Construction Activity Started up Again

It has been a few weeks since there has been construction activity at the site of the new visitor's center, but today there were a few men and a machine!

The first Usonian house

Frank Lloyd Wright built a home in 1923 in Pasadena, California for Alice Millard, a rare book dealer originally from Highland Park, Illinois and it is called La Miniatura. Thirty years after he built the home, he called La Miniatura his first Usonian house.

 In 1936 Wright built a home in Madison, Wisconsin for Herbert and Katherine Jacobs and Wright termed this home a Usonian house. It was believed that the Jacobs home was the first Usonian home Wright designed, but Wright himself in 1953, gave that honor to La Miniatura.

Construction has picked up today; more dirt moving about!

Work continues...

The work area has been fenced and the garage that was behind the green house has been torn down.

New Tourism and Education Center will be coming soon!

The Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian designed Tourism and Education Center will be coming soon. The land is starting to be cleared. This center will be built according to Wright's plans, even including his signature concrete blocks. It should be about 1500 square feet and include a gift shop and book store and space for conferences and exhibitions. There will be a a tourism kiosk with information on other Polk County attractions and docent-led audio and self-guided tours  The interior will have Wright designed built-in furnishings. The center will be constructed using plans for a Usonian house (Usonian is an acronym for United States of North America) that Mr. Wright created as part of the campus master plan but which was never built. Mr. Wright designed 18 structures for the campus, 12 of which were built between 1939 and 1958.