Broadacre City

Frank Lloyd Wright

and his vision for the urban future

The Ardmore Experiment

Cloverleaf Quadruple Housing

by Franz Sdoutz

'Suntop Houses', model and plan 1939 - 40, by Frank Lloyd Wright

Label: »
1 Model.

3 Perspective section through living room.
4 Plan of one apartment. « I.)

Only one out of four planed houses in the city of Ardmore (Pennsylvania) were realised. Note the area consumed by individual traffic and access in relation to actual living space.

II.) Img. _02

'The Ardmore Experiment' (Suntop Houses / Suntop Homes / Quadruple Sun-Deck Type / Quadruple Homes), sitemap 1938 by Frank Lloyd Wright

» […] This search [to maximize the area of garden on a small lot] led to the "Quadruple homes." The first of these, and the only ones built, were the Suntop homes for the Todd Company in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, in 1939. […] The idea for the quadruple homes had precedents in Wright's work as far back as the residential land development plan he had formulated for the Chicago City Club competition of 1913. Similar plans had also accompanied the Broadacre City proposals. « V.) 2

» […] The apartments were to rent for fifty dollars a month, which was very reasonable, since about forty percent of the furniture would be built in. Even before construction was finished there was a waiting list of tenants. « IX.) 5

Cloverleaf Quadruple Housing - 1942, by Frank Lloyd Wright

Designed for the 'Defense Housing Program' on a hundred-acre [40,47 ha] tract, VII.) in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, these 25 "Fourplex" houses, home to 100 families, IV.) 7 remained unbuilt.

In order to meet the program's strict cost limit of $3,500 VI.) 3 per dwelling unit [$14,000 per Fourplex], the houses were planed to be made from standardized precast concrete elements. Each quadrant also incorporates a 16 x 36 ft [4,9 x 11 m] courtyard V.) 2 along cross-walls improving lighting and venting.

[Jesse C. Fisher Jr.] North Carolina Housing - 1957, by Frank Lloyd Wright

Aerial view [5742.017] shows a scheme with at least 31 Fourplexes. Perimeter "Car Courts" allow for a road network resembling the Quadruple Block Plan apart the gridiron.

References

1. 'Frank Lloyd Wright' by Bruno Zevi, published by Zanichelli Editore Bologna, 1994 [first edition 1979] http://books.google.com/
   
   Img. _01 [page 177]
2. "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. _02 [page 241] "Ardmore-Experiment"; "Suntop-House", drawing dated 1938
   Img. _03 [page 268]
   
3. 'The Living City' by Frank Lloyd Wright, published by Horizon Press, 1958
   http://www.archive.org/
   
   Img. _04 [page 151]
4. 'Treasures of Taliesin: Seventy-Seven Unbuilt Designs' by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, Frank Lloyd Wright, published by Pomegranate, 1999
   http://books.google.at/ [Plate 28, page 64]
   
   7 Wright [cited on page 64] refers to "100 houses in Pittsfield". 100/4 equals 25 Fourplexes, though only about 21,5 are depicted in illustration Img. _03
5. '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/
   
   2 ^ a b [cf. page 72 onwards]
6. 'Suburban steel: the magnificent failure of the Lustron Corporation, 1945-1951' by Douglas Knerr, published by Ohio State University Press, 2004
   http://books.google.at/
   
   3 [page 58, 59]
7. This "piece of information" [in its literal sense] is collected from books.google.seach result preview. If confirmed, this would allot each unit approx. half an acre [2023 m2] - similar to Img. _04.
8. 4 My figures concerning lot size and density are purely speculative and based on:
   a) John Sergeant V.) » With 1/2 - acre lots, the density was eight to ten people per acre, but at Ardmore this was closer to thirty people per acre. « [page 72]
   b) Proportional [!] comparison of plan reproductions X.) 6
   c) Google Earth
9. 'Frank Lloyd Wright Rebel In Concrete' by Aylesa Forsee published by Macrae Smith Company 1959 http://www.archive.org/
   
   5 [page 136]
10. 'Frank Lloyd Wright 1917-1942: The Complete Works' [Volume 2] by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, edited by Peter Gössel, published by Taschen 2010
    http://www.taschen.com/
    
    [page 326] » "The Ardmore Experiment", Suntop Homes for Otto Tod Mallery « is dated 1938, all drawings reproduced bear 39… labels, the model is dated 1940.
    6 ^ a [page 327] Plan and section [3906.004] seem to be printed in scale.

Links

• http://www.steinerag.com/
  http://en.wikipedia.org/
• Compare to:
  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

• 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.