The American Dream Home

The following are snippets of a research paper I wrote titled: Homes of Modern America:

Eames, Johnson, Eichler and Wright 

Beginning in the early 1950’s the American dream of home ownership became a reality for many, specifically in California where business men such as Donald Drummond, Joseph Eichler and Earl “Flat-top” Smith mass-produced simple homes with open floor plans, post-and-beam steel structure, and expanses of glass. The homes of Joseph Eichler was, arguably, the most successful of the three builders and even today the ownership of an Eichler home has, in parts of California, nearly the same prestige of owning a Wright home.

                                                          Wright's Falling Water 

For Wright Organic-Architecture was far more than an aesthetic style, rather a new way to look at the structures in which society thrives. Many of the principles of Wright's Organic-Architecture share common characteristics with the mass-produced California Modern homes. In a 1908 article for Architectural Record Wright lays out the integral parts of Organic-Architecture. Principles such as simplistic homes which only contain the rooms necessary for the owner's lifestyle and the integration of doors and windows designed not only as access points but to replace unnecessary decoration were integrated into the designs of many Eichler's homes. Wright further preached of built-in furnishings, integrated after market appliances and fixtures, and the necessity of art incorporated into, in some cases apart from, the walls as opposed to gilded frames covering large expanses of wall. The most important attributes of Wright's principles of Organic-Architecture are the homes relationship to landscape, the nature of its' materials, the use a natural spectrum of colors, and the individual desires of the homeowner.

                                                                  Photo from HERE

Through their visual qualities, their construction of space and the way each structure functions for the modern American family, Johnson's Glass House and Eames Case Study #8 house adhere to the principles of Organic-Architecture as outlined by Frank Lloyd Wright and acted as prototypes for the modern American home despite their box forms.

Johnson's Glass House, Photo from HERE

The Glass House contains no brick or wood-framed floor to ceiling exterior walls. On all of the homes four façades lay horizontal black steel beams that span the entire length of the building. Similar steel beams stand vertically at each of four corners of the home and function as columns. On the vertical plane between the horizontal and vertical steel beams are clear glossy panels of glass. These glass panels are separated by smaller steal mullions. The horizontal mullions are set at the height of a traditional wainscot trim, or one-third the height of the wall, and span the length of all four sides with the exception of the four doorways which are centered of all four of the clear façades. Vertical mullion are accompanied by horizontal mullions dividing each section in half, two on the shorter elevations and four on the longer.

                                       

                                          Eames Case Study #8 house, Photo from HERE

In the Eames House, entering the south side of the longer of the two rectangular structures one finds an expansive double high living room filled with multiple layers of rich textures and wide spectrum of colors. Only four pieces of furniture are in this space yet it is far from empty. Parallel to the shorter wall stands a stream-lined Eames Sofa Compact draped in textiles, pillows and blankets, souvenirs from the couple’s adventures around the world. Along each of the longer walls are two chairs, on the glass wall is the iconic Eames Lounger with tufted black leather upholstery and the rich grain of the molded plywood frame. Plant life and vegetation accompany lounger on this wall which echoes the structural wood on the opposite. The opposite wall, which contains no windows due to the fact the it is nestled up against the hillside, is paneled with planks of glossy golden wood and is the back drop for a simple wooden framed bookcase that stands the height of the first story. The bottom two and top three shelves of the book case are dedicated to a hundred or so books in a variety of sizes and colors. The floor of this wide open space is covered in white square tiles, to one section a large rough brown rug and a smaller plush blue rug categorize the sitting space and form an implied pathway. Apart from the walls of glass which illuminate this space by day three paper pendant lights, two rounds and one cylindrical, add a warm glow to the large room. A tumble weed hangs from the ceiling near two Hans Hoffman organic paintings which hang parallel to the floor as though raining on the inhabitants, every surface acts as a new canvas for a collage of objects. To one end of the room a deep alcove is formed from the paneled wall and a wide wood-paneled partition wall. In this space an L-shaped built-in sofa is again covered in a wide array of textiles accompanied by shelves filled with souvenir objects large and small.