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Community Corner

Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian Vision is Alive and Well in Pleasantville

More than a half century after its creation, this Pleasantville enclave remains timeless, relevant and architecturally significant.

“Usonia.”

Sounds a bit like “Utopia,” doesn’t it? Perhaps that’s what Frank Lloyd Wright had in mind when he began developing his first Usonian homes—a series of attractive, yet unobtrusive residences characterized in part by their clean lines, modest size and scope, low-slung roofs, open floor plans, minimalist interiors and utilization of natural materials—in the mid-1930s.

It was likely a matter of economics, too. After all, it was in the throes of the Great Depression when Wright first began realizing his vision and people were strapped for money—they weren’t looking for ostentation, but for practicality and affordability.

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Everything old is new again and, whatever the impetus, Wright’s vision has proved timeless—and, against the backdrop of the current recession-era zeitgeist, the thriving “green” movement, and the resurgence (thanks in part to Mad Men) of all things mid-century modern—timelier than ever. One of the finest examples of his no-nonsense, one-with-nature aesthetic can be found nestled on nearly 100 wooded acres amid winding roads on the outskirts of Pleasantville, toward Armonk.

Usonia, a decidedly private enclave of 47 houses—three of which were designed by Wright himself (architectural plans for the other 44 were approved by him), was formed by a cooperative of friends in 1947 when they purchased the land and enlisted Wright to help them design and build the community.

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“All Usonia homes are built into the land,” said Phil Faranda, a Westchester real estate agent and Briarcliff Manor resident. “They flow with the topography and natural landscape. Where some mid-century subdivisions were built into clear-cut, bulldozed land and took decades to mature, Usonia homes were carefully built into God’s decor and the area never waited to mature.”

Today, it is, in many ways, much the same as it was in the 1950s; and, remarkably, still inhabited by some of the same residents.

“We were the original clients and Frank Lloyd Wright was our architect,” said Roland Reisley, who has lived in the same house in Usonia since 1951 and whose home, the Reisley House, was one of the three in the enclave personally designed by Wright. “We discussed our needs, our budget, and he was very responsive to us.”

Reisley and his wife liked Wright’s core Usonian concept, which he described as “of the land rather than on the land.”

They also appreciated Wright’s belief in “bringing the outside in” and using natural materials.

“He used more and bigger windows, natural materials—wood, stone, glass. You don’t see paint and wallpaper in a Wright building, either. He believed that people ought to live with natural materials,” explained Reisley.

Though the original members have aged—“I’m eighty-seven, and I’m one of the youngest,” said Reisley—and their numbers have dwindled, there are a handful of original members.

“For the first forty years, only twelve houses changed hands,” Reisley recalled. “Six of those were acquired by next generations.”

Over the years, residents formed such strong connections within the community that, rather than move to larger homes when their families grew, “they had additions built to them.”

But currently, Reisley said, “the number or original members is five, and there are five or six second-generation Usonians.”

There are also some relatively new Usonians, like architect Mark Rolfs and his family, who’ve been in Usonia for eight years. “Our home needed work, so we set off to renovate and add on,” he said. “My design approach has been to be sympathetic to the materials and period in which the house was built, while striving to be current in aesthetics and use. It’s been a labor of love for sure.”

The homes, said Faranda, “fit right in now as much as they did fifty years ago. And it will be the same in another fifty years.”

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