foundation floating on a bed of soft mud. The building was completed in 1922, and it suffered no damage in the disastrous earthquake that occurred in the following year.Wright achieved his goal of low-cost, democratic American architecture with his Usonian houses of the 1930’s. Usonia was Wright’s term for United States of North America, with an I added for a pleasing sound. The Usonian houses had a simple design, usually with the L-shaped floor plan. This plan separated the noisier living space on the one leg of the L from the quieter bedroom space on the other leg. The floor was made of concrete slabs, typically in a square grid of 4 by 4ft for easy construction. Pipes carrying heated water ran beneath the floor and provided radiant heat. The kitchen, which Wright called the workspace, and two supporting walls at each end of the house were of masonry. Long wood panels, emphasizing the structure’s horizontality, were used for both interior and exterior walls. Glass window walls on the inside of the L opened onto the yard, while the wooden outside of the L closed the house from the street.Of the more than 1100 projects Wright had designed of his lifetime, nearly one-third were created during the last decade of his life. Wright had an astounding capacity for self-renewal and was tireless in his efforts to create an architecture that was truly American. Through his work, his writings, and the hundreds of apprentice architects that trained at his side, his ideas have been spread throughout the world....
