Field Trip

In early September, knowing that work was underway at the cabin that weekend, we took a field trip to the Pope Leighey House in Alexandria, which was designed by Frank Llloyd Wright in the 1930's. (wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope-Leighey%20House). I snapped off some Moto Photos, but only a few are usable:







The Pope Leighey House is an example of Wright’s Usonian design concept – more from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usonian below:

Usonian is a term usually referring to a group of approximately 50 middle-income family homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright beginning in 1936 with the Jacobs House [1]. The "Usonian Homes" were typically small, single story dwellings without a garage or much storage, L-shaped to fit around a garden terrace on odd (and cheap) lots, and environmentally conscious with native materials, flat roofs and large cantilevered overhangs for passive solar heating and natural cooling, natural lighting with clerestory windows, and radiant floor heating. A strong visual connection between the interior and exterior spaces is an important characteristic of all Usonian homes. The word carport was coined by Wright to describe an overhang for a vehicle to park under.

The straightforward design of the Hawksbill Cabin reminded us of the Usonians and after our visit we are even more convinced that the builder had studied the idea and used much in the concept for the cabin. Especially in the use of clerestory windows, natural cooling, and the “Lazy L” shape of the house to take advantage of the geology of the two lots it straddles.