Famous House
Museums And Architectural Styles To Jumpstart Your Home Design
What better time to explore some of the world's
most famous houses than when you're in the middle of planning your own
home.
Here's a listing of favorite house museums open to the public, including each
website, from the Gamble House in Pasadena, California (considered the
ultimate Craftsman bungalow) to Thomas Jefferson's classical Monticello in
Virginia; from Le Corbusier's modern Villa Savoye near Paris to the
Mayan-inspired Hollyhock House by Frank Lloyd Wright in Los Angeles.
Find the architectural style below that interests you and see what your
future house has in common with some of the world's great works of
residential architecture. A useful round-up of historic houses can also be
found at http://www.oldhouses.com/historic-house-museums.htm. |
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ART
NOUVEAU
Victor Horta House, Brussels, Belgium, 1901: www.trabel.com/brussel/brussels-museums-horta.htm; the
above photo is by Brian Pirie through Creative Commons.
Inside it's all organic curvilinear forms, as if the building is
made of vines whose tendrils are moving and growing before your
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CONTEMPORARY/BAY
REGION STYLE
The Sea Ranch is a second home community on the Sonoma
Coast of California, three hours north of San Francisco. The
development is famous for its environmentally sensitive planning and
contemporary ranch-inspired architecture. Eminent landscape architect
Lawrence Halprin created the landscape plan in the early 1960s.
Development clusters along hedgerows and at the edges of meadows in
order to preserve open space and views. The original condominium
building at the southern edge of the community--with its central
sloping courtyard and shed-roofed tower form, shown above--was designed
by the award-winning architects in the historic photograph by Jim
Alinder: Charles Moore (seated), Richard Whitaker (far left), Donlyn
Lyndon (second from left), and William Turnbull (far right). Sea Ranch
architecture draws inspiration from area barns, the 19th century Fort
Ross just a few miles south, the Bay Region Style, and the architecture
of Louis Kahn.
You can read the history of The Sea Ranch and explore important custom
house plans by many of Northern California's most famous architects
through the sumptuous and critically acclaimed book The Sea Ranch, by Don Lyndon and Jim
Alinder. You can purchase copies of the iconic small house plans
William Turnbull designed for Sea Ranch workers in our Excusive Studio
Collection at http://www.houseplans.com/exclusive-house-plans. The
originals are preserved at the Environmental Design Archives at the
University of California, Berkeley: http://www.ced.berkeley.edu/cedarchives/profiles/turnbull.htm.
A percentage of the price of each Turnbull design goes to support the
Archives. |
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GEORGIAN
Sir John Soane House Museum, London, 1812-13, www.soane.org; photo by vtsr
through Creative Commons: http://www.flickr.com/photos/voy/326953224/
This remarkable labyrinth of a house, formed by combining several
row houses into a single home, is full of storage and display ideas for
the architect's collection of artifacts. |
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FRANK LLOYD
WRIGHT
Hollyhock House, Frank Lloyd Wright, Los Angeles, 1917-1920, www.hollyhockhouse.net; this photo by colors through
Creative Commons: http://www.flickr.com/photos/73416633@N00/402132321/sizes/m/.
Wright's interest in Mayan forms is evident in these blocky shapes
ornamented with abstract hollyhock stalks.
Taliesin, Spring Green, WI www.taliesinpreservation.org
Taliesin West, Scottsdale, AZ www.franklloydwright.org
Wright House & Studio, Oak Park, IL www.gowright.org
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GOTHIC
REVIVAL
Lyndhurst, Tarrytown, NY, 1838 by Andrew Jackson Downing: http://www.lyndhurst.org/; this photo by liz_noise through
Creative Commons: http://www.flickr.com/photos/liz_noise/705030248/
A romantic and picturesque interpretation of the Gothic Revival
style.
Manship House Museum, Jackson, MI, 1857: http://mdah.state.ms.us/museum/manship.html
The Hermitage. Hohokus, NJ, 1848: http://www.thehermitage.org/
Lachryma Montis, Sonoma, CA www.parks.sonoma.net/lachryma.html
Hamill House, Georgetown, CO www.historicgeorgetown.org
Amelia Earhart Birthplace, Atchison, KS www.ameliaearhartmuseum.org |
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VICTORIAN
Winchester Mystery House, Santa Clara, CA, from 1880: www.winchestermysteryhouse.com; photo by naotakem through
Creative Commons: http://www.flickr.com/photos/naotakem/135259848/sizes/m/
The Victorian style is really a compendium of many variations that
appeared in the United States during the latter half of the nineteenth
century. Picturesque outlines, multiple gables, turrets, and bay
windows are signature features.
Molly Brown House, Denver, CO www.mollybrown.org
Camron-Stanford House, Oakland, CA www.cshouse.org
Haa s-Lilienthal House, San Francisco, 1886 www.sfheritage.org
John Muir House, Martinez, CA www.nps.gov/jomu/
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