house, called a Usonian, is larger and more complex than the
compact and smaller Robert berger house of San Anselmo, California,
designed in 1950. The Berger house is not based upon the interlocking
hexagon system, but on the less complex diamond module.
See Fig 4, the Robert Berger house floor plan photographed at Hillside Drafting Room in 1958.
Fig Four Robert Berger House Floor Plan, 1951
Fig 5 shows the Berger house in 1958, when it was near completion.
Fig Five Robert Berger House, 1958, Bruce Radde, Photograph
The wall angles of the Berger house are mostly 120 degree angles,
except for the fins, the lower right hand corner of the shop (above)
and the point of the terrace walls on the left. Look near the base of
the terrace wall above. There is a second fin ending in that sharp 60
degree angle. Notice, though, that Wright did not use 60 degree angles
as corners in the living, kitchen or bedroom area, but only for the
shop. There is a fin with a 60 degree point extending out of the shop
area. I believe these fins are open to the interior and are used for
storage.
THE PATRICK KINNEY HOUSE OF 1951-1953
Fig 6 shows the floor plan of the Patrick Kinney house (1951) in
Lancaster, Wisconsin. The Kinney house can be called a Usonian, and is a descendant of the rectilinear module First Jacobs house.
Fig Six Patrick Kinney House Floor Plan
The First Herbert Jacobs house of 1936 was an L shape, with the living
area in one wing of the L and the bedroom wing in the other wing. The
kitchen was located centrally at the junction of the living and
bedroom wings. But in the Robert Berger and Patrick Kinney diamond
module houses the kitchen, living room and a small bath were in the
main hexagonal shaped area, while a bedroom wing ran off of this
central hexagon, not as an L shape, but in line with the
living-kitchen area.
Designed in 1951 and completed by 1953, the Patrick Kinney house was
on the north edge of Lancaster, Wisconsin when I visited it in October
of 1958. Margaret and Patrick Kinney had covered their outdoor plants
to protect them from the Wisconsin October chill so they would show up
better in my photos. The main part of the Kinney house is the central
hexagonal area. Within this hexagon, an almost solid hexagonal rock
stack rises above the shingled roof line providing a vertical element
to the more horizontal hip roof lines. This stack has within it the
kitchen, small bath and laundry. Following the modular lines, the
living space flows on three sides of the cenral stack. And at the
northeast corner of the hexagon, Wright placed the master bedroom,
which connects to the hall that flows around the central stack A
triangular 'fin' with its 60 degree angle point, extends out from the
master bedroom. See Fig 6. Again, following the modular lines, a
triangular carport is developed out of the east side of the central
hexagon.
In Fig 7 Kinney house is viewed from the south with the bedroom at the
end of the bedroom wing coming to a sharp 60 degree point. The wider
hexagonal main area is shown beyond the point of the bedroom wing.
Look to the left of the cars of the fifties under the carport.
Patrick Kinney stands there in the shadows.
Fig Seven Kinney House From the South
Moving around to the northwest, Fig 8 shows the central hexagonal stack that is open by French Window Doors to the countryside on the west. The bedroom wing can be seen to the right. Fig 9 is a color photo of almost the same view.
Fig. 8 Patrick Kinney House From the Northwest
Fig. 9 Color Photo of the View of the Kinney House From the Northwest
Then Fig. 10 looks directly at
the northwest part of the living area and to the left at the master
bedroom part of the hexagon.
Note that the stack that rises above the shingle roof is open in part
by glass to the north. There is something 'Indianesque' to me about
this view of
the house, something that reminds me of Wright's 'Wigwam' projects of
the twenties.
Fig. 10 View of the Patrick Kinney House Fom the North
Finally, Fig 11 shows a little of the interior of the Kinney house, especially
the interior rockwork. The Kinney house has very good Wrightian rock work
and I wonder if stone masons can now be easily found who can do Wright's type of
stone laying? Patrick Kinney was the con tractor for his own house.
In an April 2007phone conversation Margaret Kinney told me that during
the construction of their house Patrick got up early and hauled rock
to the houee site from west of Lancaster before going to his office for
the day.
Fig Eleven Kinney House Interior (508 x 476)
THE 1949 WARD MCCARTNEY HOUSE
The 1949 Ward McCartney house in Parkwyn Village, Michigan belongs to this
family of small diamond module houses. Wright used his Usonian
concrete block system in the McCartney house, which also has a central
hexagon-like
cenral area with a bedroom off of it. I photographed the McCartney house when I
was in Parkwyn Village in the summer of 1958 while seeing the Brown
and other Wright houses there, but I do not have a photo of
its floor plan. See Fig.12 for a photo of the McCartney exterior.
Fig Twelve Ward McCartney House, 1949
RALPH MORELAND PROJECT FOR AUSTIN, TEXAS
In 1956 Wright drew up plans for a relatively small diamond module
house for Ralph Moreland to be built in the hills west of Austin,
Texas, across the
Colorado River to the west. Unfortunately, the bids of the
contracters were about twice the $40,000 estimate
that Wright gave to Moreland and it was not built.
Fig 13 shows the Ralph Moreland floor plan. Then Fig 14 has Wright's
perspective drawing for Ralph Moreland. The Moreland project has in
common with
the Robert Berger, Patrick Kinney and Ward McCartney houses a main
hexagonal living-kitchen area, with the kitchen stack rising above
theroof line. In all four diamond module designs - of the period of
1949 to 1956 - Wright ran a bedroom wing off of that main hexagonal
area open to the interior living area by tall french-window doors. That
dark structure to the left is the fireplace.
On the floor plan and perspective drawing there is the kitchen
structure that rises above roof line, like those of the Berger and Kinney
houses.
There is entry through a narrow way between the fireplace stack and
the kitchen stack
that allows space to flow on the other side of the living area. Behind
the fireplace is a room, probably a bedroom.
to the left of that room there is marked, the master bedroom,with a
bath in between it and the bedroom to its left. There is also a fourth
room that might be a guest bedroom,
which points out from the main wall to the left.
In Fig 13, notice the 'prow' of the house which is the terrace wall,
that looks like a ship sailing on this Texas hill.
Fig. 13. Ralph Moreland Project Floor Plan, 1956
Fig. Fourteen. Ralph Moreland Project Perspective Drawing For This
House Designed To Sit in the Texas Hill Country West of Austin :
>
>REFERENCES (1)William Storrer on the Prairie Houses. (l)
> http://www.franklloydwrightinfo.com/wasfllwbio.html
>
> (2) Wright's Religion. http://www.ronaldbrucemeyer.com/rants/0608almanac.htm
>
> (3) Mysticism of Two of Wright's Women: Mamah and Olgivanna.
> >
> (4) Storrer On Mamah's Mysticism. http://www.franklloydwrightinfo.com/
>
> (5) Nakoma Country Club Project, 1923.
> http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/flw/images/flw0062.jpg
>
> (6) San Marcos In the Desert Project, 1928.
> http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/flw/flw06.html
>
> (7) Paul Hanna House, 1936. Stanford Historical Society Newsletter,
> Vol 2, No 2/autumn, 1977.
>
> (8) Stuart Richardson House, 1941.
> http://www.savewright.org/house_information/RichardsonHouse.htm
Report to PrairieMod April 11, 2007:
"I just talked on the phone a long time with Margaret Kinney, widow
of Patrick Kinney, of the house in Lancaster, Wisconsin. She is now
in Florida, but plans to return to Wisconsin this month, I assume to live
in her Wright house. Original Wright owners who are still alive and still
living in their houses are rare.
I asked her to confirm some information I had heard. She said Patrick
did act as his own contractor and himself mined the Wisconsin
limestone for the house from a site nearby to the west of the house.
She said every morning he brought in a load of stone before going to
his attorney's office.
As I had heard, Patrick Kinney and Mr. Arnold who owned another Wright house
NE of Madison both took courses in Art History under Professor John F.
Kienitz who turned them on to Wright. Patrick is dead now and so are
both Mr and Mrs Arnold. I also studied under John Kienitz at
Wisconsin.
Magaret Kinney had worked for one of Wright's sisters, which I had also heard
before.
The Kinney house had another bedroom wing added to the northeast she said.
She agreed that their house is a gem of a small diamond module design
and the rock work is excellent. She said that many trees have grown up
around the house since i was there in 1958. I saw a photo taken from
the south in recent years by :Peter Beers with a large tree obscuring
the view I took in 1958.
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