Organic Architecture: Bruce Goff, Glass Cullet and the Freeman House

Organic architecture (which takes into consideration nature while addressing human needs) has slowly been gaining in appreciation though it is not ever likely to be embraced by the masses (thanks to television brainwashing people into aspiring to mediocrity).  Frank Lloyd Wright, the most recognized name in the field, was both a mentor and friend to another Midwestern architectural prodigy - Bruce Goff.  Wright considered Goff  to be one of America's few genuinely creative architects.  Goff once described ordinary houses as "boxes with little holes" in an interview with Life magazine.  And who could argue with that?

Built in 1959 in Joplin, Missouri, this house designed by Goff went on the market last year, allowing me to grab the following photos from Realtor.com (the banner photo above is courtesy of Google Street View). The house, designed for L. A. Freeman, boasts an impressively intact interior. The exterior has had easily reversible alterations made to it. Goff’s use of glass cullet (waste glass resulting from the manufacturing process) in and around the house is striking and highly memorable.

If you are not familiar with Goff’s work, here is a video made shortly before he died in 1982 which is definitely worth watching: We Don’t Like Your House, Either!  

Step away from the mundane "boxes with little holes" for a while and enjoy this brief tour of a very special house:

This is the entry elevation.   The carport side is what is seen from the street (in banner photo above).

Goff loved glass cullet, and the Freeman house is full of it - inside and out.  Here it winds around the base of the windows and creates a transition between the interior and the yard beyond.

Both chimney and cullet-crowned posts are spire-like.

The cullet-filled planter in the foreground frames the steps to the living room.  Vehicles in the carport are screened from view by the cullet-capped wall.

The fireplace with its peripherally sky-lit chimney and elevated, cullet-filled, hearths.

The split-level plan has a central stair.

Entry/stair/seating/bar/hall, all open to the living room.

How could anyone not love this place?!  I hope the sellers will make the effort to find someone who will maintain - and not "update" - this remarkable house.

Looking up toward the bedroom level.

Family room.

Another view of the living room.

The kitchen is amazingly intact and has so far escaped any significant "updates".

Stair to bedroom level.

Bedroom.  Note accordion screen at left for privacy.

Bedroom.

The bathroom, like the kitchen, has survived deliciously intact.

This photo hanging on an interior wall shows the rear of the house as originally constructed. The fantastic screened room has been replaced by an open deck and the vertical siding – which originally had a natural finish – has been replaced with painted shingles and clapboard.

The abbreviated version of the porch as it is today.

A scene in the yard.

More cullet...

...and more!

This concludes our brief tour of an amazing house; my thanks to the realtor who took these much-better-than-average property photos!