Case Study: American Foursquare Part II

Onto the continuation of studying the American Foursquare.  My established goal was to design a house which fits into the context of modern living while retaining the true character of the Foursquare.  I chose to approach this by first updating the floor plan to reflect the way people live today. You can read the post here.  I was then set to study the elevations but....
...then I came across this photo.

This photo comes from a 2008 post on The Feeling Is Mutual blog. At the time, it was a new build in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  This is obviously an attempt to do the exact thing I'd hoped to: modernize the Foursquare while keeping the craftsman language.

It has the characteristic front porch and tapered columns.  The basic shape of the home is familiar: two story box.  And one of my favorite features: the rafter tails at the roof.  

Now, before I even get to the roof line and the second story windows, let's just point out a few things I think are disappointing 'misses'.

• Windows: They appear to be grossly undersized when compared to the proportion of the building.  The great thing about this style of home is the abundance of large windows!
• Foundation: It appears this is a slab-on-grade home which while it is typical these days, it's disappointing for an American Foursquare.  The alternate is obviously a pier and beam system which utilizes a crawl space under house.  This is advantageous for HVAC utilization, ventilation, and allowing easy renovation in the future. Plus, you get to sit on your front porch swing at a higher elevation than the street.  Strangely this always makes the porch feel more private yet completely open at the same time.

Now, onto that roof and second story windows.  Like I said, I get it...the architect was trying to drag the craftsman-style Foursquare into modern times-kicking and screaming.  What is completely ignored is the essence of beauty these old homes had: balance in the facade!

Last time I mentioned the book The Old Way of Seeing.  This architect would have done well to brush up on what is explained about the regulating line. Take the photo of my home; you can draw a line from the top corner of the facade down to the other corner.  This is an example of the  most common type of regulating line: a diagonal connecting key points on a rectangle. The eye relates any element placed along that line to the whole even if the line is invisible.

A famous example of this is Frank Lloyd Wrights's Robie House in Chicago.  His pattern of regulating lines not only informed the facade's placement of elements, the pattern of the lines themselves became the stained glass design in the windows.

Architecture is subjective.  What is beautiful to one is not ideal for another and I'm no expert by any means.  With undergoing the American Foursquare study, I thought a simple way to update a type of home I love, would be simply updating the plan and perhaps the materials.  It still failed to communicate a contemporary look.  So, I brought in my husband.  It was actually quite funny to listen to us argue about how to tweak a building style which we both love and admire.  But we persevered...to some extent, I guess.  Honestly, I'm quite sick of sparring with Sketch-Up and trying to change something I honestly liked in the first place:  the 1918 version of the American Foursquare.

plan south-west

So, that being said, this is what we've ended up with.  We tried to keep it simple but within the language of the American Foursquare.  We've utilized a metal panel roof, updated the railing, opened up the porch to accent the structure of the roof, and tried to show the use of updated materials...which is just impossible with my Sketch-Up skills.

So, I give up.  I like the revision of the typical plan done a few weeks ago; I think I'm better off leaving the exterior alone!

plan south-east

plan north-west