Embedded Files
Joe and Virginia Monroe and their children moved to Mt. Vernon in 1947 so that Joe could be closer to the rich farmlands of Central Ohio. After being discharged from the Air Force, he was starting a new career as an agricultural photographer on assignment for The Farm Quarterly. His first assignment was to photograph a famous sheep farm on the edge of Gambier run by the Walker family. With the help and advice of the Walkers, the Monroe’s purchased a parcel of land on State Route 229 near Kenyon College for their new home.
It took almost two years for Frank Lloyd Wright to deliver his plans. He created a house in the style of his Usonian houses, a design concept he pursued since 1934 intended to create affordable, well-designed homes for middle-class clients.
If you look closely at the drawings in this exhibition, you will find some of the signature features of a Frank Lloyd Wright house: an emphasis on horizontality in harmony with the land; placement at the brow of a hill not the hilltop; a covered carport instead of a garage; a flat roof with cantilevered overhangs to shade the summer sun; radiant heating coils in the floor; passive solar heating from ample windows; and built-in furnishings. You will also find a singular feature very rare one of Wright's designs -- a photographer’s darkroom.
Joe and Virginia’s dream house was never built. Today the plans for their “Unbuilt Project” rest in the archives of the Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library at Columbia University in New York City.
Page updated
Report abuse