Programming Living in America

PROGRAMMING FAMILY DAY LIVING IN AMERICA An afternoon of art-making activities that October 7, 1–3pm invites families to re-imagine together their homes and communities. FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, SYMPOSIUM HARLEM & MODERN HOUSING The question of how to live in America preoccupied many architects and planners—from ROUNDTABLE: PUBLIC HOUSING TODAY Frank Lloyd Wright to the consortium behind Harlem’s first public housing proposals—in This conversation carries the Living November 1, 6–7:30pm the mid-twentieth century. This symposium, in America exhibition premise forward, which accompanies the exhibition by the same considering current challenges for New York name, gathers scholars of mid–20th Century City public housing. housing for a conversation that bridges what might otherwise seem like disparate realms of inquiry in order to reassess received histories and to provoke new questions about SATURDAY GALLERY TALKS how we live in America, together, today. October 21, November 4 and December 2 from 1pm SEPTEMBER 28 THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK All talks meet at To register for MoMA please RSVP before September 28 the Wallach Art September 25 to [email protected] 6pm Gallery entrance. Viewing of Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive at The Museum of For more information about these events visit wallach.columbia.edu. Modern Art 7–8:30pm Symposium Keynote Presentation, Dianne Harris, University of Utah

SEPTEMBER 29 WALLACH ART GALLERY COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LENFEST CENTER FOR THE ARTS

Symposium speakers are Shiben Banerji, School September 29, of the Art Institute of Chicago; Jana Cephas, 10am–5:30pm Living in America has been curated by The Temple Hoyne University of Michigan; Brian Goldstein, Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, September 9–December 17 Swarthmore College; Jennifer Gray, The Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP), and is co-presented Museum of Modern Art; Jennifer Hock, Maryland by The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery and The Avery Wed–Fri, Noon–8pm Institute College of Art; Catherine Maumi, Architectural and Fine Arts Library, in correlation Sat & Sun, Noon–6pm with Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive at The Grenoble School of Architecture; Kevin The Museum of Modern Art, New York. McGruder, Antioch College; and Joseph Watson, The Wallach Art Gallery University of British Columbia Columbia University Lenfest Center for the Arts Please RSVP at wallach.columbia.edu. 615 West 129 Street (West of Broadway) “Living in America,” a phrase written on wooden Living in America has been curated INSTITUTIONS ARCHIVES SCHOMBURG CENTER FOR RESEARCH IN panels traveling with the model of Frank Lloyd by The Temple Hoyne Buell Center BLACK CULTURE, NYPL Wright’s Broadacre City (1929–58), evokes a for the Study of American Archi- THE TEMPLE HOYNE BUELL AVERY ARCHITECTURAL AND question that preoccupied architects and planners tecture at Columbia University’s CENTER FOR THE STUDY FINE ARTS LIBRARY: SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, throughout the mid-twentieth century: How to Graduate School of Architec- OF AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE: Carole Ann Fabian, Director SPECIAL COLLECTIONS RESEARCH live together? Wright’s proposal for an exurban ture, Planning, and Preservation Reinhold Martin, Director Janet Parks, Curator of Drawings CENTER settlement of single-family houses offered (GSAPP), and is co-presented by Jacob Moore, Assistant Director and Archives* one possible answer; plans for large public or The Buell Center, The Miriam and Jordan Steingard, Program Manager Margaret Smithglass, Registrar UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AT subsidized housing located in urban areas presented Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery and and Digital Content Librarian AMHERST, DUBOIS ARCHIVE another. Although these two visions seem a world The Avery Architectural and Fine THE MIRIAM AND IRA D. WALLACH Pamela Casey, Architecture apart, they share a common history. Arts Library, in correlation ART GALLERY: Archivist WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY, WALTER P. with Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Deborah Cullen, Director and Chief REUTHER LIBRARY Wright (1867–1959) first exhibited his Broadacre Unpacking the Archive, on view Curator CHICAGO HISTORY MUSEUM City project at Rockefeller Center in Midtown at The Museum of Modern Art, New Jeanette Silverthorne, Associate WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY Manhattan in 1935. While the prominent Wisconsin- York, from June 12 through October Director of Finance and COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES based architect anticipated a degree of economic 1, 2017. “Broad Acres and Narrow Exhibitions diversity, Broadacre’s residents were, for the Lots,” an associated essay by Lewis Long, Associate Director of CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, RARE most part, implicitly white. In 1936 construction David Smiley, Assistant Director External Affairs AND MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS began on one of New York City’s first public of the Urban Design Program at Jennifer Mock, Associate Director housing developments, the Harlem River Houses, Columbia GSAPP, is included in of Education and Public DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER PRESIDENTIAL funded by the Public Works Administration the MoMA exhibition catalogue. We Programs LIBRARY under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. are grateful to all of our project Eddie José Bartolomei, Exhibitions Built for working-class African Americans, the partners, without whom this Manager THE FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT FOUNDATION complex was designed by a consortium including challenging project would not ARCHIVE (THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART John Louis Wilson Jr., the first African American have been possible. THE GRADUATE SCHOOL | AVERY ARCHITECTURAL & FINE ARTS to graduate from Columbia University’s School OF ARCHITECTURE, PLANNING, LIBRARY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, of Architecture. Through such parallel examples, AND PRESERVATION, COLUMBIA NEW YORK) this exhibition shows how two different approaches RESEARCH TEAM UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK to housing combine societal aspiration with HAGLEY MUSEUM AND LIBRARY racial segregation and socioeconomic inequality, GSAPP: THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, and asks: How to live in America, together? Erik Carver (Harlem Research Team NEW YORK: THE LAGUARDIA AND WAGNER ARCHIVES, Leader), Daniel Cooper, Clara Barry Bergdoll, Curator, FIORELLO H. LAGUARDIA COMMUNITY The exhibition’s narrative takes the form of two Dykstra, Robin Hartanto Honggare, Department of Architecture COLLEGE/CUNY interwoven plotlines, developed through displays Neha Krishnan, Tola Oniyangi, Julie and Design of project-specific drawings, photographs, and Pedtke, Jiexi Qi, Laura Veit, Jennifer Gray, Project Research LENOX TERRACE MANAGEMENT OFFICE other material dating from the late 1920s to the Isaac Warshauer, Alexander Hilton Assistant late 1950s. One plotline tracks the Broadacre Wood (Frank Lloyd Wright Research THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS scheme as it plays out in Wright’s subsequent work, Team Leader), Zhengyang (Echo) Yue THE NEW YORK CITY HOUSING scattered around the country; the other tracks AUTHORITY MANHATTANVILLE HOUSES the development of public housing in Upper CONSULTANTS: MANAGEMENT OFFICE Manhattan’s Harlem neighborhood, ending just Nick Bloom, Matt Lasner, Nancy outside the gallery, adjacent to Columbia’s new Later, Richard Plunz, Abbe THE MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK campus. Both stories connect social institutions, Schriber, David Smiley, Joseph such as the nuclear family, with economic Watson, Ashley Wu THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES structures, such as private property or its alternatives. Wright’s version of the “American NEW YORK CITY MUNICIPAL ARCHIVES Dream” and Harlem’s public housing both draw EXHIBITION DESIGN lines of race, class, and gender, many of which ROCKEFELLER ARCHIVE CENTER persist today. Their differences remind us that PROJECT PROJECTS: the right to housing once defined, and could Shannon Harvey, Chris Wu, still define, what it means to live in America. Prem Krishnamurthy, Janet Chan, Lauren Bishop The Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture LEONG LEONG: at Columbia University Dominic Leong, Gabriel Burkett * Retired June 2017 PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR APARTMENTS

YEAR 1926–28 CLIENT John D. Rockefeller Jr. 1 Courtyard, ca. 1930, ARCHITECT Andrew Jackson Thomas TYPE 6 multifamily buildings reproduction of photoprint LOCATION West 149th to 150th of 6 stories each, with Courtesy Rockefeller Archive Center Streets btwn Macombs some commercial space Place and Adam Clayton UNITS 511 The spacious interior courtyard Powell Jr. and Frederick design was a significant Douglass Boulevards, New departure from Harlem’s Old York, NY Law tenements and more typical of experiments in the ­outer boroughs. In contrast to the Urged by the New York Urban League, perimeter and highly articulated austere street façade, the John D. Rockefeller Jr. built the courtyard became influential models, crenelated walls of the garden Paul Laurence Dunbar Apartments in and its architect—the self-taught maximized the use of windows and an attempt to prove that privately Andrew Jackson Thomas—gained underscored the development’s developed housing could be recognition as a pioneer of this inward focus. affordable for residents as well as “garden apartment” design. profitable for investors. Residents 2 Playground in the courtyard, initially came to this limited- The Great Depression brought sig- ca. 1930, reproduction of dividend cooperative from Harlem’s nificant changes. Management reduced photoprint higher income brackets, and included the size of payments required Courtesy Rockefeller Archive Center such prominent figures as the to live in the co-op and allowed sociologist and political activist extended family to move in with Two nurseries provided childcare W.E.B. DuBois. The co-op’s location relatives. In 1935 it subdivided the for resident children ages channeled Black Harlem northward, largest units, converting 6- five and younger at the cost of away from Rockefeller’s Morningside and 7-bedrooms into 2- and 3-room 25 cents per day. Heights and Lenox Hill properties, apartments. In 1936 Rockefeller and formed a self-­contained converted the co-op to rental units; neighborhood, complete with a a year later, he sold the complex, bank, nursery, recreation areas, considering it a “noble” but failed and commercial spaces. Its strong experiment. 3 From top to bottom: Letter from 6 Matthew Henson Residence, 8 Application for Tenancy, Andrew Thomas to W.E.B. DuBois, Dynecourt Lester Mahon (photog- ca. 1926–41 November 17, 1927; Letter from rapher), 1979, reproductions Rockefeller Archive Center W.E.B. Dubois to Andrew Thomas, of photoprints December 2, 1927 Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Open only to African American Courtesy Department of Special Collections and Photographs Division, HABS NY-5697-A families, the Dunbar Apartments University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, were highly sought after. Howev- University of Massachusetts Amherst On April 6, 1909, African Ameri- er, the cost (and the initial can explorer Matthew Henson rules against taking in lodgers), Named in honor of influential became the first person to reach made the apartments too expensive poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, this the North Pole. He lived in for many families. complex housed many notable the complex from 1929 to 1955. figures, including actor Paul Robeson and explorer Matthew 9 Street façade, June 1, 1954, Henson. It was also home to Civil 7 Clockwise from top left: Roscoe reproduction of photoprint Rights Movement leaders such Asa C. Bruce, “The Paul Laurence Courtesy Prints & Photographs Division, Philip Randolf and W.E.B. DuBois. Dunbar Apartments of New York: Schomburg Center for Research in Black An Adventure in Community Build- Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations ing,” ca. 1935; Roscoe C. Bruce 4 Floor plans, ca. 1928, reproduc- and Clara Burrill Bruce, “Paul A clean outward appearance was tions of ink on paper Laurence Dunbar Apartments: At valuable to management: drying Courtesy Rockefeller Archive Center Dunbar You Enrich Yourself—Not clothes, wringing out mops, and the Landlord,” ca. 1935; “The Due to the lack of elevators, storing milk bottles on window Paul L. Dunbar Apartments and The apartments on the ground floor sills were all prohibited. Dunbar National Bank,” December were more expensive than those on 30, 1929 floors above. Courtesy Rockefeller Archive Center 10 Site plan, ca. 1928, reproduction of ink on paper 5 “Rockefeller Opens National Bank The development’s amenities and Courtesy Rockefeller Archive Center in Harlem,” The New York Age, services, including a nursery, With access to all units only September 22, 1928 kindergarten, playground, and through a central courtyard, Courtesy Rockefeller Archive Center the Dunbar National Bank, were intended to foster a sense of entry points to that space community and to accommodate provided strategic locations for resident needs left unmet by the surveillance. surrounding neighborhood. BROADACRE CITY

YEAR 1929— 58 industrial buildings, 1 Frank Lloyd Wright and ARCHITECT Frank Lloyd Wright single-family houses, Taliesin Fellows, model, 1935, LOCATION N/A (unbuilt) and landscape oil paint, paper, wood CLIENT N/A UNITS Houses for 1,400 The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The TYPE Community plan with families per 4 square Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) civic, cultural, and miles This typical four-square-mile section of the city was first Wright developed the idea behind the Dunbar Apartments, as well as exhibited in 1935 as a center- Broadacre City following the econom- to the nascent programs for public piece of the Industrial Arts ic collapse of 1929, partially in housing at places like the Harlem Exposition at Rockefeller Center, response to Roosevelt’s New Deal. River Houses. Averse to state inter- opened by President Roosevelt. Building on earlier proposals, his vention, Wright sought a balance plan aimed to decentralize settle- between the individual, the family, ment patterns in America, reduce and the community. This search would 2 Frank Lloyd Wright, sketch, 1934, the scale of its institutions, and define much of his work for nearly ink on paper provide every “head of household” three decades. Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation with an acre of land. All this was Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia rendered achievable, Wright argued, Over time, the architect’s vision University, New York) by the new transportation, communi- for low-density, small-scale, cation, and production technologies high-tech development has provoked Here Wright outlines many of the then transforming American life and a varied response. Some praise his features that would later become its landscape. plan, with its emphasis on individ- part of the model, noting that ualism, local governance, and there would be a “Minimum of one While Wright rooted his plan for community life, as reviving earlier acre per family." Broadacre City in private land-, agrarian thought in modern form. home-, and car-ownership, he also Others see it as prefiguring post– 3 Frank Lloyd Wright, “Broada- envisioned public ownership of World War II suburban sprawl and cre City: A New Community Plan,” utilities, resources, and infra- urban crisis. Still others locate Architectural Record, April 1935, structure. Such an approach was in it something more distressing: pgs. 248–49 analogous to the private, cooper- the symbol of a predominantly white, Courtesy Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, ative arrangements established at nostalgic, and chauvinistic nation. Columbia University, New York 4 Frank Lloyd Wright, “Broadacre (left) Wright lists major rel- home and school nearby, known as City, A New Freedom for Living in igious, political, and philo- Taliesin West. America: Radio Script,” 1935 sophical figures he wished to Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation commemorate with the design. 9 View of exhibition at Hillside, Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery (right) Wright assigns exhib- Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia Spring Green, Wisconsin, 1935, tion-goers “required reading.” University, New York) reproduction of photoprint Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Here Wright contrasts his vision 7 Frank Lloyd Wright, The Disap- Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery of American democracy with a Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia pearing City (New York: W.F. darker view of modern society. University, New York) Payson, 1932) Courtesy Avery Architectural & Fine Arts After leaving New York, the model 5 Letter from Frank Lloyd Wright to Library, Columbia University, New York traveled to Washington, DC, Raymond Moley, May 11, 1933 Pittsburgh, PA, and Madison, WI, Suffused with American excep- Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation before returning to Spring Green. Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery tionalist attitudes, Wright’s Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia 1932 volume outlines a plan to University, New York) restore individual freedoms, 10 View of model, Spring Green, which he viewed as under attack. Wisconsin, 1935, reproduction of Looking to Roosevelt as a poten- photoprint tial sponsor, in this letter Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Wright asks that a copy of The 8 Members of the Taliesin Fellow- Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Disappearing City be given to the ship at work on the model, Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia President. La Hacienda, Chandler, Arizona, University, New York) 1935, reproduction of photoprint Wright insisted that Broada- Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation 6 Frank Lloyd Wright and the Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery cre was adaptable to different Taliesin Fellowship, Two Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia contexts, though his primary "Broadacre City Exhibition University, New York) point of reference was the rural Panels,” 1935, oil paint, plywood Midwestern landscape where he The Taliesin Fellowship, where The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The grew up, with its prairie, farms, students lived, studied, and Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine and small market towns. Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) worked under the architect’s tutelage, was established by The model was accompanied by Wright and his wife Olgivanna a series of panels that outlined in Arizona in 1932. Wright was the project’s key concepts. soon inspired to build a second HARLEM RIVER HOUSES

YEAR 1936–37 Place and Harlem 1 Archibald M. Brown et al., pre- ARCHITECT Archibald Manning Brown, River Drive, New York, liminary site plan, July 1, 1935, Horace Ginsbern, Frank NY ink on paper J. Forster, Charles F. CLIENT Public Works Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, Fuller, Will Rice Amon, Administration, Housing La Guardia Community College/The City University of New York Richard W. Buckley, and Division John Louis Wilson Jr. TYPE 7 multifamily buildings The architects dealt with a com- LOCATION West 151st to 153rd of 4 to 5 stories plicated site by closing off Streets btwn Macombs UNITS 574 152nd Street, creating a Beaux- Arts pedestrian axis and a modern superblock. Once the Public Works Administration ing axial symmetry with streamlined (PWA) was formed as a part of the detailing. It was higher in budget 2 Aerial view of site, September New Deal, African American leaders and lower in density than subsequent 16, 1935, reproduction of photo- and activists pressed officials projects and included a nursery, graph to create public housing in Harlem. library, clinics, street-facing Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, After negotiations with John D. commercial spaces, and communi- La Guardia Community College/The City University of New York Rockefeller Jr. to purchase vacant ty rooms. Instrumental in designing parcels near the Dunbar Apartments the complex’s social spaces was John This view features the Dunbar fell through, the city took the land Louis Wilson Jr., the first Afri- Apartments to the south and Yan- by condemnation. The Harlem River can American architect to graduate kee Stadium to the north. Houses were built using PWA funds, from Columbia Univer­sity and become 3 Perspective drawing of the court- creating New York’s first federal licensed in New York. Unlike soci- yard, ca. 1936, pencil on paper public housing for African Americans. ety architects Brown and Forster, Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, The almost all-white Williamsburg Ginsbern (another Columbia alumnus) La Guardia Community College/The City Houses would open one year later in had designed apartments for unions, University of New York Brooklyn. making him the only one on the team with housing experience. The mixture 4 From top to bottom: Tenant Appli- The New York City Housing Authori- of backgrounds on the design team cation; Weekly Tenancy Agreement ty (NYCHA) managed a team of local underscored the project's novelty. Form; NYCHA Procedure for Selec- architects and contractors, which tion of Tenants, February 1, 1937 produced the acclaimed design combin- Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, La Guardia Community College/The City Univer- sity of New York In evaluating tenants, NYCHA used tured at Harlem River Hous- 11 Works Progress Administration, information provided by appli- es where he lived for more than May Day Celebration, May 26, cants about their “present ac- fifty years, photograph 1938, pamphlet commodations,” choosing tenants Albert Robinson Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, whose income, “character,” and La Guardia Community College/The City Univer- sity of New York “cleanliness” conformed to pre- 8 “New York City Housing Authority cise specifications. Initially, Management Division: Harlem Riv- The Education and Recreation De- rent was collected weekly at the er Houses, Study of Incomes of partment of the WPA hosted a free door to keep a watchful eye. 4,832 Classified Applications,” May Day celebration in 1938. March 11, 1937 5 Schell Lewis, perspective draw- Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, 12 Nursery School, ca. 1938–39; Den- ing, 1935, pencil on paper La Guardia Community College/The City tal Clinic, February 15, 1944, University of New York Horace Ginsbern Papers, Avery Architectural & reproductions of photoprints Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, Courtesy NYC Municipal Archives New York 9 Works Progress Administration, unit plans, ca. 1937 The Nursery School (above) ac- Illustrations of this sort were Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, commodated up to sixty children. typically reserved for projects La Guardia Community College/The City (below) Open to residents and with larger budgets. University of New York neighbors, a health clinic pro- Harlem River Houses differs vided services such as dental 6 John Louis Wilson Jr., “Name for from its NYCHA successors. care and tuberculosis screening. Harlem Macombs Place Project,” Two-, three-, four-, and five- October 7, 1935, ink on paper room apartments were configured 13 Rotogravure Picture Section, The Courtesy Judge Judith W. Rogers. Photographs & New York Times, March 24, 1940 Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in more than eighty different in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, ways. Subsequent housing plans Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations La Guardia Community College/The City would standardized unit types University of New York Architect John Louis Wilson Jr. according to the number of bed- This page featuring aerial pho- initially proposed naming Har- rooms. tographs of six newly completed lem River Houses after Frederick NYCHA developments emphasizes Douglass. “Federal authorities” 10 View of a resident in her kitch- the city’s efforts to solve some instead requested a name that re- en, ca. 1937, reproduction of of the period’s housing problems. flected the project’s location. photoprint Courtesy NYC Municipal Archives 14 Federal Emergency Administration 7 Ralph E. Waiters Jr., in Rucker Every apartment was equipped with of Public Works, Harlem River Park, ca. 1976, photograph electric lighting, hot water, and Houses, 1937 Ralph E. Waiters Jr. steam heating—a first for many Courtesy Seymour B. Durst Collection, Avery Albert "Sunny" Robinson, pic- initial residents. Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York HERBERT AND KATHERINE JACOBS HOUSE

YEAR 1937 TYPE Single-family house 1 Elizabeth, Katherine, and Susan ARCHITECT Frank Lloyd Wright UNITS 1 Jacobs, outside on the living LOCATION Madison, WI room terrace of the Jacobs House, CLIENT Herbert and Katherine 1941, reproduction of photoprint Jacobs Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) The Jacobs House represents Wright’s than face the street, the house first effort to design a “Usonian” opened onto a private patio, garden, Wright designed the house to help home–the name, an acronym for and landscape. the family weather Wisconsin’s “United States of North America,” he winters and to enjoy the long applied to works aimed at creating The internal layout, efficient days and moderate temperatures of a distinctly American architecture. kitchen, integrated carport, and its spring and summer. The 1,500-square-foot prototype extensive use of prefabrication for a modest, affordable, and found at the Jacobs house, among efficient dwelling was built on other features, came to define the 2 Susan and Elizabeth Jacobs in the a budget of $5,500. The clients detached, single-family suburban living room of the Jacobs House, financed the house with $4,500 from home in subsequent decades. Yet the 1941, reproduction of photoprint a local building and loan company, FHA’s refusal to finance this house Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery after the Federal Housing Adminis- and others like it due to their Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia tration (FHA) refused to guaran- unique building system and fears University, New York) tee a mortgage through conventional concerning their resale value would lenders. Wright kept costs down by limit Wright’s direct involvement 3 View of the fields and woods building the house on a concrete slab in the postwar building boom. behind the Jacobs house, n.d., (as opposed to digging a foundation), reproduction of photoprint by using prefabricated elements, and Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation by constructing built-in furnish- Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery ings. Lacking a formal entryway as Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia well as formal living and dining University, New York) rooms, the open plan of the house The Jacobs house was built on the reflected Wright’s idea of an infor- outskirts of Madison, WI, which mal, middle-class lifestyle. Rather at the time was being bought, August 18, and September 28, 1936 Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) subdivided, and transformed into Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation a suburban landscape. A reporter Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia Related to earlier “Prairie- for the Capital Times, Herbert University, New York) Style” experiments in upper- Jacobs had a short, fifteen-mile middle-class residences, the commute into the city. In this letter (left), Herbert Jacobs House was more modest in Jacobs expresses his openness to scale and informal in character. utilizing what were then unusu- 4 Katherine and Herbert Jacobs in al building systems for middle- the living room, 1938, reproduc- class American homes, including 9 Frank Lloyd Wright, “Uncon- tion of photoprint radiant floor heating. However, nected Notes on the Lecture on Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation the Jacobs House by Frank Lloyd Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery family needs at times conflicted Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia with Wright’s vision of how they Wright,” 1938, unpublished University, New York) should live. Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery The scale and mass of the masonry Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) hearth, contrasting sharply with 7 Frank Lloyd Wright, two views, the lightness of the living room 1937, ink, pencil, and watercolor Here Wright places the Jacobs furniture, underscore the impor- on paper house within the context of the tance of this feature for Wright. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The rapidly changing technological, Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) social, and cultural landscape of 5 Frank Lloyd Wright, section, the middle-class home. 1937, pencil on paper The Broadacre City exhibition included models of single-fam- The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The 10 Frank Lloyd Wright, publication Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine ily homes to serve as the basic plan, 1937, ink on paper Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) housing types for residents. The Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Jacobs House commission offered In his attempt to shear the Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Wright his first opportunity to Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia single-family house to its essen- develop a moderately priced home University, New York) tials, Wright eliminated a number based on these earlier schemes. of features common to homes of The first in a series of the era. “Usonian” homes, the Jacobs House 8 Frank Lloyd Wright, view of included many of the features interior, 1937, ink, pencil, and that would be developed in subse- 6 Letters from Herbert A. Jacobs to watercolor on paper quent projects across the nation. Frank Lloyd Wright, August 10, The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The EAST RIVER HOUSES

YEAR 1939–41 Avenue and FDR Drive, 1 Site plan and floor plans, 1941, ARCHITECT Voorhees, Walker, Foley New York, NY reproduction of ink on paper & Smith, with Alfred CLIENT The New York City Courtesy The New York City Housing Authority Easton Poor and C.W. Housing Authority Schlusing TYPE 29 multifamily towers of Though dissimilar in many ways, LANDSCAPE Alfred Geiffert 6 to 11 stories East River Houses does share LOCATION East 102nd to 105th UNITS 1,232 affinities with Harlem River Streets btwn First Houses, especially in its unit plans, which wind in Z-shaped sections around symmetrical Following its creation in 1934, the and nonprofit organizations also courts, set apart from the street. New York City Housing Authority staffed a nursery school and health (NYCHA) gradually began demolishing center. and rebuilding urban areas desig- 2 Site, February 1, 1940, reproduc- nated as “slums.” East River Houses Built for about half the cost per tion of photograph occupies the site of the agency’s unit of Harlem River Houses, East Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, La Guardia Community College/The City University first “slum clearance” in Harlem. River Houses reflects the austeri- of New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia steered ty imposed by the 1937 Housing Act the superblock project—the first in its unprecedented density and East River Houses marked the local high-rise, low-income housing devel- spartan design. Principal archi- beginning of what became known as oped in the city—to his old neigh- tect Ralph Walker (who Frank Lloyd “slum clearance,” a process by borhood. Originally, tenants were Wright called “the only other honest which the government designat- primarily Italian and Puerto Rican. architect in America”) chafed at ed tracts of land as blighted in Lease agreements required that at NYCHA’s budget and lamented the order to demolish the existing least one tenant per unit was a U.S. limits it placed on the design: buildings, displacing residents, citizen. Residents were sorted into elevators skipped floors, for for new construction. three income tiers with means-test- example, and ornamental details were ed rents. Although federal policy at minimized. The team managed to work 3 NYCHA’s 10th Annual Report, the time discouraged adding stores within these constraints, however, ca. 1944 and other program elements to public to create a complex of large but Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, La housing, social rooms were included unimposing scale, filled with sunlit Guardia Community College/The City University for residents’ use. Local agencies rooms. of New York 4 From top to bottom: La Guardia Community College/The City living room, ca. 1941, repro- University of New York Aerial photograph of East River duction of photoprint; Children Houses, n.d., reproduction of When it opened, NYCHA received enjoying the playground, c. 1941, photoprint over fourteen thousand applica- reproduction of photoprint Courtesy NYC Municipal Archives tions from potential residents. Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, La Guardia Community College/The City Pencil Points, September 1940, University of New York pg. 559; Sun Studies for East 7 From top to bottom: East River East River Houses was a racially River Houses, Pencil Points, Houses tenant poses with her integrated complex, accommodat- September 1940, pg. 557 children in their new kitch- ing Italian, Puerto Rican, and Courtesy Avery Architectural & Fine Arts en, June 6, 1941, reproduction African American residents. Library, Columbia University, New York of photoprint; Group of tenants putting food in preserve jars, Based on solar studies carried June 11, 1945, reproduction of 10 Voorhees, Walker, Foley & Smith out with a “sun machine” owned photoprint façade and construction details, by the Columbia University Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, Chester B. Price (renderer), School of Architecture, higher La Guardia Community College/The City Pencil Points, September 1940, towers were placed to the north University of New York pgs. 562–565 of smaller ones. This optimized Courtesy Avery Architectural & Fine Arts the sunlight, air, and views Library, Columbia University, New York reaching each unit, while also 8 Aerial view, Chester B. Price breaking up the overall density (renderer), Pencil Points, The architects of East River of the complex. September 1940, pg. 559 Houses were known for their Courtesy Avery Architectural & Fine Arts designs of Art Deco skyscrap- Library, Columbia University, New York ers. Here, economic constraints 5 The New York City Housing Author- forced them to look for new ways ity, East River Houses: Public This rendering provides a to manage a tall, dense building Housing in East Harlem, July bird’s eye view, highlighting without resorting to elabo- 1941, pgs. 14–17 the central axis of the complex rate ornamentation. Ultimately Courtesy Avery Architectural & Fine Arts and revealing its sun-lit, Library, Columbia University, New York south-facing façades. they chose a mix of brick colors and a series of patriotic bas- reliefs to animate the buildings’ 6 Moving in day at the still-unfin- 9 From top to bottom: The Solar façades. ished East River Houses, April 1, family in their new apartment, 1941, reproduction of photoprint c. 1941, reproduction of photo- Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, print; A family poses in their SUNTOP HOMES

YEAR 1939 TYPE 4 multifamily buildings 1 Frank Lloyd Wright, exterior ARCHITECT Frank Lloyd Wright of 4 units each view, 1939, pencil on paper LOCATION Ardmore, PA UNITS 16 (only 4 units were The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The CLIENT Otto Mallery and the built) Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) Tod Company With Suntop, Wright sought to scale his vision for the Usonian Like concurrent urban experiments, the children’s rooms created places house to the multifamily build- Wright’s Suntop Homes presented a for relaxation, exercise, and play. ing. From the street, each prototype for low-cost, multifamily three-story, four-unit block housing–only of lower density. The The aim was to combine the privacy appears as a single, detached architect’s original plan contained of a single-family home with building. “Your quartet house,” four buildings, each of which the efficiencies of a multifamily Mallery declared to Wright, “is connected four single-family dwell- building. Wright planned the to the suburban villa what the ings in a pinwheel formation for a development so that, even though Diesel engine is to the steam total of sixteen units. units shared party walls and a locomotive.” single drainage system, no dwelling Each three-story, 2,300-square- directly faced another, and each foot dwelling was designed to opened onto its own green space. 2 Frank Lloyd Wright, drawing of create a rich domestic environ- stack, fireplace, and kitchen ment for a young, upwardly mobile Wright secured a patent for his (detail), 1939, pencil on paper family, imagined here as one in design with the intention of having Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation which the husband commutes to the Otto Mallery sell development rights Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia city for work while the mother nationwide. The two encountered University, New York) remains at home with the children. many of the same challenges with In addition to the master bedroom, their small-scale, privately funded Here Wright’s preference for two children’s rooms were included, experiment that NYCHA faced on a nesting the large central hearth along with one shared bathroom. A larger scale in Harlem. Building and kitchen within a single living room with built-in seating viable models of modern, efficient, service core is adapted to the and an eat-in kitchen that projected and affordable housing pitted new quadruple plan. into the living room below provided social ideals and architectural social spaces, and a sun terrace off innovations against limited budgets. 3 Exterior view, 1939, reproduc- and unique views into the Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) tion of photoprint surrounding landscape. The configuration of each unit Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Archi- was designed to help residents tectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia Universi- 6 Interior view, 1939, reproduc- keep a watchful eye on family ty, New York) tion of photoprint members. From the mezzanine Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation on the second floor, people Each Suntop dwelling featured Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery preparing meals could supervise a private sun terrace and balco- Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia children playing in the living ny, as well as a garden that University, New York) room or outside in the garden. was screened off from the street Wright’s use of built-in furni- by a lapped board fence. ture in Suntop Homes—such as 9 Letter from Otto T. Mallery to the shelves, sofa, and table Frank Lloyd Wright, April 20, 4 Telegram from Frank Lloyd Wright in this photograph—helped 1938 to Otto T. Mallery, June 15, 1938 to maximize the use of space Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation throughout the units. Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) University, New York) 7 Frank Lloyd Wright, revised plot plan, 1939, pencil on paper Mallery’s excitement here high- Wright’s fiery telegram followed The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The lights the ability for innovation a letter from Mallery explaining Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine in building technology to make that the project’s underwriters Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) light, air, and space integral to wanted them to raise the listed higher-density housing. rent. Although four blocks were planned, only one was ever built due to opposition from neigh- 10 Letter from Otto T. Mallery to 5 Exterior view, 1939, reproduc- bors. Two university professors Frank Lloyd Wright, January 18, tion of photoprint and two assistant museum direc- 1939 Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation tors became the building’s first Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia tenants, renting their apart- Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery University, New York) ments for $55 a month each. Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) By extending the party walls This letter came on the heels of that divided the units, Wright’s 8 Frank Lloyd Wright, plan and a disagreement about how much and scheme equipped each residence section, 1939, pencil on paper when Wright was to be paid by the with privacy from its neighbors The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Mallery Company. GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER HOUSES

YEAR 1947–58 Streets btwn Park and 1 Site, January 25, 1954, reproduc- ARCHITECT Kahn & Jacobs Madison Avenues, New tion of photoprint LANDSCAPE Clarke, Rapuano & York, NY Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, Holleran CLIENT The New York City La Guardia Community College/The City University of New York RENOVATION Ralph Pomerance, Simon Housing Authority Breines, and M. Paul TYPE 13 multifamily towers of Friedberg 6 and 15 stories 2 “Suggestions and Instructions,” LOCATION East 99th to 106th UNITS 1,246 from the Handbook for Tenants, issued by the Manager, ca. 1954 This state-funded project grew in an initiative to re-landscape public Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, La Guardia Community College/The City concert with nearby Mt. Sinai Hospi- housing to accommodate baby-boom- University of New York tal during the 1940s and 1950s. er children and house new programs Benefitting from eminent domain in spaces designed on the model of connected to the housing develop- outdoor rooms. The intervention 3 Invitation to the cornerstone ment, the hospital pushed to extend built on Albert Mayer’s propos- laying ceremony, December 22, south of 102nd Street, in order al for the 1959 redesign of Johnson 1954, ink on paper to provide employee housing and Houses, but incorporated more Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, La Guardia Community College/The City parking. In exchange, it provided durable plants and materials. As University of New York medical and psychiatric facilities part of this initiative, Pomerance, for Carver Houses. The two insti- Breines and Friedberg redesigned tutions also shared an architect: Carver’s grounds in 1964 to feature 4 The New York Housing Authority, Columbia-trained Ely Jacques Kahn. hardscapes and to accommodate the site plan, April 1, 1954, New York City Housing Authority's ink and red pencil on paper Residential towers of different (NYCHA) first amphitheater, which Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, La Guardia Community College/The City heights (some with shared balconies) created a neighborhood commons and University of New York rose from a naturalistic setting an active, versatile space. designed by Robert Moses–favor- This site plan for George ites Clarke, Rapuano & Holleran. Washington Carver Houses Beginning in the late 1950s, the indicates in red pencil the Vincent Astor Foundation supported apartments that would receive more sunlight during certain times of day. The plan is unusual for its depth of formal symmetry, lyn, built around the same time, Courtesy Simon Breines papers, ca. 1930-1990, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, working on major and minor axes feature communal balconies. Columbia University, New York at several scales to form two semi-enclosed courts, resolving 8 Aerial View of East Harlem, The landscape of the George a site consisting of an asymmet- including George Washington Washington Carver Houses was rical group of superblocks. Carver Houses, ca. 1958, repro- redesigned beginning in the late duction of photoprint 1950s to incorporate new ameni- Photographer unknown / Museum of the City of ties such as a plaza, plantings, 5 Program pamphlet for the Dedica- New York and an amphitheater. tion Ceremony of the Carver Amphitheater, June 6, 1964, George Washington Carver Houses ink on paper was built on seven city blocks 10 Amphitheater Steps and Sunbreak, Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, between 99th and 106th streets, Mallow (illustrator), May 19, La Guardia Community College/The City from Madison to Park Avenues. It 1964, photograph of ink on paper University of New York is among the largest complexes in Courtesy Simon Breines papers, ca. 1930- the Harlem Area (comparable to 1990, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York 6 The New York Housing Authority, Washington and Wagner). Low-rise Rental Drawings, ca. 1954, buildings align with the grid, The construction of an amphithe- ink on paper while the towers are turned 45 ater provided outdoor space for Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, degrees. civic and cultural activities, as La Guardia Community College/The City University of New York well as play, at George Washing- 9 Clockwise from top left: David ton Carver Houses. Hirsh (photographer), view of the 7 Kahn and Jacobs (Architects), Plaza, ca. 1964, reproduction of view of the entrance, 1957, photoprint; David Hirsh (photog- reproduction of photoprint rapher), kids playing on amphi- Unknown photographer for Kahn & Jacobs / Museum of the City of New York theater steps, ca. 1964, repro- duction of photoprint; David George Washington Carver Houses Hirsh (photographer), kids was the first public housing playing on the brick wall, ca. development in New York with 1964, reproduction of photo- private balconies, heretofore print; David Hirsh (photogra- a feature of more expensive pher), view of the Plaza, ca. market rate housing. Bay View 1964, reproduction of photoprint and Marlboro Houses in Brook- GOETSCH-WINCKLER HOUSE

YEAR 1938— 40 TYPE Single-family house 1 Frank Lloyd Wright, millwork ARCHITECT Frank Lloyd Wright UNITS 1 details, 1939, pencil on paper LOCATION Okemos, MI The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The CLIENT Alma A. Goetsch and Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) Katherine Winckler Wright was interested in Wright developed the Usonia I home on a nearby site. The indepen- designing small, efficient, community plan for a cooperative dent, progressive women active- and functional kitchens of seven Michigan State College ly participated in every stage of for his Usonian homes. While teachers looking to live together on design, relating their person- prefabrication remained the a 40-acre parcel outside Lansing, al habits and social activities in ideal, this project still Michigan. The plan included gardens letters to the architect so that required a great deal of on each individual plot as well he could customize the scheme. hand-crafted cabinetry and as a communal farm, work sheds, and Broadly similar to the Jacobs house millwork. space for a caretaker. To Wright’s completed three years earlier, the and his clients’ consternation, Goetsch-Winckler house demonstrates 2 Exterior and interior views, however, the Federal Housing Author- how the Usonian ideal could be Hedrich Blessing (photographer), ity repeatedly denied approval of adapted to suit a variety of living 1941, reproductions of the loans needed to begin construc- arrangements. photoprints tion, and thus the project never Courtesy Chicago History Museum, Hedrich- got off the ground. Blessing Collection, HB-06661-A, HB-06661-C, HB-06661-D, HB-06661-E After the cooperative disbanded, Throughout his career Wright two of its members–art teachers Alma showed a talent for creating A. Goetsch and Katherine Winckler– good publicity. These carefully commissioned Wright to build them a composed commercial photographs of the Goetsch-Winckler house circulated in major architec- tural publications and helped to shape the demand for his services. 3 Frank Lloyd Wright, plan, 1939, 5 Letter from Katherine Winck- pencil on paper ler and Alma A. Goetsch to Frank The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Lloyd Wright, July 23, 1939 Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia Unlike the Jacobs House, which University, New York) was designed for a tradi- tional nuclear family, the In this letter, Winckler and Goetsch-Winckler house was Goetsch call the architect’s designed for two women who had attention to some lingering iss- chosen to live together. ues with the plan, from details “The Misses” Winckler and involving cupboard space to the Goetsch, art instructors at house’s orientation on the site. Michigan State, were known to be independent-minded and 6 Frank Lloyd Wright, plot plan of politically progressive women. Usonia I, 1939, ink and pencil on paper 4 Letter from Katherine Winck- The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine ler and Alma A. Goetsch to Frank Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) Lloyd Wright, October 25, 1938 Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Usonia I was Wright’s first Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery large-scale effort to Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) demonstrate the principles of Broadacre City in a planned In this letter, the clients community development. The plan describe their daily routines and featured seven Usonian homes, interests in detail, as well as a common farm, orchard, and pond. features they desired for their A series of cooperative communi- home. Most of Wright’s houses ties followed this one, including were tailored to the specific Cooperative Homesteads (1942) needs and lifestyles of their in Detroit, Michigan; Parkwyn clients. Village (1947) in Kalamazoo, Michigan; and Usonia Homes (1947) in Westchester, New York. JAMES WELDON JOHNSON HOUSES

YEAR 1942–48 Park Avenues, New York, 1 Rental drawings, 1957, ARCHITECT Julian Whittlesey, Harry NY reproduction of ink on paper M. Prince, and Robert J. CLIENT The New York City Courtesy The New York City Housing Authority Reiley Housing Authority LOCATION East 112th to 115th TYPE 10 multifamily towers of 2 View of the courtyard, April, Streets btwn Third and 14 stories each 1949, reproduction of photoprint UNITS 1,308 Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, La Guardia Community College/The City University of New York Upon assuming effective control of stairwells and corridors. Even so, the city’s housing program in 1941, concerns about alienation as well The large interior courtyard of Robert Moses proposed a group of as racial strife in the complex led the Johnson Houses was regard- large “Post War Works” that included to the commissioning in 1944 of an ed by NYCHA as innovative in James Weldon Johnson Houses. The New alternate community center. William its day, due to the inclusion York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) Lescaze based his new scheme, which of playgrounds for resident intended this project to serve was never built, on studies of local children. As war veterans were Harlem’s Puerto Rican community, youth culture. given housing preference, but anti-segregationist organiz- playground structures reflected ers pressured for integration. When By the mid-1950s complaints about vaguely militaristic themes. opened in 1948, Johnson Houses had life in the city’s high-rise devel- Puerto Rican (25%), African American opments were routine. Johnson Houses (58%), and white (16%) tenants. The was criticized as overcrowded and 3 Julian Whittlesey, Harry M. effect of only nominally integrating underserviced, with inadequate Prince, Robert J. Reiley, this and other projects was to harden recreation space and daycare. NYCHA James Weldon Johnson Houses, segregation within the city: by 1956, began a series of renovations in by L. Marinoff (renderer), white tenants formed only seven 1959. As part of this effort, Colum- ca. 1940, photoprint percent of the population at Johnson bia University graduate Albert Mayer Courtesy The New York City Housing Authority. Graphic, Archives and Rare Books Division, Houses, and by 1965, zero percent. designed a pedestrian promenade Schomburg Center for Research in Black connecting Jefferson Park with the Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, The cruciform-plan towers had glass- Park Avenue Market via Johnson and Lenox, and Tilden Foundations block walls with operable windows, Jefferson houses. This landscape, NYCHA resisted naming earlier, designed to bring light and air into however, went unrealized. segregated developments such as Harlem River Houses after promi- to six of the towers and house September 3, 1948, reproduc- nent African Americans, which secondary cores. Apartments tion of photoprint; James Weldon would have effectively coded them consist of between 2 and 6 rooms, Johnson Houses, June 18, 1949, in racial terms; Johnson Houses for an average of 4.2 rooms per reproduction of photoprint would be the first. In addition unit (compare this with Dunbar's Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, to authoring literary works, original 3-7 room range and 4.7 La Guardia Community College/The City University of New York Harlem Renaissance poet and room average). civil-rights leader James Weldon Johnson co-wrote the seminal 5 Fourth Annual Summer Festival, social and historical study of poster, ca. 1953, ink on paper African Americans in New York, Courtesy James Weldon Johnson Community Black Metropolis (1930). Centers, Inc. records, Schomburg Center for Recognition of Johnson’s accom- Research in Black Culture, The New York Public plishments came at a moment when Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations the integration movement was James Weldon Johnson Community gaining strength. With Johnson Center arranged an annual summer Houses, the city began festival, to which it invited recasting NYCHA projects as residents of the complex together legally integrated at the with all residents of East Harlem same time it began coding them to enjoy music and other perform- in racial terms. ing arts on the plaza. The event exemplifies the important ways in 4 Key site plan, July 26, 1956, which public housing engages its reproduction of ink on paper larger environment. Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, La Guardia Community College/The City University of New York 6 Clockwise from top left: James Weldon Johnson Houses under This site plan of James Weldon construction, June 10, 1947, Johnson Houses includes data on reproduction of photoprint; its 11 pinwheel towers, using 5 James Weldon Johnson Houses basic plans all organized around under construction, Septem- central circulation. Two of ber 29, 1947, reproduction of the towers contain the nursery photoprint; View of built tower school. Z-plan low-rises attach of James Weldon Johnson Houses, COOPERATIVE HOMESTEADS

YEAR 1941— 42 TYPE Community development 1 Frank Lloyd Wright, ARCHITECT Frank Lloyd Wright UNITS 20 interior perspective, 1942, LOCATION Detroit, MI (unbuilt) pencil on paper CLIENT Cooperative Homesteads, The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Inc. Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York)

Inspired by Wright’s views on construction began on a prototype, This drawing for Cooperative decentralization, his support of in the winter of 1941, the United Homesteads presents a series of cooperativism, and his libertarian States entered World War II and the domestic vignettes, in which political position, a cooperative of project came to a halt. Many of the a father spanks his son, a mother autoworkers commissioned the archi- cooperative members were conscript- cooks a meal, and a daughter tect in 1941 to design a subsis- ed into service or otherwise reads quietly under a clerestory tence homestead community on 160 called upon to work in the defense window. acres of farmland outside the city industry, which was then retool- of Detroit. The resulting proposal ing Detroit auto plants and related 2 Views of the Cooperative called for a development of twenty factories— a process underway across Homesteads prototype under single-family residences, each on a the entire country at the time. construction, 1942, reproduction one-acre lot. Each dwelling was to of photoprint include a small vegetable garden, Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation as well as storage for produce, a Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery workshop, and a carport. Building Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia the houses would require grading University, New York) and terracing the earth in order to In the fall of 1942, members of create banked walls, which Wright the cooperative began building considered an efficient, affordable, a prototypical home. Here, and natural method of insulating cooperative members build earth- structures. en walls and erect the roof.

Members of the cooperative were expected to share their time, money, and labor to plan, finance, and build the community. Shortly after 3 Frank Lloyd Wright, rendering, In his notes, Wright explains In his letter to Wright, Fred 1942, colored pencil and that building into the earth Thornthwaite, head of the Cooper- ink on paper integrates the homesteads with ative Homesteads cooperative, The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The the landscape, provides natural relays that its members deeply Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine insulation, and facilitates sympathize with the architect’s Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) self-building by cooperative economic, political, and social This exterior rendering of a members. A low, flat roof resting views. house in Wright’s Cooperative on banks of earth carries water Homesteads features a coopera- away from the house. tive member with a wheelbarrow, working in his yard. 6 Frank Lloyd Wright, “Concerning the Homesteads—Detroit,” Novem- 4 Frank Lloyd Wright, aerial view, ber 30, 1942 1942, ink on paper Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine University, New York) Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) In this text, Wright outlines the This aerial view of Coopera- principles of his Cooperative tive Homesteads illustrates the Homestead project. He emphasiz- project’s unique synthesis of es that the houses were designed working agricultural land and the to be built by the cooperative emerging practices of suburban members themselves, working development. Domestic agricul- collaboratively, using the time ture remained fairly common among at their disposal, and spending the working classes in suburban only what was within their means. areas at this time.

7 Letter from Fred Thornthwaite 5 Frank Lloyd Wright, drainage to Frank Lloyd Wright, November plan, 1942, ink on paper 17, 1941 The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) RIVERTON HOUSES

YEAR 1944–48 CLIENT Metropolitan Life 1 “Our World,” The Riverton, May, ARCHITECT Irwin Clavan Insurance Company ca. 1948, 34-39 LOCATION East 135th to 138th TYPE 7 residential towers of Courtesy Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Streets along Harlem 13 stories each Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, River Drive, New York, UNITS 1,232 Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations NY 2 From top to bottom: Herman Huff In response to legal challenges and Lamb & Harmon on Williamsburg (photographer, photo bureau, accusations of racial exclusion Houses, designed the moderate-rent Metropolitan Life Insur- leveled at its Stuyvesant Town devel- complex, which benefited from the ance Company), “East 137 St. opment, Metropolitan Life Insurance new law’s provisions. & Madison Avenue, Facing West Company created Riverton Houses. from the [Madison Ave] Bridge,” Although technically open to all, People often mistook Riverton for April 11, 1946, reproduction of only African Americans were expect- public housing, based on its photoprint; Aerial view during ed to live in the complex. Veterans external appearance. As would- construction, June 15, 1947, were given priority and made up the be tenants could see, however, by reproduction of photoprint; View initial group of tenants. comparing model units of Riverton of Riverton Houses and park, July and Johnson Houses on display 1950, reproduction of photo- Robert Moses sought to replicate at the uptown store Spear and Co., print; Herman Huff (photog- Metropolitan Life's Parkchester Riverton’s private apartments rapher, NJ Office of Family development as a model of large were 40 percent larger. Concrete Affair Records), Security Guards scale, private-sector, limited- walls were finished with plaster outside Riverton Houses, n.d., dividend rental housing. During rather than just paint, and floors reproduction of photoprint negotiations with the company were made of oak rather than Courtesy Photographs & Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black in 1943, he pushed through the asbestos tile. Additional bonuses Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Redevelopment Companies Law, which at Riverton included concealed Lenox, and Tilden Foundations reduced taxation and oversight of plumbing, closet doors, and eleva- limited-dividend projects while tors that stopped at every floor. allowing the city to exercise eminent domain for middle-income, private housing. Architect Irwin Clavan, who had worked for Shreve, “Harlem Week to Center on Jim ance Company that was restrict- Compared to public housing of the Crow Housing,” story from an ed to white residents only. The time, Riverton's apartments were unknown source, ca. 1940s site plan (below) shows voting 40 percent larger, and interior Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, precincts and polling places walls were finished with plaster La Guardia Community College/The City under consideration. rather than just paint, concealed University of New York plumbing, and closet doors.

Metropolitan Life’s restriction 4 Mattie Carrie Faulkner and her of tenancy to whites only two children moving in, July 29, 6 “Magazine Slanders Riverton in Stuyvesant Town caused a 1947, reproduction of photoprint Tenants,” New York Amsterdam backlash led by the City-Wide Courtesy Photographs & Prints Division, News, June 18, 1960 Citizen’s Committee on Harlem. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Courtesy New York Amsterdam News When the construction of Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations Riverton was proposed, the Outraged by Baldwin’s essay (see Committee resisted, noting that Mattie Carrie Faulkner moved 2 and title wall), residents and it wouldn’t change the precedent into Riverton Houses prior to its community members published a that had been set. In his 1960 completion, having recently coordinated response in the New essay “Fifth Avenue, Uptown,” separated from her husband York Amsterdam News. James Baldwin argued that “Harlem following a highly publicized watched Riverton go up...with lawsuit with boxer Joe Louis. Her 7 Clockwise from top left: the most violent bitterness of sons, Kenneth (left) and Ronald Juliette G. and Michael D. (rear spirit.” (right), were the first children right) celebrate her “Sweet to live in the development. 16” with (left to right) Butch 3 Floor plans and site plans, n.d., Faulkner, who later changed her Hudson, Winnie M., Chris “Buddy” reproductions of ink and colored name to Carolle Drake, went on to J., Yvonne L., Edyth A., and pencil on paper enjoy a successful career as a Beverly W., 1958, photograph; Courtesy Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books model and actor, appearing in the Alvin M., ca. 1960, photograph; Division, Schomburg Center for Research in 1957 film Band of Angels. Residents of Riverton Houses, Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations cooling off in the courtyard, 5 Living room, n.d., reproduction n.d., photograph; “Miss The floor plans of Riverton of photoprint Riverton” Denise L. shown with Houses were identical to those Courtesy Photographs & Prints Division, Juliette G.and Roslyn A., ca. used at Stuyvesant Town, an Schomburg Courtesy Center for Research in 1955, photograph earlier, downtown development Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Jim Collier Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations built by Metropolitan Life Insur- CRYSTAL CITY

YEAR 1940— 41 TYPE 24 multifamily towers of 1 Frank Lloyd Wright, floor plan of ARCHITECT Frank Lloyd Wright 12 to 14 stories a tower, 1940, ink on paper LOCATION Washington, DC (unbuilt) UNITS 2,500 apartments and The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The CLIENT Roy S. Thurman hotel rooms Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York)

In Crystal City, Wright interpret- deck. This city within the city The towers of Crystal City were ed the type of iconic, high-rise, provided a place where local closely modeled on Wright’s large-scale, mixed-use superblock white-collar workers and visitors unbuilt proposal for apart- that would guide redevelopment of could live, shop, eat, and even ments for St. Mark’s-in-the- the American city throughout the enjoy a film without ever having to Bouwerie, a residential project postwar era. leave. Plans for the complex, which from the late 1920s. These in would have been the largest in the turn had played an important Developer Roy S. Thurman had an nation, were turned down by the role in Broadacre City, where option on one of the largest avail- Washington, DC planning department, Wright scattered them throughout able tracts in Washington, DC–the due to numerous zoning violations. the landscape. In Crystal City grounds of a large, historic estate. the majority of the towers are He hired Wright, who designed a conjoined, as illustrated in this massive residential, commercial, typical floor plan. and entertainment complex for the 10-acre site, which was promoted as 2 Fairchild Aerial Surveys, Inc., a “Radio City” for the District. aerial photograph of the site, Washington, DC, 1940, Wright’s design proposed a series reproduction of photoprint of towers rising from a multilev- Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation el plinth containing a high-end Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery shopping center, a large movie Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia theatre, and a five-story parking University, New York)

The Crystal City proposal immedi- ately hit a roadblock when it was submitted to the city planning board. The project violated ordinances limiting the height of as an exciting new landmark. 6 Frank Lloyd Wright, aerial view, buildings to 110 feet and, But what did local residents 1940, ink on paper more seriously, flew in the think of Crystal City? In this The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The face of the city’s zoning letter, a DC resident living Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) code, which assumed a clear across the street from the site separation between residential expresses concern that the Crystal City’s iconic profile, and commercial uses. massive development will block innovative mix of programs, and her views and keep sunlight from integrated parking made it a reaching her terrace. 3 Frank Lloyd Wright, plan precedent for future superblock of entrance level, 1940, developments across the country. ink on paper 5 Topographic plate of Temple In his survey of Wright’s Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Heights, Washington DC, 1930, ink work, In the Nature of Materials Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery on paper (1942), architectural histo- Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia rian Henry-Russell Hitchcock University, New York) The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine hailed the project as “a model Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) Wright boasted to the Washington of how the urban ideal might be maintained in the mid-twentieth Post in 1940 that Crystal City In 1940 developer Roy S. Thurman century.” would be “earthquake-proof” purchased a 10-acre tract of and a “poor bomb target” on mostly undeveloped land at account of the apartment towers’ the intersection of Florida 7 Frank Lloyd Wright, elevation, tapering tops. In that same year, and Connecticut Avenues in the 1940, pencil on paper he also described Broadacre Temple Heights neighborhood The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The City as “bomb-proof” to The New of northwest Washington, DC. Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) York Times. After Wright accepted the commission to design his large, The most prominent features of 4 Letter from DC resident Charlotte multi-use complex, Thurman Crystal City were its towers, Clark to Frank Lloyd Wright, 1940 described their relationship as which would have created a new Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation a “marriage of love and compati- skyline for the low, horizontal Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery bility and a common goal." city. The cluster of twenty- Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) four towers contained 2,500 apartment and hotel rooms, While viewed with suspicion by responding to the rapid growth the DC planning board, Wright’s of the federal government at proposal was lauded in the press the time. JEFFERSON HOUSES

YEAR 1950–59 Third Avenues, New York, 1 The New York City Housing Author- ARCHITECT Brown & Guenther NY ity, rental drawings, ca. 1953, LANDSCAPE Mayer, Whittlesey & CLIENT The New York City reproduction of ink on paper Glass Housing Authority Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, LOCATION East 112th to 115th TYPE 18 multifamily towers of La Guardia Community College/The City University of New York Streets btwn First and 7 to 14 stories UNITS 1,493 The plan of Jefferson Houses represents a shift from earlier Together with Washington Houses, was at the time replanning Delhi, cruciform towers. Its slab Jefferson Houses belongs to India with support from the Ford form provides its residents the first group of public projects Foundation. At Jefferson Houses with more open views and through built under the 1949 Housing Act, he combined playgrounds, picnic ventilation. whose Title III offered feder- areas, a fountain, bandstand, and al subsidies for construction and children’s sprinkler with quiet, 2 Aerial view of the site, August maintenance. George D. Brown Jr., detached sitting areas. 29, 1957, reproduction of photo- a Columbia alumnus, met Bernard print Guenther while working in the State Often comparing it to Lincoln Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, Division of Housing during World Center, Mayer saw the new plaza as La Guardia Community College/The City War II. The architects’ double- part of a democratic “decentral- University of New York diamond plan represents a transition ization of excellence” throughout between earlier cruciform towers the city. Events hosted on the site This view looking southwest from and later slab buildings designed (renamed Gala East Harlem Plaza) East 112th Street shows part of around double-loaded corridors. brought opera, ballet, sympho- the 17-acre site cleared to build nies, traditional Italian dance, Jefferson Houses in East Harlem. In 1959 Mayer, Whittlesey & Glass African drumming, and folk music to renovated Jefferson Houses’ grounds, East Harlem. The re-design marked 3 View from East 112th Street and making it the New York City Housing a turning point in the critique Second Avenue, September 18, Authority’s (NYCHA) first Harlem of public housing, away from an 1956, reproduction of photoprint location to be re-landscaped. aversion to density (as expressed Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, Albert Mayer had long been active by Catherine Bauer) to a focus on La Guardia Community College/The City in the Housing Study Guild and community fabric (as articulated by University of New York Union Settlement Association and Jane Jacobs). Jefferson Houses is located in 6 Mayer, Whittlesey & Glass, gener- slab configuration. The slab East Harlem, home to diverse al play area, April 29, 1953, forms features one long hallway racial and ethnic groups includ- reproduction of ink with “double loaded” corridors. ing African American, Italian, on paper Thinner service areas allow every and Puerto Rican populations. Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, unit to have through ventilation. Yet Jefferson Houses was criti- La Guardia Community College/The City University of New York cized for creating pockets lacking in street-life that would This drawing of the plaza by have reflected this diversity, Mayer, Whittlesey & Glass providing a rationale for the contrasts the lively play area Gala East Harlem Plaza project. with the seemingly ghostly housing towers. 4 The New York City Housing Author- ity, key site plan, ca. 1953, 7 From top to bottom: reproduction of ink on paper View of Washington Houses, Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, June 6, 1957, reproduction of La Guardia Community College/The City University of New York photoprint; The New York City Housing Authority, rental drawings for Washington Houses, 5 The New York City Housing Author- April 14, 1954, reproduction of ity, Twenty-Five Years of Public ink on paper Housing, ca. 1960, excerpt from Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, a printed book La Guardia Community College/The City Univer- Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, sity of New York La Guardia Community College/The City University of New York (above) The towers of Washing- ton Houses were placed diagonal The focal point of this image, to the Manhattan grid. This featured in NYCHA’s book cel- allowed every unit to catch more ebrating its first twenty-five sunlight. (below) The rental years of public housing devel- drawings for the contemporaneous opment, is the relandscaping of Washington Houses demonstrate a Jefferson Houses’ public area, shift, also shown with Jefferson, Gala East Harlem Plaza, designed from the earlier cruciform plan by Mayer, Whittlesey & Glass. of public housing to a linear CLOVERLEAF HOUSING PROJECT

YEAR 1941— 42 TYPE Community development 1 Frank Lloyd Wright, rendering of ARCHITECT Frank Lloyd Wright with 25 multifamily living room in a typical unit, LOCATION Pittsfield, MA (unbuilt) buildings of 4 units 1942, colored pencil and ink on CLIENT Federal Works Agency, each paper Defense Housing Division UNITS 100 The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, With the outbreak of World War II which time the project was abruptly New York) in September 1939, the United States cancelled. Due in part to congres- Wright first expressed his positioned itself as a leading sional opposition representing interest in domestic environ- supplier of war materials for the the interests of local architects ments supporting a more Allied powers. Passage of the who had been passed over for the informal style of living in the National Defense Housing Act in 1940 job, this move also reflected a more Jacobs House; that interest enabled the Federal Works Agency general antipathy toward the vision carries over in this project. to begin building defense worker behind such modern, permanent, This rendering of domestic life communities and to support a number government-built communities. The in a Cloverleaf unit features of pilot projects in architecture, postwar era would see a ramping up a mother carrying food to a table construction, and home finance that of housing production in both where her child sits. Rather could serve as models for modern urban and suburban areas, reinvigo- than separating spaces for home building in the postwar era. rating debates about its proper form cooking, eating, and living, and methods. Wright integrates them here. In 1941 defense housing administra- tors invited Frank Lloyd Wright to submit a proposal for a community 2 Cost breakdown relating to near Pittsfield, MA. He repurposed a unit, 1942 the quadruple block housing first Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation developed in Suntop Homes to a Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia create a community with twenty-five University, New York) buildings of four dwellings each on more than 100 acres of land. The site Wright’s office estimated the was chosen, the drawings were made, cost of a typical Cloverleaf and the contract was signed, at building for the Defense Housing Division at approximately 5 Frank Lloyd Wright, aerial view, $19,000, including architect’s 1942, colored pencil and fees. The community plan called ink on paper for twenty-five such buildings. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) 3 Frank Lloyd Wright, plan and details of kitchen, 1942, colored The units of the Cloverleaf pencil and ink on paper Housing development were nearly The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The identical to those of Suntop Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Homes, with a few notable Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) exceptions. In this scheme, individual units were sited In a typical Cloverleaf unit, the further away from the road kitchen, dining room, and pantry to accommodate a larger garden combined to form a single space. as well as a small, enclosed yard next to the carport. On 4 Frank Lloyd Wright, site plan, the interior, the living room 1942, colored pencil and increased in size, the hearth ink on paper became more substantial, and The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The a larger wall of windows let in Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine additional sunlight. Arts Library, Columbia University, New York)

While most of the developments built for the Defense Housing Division were subdivisions featuring detached, single- family houses on small individual lots, Wright used the quadruple housing scheme to create a community of greater residential density. MORNINGSIDE GARDENS

YEAR 1952–58 and Amsterdam Avenue, 1 Morningside Heights Housing ARCHITECT Harrison & Abramovitz, New York, NY Corporation and Harrison & with coordination by CLIENT Morningside Heights Abramovitz, site plan, ca. 1953, H.H. Goldstone Housing Corporation ink on paper LOCATION 123rd to La Salle TYPE 6 multifamily towers of Morningside Area Alliance Records, University Streets btwn Broadway 21 stories Archives, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University in the City of New York UNITS 1,493

Led by Columbia University, River- the units were reserved for alloca- 2 Rendering, Robert Schwartz side Church, and the Rockefel- tion by the MHI’s sponsoring insti- (renderer), 1958, photoprint ler family, fourteen local, non- tutions. Max Abramovitz Architectural Records and Papers, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts profit institutions formed Morning- Library, Columbia University, New York side Heights, Inc. (MHI) in the Robert Moses repeated the strategy mid-1940s. Its aim was to separate of bundling low- and middle-income This rendering features Morningside Heights from Harlem by housing together in subsequent Morningside Gardens in the means of social, demographic, and development plans, such as Manhat- foreground and some of its urban planning. Echoing some of tantown and Washington Square. sponsoring institutions in the Wright’s experiments in the early Architects Walter K. Harrison and background. Riverside Church, 1940s, the private limited- Max Abramovitz were favorites of Union Theological Seminary, and equity cooperative Morningside Rockefeller. At Morningside Gardens, Columbia University frame the Gardens was the heart of MHI’s they worked under Skidmore, Owings project as an integral part of planning efforts. Title I of the & Merrill (charged with coordi- the “Acropolis.” 1949 Housing Act allowed the federal nating New York City’s Title I government to resell the two-block projects under the federal Housing 3 Groundbreaking, 1954, reproduc- site, which contained 1,626 families Act of 1949) to outfit the towers tion of photoprint in dozens of tenements, at a reduced with amenities such as balconies, a Courtesy Morningside Area Alliance Records, University Archives, Rare Book & Manuscript price. Initially, the majority of 24,000-square-foot shopping center Library, Columbia University in the City of the new development’s residents were (contrasting with Grant Houses’ New York white (75%); African American (20%), lack of retail shops), and a parking Asian (4%), and Puerto Rican (1%) lot with double the spaces required Although the clearance plan residents made up a quarter of the by code. that included the Morning- tenancy. Approximately one-third of side-Manhattanville area was authorized by the Board of 5 Morningside Heights Housing completely relocated. Although Estimate in 1950, the actual Corporation and Harrison & it would have been less expensive development plan received Board Abramovitz, typical floor plan, if demolition and construction approval only in 1953. Following ca. 1953, reproduction of began at the same time, focus- a series of protests that delayed ink on paper ing on a partial section sped the project, removal and reloca- Courtesy Morningside Area Alliance Records, up relocation while provid- tion began in 1954. University Archives, Rare Book & Manuscript ing temporary apartments (in Library, Columbia University in the City of New York sections II and III) for relo- cated tenants. 4 The Mayor’s Committee on Slum A notable feature of the floor Clearance, “Morningside-Man- plan is the inclusion of private hattanville Slum Clearance Plan 7 Views, n.d., reproductions of balconies. Carver Houses, the under Title I of the Housing Act photoprints only low-income housing in 1949,” committee report, 1951 Courtesy Wallace K. Harrison Architectural Harlem with private terraces, had Courtesy Morningside Area Alliance Records, Drawings and Papers, Avery Architectural & University Archives, Rare Book & Manuscript been an exception. Morningside Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New Library, Columbia University in the City of Gardens and other higher-income York New York projects like Lenox Terrace and Franklin Plaza included them as The committee’s report to the 8 Morningside Heights Housing a rule. Mayor on the "Morningside- Corporation, “Morningside Manhattanville Slum Clearance Gardens Shopping Center,” folded Plan" included a map indicating 6 Morningside Heights, Inc., pamphlet, ca. 1956 the future location of Morning- “Relocation: Critical Phase of Courtesy Morningside Area Alliance Records, University Archives, Rare Book & Manuscript side Gardens as well as other Redevelopment,” 1957 Library, Columbia University in the City of “slum clearance” projects. Courtesy Morningside Area Alliance Records, New York Speaking to the motivation of University Archives, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University in the City of This pamphlet promoting Morning- the plan, the document’s authors New York note, "Through proper integra- side Gardens Shopping Center tion with the public housing This booklet summarizing the to potential commercial tenants project and with the institu- relocation process on Morning- conceived of its trading area tional community, the redevel- side Gardens’ Title I site as primarily for the neighborhood opment of this site should serve documents that construction was immediately surrounding MHI’s to safeguard an outstanding carried out in three phases. institutions, and only second- residential section from further Demolition began as soon as arily for the larger area. deterioration." residents in Section I were BENJAMIN ADELMAN HOUSE

YEAR 1951 CLIENT Benjamin Adelman 1 Letter from Frank Lloyd Wright to ARCHITECT Frank Lloyd Wright TYPE Single-family house Benjamin Adelman, April 16, 1951 LOCATION Phoenix, AZ UNITS 1 Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia The Benjamin Adelman House was the The idea of self-built housing for University, New York) first of seven Usonian Automatic the masses projected in Broadacre homes that Wright designed. Each City clashed with the realities of Wright first estimated the used a system of concrete masonry homebuilding. In the Adelman house Adelman House would cost $15,000. construction based on a 12 x 24 x 4 and elsewhere in America: most The final cost was $25,000. inch block. Like earlier experiments owners had difficulty casting and with prefabricated components, assembling the concrete blocks, and 2 Letter from Benjamin Adelman to including his American System-Built almost all resorted to the use of Frank Lloyd Wright, April 19, Houses of the 1910s and “textile a contractor. The challenge of 1951 block” houses of the 1920s, the combining the latest building Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Usonian system relied on a single technology with the tradition of the Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery modular element to create a variety self-built home proved extremely Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) of different forms and patterns. difficult to surmount. The Adelmans commissioned sever- Prominent national homebuilders such al projects from Wright in the as Levitt & Sons saw prefabrication, 1940s, including a large laundry modular construction, and efficient plant that was never built. building systems as enabling construction of the single-family house on a truly industrial scale. 3 Letter from Benjamin Adelman to Wright saw these, by contrast, as Frank Lloyd Wright, November 2, providing opportunities to involve 1951 homeowners directly in the provision Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery of housing. He encouraged people Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia to design and build for themselves University, New York) from materials they themselves cast on site. Though the Adelmans were relatively wealthy, Wright promoted the Usonian Automatic 7 Two views, 1951, reproductions of the kitchen of the Usonian for the “free man of our democra- photoprints Automatic as a workspace. For cy” with moderate means. Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Adelman, he designed one that was Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery efficient, well-lit, and with a Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia higher ceiling to prevent heat 4 Frank Lloyd Wright, section, University, New York) and cooking odors from travelling 1951, pencil on paper The Adelman House was built using to the rest of the house. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine a 1 x 2 x 3 ½ inch block as a Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) basic building module. In total, 10 Frank Lloyd Wright, rendering, seven different variations were 1951, pencil on paper The Adelman House was the first utilized, including a plain, of seven Usonian Automatics built The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The coffered, and glazed version. Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine prior to Wright’s death in 1959. Arts Library, Columbia University, New York)

8 Interior view of living room, This view highlights the 5 “Frank Lloyd Wright and the 1951, reproduction of photoprint relationship of the house to Natural House,” House & Home, Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation the garden court at the rear, January 1955 Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery and beyond to the Southwestern Courtesy Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia Library, Columbia University, New York University, New York) landscape.

Here Wright explains the novel Unlike the decorative “textile” 11 Frank Lloyd Wright, publication Usonian Automatic construction blocks that Wright used in a plan, 1951, ink on paper system, which he believed could series of Los Angeles houses in the 1920s, the pre-cast concrete Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation drive down buildings costs. Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery blocks used here were plain, Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia hollow, and relatively light. University, New York) 6 Frank Lloyd Wright, sash sched- ule, 1951, pencil on paper The main 700-square-foot house The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The 9 Interior view of kitchen, 1951, was designed as the living Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine reproduction of photoprint quarters for the Adelman family. Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation The smaller guest house included Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery To let in more light and venti- Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia separate living quarters as well lation, Wright included a large University, New York) as a small maid’s room. corner window in the living room. In The Natural House (1954), Wright explained that he viewed GENERAL GRANT HOUSES

YEAR 1952–57 CLIENT The New York City 1 Morningside Heights, Inc., ARCHITECT Eggers & Higgins Housing Authority; posters for the Morningside- LOCATION 123rd and La Salle Morningside Heights, Manhattanville redevelopment, Streets to 125th Street Inc. ca. 1952, marker on paper btwn Broadway and TYPE 9 multifamily towers of Morningside Area Alliance Records, University Morningside Avenue, 13 and 21 stories Archives, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University in the City of New York New York, NY UNITS 1,940 Posters were produced by Morning- In concert with the development Public Housing Administration side Heights, Inc. to advance of Morningside Gardens, nearly officials held up this project as the development of General Grant two-thirds of Morningside Heights, “visible evidence of the highest Houses and Morningside Gardens. Inc.’s (MHI) private institutions and best use of public housing in an Propaganda such as this was advocated for the General Grant overall plan for the reclamation crucial for gaining proponents, housing development. In place of of an entire neighborhood.” as the redevelopment plan zoning techniques commonly used faced significant resistance in the prewar period to achieve Once completed, the twenty-one-story from the community. similar ends, Morningside Heights, complex became The New York City Inc. (MHI) introduced “horizon- Housing Authority's (NYCHA) tallest 2 The New York City Housing Author- tal restrictions”—conceived as project to date. Eggers & Higgins— ity and Eggers & Higgins Archi- buffer zones formed by establishing the successor firm of monumental tects, rendering, n.d., graphite nonprofit institutions and racially classicist John Russell Pope—went on on paper integrated middle-class housing in to design a Columbia gymnasium for Morningside Area Alliance Records, University the area. Morningside Park, the construction Archives, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, of which would be halted in 1968 Columbia University in the City of New York Working with the Mayor’s Committee due to intense protests by members Upon its completion in 1957, on Slum Clearance, the group of the community and students. General Grant Houses became addressed resistance to its strate- NYCHA’s tallest development. gies at local and federal levels This rendering illustrates the by featuring the low-income Grant twenty-one-story buildings’ (as well as Manhattanville) Houses tremendous height in contrast as part of its larger vision. to the surrounding neighbor- hood. It also features Morning- of the neighborhood as well), 7 Housing Authority photographer, side Gardens, the public housing off-street parking, baby view from West 125th Street and project’s private, middle-income stroller storage space, and a Roosevelt Square, March 18, 1957, counterpart. central laundry. The site borders reproduction of photoprint a public school. Courtesy Photographs & Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black 3 The New York City Housing Author- Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, ity and Eggers & Higgins, rental 5 The New York City Housing Author- Lenox, and Tilden Foundations drawings, 1955, ink on paper ity and Earl B. Lovell—S. P. The photograph was taken in Courtesy Morningside Area Alliance Records, Belcher, Inc., parcel map, 1953, 1957, the year Grant Houses was University Archives, Rare Book & Manuscript reproduction of ink on paper Library, Columbia University in the City of completed. Some of the project’s New York Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, La Guardia Community College/The City towers opened earlier, in 1956. University of New York The first residents were five Grant Houses was built in the families—two white, two African slab style with double-loaded This parcel map illustrates American, and one Puerto Rican. corridors that had become typical blocks of houses that were ob- Grant Houses was planned as a of NYCHA projects by that time. tained and demolished to produce racially integrated development The plan is not completely the General Grant Houses site. but eventually became entirely rectangular; the outer line is minority-occupied. jagged, where some of the units extend out to provide through 6 Photokraft Photographers, ventilation. view, ca. 1950s, reproduction of 8 From left to right: Demolition photoprint at the site of buildings one and Courtesy Photographs & Prints Division, two, November 10, 1954; Demoli- 4 The New York City Housing Author- Schomburg Center for Research in Black tion at the site of building ity and Eggers & Higgins, site Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations three, January 24, 1955, repro- plan of General Grant houses, ductions of photoprints 1955, ink on paper This photograph features two of Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, Courtesy Morningside Area Alliance Records, the Grant Houses towers as La Guardia Community College/The City University Archives, Rare Book & Manuscript University of New York Library, Columbia University in the City of well as the nursery school (now New York Grant Day Care Center) that provides educational programs The development included public for children ranging from two to facilities such as a community four years old. center and nursery school (made available for residents USONIA HOMES

YEAR 1945— 55 TYPE Community development of 1 Letter from David M. Henken to ARCHITECT Frank Lloyd Wright single-family houses Frank Lloyd Wright, July 10, 1947 LOCATION Pleasantville, NY UNITS 50 Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation CLIENT Usonia Homes, a Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia Cooperative, Inc. University, New York)

In this letter, the principal Inspired by Wright’s vision Impressed by their efforts, the founder of Usonia Homes, David for Usonia I (which yielded the Knickerbocker Savings and Loan M. Henken, updates the architect Goetsch-Winckler House), in 1945 Association agreed in 1950 to on the status of the cooperative a group of white, middle-class finance a group mortgage. Under its and makes several requests for couples in New York City incor- terms, Usonia Homes held the title changes to the community’s plan. porated Usonia Homes and began to the land and homes, and it would As the cooperative had grown pooling funds for the construction pay the loan association, whereas to include fifty members, he asks of a community outside of the city. members would hold ninety-nine-year, Wright to create fifteen more In 1947 they purchased 100 acres renewable leases and make monthly plots on the remaining land. of land in Westchester and hired payments to the cooperative. The Wright to develop a plan. The scheme bank requested revising Wright’s included circular plots of roughly plan to include rectangular plots 2 Frank Lloyd Wright, site plan, an acre each for fifty members, with but ultimately accepted polygonal 1948, reproduction of graphite the leftover acreage between plots plots, which eliminated the inter- and colored pencil on brownline serving as communal space. They stitial communal space. print began building five houses in 1948 Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery as a pilot scheme, using cooperative In 1955 members voted to take full Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia and private funds; several more ownership of their homes and lots, University, New York) houses were begun using private leaving the roads, community facil- funds exclusively. Further develop- ities, and 40 acres of communal land The cooperative purchased the ment awaited more extensive in control of the cooperative. site at a tax foreclosure auction financing. for $23,000. Wright intended that, for every acre of land set aside for a home (here indicated by a circle), another acre would be set aside for parkland. While Wright agreed to oversee 6 Topographic survey of plot 44 Under the initial terms of the the architectural design of the with sketch of Irwin Auerbach cooperative, each member agreed community, he only designed house, 1949, ink and pencil to pay a $100 membership fee, a few of the homes himself. on paper a $5 share, and $50 a month One of these was Irwin and The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The toward a collective maintenance Ottalie Auerbach’s house. On Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) fund, in addition to covering the the plot plan he includes the cost of their own home. site’s topography, the home’s The most iconic features of the footprint, and detailed Usonia Homes plan are its 1-acre, technical descriptions of the 3 Merrill Folsoms, “Rash of Schisms circular lots. This topographic building systems. Troubles Colony: Usonia Home survey of plot 44 shows an early Cooperative at Pleasantville Has conceptual sketch of the Auerbach Circle of Woes on Round Plots,” 5 Frank Lloyd Wright, view of house, which was never built. The New York Times, May 14, 1955 Auerbach house, 1949, colored Courtesy The New York Times pencil and ink on paper 7 Letter from David T. Henken to The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Frank Lloyd Wright, December 23, The cooperative thrived in the Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine 1945 late 1940s and early 1950s. By Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation the mid 1950s, however, it ran In 1950, Ottile and Irwin Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery into obstacles: tax assessors Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia Auerbach informed Wright that had trouble evaluating the lots, University, New York) they were concerned with the some members defaulted on their expense of the house he had Henken had close ties to Wright. mortgages, and banks refused to designed for them and had decided Inspired by the exhibition of finance further construction. against its construction. Though Wright’s work at the Museum of This encouraged members to vote construction of the Auerbach Modern Art in 1940, he left his to assume full ownership of their House didn't proceed, three job as an engineer to become a homes in 1955. Wright designs were eventually fellow under Wright at Taliesin, built: the Sol Friedman House, where he stayed for two years. 4 Frank Lloyd Wright, plot plan of the Serlin House, and the After securing an agreement from Irwin Auerbach house, 1949, ink Reisley House. Wright to design a community, he and pencil on paper returned to New York to recruit The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The more members for his cooperative. Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine In 1945, they incorporated with Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) thirteen families. LENOX TERRACE

YEAR 1952–58 CLIENT Godfrey Nurse Houses, 1 Charles J. Spiess Jr., rendering ARCHITECT S.J. Kessler & Sons Inc. (Robert Olnick) of the retail building at Lenox LOCATION 134th to 135th Streets TYPE 6 multifamily towers of Terrace, ca. 1958, tempera btwn 5th and Lenox 16 stories each Lenox Terrace Management Office Avenues, New York, NY UNITS 1,716 Commercial spaces were a crucial A semi-circular driveway and port in 1952. While Olnick struggled to part of Lenox Terrace’s initial cochère welcome tenants to Lenox secure a mortgage, tenants protested design. Terrace, today “Harlem’s finest flaking paint and plaster, faulty luxury-styled residential community” wiring, leaky plumbing, broken light 2 The Mayor's Committee on Slum according to its website. The former sockets, rat infestations, unsafe Clearance, “Harlem Slum Clear- Godfrey Nurse Houses were designed gas conditions, and lack of heat ance Plan Under Title I of the as luxury apartments from the begin- in winter. One tenant died in a fire Housing Act 1949,” booklet, 1951 ning, for a tenancy that was almost caused by a kerosene heater. Courtesy Avery Architectural & Fine Arts entirely African American. Amenities Library, Columbia University, New York like a “modern” lobby with doormen The new development only proceed- and a glass entryway, and private ed after two banks committed to 3 From top to bottom: Olnick terraces in many of the units, lend Olnick the money required for Organization, apartment floor made it “Harlem's most desirable construction in 1957. plans, n.d., ink on paper; Site address,” (1968) according to The plan, November 7, 2014 New York Times. Courtesy Lenox Terrace Management Office

Constructing the Godfrey Nurse Conceived of as a luxury build- Houses was not easy. It was part ing, Lenox Terrace projected of the federal Housing Act of 1949 new social needs and economic Title I “Slum Clearance Plan” circumstances on the part for Harlem, led by Robert Moses. of its future tenants. The plan In addition to receiving federal included a significant and city aid, the development was proportion of studio apartments privately funded by developer Robert and units equipped with walk-in Olnick, who sponsored the project closets. and obtained ownership of the site 4 Selection of surveys of In marketing Lenox Terrace 8 Aerial view, ca. 1950s, complaints by residents of the as Harlem’s “first luxury photograph tenements existing on the build- building,” the developers tout Lenox Terrace Management Office ing site of Godfrey Nurse Houses, amenities including air condi- 1955, ink on paper tioning, circular driveways, This view of Lenox Terrace Courtesy Harlem Friendship House Records, off-street parking, individu- captures three of the complex’s Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, al terraces, modern equipment, six towers still under Schomburg Center for Research in Black construction. Abraham Lincoln Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, lavish lobbies, and doorman Lenox, and Tilden Foundations service. Building nicknames such Houses appear in the foreground. as “The Americana,” “The Bucking- As Olnick struggled to secure the ham,” and “The Continental” were mortgage for the site clearance inspired by Miami hotels. and construction of the Godfrey Nurse Houses, the residents of existing tenements on the 7 Housing Committee, Central proposed site complained that he Housing Council for Community provided them with substandard Planning, “To Site Tenants of services. The Harlem Friend- Godfrey Nurse Houses,” pamphlet, ship House circulated a survey ca. 1953 to collect detailed descriptions Courtesy Harlem Neighborhoods Association Records, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books from the residents. Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations 5 From top to bottom: Ken Sargeant at Godfrey Nurse Houses, May 21, The tense relationship that 1960, photograph; Lenox Terrace existed between the site’s doorman outside "The Americana," developers and current tenants, n.d., photograph particularly the deteriorating Ken Sargeant/Harlem Cultural Archives conditions and the ensuing threats of rent strike, is evidenced in this pamphlet from 6 Advertisements, ca. 1958, ink on 1953. paper Lenox Terrace Management Office JESSE C. FISHER JR. HOUSING PROJECT

YEAR 1957 TYPE Community development, 1 Frank Lloyd Wright, elevation, ARCHITECT Frank Lloyd Wright with 31 multifamily 1957, pencil on paper LOCATION Whiteville, NC (unbuilt) buildings The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The CLIENT Jesse C. Fisher Jr UNITS 124 Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York)

After World War II, Americans of facilities recalling Wright’s earli- Fisher emphasized the importance all races, ethnicities, and social er plans, including Broadacre City. of giving the homes a dignified classes attempted to achieve the aesthetic character—in apparent “American Dream” of homeownership in The local African American communi- contrast, he thought, to the increasing numbers. While millions ty greeted the plan with interest. housing available to many African were successful, government policies After local banks denied Fisher Americans in town at that time. as well as community hostilities loans for the project, however, it thwarted the aspirations of failed to receive Federal Housing 2 Letter from Jesse C. Fisher Jr. many, and of African Americans in Administration approval, thus to Frank Lloyd Wright, April particular. repeating a racist pattern estab- 30, 1956 lished thirty years earlier by the Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation The housing shortage facing African agency, which also thwarted Wright’s Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Americans in the rural South was attempt to create modern, affordable Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) particularly dire. To address this, houses at a replicable scale. Jesse C. Fisher Jr. commissioned In this letter, Fisher proposes Frank Lloyd Wright to design a model The architect’s own views on the building a community for middle- community for middle-class African project are difficult to gauge. On class African American families, Americans in Whiteville, North the one hand, he featured this as his noting that they currently Carolina, the white real-estate most advanced community plan in his lacked “an adequate and beauti- developer’s hometown. The project, 1958 book The Living City. On the ful residential section.” In a referred to in Wright’s office as other hand, a racial slur scrawled period when racial segregation “Housing for Negro Families,” revis- on one of the plans indicates an often excluded African Americans ited the quadruple block housing environment of prejudice and conde- from using public pools, parks, type. Here, the multifamily proto- scension. and gardens, such amenities were type was inserted amid park areas, a likely otherwise scarce. community pool, and a country store— 3 Letter from Frank Lloyd Wright to 5 Frank Lloyd Wright, plan of In the mid-1950s, Whiteville, NC Jesse C. Fisher Jr., May 23, 1956 quadruple housing, 1957, brown was a small rural town and the Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation ink, pencil, and colored pencil majority of its African American Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery on tracing paper residents were crowded into poor Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation quality housing on marginal land. Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Fisher intended his development Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia Fisher and his wife, Gaye, University, New York) for this population, some of whom were refused financing from had approached him with the idea five local banks. They found With Fisher Wright returned to of developing a project. a company in Charlotte that the quadruple plan he had devel- would place the loans, on the oped for his Suntop Homes and 8 Frank Lloyd Wright, site plan, condition that Wright designed Cloverleaf Housing Projects. 1957, pencil with brown paper the houses. However, given appliques taped to tracing paper that African Americans in the 6 Frank Lloyd Wright, view, 1957, The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The area were frequently denied pencil and colored pencil on Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine access to credit, the project was Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) paper still unable to proceed. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The This sketch outlines many of Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) the features of the final plan, 4 Letter from Jesse C. Fisher Jr. including the location of the to Frank Lloyd Wright, June 27, This view of a typical unit roads, layout of the units, and 1956 highlights the separation of placement of community facil- Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation residences, the integration with ities. The drawing is labeled Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia the site, and the importance “Darky Village”: although the University, New York) of the automobile in Wright’s author of this label cannot be version of an ideal residential confirmed, in an interview with Here, Fisher petitions Wright community. the architect Ludwig Mies van for adjustments to the commu- der Rohe published in The New nity plan. In particular, he Frontier (1940), Wright said 7 Frank Lloyd Wright, aerial view, relays his clients’ preference of Broadacre City, “Of course 1957, pencil and colored pencil for smaller, half-acre lots over there will be religion. Protes- on paper full-acre parcels, to reduce tants, Catholics, Darkies and the the expense of upkeep. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Synagogues will be with us.” Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) FRANKLIN PLAZA

YEAR 1954–62 Third Avenues, New York, 1 NYCHA and Holden, Egan, Wilson ARCHITECT Holden, Egan, Wilson & NY & Corser, rental drawings for Corser CLIENT The New York City Benjamin Franklin Houses, 1958, RENOVATION Mayer, Whittlesey & Housing Authority ink on paper Glass TYPE 14 multifamily towers of Courtesy Union Settlement Association Records, LOCATION East 106th to 108th 20 stories each Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University in the City of New York Streets btwn First and UNITS 1,635 The rental drawings reflect a This development, originally called attempted to position the renamed middle-income vision for public Benjamin Franklin Houses, was initi- Franklin Plaza as the center of the housing, which included some ated as a city-funded, middle-income “New Upper East Side.” space for retail. project, with funds to come from the Mitchell-Lama Program, which Architect Arthur Cort Holden had 2 Franklin Plaza Apartments, Inc., in 1955 delivered a local alterna- long been active in city housing, “Twenty Questions and Answers tive to the Housing Act’s Title I, often proposing community-based about Franklin Plaza,” folded providing state and city channels redevelopment. His original design pamphlet, ca. 1962, ink on paper for eminent domain and financing for provided for thirty-three stores; Courtesy James Weldon Johnson Community Center limited-profit housing corpora- retail was championed by urban Archives, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books tions. In 1960—roughly the same time theorist and advisor on the project Division, Schomburg Center for Research in that Usonia Homes in Westchester Jane Jacobs. With Franklin’s sale Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations decided to alter their cooperative in 1960, Albert Mayer was brought to allow for private home and land in to reshape the landscaping. He ownership—the New York City Housing “glamorized” the project by adding 3 Rudolph Associates and Holden, Authority (NYCHA) sold Franklin a pedestrian “Main Street.” Mayer’s Egan, Wilson & Corser, rendering Houses to a coalition of communi- firm also revised portions of the of aerial view, n.d., ty groups and leaders organized by buildings, restyling entryways and reproduction of photoprint the Union Settlement Association and adding amenities. Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, East Harlem Council for Communi- La Guardia Community College/The City University of New York ty Planning. NYCHA, under pressure for reform, was in the process of This rendering depicts the exiting the middle-income housing complex before it was re- field. The new cooperative then landscaped in 1960–61. 4 Samuel Kaplan, “A Guide to 7 Mayer, Whittlesey & Glass, plans, 10 From top to bottom: Views of East Harlem for Franklin Plaza ca. 1960, photoprint the site, January 14, 1959, and Residents,” ca. 1962 Courtesy Union Settlement Association Records, September 17, 1959, reproduc- Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia tions of photoprints University in the City of New York La Guardia Community College/The City Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, University of New York La Guardia Community College/The City These two site plans produced University of New York This guide, prepared by a by Mayer, Whittlesey & Glass resident of Franklin Plaza and show the superblock after its sponsored by the local Union landscaping had been updated. 11 “Harlem Housing Begins Next Dime Savings Bank, provides a Year,” New York Times, August 5, brief history of the complex and 1957 8 Mayer, Whittlesey & Glass, highlights community resources. Courtesy Arthur Cort Holden Papers, Division drawing of perspective view, ca. of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell 1960, photoprint University Library, Ithaca, NY 5 NYCHA, key plan, 1958–59, Courtesy Union Settlement Association Records, This 1957 article describes reproduction of ink on paper Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University in the City of New York Franklin Houses as the largest Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, La Guardia Community College/The City middle-income housing cluster University of New York 9 NYCHA and Holden, Egan & Associ- sponsored to date by NYCHA. ates, drawings of kitchens and 6 Mayer, Whittlesey & Glass, bathrooms, August 11, 1958, drawing of landscape and play pencil on trace paper 12 NYCHA, Holden, Egan & Associates, areas, ca. 1960, ink on paper Arthur Cort Holden Papers, Division of Rare and Mayer, Whittlesey & Glass, Courtesy James Weldon Johnson Community Center and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University drawings of revisions for cooper- Archives, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Library, Ithaca, NY ative ownership, January 13, Division, Schomburg Center for Research in 1961, pencil on paper Black Culture, The New York Public Library, While NYCHA’s low-income units Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations Arthur Cort Holden Papers, Division of Rare had predominantly linear kitch- and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University ens, often combined with dining Library, Ithaca, NY Albert Mayer redesigned the alcoves, Franklin featured courtyard as an idealized “pedes- galley kitchens, separated from This drawing illustrates the trian main street” that would large dining-living areas. effects that change in ownership stitch together the development exerted on the architecture of and its neighborhood. the complex. EUGENE VAN TAMELEN HOUSE

YEAR 1956 CLIENT Eugene van Tamelen 1 Frank Lloyd Wright, floor plan, ARCHITECT Frank Lloyd Wright TYPE Single-family house 1956, ink on paper LOCATION Madison, WI UNITS 1 The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) The Eugene Van Tamelen House was $40–50,000, making Wright’s designs one of a series of single-family some of the more expensive options The Van Tamelen House, with its homes Wright designed for the Mad- within a rapidly growing market for L-shaped plan, efficient layout, ison, WI builder Marshall Erdman prefabricated homes. and utility core, has roots and Associates in the mid-1950s. in the early Usonian houses of The 2,000-square-foot house, The positive response to Wright’s the 1930s. commissioned by a professor at the ongoing effort to build afford- University of Wisconsin, is an ex- able homes in the suburbs contrast- 2 Erdman Prefab, William Wollin ample of Wright’s first design ed sharply with the increasing- (photographer), n.d., reproduc- for Erdman, Prefab No. 1. Like the ly negative associations (fanned tion of photograph Jacobs and Adelman houses before it, by Wright) that were becoming Courtesy Wisconsin Historical Society, WHS-91115 this project created an opportunity attached to the public housing to explore the possibility of being developed concurrently. The prefabricated houses transforming homebuilding through While these public housing efforts produced by Marshall Erdman prefabrication. were propelled by many of the same & Associates blended Usonian desires— to provide affordable, features with a middle-class Erdman initially offered buyers of efficient, and modern accommodations suburban vernacular growing in Prefab No. 1 a package that includ- on a mass scale— they were viewed popularity after World War II. ed structural components, floors, through different lenses and judged windows, doors, and cabinets for a by different criteria. base price of $16,400; home owners 3 Erdman Prefab I, 1956, published provided the lot, foundation, plumb- in House & Home, William Wollin ing fixtures, and electric wiring. (photographer), December 1956, With its custom detailing, the Van reproduction of photograph Tamelen house ballooned in cost to Courtesy Wisconsin Historical Society, WHS-66125 $55,000. Erdman subsequently raised Wright and Erdman utilized the base price of the houses to stock building components such as Andersen windows, one of the 6 Frank Lloyd Wright, sections, line of prefabricated homes. nation’s largest manufactur- 1956, ink on paper ers of standardized casement The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The 9 “Prefabricated House Bears windows. Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) Unmistakable Stamp of Frank Lloyd Wright,” The New York Times, July 4 5817 Anchorage Avenue, 1983, To keep construction costs down, 5, 1959 reproduction of photograph Wright and Marshall Erdman & Courtesy The New York Times Courtesy Division of Historic Preservation- Associates utilized standard Public History, Wisconsin Historical Society, concrete blocks, drywall, and Wright and Erdman’s venture Madison, Wisconsin masonite boards. received national attention, as demonstrated by this article, (left) In the dining area, the which appeared on the front page core is expressed in exposed 7 Frank Lloyd Wright, view, 1956, of the New York Times, above the concrete block and juxtaposed ink on paper fold. In addition to the Van with plywood paneling. Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Tamelen house, five other Prefab (right) The walls of the living Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia #1 designs were built. area, gallery, and bedrooms were University, New York) faced with richly colored plywood and battens. Wright’s Prefab #1 was part of 10 Frank Lloyd Wright, “Why Not a broader effort by architects, Prefabrication,” 1958 builders, and developers to Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation 5 Frank Lloyd Wright, plan of create an affordable ranch-style Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery kitchen/workspace, 1956, ink on Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia house on a mass scale. paper University, New York) The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Wright’s work with Marshall Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine 8 Letter from Eugene and Mary Van Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) Erdman & Associates was part Tamelen to Frank Lloyd Wright, of a long exploration of the October 5, 1958 By the 1950s, the kitchen potential of prefabrication. In was becoming emblematic of Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery this address, Wright discusses the middle-class home. The Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia this interest, putting it in the “workspace,” as Wright termed it, University, New York) context of larger debates about contained all the conveniences the role of technology and the In this letter, Eugene and Mary of the day, including a refrig- relationship between the United Van Tamelen inquire about Frank erator, an electric oven, and a States and the Soviet Union. dishwasher. Lloyd Wright’s development of a MANHATTANVILLE HOUSES

YEAR 1954–61 CLIENT The New York City 1 Clockwise from top left: Nevio ARCHITECT William Lescaze Housing Authority Maggiora, perspective drawings, LOCATION West 129th to 133rd TYPE 6 multifamily towers of 1955, November 14, 1955, December Streets btwn Broadway 20 stories each 30, 1955, March 1, 1956, March 5, and Amsterdam Avenue, UNITS 1,272 1956, and April 4, 1956, repro- New York, NY ductions of photoprints Courtesy William Lescaze Papers, Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse The emigré Swiss architect William Grant Houses) to provide low-income University Libraries Lescaze, who in 1938 created housing near the middle-income Williamsburg Houses, designed Morningside Gardens, thereby William Lescaze’s design for Manhattanville Houses to include improving the economic and racial the Manhattanville Houses new features advocated by The balance of the area’s large-scale contains a number of distinctive New York City Housing Authority redevelopment. Manhattanville Houses architectural features, such as (NYCHA) for its 1950s public housing also dedicated 5 percent of its the balconies on every floor, projects. NYCHA had been moving units to housing the elderly. which provided families with away from cruciform building plans “backyards in the sky” (a phrase toward slab-type configurations. In spite of NYCHA efforts to improve coined by NYCHA with Bay View But here, each of Manhattanville’s the quality of housing in the city, Houses, in Brooklyn, in mind). six buildings was configured in a much of the public remained unaware Y-shaped plan, which was unusual at of or indifferent to the success 2 From left to right: Demolition at the time. Lescaze also introduced a of these projects, and the stigma site, August 29, 1958; Demolition shared “backyard in the sky” on each surrounding them grew. Wright, for at site, December 1, 1958, repro- floor above the first to provide example, was a vocal critic. In ductions of photoprints recreation spaces for tenants, and a 1955 essay on the future of the Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, colored panels on the buildings’ American city, he denounced all La Guardia Community College/The City cores projected an image of public such public housing initiatives University of New York housing beyond the brick monolith. as “oppressive, red prison-tow- ers [that] loom everywhere in the 3 “Cantilever Base to Support With the support of Morningside overgrown village.” Houses,” The New York Times, Heights, Inc., NYCHA conceived this March 14, 1959 federally funded project (along with Courtesy William Lescaze Papers, Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse At Manhattanville Houses, color- unions, civil-rights groups, and University Libraries ed panels covered the balconies. religious leaders. While tenants In siting the project, Lescaze The panels were used by NYCHA to ultimately did not succeed in was confronted with a steeply update the public's perception of halting redevelopment, the sloping bedrock. As a result, the building. conflict did lead to increased in place of more traditional scrutiny by federal administra- tors, made Moses more circumspect foundation pilings, he used 8 Rental drawings, ca. 1958, in future projects, and secured a 16-foot-thick, concrete canti- ink on paper concessions from the city includ- levered beam to support one of Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, the towers. La Guardia Community College/The City ing a commitment to more low- University of New York income housing in the area and more services for evicted 4 Pierre Lutz (renderer), aerial The floor plans of Manhattan- residents. view, 1956, tempera on paper ville Houses emphasize its Manhattanville Houses Management Office, New basic configuration as three York City Housing Authority double-loaded corridors, joined at a central point, where a 5 Norma Rosario and family at public balcony helps bring in Manhattanville Houses, light and circulate air in the ca. 1968—1982, photographs service area. Norma Rosario 9 William Lescaze, composite site 6 Photographs featuring model of plan of three projects, May 2, Manhattanville Houses, ca. 1956, 1956, ink on paper photoprint William Lescaze Papers, Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries Courtesy William Lescaze Papers, Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries Unprecedented levels of organized resistance delayed the site assembly process at 7 Aerial view, ca. 1961, Manhattanville Houses, Grant reproduction of photoprint Houses, and Morningside Gardens Courtesy The La Guardia and Wagner Archives, for several years, as both La Guardia Community College/The City University of New York sides pieced together dueling coalitions of local nonprofits, THE LIVING CITY

YEAR 1958 industrial buildings, 1 Frank Lloyd Wright, typical ARCHITECT Frank Lloyd Wright single-family houses, street view at civic center with LOCATION N/A (unbuilt) and landscape new type vertical body car and CLIENT N/A UNITS Houses for 1,400 helicopter taxi in flight, 1958, TYPE Community plan with families, located on 4 pencil and sepia on paper civic, cultural, and square miles The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) Wright’s final statement on Broada- ers had begun reviving the historic cre City was published a year before urban core of cities, rather than When Wright first presented his death. His plan, presented under abandoning them. After Wright’s Broadacre City in the 1930s, the title The Living City (1958), death, critics frequently associated the automobile’s impact on Am- had evolved in subtle but signifi- his scheme with the phenomenon of erican life was just beginning cant ways over the course of twenty- suburban sprawl. to be felt; by the late 1950s five years. While integrating its effects were impossible to several of his more recent projects, Broadacre City— in all its itera- ignore. Wright advocated dev- Wright also included new perspective tions— advances the “American Dream” elopment that accommodated the drawings to illustrate his vision of the nuclear family with private car. In this drawing, Wright- of the future city, set within a home-, land-, and car-ownership, designed cars traverse fully bucolic landscape of rolling hills, while simultaneously acknowledg- planted roadways with lighting high-speed trains, helicopter taxis, ing the need for cooperation and built into the pavement. Beyond nuclear powered barges, and sleek for some public intervention. Like the roadway, however, no suburban personal automobiles. public housing, it represents a houses can be seen—only planted bold statement about the possibility fields and a skyscraper, signs In the text of the book, Wright of changing how we live in America. of a new form of regional amplified his long-standing critique Also like public housing, Broada- development. of the American city, which had cre City is contradictory, but in grown increasingly bitter in the different ways. Where one approach 2 Frank Lloyd Wright, typical postwar period. By this time, his celebrates individual rights, street view, 1958, pencil on proposal appeared wrongheaded to the other emphasizes rights that are paper many, as a new generation of archi- shared. Both continue to inspire Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation tects, planners, and policymak- and polarize to this day. Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) Wright offered Broadacre City 4 Frank Lloyd Wright, typical view 6 Frank Lloyd Wright, “The Future as a vision of an “organic” of Broadacre's countryside, of the City,” Saturday Review, social life that balanced the 1958, pencil and sepia on paper May 21, 1955 needs of individuals with those The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation of the community, achieved Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Arts Library, Columbia University, New York) Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia via controlled mechanization and University, New York) enlightened governance. In this rendering of the revised Broadacre City scheme, a main In this short essay written for Saturday Review, a popular 3 Frank Lloyd Wright, The Living road cuts across the evenly intellectual journal of politi- City (New York: Horizon Press, settled landscape, connecting cal, theatre, and art criticism, 1958), foldout farms, the market, the arena, Wright penned one of his last Courtesy Avery Architectural & Fine Arts and the county government tower, Library, Columbia University, New York on the shore of a lake. In the statements of Broadacre City. foreground and sky, Wright’s In this piece, he positioned his In 1932 Wright published The “air-rotor” reveals his continu- project as the culmination of Disappearing City, an indictment ing fascination with freedom of a centuries-long development of of modern urban life in America. movement. urban form. He continually developed his thesis, republishing it in 1945 as When Democracy Builds. In 5 Frank Lloyd Wright, revised plan The Living City, the third and for Broadacre City, 1958, ink on final version of this thesis, paper he expanded the scope of his Courtesy The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery idea, included new projects, Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia and rewrote most of the text. University, New York) Left unchanged, notably, are the project’s slogans, visible in the In this revised plan for Broad- bottom left of this foldout as acre City, Wright included a well as in the original project number of new features, such panels flanking the gallery as an airport, and included entrance. modified versions of earlier built and unbuilt projects, such as the Price Tower, built in Bartlesville, OK in 1956.