Skip to main content

Fitting Wright In: New Builds at Rush Creek Village.

Rush Creek Village is one of those hidden gems that most people seem to know about. It gets pretty regular press on the blog circuit, and once every ten years or so The New York Times sends someone out to do a feature on it. Located on the southeast side of Worthington, OH, Rush Creek Village is a unique community of like-minded homes that remains a prime example of Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian style.

Welcome to Rush Creek Village

The community was founded (if that's the right word) by Wright admirer Martha Wakefield and her husband Richard. Construction began on the first Rush Creek house in 1956. The principal designer was Theodore van Fossen, a young man whose prior work consisted of working on a couple of Frank Lloyd Wright's projects. (It should also be noted that Van Fossen, who passed away December 20, 2010, was also the designer of the Robert and Mary Gunning House near Blacklick.) When all was said and done Van Fossen had coordinated the design and construction of 48 homes in Rush Creek; each one site specific, and each one unique. It's a charming community; well maintained and designed to stay pretty much the way it is in perpetuity.

All of this is more or less old news. What's new news is the two new Rush Creek homes sprouting up at the eastern most boundary of the subdivision. According to Van Fossen's obituary in the Columbus Dispatch the architect weighed in on the design of these as well. By my count that's an even 50 for the architect and Rush Creek.

"The Round House"; probably Rush Creek's most famous home.

I'm pretty familiar with Worthington, and Rush Creek Village has always been one of my favorite places to walk. Today as I was out I snapped a few pictures of the newest additions to this unique enclave. Not surprisingly they fit right in.

New Build - the horizontalish one

New Build - verticalish one

New Builds, both together

Comments

  1. RockitQueenMarch 8, 2012 at 9:22 PM

    I love this neighborhood!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jeff RegensburgerMarch 8, 2012 at 9:37 PM

    I didn't mention this in the post, but I saw house for sale too. Here's a link if you want to check it out: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9919755@N06/6965803245/ Maybe you're in the market?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Ohio Historical Center: A Defense

A couple weeks ago I was contacted by Carrie Ghose at Business First to share my thoughts on architecture in central Ohio. The recent controversy surrounding the new Student Union at Ohio State had apparently sparked a number of conversations regarding what constitutes "good" building design. Carrie was following that story , and developing a second piece to get feedback on other notable Columbus buildings. At the time I offered a staunch a defense of what I believe might be the most maligned and misunderstood building in central Ohio, the Ohio Historical Center. Business First wasn't able to run the whole piece, so I've decided to turn it into a blog post. photo courtesy of OHS/ www.ohiomemory.org The refrain is a as old as the building itself, "It's ugly. It's just a giant brown box. It doesn't even look like a museum". Sadly, it's that exact line of thinking that poses the greatest threat to the building Architectural Record referre...
7 comments
Read more

Some "Before" Pics

I noted in a previous post that we bought a house. Now that the ink has dried on our closing documents, I feel like I can share a bit more about that. While my wife and I currently live in Columbus, we've got family in the greater Akron area and had been looking to move there for a while. There were many houses we looked at, and many houses we could have bought. The one that we ultimately landed on though was 1925 almost mansion in north Akron. If I were to describe it in the parlance of real estate listings I'd say, "This spacious home in Akron's historic North Hill neighborhood boasts wood floors, radiant heat, loads of period details, a stunning ravine view, and...racoons. Two people stand in a snow covered yard in front of an older home that is overgrown with vegetation. They hold a sign between them that says "SOLD". An interior picture of an empty dining room in an older home. The room has wood floors, dated wallpaper, and wainscoting. Yeah. Racoons. Th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hashtag WIP

After spending much of the last six months negotiating work, planning for work, talking about work, scheduling work, rescheduling work, and waiting for weather that might accommodate work, I'm happy to report that work has commenced. The Akron almost mansion has recently enjoyed the fruits of many a laborer, and the results are becoming almost photogenic. So, in no particular order, here is an update of what's happened since my last post. A wooden door with a crystal doorknob is pictured against a light blue wall. We have removed more wallpaper. This picture is from an upstairs bedroom and is notable as that means all the wallpaper on the first floor has been removed. I like the color and composition here, and offer this as a good example of how most of the interior rooms were handled. Trim throughout the house is painted that creamy white, and all interior doors have maintained their original finish. Remember pals, these houses are only original once. A pink bathroom sink hang...
Post a Comment
Read more