Washington Square

Although these are not officially Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, they were designed by Taliesin Architects using a Frank Lloyd Wright design. Since the site is only about an hour away from my home I had taken a picture of the construction site back in August of 2000. When Terence Braver contacted me in January of 2004 with a photograph of the finished construction I was inspired to post a before and after.

The construction site in August of 2000....

And now in January of 2004....

Photograph copyright © 2004 by Terence J. Braver.

James B. Christie Residence

On the way to Tarrytown (NY) to help my sister-in-law move, I detoured to view the only Frank Lloyd Wright house in New Jersey that I had not seen yet. Unfortunately, the house is not visible from the street. The owner graciously permitted me to use photographs that I took from his driveway. The house appears to be well kept. Storrer has several negative comments about the quality of the original construction and orientation of the house, but I tend not to be critical of any existing FLW house since there are far fewer than I would like! (Especially in NJ :-)

Notice that the brickwork does not have the usual horizontal emphasis.

The clerestory windows (high windows used for indirect lighting) are
plain glass and do not have a pattern.

You can see this is a heavily wooded lot.

The owner says that this detached building (Storrer calls it a shop) is not a FLW building.

Stuart Richardson Residence

On the way to visit with Samantha's aunt near Sleepy Hollow, NY we detoured off the Garden State Parkway to visit one of four Frank Lloyd Wright houses in New Jersey. This Usonian house is unusual because it uses triangular forms in the design. One of the owners graciously allowed me to take pictures of the exterior of the house.

From the outside it appears that they are maintaining the house well.

The house is located in a pleasant suburban neighborhood on a large lot. The yard is enclosed with a fence that obscures the house from the street. We had to ask directions several times to finally locate the house since we did not have the street address. (I later discovered that Storrer does list the address at the back of his book.)

The house is well set back from the street....

And has a typical Wright entryway that starts to bring you into
the house while you are still outside.

The skylight is an interesting feature, and evidently clerestory
windows are used to provide light in the house.

The wall air conditioning unit is no doubt an add-on. New Jersey summers are hot!

The house has a pattern cut out of wood like other Usonian houses. It does not show up well in this picture unfortunately. If anyone knows of a book that documents all of the patterns used in the Usonian houses please contact me.

Another view of the front of the house. You can see the triangular shape of the house in this photograph.

This is the full view of the back of the house. Again, you can see the triangular shape.

A very interesting 60-year-old house. It's amazing how his houses still stand out after all this time.

Gloria Bachman and Abraham Wilson Residence

I'd been wanting to divert away from the New Jersey Turnpike on any number of occasions to visit this house, but we always seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere. Finally I just took off on a beautiful Saturday afternoon with my trusty map from the web. If you've never let a computer guide your driving to a remote location you have missed a treat.... it was like a road rally: "0.3 miles to ABC street, turn left, 0.7 miles to XYZ street, turn right" ... actually, it was probably very efficient, but I was glad to get to Millstone. There are canals in the area and the house itself is near a river.

The house was not too easy to find since it is set back from the street. It does not directly face the street either. Fortunately the description of the location in Storrer's book was sufficient to find it after only a couple of wrong turns.

(You can click on the photograph above to see an enlarged version.)

The house is apparently still owned by the same architect noted in The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion. Evidently he has done work on at least one other FLW house in New Jersey since there was a presentation on the work at the 1999 Annual Conference (Richardson Residence) of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy.

The house appears to be very well maintained. The pattern in the woodwork is a typical Usonian home trait. According to Storrer, the architectural offices to the left in the picture were added in the 1980s and were not part of the original building constructed in 1954.

The front door is simple with clean lines. Note the horizontal line emphasis in the brickwork, a common trait in FLW houses. The ivy growing on the walls is a nice touch although it brings to mind a quote of Wright's: "A doctor can bury his mistakes, but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines." Of course I doubt that was the intent here!

J.A. Sweeton Residence

This house is located behind an office building. It is a private residence and not open to the public.

Here is a picture of the inside from the Courier-Post article dated January 22, 1999:

By Tina Markoe, Courier-Post THE VIEW:
The stained glass windows were inspired by Wright
but Produced by David Wilson.

Another view in winter.