Following over 20 decades of analyzing Frank Lloyd Wright’s work, Cleveland natives Dan and Dianne Chrzanowski got a chance to live their passion by getting the next owners of Wright’s John J. Dobkins House.
This home illustrates Wright’s take on the democratic American home. Based on William Allin Storrer, the writer of The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion, Wright’s”Usonian” homes were created to appeal to average-income families. They normally had an open floor floor plan, with the living space, bedrooms and bathrooms taking up one wing and the kitchen (or workspace, as Wright called it) sitting at the intersection. They had one narrative and have been built of easily attainable brick, concrete and solid woods.
With fantastic regard for the Dobkins House, the Chrzanowskis have spent the last 15 years hammering it while living inside. “It’s about recovery and saving, not remodeling,” says Dan. “We owners are responsible to care for a part of America’s architectural heritage.”
at a Glance
Who lives here: Dan and Dianne Chrzanowski
Location: Canton, Ohio
Size: About 1,800 square feet; 2 bedrooms, 2 baths
That’s interesting: The floor plan is based on a run of equilateral triangles, without a 90-degree corners.
Adrienne DeRosa
Wright frequently integrated notions of balance and character to his work. The wall of windows from the living room generates an almost transparent divide from the outdoors. Also known because of his principles of natural structure, Wright had almost everything in the house made of natural substances. Here, the classic Eames Lounge Chair combines seamlessly with the handmade kilim rugs and textiles.
Adrienne DeRosa
At the main living room, a set of Wright-designed Origami Chairs adds to the Asian influence. Originally conceived for Wright’s home, Taliesin, the chairs were later built into a number of Usonian homes.
The building of those chairs is not a simple feat. “This was a challenge for the most experienced cabinetmakers,” says Dan. “There aren’t any 90-degree joints a complex task not just for the woodworker but the upholsterer as well.”
Adrienne DeRosa
The front facade of this Dobkins House exemplifies quintessential Usonian layout. It’s quite personal, while the back remains open. Red brick, mahogany and Cherokee red concrete greet visitors at the entrance. Using three essential substances throughout the house creates a unified feeling.
The floor program exhibits a truly complete and connected layout, in the triangulated spaces into the repeated motif applied to the concrete floors. Years earlier Wright designed the Dobkins House, his homes were heated with radiant floor heatingsystem.
Adrienne DeRosa
Built-in bookshelves at the main living room home the Chrzanowskis’ collection of woven baskets. Dan, an artist, made the lamp at the center.
Adrienne DeRosa
Wright first designed this lamp for Taliesin from the 1930s and slowly introduced it into his commissioned designs. Dan accommodated the layout and assembled two of those lamps to the Dobkins House. Day or night, the diffused glow softens the geometry of this room and brings natural substances to life.
Adrienne DeRosa
Much of the initial brass hardware and lots of the brass door screens still exist at the home, like on this entrance to the living space from the main terrace.
Adrienne DeRosa
Dan designed and built the lounge chairs on the patio. They’re a contemporary spin on the Adirondack style, with lines that mimic the perpendicular lines of the windows and doors behind them.
Adrienne DeRosa
The southwest-facing patio provides the homeowners with an open yet personal place for entertaining and relaxing. The brickwork and the pigment-dyed concrete floors on the patio create a seamless transition to the inside of the home.
The homeowners chose a classic Russell Woodard layout for the patio furniture. Part of the Sculptura collection, the terrace set and wing chair remain accurate to the midcentury style of this Dobkins House.
Adrienne DeRosa
Tucked into the corner of this space, a Thonet plywood chair and an integrated desk make valuable use of an otherwise tricky corner. Staying true to the architect’s palette of natural materials, Dan shows a collection of clay pots and artifacts from around the world on the shelves over.
Adrienne DeRosa
Each one of the woodwork — in the walls into the shelves into the integrated daybed — is created from mahogany, giving the house a warm glow. “I always tell myself that I am going to make it through a read without falling asleep,” jokes Dan, attesting to the comfort and intimacy of this space.
Adrienne DeRosa
Like many Usonian homes, the Dobkins House includes a hearth positioned centrally from the open-plan living area. The anchored standing of this table defines the transition to the kitchen. George Nakashima dining chairs support the home’s historic layout.
“As you walk through the home, you start to find that Wright designed it to have a compress-and-release effect on you,” Dan says. A lively sensation of motion happens with low ceilings and intimate spaces suddenly giving way to grand vaults and slopes.
Adrienne DeRosa
Minimal cabinetry outlines the perimeter of the dining room, drawing visitors through the space and providing the Chrzanowskis with a gallery-style display for their paintings. “We believe the handmade aspect of the home is one of the reasons handmade pottery, baskets and textiles fit so well from the home’s environment,” says Dan.
Adrienne DeRosa
Walls and counters converge to form an equilateral triangle from the kitchen (workspace). The couple added lighting above and below the initial cabinetry for daily tasks. The brick wall with slit windows turned into an unusually ideal screen for more art, thanks to the homeowners’ innovative glass-plate shelving within the windows’ brickwork.
Adrienne DeRosa
The entry truly exemplifies Wright’s idea of compress and release. This photograph peers down front gallery, showing the way the distance the ceilings drop, perhaps indicating the transition into more personal quarters.
At night, the windows have been illuminated by custom-fit triangular recessed lights, while the other phenomenon shows itself by day. “The windows were created in such a way so that as the sun moves across the skies, shadow and light work together to create a blueprint of triangles on the floor,” Dan says.
Adrienne DeRosa
Mahogany board and batten wraps all of the interior walls of this Dobkins House, joining the interior core of the wing. In the guest bedroom, minimum furnishings allow the woodwork to dictate the layout. The integrated bed and the Usonian Ottoman allow the eye to focus on the architecture.
Adrienne DeRosa
Dan assembled this adaptation of Wright’s Taliesin that I Table Lamp for the guest bedroom, where it illuminates a little grouping of accumulated artifacts.
Adrienne DeRosa
Located at the conclusion of front camera hall, the master bedroom opens up with vaulted ceilings and ample sun. Mahogany woodwork behind the bed imitates a headboard.
Adrienne DeRosa
Light slides into the master bedroom through mitered-corner windows and a wall of glass doors. The concrete terrace rises directly from the grass, emphasizing the mix of nature and design.
Dan describes his approach to gardening as”keeping it natural,” just as Wright could have intended.
Adrienne DeRosa
As with other homes built during this period, the set-back location of the home makes it nearly undetectable to passersby. “Wright would not start a layout without first receiving a topographical map of the house,” states Dan. The 14 pin oaks that surround the home were specified in Wright’s planting strategy.
The homeowners proudly continue to revive the house for future generations. “We’re caretakers,” says Dan.” We will need to leave this home better than we found it.”
More:
What Wright’s Own House Tells Us
Wright-Sized in Alabama: The Rosenbaum House
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