To be saved, the Gordon House had to be moved from its original location in Wilsonville. Now on a site neighboring the Oregon Garden in Silverton, it was rebuilt in its original sun orientation, though without the Mt. Hood and Willamette River views.<
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To be saved, the Gordon House had to be moved from its original location in Wilsonville. Now on a site neighboring the Oregon Garden in Silverton, it was rebuilt in its original sun orientation, though without the Mt. Hood and Willamette River views.<
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The house turns a private side to the front door and carport, but the entry is clear.
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The house turns a private side to the front door and carport, but the entry is clear.
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The main space of the home is the high-ceilinged, open flow of dining, living and library areas (though in this photo it is cluttered with displays for a recent fundraiser).
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The main space of the home is the high-ceilinged, open flow of dining, living and library areas (though in this photo it is cluttered with displays for a recent fundraiser).
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Stereo hi-fi and record albums fit niftily into the built-in cabinets alongside the built-in sofa at the far end of the living room. Wright liked to design furniture into the home rather than have people clutter up the spaces with random furniture not
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Stereo hi-fi and record albums fit niftily into the built-in cabinets alongside the built-in sofa at the far end of the living room. Wright liked to design furniture into the home rather than have people clutter up the spaces with random furniture not
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The built-in sofa extends to the other corner of the living room and built-in shelves for the library; the space is private and perfect for cozy reading, yet feels light and open because of the clerestory windows above the shelves.
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The built-in sofa extends to the other corner of the living room and built-in shelves for the library; the space is private and perfect for cozy reading, yet feels light and open because of the clerestory windows above the shelves.
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Throughout the house, upper level decorative windows cast decorative, dramatic light – like a leaded glass window would – but are constructed simply of glass sandwiched by plywood cut into repeating, geometric “fretwork.”
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Throughout the house, upper level decorative windows cast decorative, dramatic light – like a leaded glass window would – but are constructed simply of glass sandwiched by plywood cut into repeating, geometric “fretwork.”
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The view from the kitchen (Wright called it the “workspace”) to the living area shows how narrow the doorway opening is; Wright played with horizontal and vertical proportions to make the most of the modest size and materials of the house.
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The view from the kitchen (Wright called it the “workspace”) to the living area shows how narrow the doorway opening is; Wright played with horizontal and vertical proportions to make the most of the modest size and materials of the house.
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Contemporary features like under cabinet lighting and wood-clad refrigerator (to match the cabinetry) were innovative at the time Wright designed the house in the late ’50s. Most of the kitchen appliances (including fridge) are original to the h
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Contemporary features like under cabinet lighting and wood-clad refrigerator (to match the cabinetry) were innovative at the time Wright designed the house in the late ’50s. Most of the kitchen appliances (including fridge) are original to the h
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“In between” spaces like the second floor hallway house built-in cabinets (and even space for Mrs. Gordon’s loom); ceilings of this upper, private floor are lower than those in the public spaces on the ground floor.
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“In between” spaces like the second floor hallway house built-in cabinets (and even space for Mrs. Gordon’s loom); ceilings of this upper, private floor are lower than those in the public spaces on the ground floor.
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The west bedroom (visible at the end of the hall in the previous photo) leads onto a balcony with a sheltering overhang but open views to the main ground floor living space.
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The west bedroom (visible at the end of the hall in the previous photo) leads onto a balcony with a sheltering overhang but open views to the main ground floor living space.
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The west bedroom opens to a wraparound balcony which originally had views to Mt. Hood and the Willamette River.
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The west bedroom opens to a wraparound balcony which originally had views to Mt. Hood and the Willamette River.
Though Frank Lloyd Wright is hugely famous for designing buildings all over the U.S. (and even in Japan), and though his illustrious career spanned some 70 years, somehow he managed not to get a lot of jobs in this part of the country. To experience Wright’s mastery of materials and space, we generally have to travel – to the midsection of the country (Chicago, Racine, Buffalo), or at least to the Bay Area, Los Angeles, or Arizona.
The eminent, prolific, influential Mr. Wright designed only three projects in the Pacific Northwest, all of them modest-sized yet dramatic and beautiful private homes; two are in the Seattle area, one in Oregon. So while Wright’s influence is seen across our region (in the work of Pietro Belluschi and beyond), his buildings are not.
A wonderful exception is Oregon’s Gordon House, and luckily for us, it’s the one Wright-built Pacific Northwest home open to the public. For anyone who cares at all about architecture, it’s well worth the hour or so drive down I-5 to Silverton, OR to see, and go inside, the Gordon House.
The house is one of what are called Wright’s “Usonian” houses: relatively small (1500-2000 square foot range), one-story, single family homes built of common, local materials, intended to be affordable yet well-designed and beautiful. They were his vision of housing for the masses, or at least for the middle class: economical and efficient but not boring little boxes.
Wright’s Usonian house type was published as part of a 1938 Life magazine feature (he was one of several architects the magazine commissioned to come up with an affordable “dream house” for a middle income American family). In Wright’s vision of the world, “American” was replaced with the term “Usonian,” as in “United States of North America;” “Usonia” was the thriving, innovative, individualistic, car-oriented and pastoral paradise our country would develop into in the 20th century.
Throughout the mid-20th century, Wright built about 60 of these relatively modest homes, starting with the Jacobs House in 1936. The Gordon House falls solidly in line as an example of the typical Usonian features: a strong connection between interior and exterior (continuous materials extending inside to out as walls, terraces, balconies and overhangs); an emphasis on the horizontal, creating a sense of shelter and solidity with the earth; and simple but dramatic sequences of space clearly separating public from private.
In 2001, the Gordon House was threatened with demolition, but was saved by architecture-lovers – and dramatically moved from its original site in Wilsonville to the current Silverton location adjacent to the Oregon Garden. Since 2002, it has been owned and operated as a public museum and education center by the Gordon House Conservancy. A capital campaign to raise about $200,000 for maintenance and preservation is underway.
The house is available for tours just about every day, and also for rental for private events like weddings, dinners and meetings.
