Usonia, New York: Building a Community with Frank Lloyd Wright [Hardcover]

Roland Reisley (Author), John Timpane (Contributor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1568982453 | ISBN-13: 978-1568982458 | Publication Date: July 1, 2001 | Edition: 1

Usonia, New York is the story of a group of idealistic men and women who, following WWII, enlisted Frank Lloyd Wright to design and help them build a cooperative utopian community near Pleasantville, NY. Through both historic memorabilia and contemporary color photos, this book reveals the still-thriving community based on concepts Wright advocated in his Broadacre City proposals. Over the years, thousands of architects, scholars, planners, and students have visited the community, but no book has yet appeared on this remarkable site. Reisley, one of the original members of Usonia (and still a resident), has written the first full account to illuminate the events, problems, and passions of a democratic group of people developing a designed environment an hour from New York City and the ups and downs of working with America's most famous -and most famously volatile-architect.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This is the latest of several books written about the "organic" housing development laid out by Frank Lloyd Wright in New York's Westchester County. In 1945, a rural tract was purchased by a cooperative of young couples from New York City, who were able to enlist Wright to build his Broadacre City concept. Wright designed three homes himself and approved the other 44. Reisley, a co-op member who commissioned one of the houses by Wright, outlines the organizational and social life span of Usonia, from the pioneering days of construction work parties through financial crises to the current well-established community. He concludes with a chapter about his own positive experience as a client of Wright. Contemporary photographs help tell the story, and a visual index identifies the houses. Buy for regional collections, Wright collections, and where interest in the American cooperative movement warrants David R. Conn, Surrey P.L., B.C.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Wright's only fully realized planned community. As told by Roland Reisley, one of the community's original `Usonians', at the end of WWII a group of young New York families learned of a project to build affordable modernist homes in then-rural Westchester County within a development supervised by Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright devised a site plan consisting of 55 circular one-acre lots in a 100-acre tract of land, with at least 40 acres reserved for wooded, shared, green space. Wright intentionally created too many lots, observing that `no one wants to have to choose the last one of anything.'" --Docomomo

"The neighborhood that Wright helped build even has an idyllic-sounding name: Usonia. In the 1940s, an engineer named David Henken petitioned Wright to build a community out in the woods. Though Wright didn't design each individual house (only a couple of the houses are his, including the famed `Sol Friedman House' and `Roland Reisley House'), he did put a plan in place for a 47-home development using his signature modern style. The original inhabitants formed a cooperative, rolled up their sleeves, and banded together to build each other's homes. (Can you imagine that happening today?)" --Westchester Magazine

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press; 1 edition (July 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568982453
• ISBN-13: 978-1568982458
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 9.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #225,574 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Extraordinary Community, September 20, 2007

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K. Bolinsky (Mississippi) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Usonia, New York: Building a Community with Frank Lloyd Wright (Hardcover)

This is an excellent book: Well-written and thoroughly illustrated, it literally answered all my questions about this astonishing community in suburban NYC. Although I've walked through the community I now feel the need to return as a more informed observer!