American System Built Homes (single story model)

  • Building name: American System Built Homes (single story)
  • Designer/Architect: Frank Lloyd Wright
  • Date of construction: 1916
  • Location: Milwaukie, Wisconsin
  • Style: Frank Lloyd Wright Style Home
  • Number of sheets: 4 sheets measuring 24" x 36"

Sheet List

  • Cover Sheet, Information, Perspective, Site Plan
  • Basement Plan, First Floor Plan, Section, 1/4"=1'-0", 3/4"=1'-0"
  • 4 Elevations, 1/4"=1'-0"
  • Building Section, Fireplace, Window Details, various scales

This listing is for prints on 20# bond paper. It is for architectural drawings only. Any photos shown in the description are informational only and not included in this package. To purchase an emailed PDF file go HERE.

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Frank Lloyd Wright, father of the Prairie School of design, was always interested in ways to reduce the cost of construction and make great architecture more affordable. With the "System Built" concept he explored the possibility of creating a kit of parts that could be assembled into a variety of different house plans. Only a few of these houses were built. This house, in Milwaukie, Wisconsin, is an excellent example. It shows the application of the kit to a single story design. The design demonstrates many of the qualities that make Frank Lloyd Wright's homes so livable. The entry sequence involves changes in direction, steps, increasing levels of enclosure, until, finally, at the heart of the house we reach the hearth. All the spaces in this house pinwheel around the fireplace, the glowing warmth at the center of the home. Just behind it Wright raises the ceiling, bringing natural light into what would have been the darkest space in the house. This stable, warm, sunlit center of the home contrasts with the edges, where windows, pressed to the corners of the rooms, dissolve the "box" of the structure.

As a work of art these prints are worth purchasing in their own right. For those of you interested in building a historically inspired house, these plans offer an excellent starting point. Essentially a single story house, it is built over a full basement. The main level includes approximately 900 square feet of conditioned space. The front porch adds another approximately 190. This design is most suitable for a flat site in which pleasant views may be had in all directions. With careful planning of terraces it could be adapted nicely to a moderately sloping site as well. This house would be comfortable in a suburb or country setting. Including porches, the main house has outside dimensions of approximately 32'x40'.

SHIPPING: Your drawings are shipped to you, rolled, not folded, in a Priority Mail tube. This eBay listing includes architectural prints ONLY. Any photos shown in the description are for information only and are NOT included in your purchase. For information about the photos please send me a message through eBay. Thanks.

IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO BUILD: These plans are not complete architectural drawings as might be required by your local permitting agency and do not contain all the structural, waterproofing and other details and information necessary for construction. But your local builder or architect should be able to adapt these drawings and add to them as necessary. What they do provide is accurate design information about a REAL historic house, not a pseudo-historic tract house as you will find in the house plan magazines on your supermarket shelf

INTERNATIONAL BUYERS PLEASE NOTE: Orders shipped to addresses outside the USA may be subject to customs duties at their destination. The buyer is responsible for any such duties.

RETURN POLICY: Ebay has a glitch that shows a policy of no returns. However we DO accept returns within 30 days for all print orders (conditions apply) shipped in the USA and its territories. If there is a problem with your order please send us a message through eBay and allow a few days for a response. Thank you.

The original drawings from which these dimensionally accurate scans were made are kept at the Historic American Building Survey, in the Library of Congress. (WR002)

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