Inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Bachman-Wilson House, Lindal’s Crystal Springs design stacks two bedrooms above the kitchen/ dining/utility core, giving the living room a generous doubleheight ceiling with a wall of glass, which makes the home seem larger than its 2,168 square feet.
28
•
online at upstatehouse.com
The Silverton commands a flexible design in a T-shaped layout. The great room can be flipped to take advantage of the views, while the stacked bedroom wings can be adjusted for size without sacrificing any of the design’s essential beauty.
The Lindal team was initially concerned about how the Imagine Series would be received by fans of Wright and Usonia. “I was so nervous because there are these people who are so passionate and can get angry when Wright’s name is not respected,” Christina says. But the positive reaction on social media has allayed her fears. “Everyone’s so excited to see something like this come about,” she says. “There’s nothing else out there like this program. The Wright Foundation is very protective of the Wright homes, and we are inspired by them. We’re not copying or doing cookie-cutter versions.”
LINDALNY.COM HUDSONVALLEYCEDARHOMES.COM
Images: Lindal Cedar Homes
The key to the collaboration was identifying “which elements of Usonian design to preserve,” Trina says, and figuring out what to tweak to reflect contemporary life. Flat roofs are engineered to handle snow and rainfall. The homes have a lot of (insulated) glass, which, a la Wright, breaks down the barrier between indoors and out, “letting the outside in,” Buhler says. “It’s really amazing to be sitting in the living room with a fire going and having a cup of coffee and watching the snow come down.” Wright’s kitchens tended to be very small. “That’s not what people want to spend time cooking in now,” Christina says. “People are very much about the communal, and the kitchen is where people gather. These new designs bring the kitchen out to the living spaces and open them up more.” Wright’s designs sometimes lacked main-floor bathrooms, but the new designs allow aging-in-place, says Christina, with a ground-floor powder room and a room that could be a master bedroom “when you don’t want to do the stairs anymore.” Another change is lot size. Imagine Series houses range from 780 square feet to 2,850 square feet, and accommodate a variety of orientations of views. “Frank Lloyd Wright wouldn’t even look at designing a home unless you had one acre,” she says. “We know many customers don’t have that much land. There’s a huge amount of flexibility to expand and contract as needed.” So what happens if you sign up for an Imagine Series house? “We’re full-service,” says Buhler. “We help buy and evaluate land, and go through the design process with Aris and Trina and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. Then we find qualified builders and help owners through the building process.” Wright’s first Usonian home—Jacobs House in Wisconsin— cost about $5,500 in 1937 (about $95,000 today). Although Imagine Series houses’ prices vary according to location, Trina says the cost of a Lindal “Wright” is less than the cost of working with an architect’s custom design.