Hand-drawn design of the "Usonian House for Mr. and Mrs. Frank G. Wheeler" in Hinsdale, Illinois, executed under Wright's oversight at his studio, one page, 36 x 30, with the inside of the hand-drawn red 'Taliesen' box at the bottom signed in pencil by Frank Lloyd Wright, "FLLW, Jan. 20/48." Accomplished in ink, graphite, and colored pencil, and identified as "Sheet 3, Mat Plan, Concrete & Masonry Work," the plan shows a detailed overhead view of the house, identifying the terrace, living room, bedrooms, shop, bathroom, carport, fireplaces, chimneys, and other areas, all labeled with comprehensive details pertaining to the concrete and masonry work involved in their creation. On the right side is a large cross-section of the "studio fireplace." At the top is a lengthy passage headed "Masonry Work," detailing the contractor's responsibilities for completing the work.
Beginning in the 1930s, Wright developed a series of homes he called 'Usonian'—cost-effective houses with no attics, no basements, and scarce ornamentation. They are characterized by native materials; flat roofs and large cantilevered overhangs for passive solar heating and natural cooling; natural lighting with clerestory windows; radiant-floor heating; and 'carports,' a term coined by Wright to describe an overhang for sheltering a parked vehicle. Most of these typical Usonian elements are evident in this design for the "Usonian House for Mr. and Mrs. Frank G. Wheeler."
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