Architectural archives include a wide variety of materials, such as drawings, project files, and photographs. Architects generate these types of records in designing projects for specific clients, keeping in mind the purpose and requirements of the building.
Residential design projects, in particular, often involve the architect and client working closely together to bring a design into reality. The architect-client relationship can be a collaborative process, but clients sometimes have very specific requests, affecting floor plans, building materials, colors, etc. But what happens when the architect does not need to cater to the whims of the client? Freed from this requirement, the architect can explore a particular theme or experiment in a style without having to answer to an outside client. Using items from Design and the Arts Special Collections, let’s look at some houses that architects have designed for themselves.
Blaine Drake was one of Frank Lloyd Wright's original apprentices at Taliesin, Wisconsin in 1933. He continued his apprenticeship with Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin West in Arizona before establishing his own architectural practice in Phoenix in 1945. In the Drake House No. 3 (Phoenix, 1952), Blaine Drake employs a curvilinear form in the design, a departure from much of his other residential work.
The architecture of Fred Linn Osmon reflects an emphasis on ecologically-sound, desert-sensitive design. Two houses that Osmon designed for himself and his family each illustrate distinct themes. In Osmon Residence III (Cave Creek, 1999), the emphases are the interior of the house and use of color. Osmon described the house as "a monastery of color where each room or alcove is a walk-in painting where form and furnishings are minimal, so as to make color the main expressive element in the space.”
In the next house he designed for himself and his family (Osmon Residence IV, Cave Creek, 2002) explored the theme of living in a desert-friendly house that provided privacy for its occupants. Osmon described the house as “a summary of the paradigm searches I have been making over the years in my desert houses. The overall solution is an enclosed compound of four separate pavilions and adjacent courts and gardens.”
The houses that Alfred Newman Beadle designed for himself and his family demonstrate a lot of continuity with his other work, both residential and commercial. Beadle, a pioneer in desert modernism, favored low-profile designs, with flat roofs and a minimalistic appearance.
Find out more about these architects by taking a look at the Design and the Arts Special Collections website.
Learn more about how archivists are promoting collections during American Archives Month and #AskanArchivst Day 2021.
-Harold Housley, Archivist (Architecture, Arts & Design), Distinctive Collections