Frank Lloyd Wright's Rosenbaum House: The Birth and Rebirth of an American Treasure

Architecture critic Peter Blake wrote in 1960 that "during the 1930s, Wright built four structures of a beauty unexcelled in America before or since." One of the four was the Rosenbaum House, the subject of this book.

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) developed the "Usonian" home as low-cost housing for newlyweds (as Stanley and Mildred Rosenbaum were in 1939, when construction began on their house) and others without a lot of money to spend. Far ahead of its time, the versatile design formed the basis for some of Wright's best residences.

The Rosenbaums' sixty-year occupancy of their Usonian suggests a certain strength of character. Wright's design sometimes preceded the technology necessary to keep them functioning. This house's heating system failed, incurably and almost immediately. The roof developed Niagara-like leaks. The cantilevered carport became frighteningly flexible. Another cantilever had to be supported by planks. The Rosenbaums loved the place anyway, and when their growing family called for its expansion and major remodeling, it was to Wright that they turned.

In 1999, the city of Florence, Alabama, purchased the house even though city inspectors thought it beyond saving. The inspectors were wrong. Now restored, the beautiful Rosenbaum House is a museum.

This book tells the story of the building's design, construction--which, like so many of Wright's commissions, involved high drama punctuated by humor--remodeling, and restoration. Written with lucid wit and plentifully illustrated with photographs and drawings, it is insightful and entertaining in equal measure.

By Barbara Kimberlin Broach; Donald E. Lambert, AIA; and Milton Bagby. 80 pages with about 40 contemporary photographs; 7 historical photographs; and 3 architectural drawings. Smyth-sewn casebound book, with jacket. Size: 8 x 7 in.