The James McBean Residence is a house in
Rochester, Minnesota
Rochester is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Olmsted County. Located on rolling bluffs on the Zumbro River's south fork in Southeast Minnesota, the city is the home and birthplace of the renowned Mayo Clinic.
Acco ...
designed by
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
. This
Usonian house is an example of the second type (Prefab #2) of the
Marshall Erdman Prefab Houses
Throughout his career, Frank Lloyd Wright was interested in mass production of housing. In 1954, he discovered that Marshall Erdman, who contracted the First Unitarian Society of Madison, was selling modest prefabricated homes. Wright offered to ...
. This house and the
Walter Rudin House have the same floor plan and vary only in minor details such as paint color and siting, because they are the only two Prefab #2 houses in existence.
Construction
The house is constructed from concrete block with horizontal
board and batten
A batten is most commonly a strip of solid material, historically wood but can also be of plastic, metal, or fiberglass. Battens are variously used in construction, sailing, and other fields.
In the lighting industry, battens refer to linea ...
siding. A row of windows just below the
soffit
A soffit is an exterior or interior architectural feature, generally the horizontal, aloft underside of any construction element. Its archetypal form, sometimes incorporating or implying the projection of beams, is the underside of eaves (to ...
make the chunky flat
cantilevered roof appear to float above the house. A
carport
A carport is a covered structure used to offer limited protection to vehicles, primarily cars, from rain and snow. The structure can either be free standing or attached to a wall. Unlike most structures, a carport does not have four walls, and us ...
attached to one corner of the house completes the design.
[ (archived)]
See also
*
List of Frank Lloyd Wright works
Frank Lloyd Wright designed over 425 houses, commercial buildings and other works.
"The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright" is a UNESCO World Heritage Site consisting of a selection of eight buildings across the United States designe ...
References
* Storrer, William Allin. ''The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion''. University Of Chicago Press, 2006, (S.412.2)
External links
All-Wright Site - Frank Lloyd Wright Building Guide - Minnesota
McBean Residence
McBean Residence
McBean
McBean is a surname.
People with the surname
Notable people with the surname include:
*Al McBean (born 1938), retired professional baseball player
*Alexander McBean (1854–1937), English businessman, soldier, local Conservative politician, Freema ...
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