frank lloyd wright in AZ

| round houses

I took advantage of a brief trip to Arizona to see a couple of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most interesting round houses. First off, though, was a visit to Taliesen West, Wright’s winter studio/workshop in Scottsdale, where generations of Wright acolytes learned from the master. (I’d note that several of them went on to explore round forms of residential architecture themselves.)

At Taliesen, in Wright’s former drafting room, I saw sketches of some of his works, including of the Guggenheim Museum, his most famous round structure –

I then drove over to see the beautiful David & Gladys Wright House, designed by FLW for his son David and daughter-in-law Gladys. Built in 1950, the house was recently under threat from developers, but was fortunately bought by owners who have committed to maintaining and restoring it.

Just up the hill from this house is another extremely unusual round structure, the Norman Lykes House. Designed by Wright just before he died in 1959, the two-story house was completed in 1967 by Wright apprentice John Rattenbury, and is now rented out as an Airbnb. It’s located on a dramatic bluff overlooking the city of Phoenix, with rose-tinted concrete walls that merge into the rocky landscape.

Both houses are innovative and intriguing, and attest to Wright’s enduring fascination with round forms.

restoring the house of tomorrow

| round houses

In the early 1930s, the house of the future, as conceived of by architect George Fred Keck, was round (or, technically, 12-sided) and had floor-to-ceiling exterior glass walls. Dubbed the House of Tomorrow, it was built as an exhibit for Chicago’s 1933 World’s Fair.

The house was far ahead of its time, with modern conveniences like a dishwasher and air conditioning, and a glass facade to bring in natural light.

But later years were not kind to the house. In 1935 it was relocated to Indiana and was stripped of its original windows, which were replaced by smaller, less strikingly modern versions. And as the decades passed the house fell into disrepair.

A $4 million federal grant has now changed the house’s prospects. New floor-to-ceiling glass windows have been installed, returning the house to its original design, but better than before, as the new windows are made of heavy triple pane glass.

According to the nonprofit Indiana Landmarks, which now owns the house, its future may include use as a short-term rental. Anyone visiting Indiana should look into staying at this unique house, at once futuristic and historic.

geodesica + 1

| round houses

Coincidentally, another Gilbert Spindel-designed mid-century round house — a Geodesica — is also for sale, this one in Lake Charles, Louisiana –

Built in 1964, the house underwent a top to bottom revamp in 2010, months of work to reach the owner’s stated goal of “bringing it back to the ’60s.”

The groovy result, with white shag carpets, glittery wall paper, a purple bathroom and a pink sun room, can be seen on the Retro Renovation blog. Here’s a glimpse of its living room –

The house’s color palette has been toned down significantly since then, but it’s still an unusual, appealing house, ready for a new owner who’s ready to think outside the box.

mid-century mod

| round houses

A mid-century modern round house, designed in 1960 by engineer and entrepreneur Gilbert Spindel, is now on the market in Shawnee, Oklahoma –

Dubbed the Geodesica, the house’s blue prints were advertised in newspapers and magazines, and several were built. The Shawnee house is among the eight or nine surviving round houses that Spindel designed, most of which were built in the late 1950s and early 1960s in suburban neighborhoods in the South, including in Jacksonville, Florida, Lake Charles, Louisiana, and Magnolia, Arkansas.

The one-story house is partially open plan, with a kitchen/living room and several bedrooms and bathrooms arranged around a central dining room –

round house memento

| round houses

This milk bottle cap is a memento of a long-closed dairy, which itself was named after an even older, no longer extant, round house –

The Round House Dairy, in Newport, Rhode Island, opened in 1926 and closed in 1970. It was named after a house on the estate where the dairy was first established.