S.269    Goetsch-Winckler Residence
 
S.269 T.3907 Goetsch-Winckler Residence (1939) for Alma Goetsch and Katherine Winckler
Okemos, Michigan
Thermopane replaces plate glass. Steel added to carport cantilever

On sheet three of the original plans, Wright corrected "Usonia Two, Lansing" to "East Lansing" and "House for the Misses Goetsch and Winckler" to "The `Goetsch and Winckler'" which, for publication, he shortened to "The Goetsch Winckler." This is the only house of the original first Usonia project (see Usonia Homes, S.316, S.317, S.318, for the second Usonia) that was built in what was to have been a planned cooperative community for teachers at Michigan Agricultural College, now Michigan State University. Misses Goetsch and Winckler were both from Wisconsin. They joined with others to acquire a site on Herron Creek southeast of the campus; banks refused to finance such modern designs as Wright had provided his clients, so the project fell through. The lady instructors, earning $2000 a year in 1939, built their home and Erling Brauner, a latecomer to the community, built a different design (S.312).

In this in-line home on a 4-foot-square module, Wright's use of thin walls as screens to maintain privacy and masonry to support extensive cantilevering of roofs reaches a high point in early Usonian design. The dry wall construction is a typical Usonian horizontal sunk redwood batten sandwich. Two bedrooms open onto a lanai, enclosed for privacy. Off the living room, actually a studio, is an alcove with a fireplace. On the other side of this masonry mass is the workspace. The cantilever of the carport reaches 18 feet from the workspace support wall, and 10 feet beyond any side support. Perforated panels for the clerestory windows were never built. Construction began in June 1940, and the final cost was $6,594.73, or 27¢ below budget . Master builder Harold Turner was in charge of construction, and "added" a basement cellar for food storage and utilities without Wright's approval. Single-plate glass has been replaced by Thermopane, and structural steel has been added to the carport cantilever.