Broadacre City

Frank Lloyd Wright

and his vision for the urban future

Usonia

Usonia Homes Inc. [Usonia II II.) 9 ]

by Franz Sdoutz

Similar cooperative community schemes, sporting circular layouts, are:
Galesburg Country Homes in Galesburg, east of Kalamazoo, Michigan 1947
Parkwyn Village in Kalamazoo, Michigan 1947

References

1. 'Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian Houses: Designs for Moderate Cost One-Family Homes' by John Sergeant, published by Watson-Guptill Publications / New York, 1984 Paperback Edition (First published 1976 in New York, by Whitney Library of Design) http://books.google.at/
   
   Master plan [retracing]
   Caption: » Three homes in the Pleasantville community are by Wright. Some fifty others are by other architects, the majority by David Henken. « [page 80]
   
   » […] David Henken, a young engineer, obtained Wright's help in planning this cooperative in 1940, with the express intention of realizing a section of Broadacre City, Wright's plan for urban decentralization. First Henken and his wife moved to Taliesin for 2 years. He became an apprentice at Wright's combined home and architectural school […] « [page 79, see Taliesin Fellowship]
   
   1 a b » These were the Friedman house of 1948, the Serlin house of 1949, and the Reisley house of 1950. « [note 65, page 174]
2. 'Frank Lloyd Wright 1943-1959: The Complete Works' [Volume 3] by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, edited by Peter Gössel, published by Taschen 2009
   http://www.taschen.com/
   
   "Usonia II," site plan for Usonia Homes, Inc. Pleasantville, New York, 1947 [page 146]
   
   8 4720.001 general plan label: » SITE PLAN […] TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEY OF PROPERTY […] USONIA HOMES - A COOPERATIVE INC. […] TOWN OF MOUNT PLEASANT «
   
   9 For the term, see 'USONIA', though Wright’s subtly communicated neologism rather conveys in terms of ‘branding’ than (adopted) ‘meaning’.
   
   2 4906.002 perspective view label:
   » HOUSE FOR MR. AND MRS. SOL FRIEDMAN USONIA II FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT ARCHITECT « [page 158 - 161]
   
   3 4917.007 plan label:
   » … HOUSE FOR MR. AND MRS. EDWARD SERLIN USONIA II MOUNT PLEASANT NEW YORK … « [page 214 - 215]
   
   4 5115.007 plan label:
   » … RESIDENCE FOR MR & MRS. ROLAND REISLEY USONIA II MT. PLEASANT N.Y. … « [pages 280 - 283]
   
   5 4826.010 plan label:
   » … HOUSE FOR MR. AND MRS. SIDNEY MILLER, MOUNT PLEASANT, N.Y. … « [pages 210, 211]
   
   6 5002.009 plan label:
   » HOUSE FOR MR. AND MRS. IRWIN AUERBACH MOUNT PLEASANT N.Y. … « [page 194]
   
   7 4733.003 [plan, reproduced without label, page 141]
3. 'Frank Lloyd Wright: Die lebendige Stadt' edited by David G. De Long, published by Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein / Skira editore, Milan, 1998
   http://books.google.at/
   
   Img. _01 Site plan 48,3 x 149,9 cm FLWF 4720.001 [north is to the right, page 272]
   
4. 'The architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright: a complete catalog' by William Allin Storrer, Frank Lloyd Wright, published by University of Chicago Press, 2002 http://books.google.at/
   
   » […] a group of friends formed the Rochdale Cooperative in 1944. This became Usonia Homes, Inc., in 1945 and, in 1947, the organization purchased 97 acres in Pleasantville, within commuting distance north of New York City. […] The site plan initially called for fifty-five circular plots, an acre to each family's house plus an acre for communal use. Circles were eventually adjusted to polygons to satisfy the Board of Assessors. The cooperative developed the overall site with water, electricity, and road systems, as well as fire-fighting capabilities. […] « [page 319]

Links

• http://www.archive.org/ 2 3
  http://books.google.at/ 2
  http://en.wikipedia.org/
  http://www.steinerag.com/
  http://thlandscapedesign.blogspot.com/
• PDF
  http://www.thestudiony-alternative.org/ [404]
  http://www.savewright.org/
  http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/
• Images
  http://www.amazon.com/
• Plans
  http://www.archive.org/ 2
• Video
  http://www.youtube.com/ [an heroisation]
• Compare
  http://www.onearchitecture.nl/

more Broadacre

• 'Broadacre City' model
  Illustrations 002, 003, 004, 005, 006, 007 for 'The Living City'
• Related housing schemes:
  Quadruple Block Plan; Cloverleaf Quadruple Housing; American System-Built Houses; Willey House; Usonia; Galesburg Country Homes; Parkwyn Village; Usonia II;
• Featured architecture:
  Huntington Hartford Play Resort; Gordon Strong Automobile Objective; Rogers Lacy Hotel

File Log

• Very preliminary version ...
• Outlining Broadacre City became necessary in the course of my urban diploma project 16/3 in 1999. Published online the same year in German, this 'preliminary' English translation became available in 2007.
• All links to http://contentdm.unl.edu/ [University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries] have been updated (25.11.2008).
• Links to http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/ [Columbia University in the City of New York] added (2.8.2009)
• All dates according to source [!]. Wikipedia and 'The Complete Works' by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer accomplish a certain 'conventionalisation', superseding conflicting 'chronologies' supported by [prior] publications of the time.