Architecture has come a long way since Thomas Jefferson
first designed Monticello in the late 18th century. More
than 200 years later, in February 2006, the Virginia Society
of the American Institute of Architects honored various
projects in the commonwealth with its latest Awards
of Excellence. Among the honorees are a mausoleum
in Salem, praised for its meditative design; a fabric-roofed
convention center in Hampton Roads that reflects the area’s
nautical heritage; and an elementary school in Henrico
County adapted to take full advantage of its wetlands
setting.
Students of architecture often visit the Jefferson’s
neoclassical Monticello and his Rotunda at the University
of Virginia, based on the Pantheon in Rome, but many are
not aware of more recent landmark buildings in the Old
Dominion.
For example, there are three known Frank Lloyd Wright
buildings in Virginia. Wright, who lived from 1867 to
1959, is probably the most well-known architect of the
early 20th century. The Pope
Leighey House on the grounds of the Woodlawn Plantation
in Alexandria is one of the “Usonian” houses
Wright built in the 1930s for middle class home owners.
The origin of Wright’s term for these homes is not
clear. Wright attributed it to the 19th-century English
writer, Samuel Butler, who supposedly called Americans,
“Usonians.” But, it is more likely the term
derives from a 1910 visit Wright made to Europe when there
was some discussion that “U.S.A.” should be
changed to “U.S.O.N.A.” (United States of
North America) to distinguish it from the new Union of
South Africa.
Usonian homes were L-shaped, single-story dwellings. They
had flat roofs and were built with natural materials.
Wright emphasized architectural features such as overhangs
that would increase passive solar heating and cooling,
natural lighting and radiant floor heating. In some ways,
he was the father of today’s “green”
building movement. Such homes usually did not have garages
and Wright is credited with coining the term “carport”
for the protective overhangs he designed for automobiles.
Another Wright structure, the Luis Marden House on the
banks of the Potomac in McLean was featured in a Washington
Post article in 2005. "The
Wright Way," August 21, 2005. The article
chronicles the tribulations of a developer who quietly
bought the house in 2000. He soon discovered that restoring
a landmark building designed by an American icon was fraught
with complications.
The third Wright home in Virginia, the Andrew B. and Maude
Cooke House, is located in Virginia Beach. It’s
listed for sale at $2.5 million on the Wright
on the Market Web page maintained by The Frank
Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy. The Conservancy
was founded in 1989 to save some 500 realized Wright homes.
By that time, nearly 20 percent of the Wright-designed
homes actually built had been destroyed by fire, neglect
or development.
But, it is not only private homes that are considered
architectural landmarks. Greatbuildings.com
lists the Pentagon and Dulles Airport as 20th-century
examples of distinctive architecture in the Old Dominion. The
Pentagon was designed by architect G. Edwin Bergstrom.
Its five-sided design was meant to accommodate a site
near Arlington National Cemetery. When the site was moved
because of fears the building would block the view of
Washington, the original design remained. The legend is
that Bergstrom had to come up with basic plans and architectural
drawings for a building that would accommodate 40,000
people in five days in August 1941. A House of Representatives
Appropriations Subcommittee had told two brigadier generals
they needed to come up with a solution to the temporary
housing for military personnel along the Mall. The five-sided
design, while not considered aesthetically distinctive,
supposedly was the most efficient use of space for such
a large building.
Dulles
Airport was designed by prominent architect Eero Saarinen,
best known for the St. Louis Gateway Arch. The challenges
for the Finnish-born Saarinen in designing Dulles were
its location on a 10,000-acre flat plain, as well as the
need to make it a modern gateway to the nation’s
capital. His ultimate design, a suspended structure that
was high in the front, lower in the middle and slightly
higher at the back was meant to suggest wings and flight.
The terminal building was given a First Honor Award by
the American Institute of Architects in 1966.
Forty years later, architectural innovation continues
to thrive in the commonwealth. During the recent Virginia
Architecture Week festivities, held from April 1 –
9, one event featured the work of W.G. Clark, a professor
of architecture at the University of Virginia. He has
been listed twice in Time magazine as one of America’s
best designers, and three of his designs have won National
Design Awards from the American Institute of Architects.
Another event featured tours of the Solar
Decathalon house designed and constructed by students
at Virginia Tech’s School of Architecture and Design
in Blacksburg. The Solar Decathlon was an international
competition among students of architecture to design,
build and operate a solar-powered house. Virginia Tech
was among the top five university winners. Frank Lloyd
Wright’s legacy seems to live on in Virginia. After
all, it’s not that great a leap from his energy-efficient
“Usonian” homes in the 1930s to a solar-powered
home in the 21st-century.
April 17, 2006
Nice & Curious
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Last Modified:
Friday, June 27, 2008
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