The walls cut off all sight lines from any part of any dwelling to any part of the other dwellings in the building. The dwellings are separated by fireproof, soundproof brick walls. Each quadrant is an individual dwelling designed for 2,300 square feet (210 m 2), stacked in four floors. The prototype Suntop building has four separate quadrants. This maximized privacy and shared green space at the same time. In planning the initial Tod Company development, Wright arranged four buildings (16 dwellings) asymmetrically on the lot so that no unit's view directly faced another (or any existing neighbor). The arrangement combined the usual suburban front and rear yards into single outdoor spaces or gardens. A single floor is more comfortable, but more expensive in land. However, most of this work was for wealthy families. This is a departure, because horizontal arrangement was typical of Wright's residential work at the time. The living spaces of each unit were stacked vertically instead of horizontally. The Ardmore Experiment was designed so each building had four individual Usonian dwellings around a central point, in a radial pinwheel plan. A change in housing administration and complaints from local architects that they, not an "outsider," should design the project, prevented construction. Government on a tract near Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Later projects modeled on the quadruple dwelling unit included the Cloverleaf Quadruple Housing project (1941/42) for the U.S. The carports of several residences have been enclosed to provide more interior space. A second residence was lost to fire in the 1970s during an interior restoration, but was rebuilt with extensive changes to the plan and ceiling heights. ![]() ![]() The first was badly damaged only a few years after construction was completed, and remained as a burned-out shell for several decades before it was restored by a private owner using Wright's original plans and early concepts. There were several reasons that construction of the other three planned units did not move forward, including the escalation of the World War, high construction costs and later, protests by local residents against multi-family housing in the neighborhood.įire damaged or destroyed two of the four original dwellings. The first (and only) of the four buildings planned for Ardmore was built in 1939, with the involvement of Wright's master builder Harold Turner, after initial construction estimates far surpassed the project budget set by the Tod Company. SunTop in perspective, Patent D114,204, ventilating windows are opened. ![]() In cooperation with Frank Lloyd Wright, the Tod Company secured a patent for the unique design, intending to sell development rights for Suntops across the country. The design was commissioned by Otto Tod Mallery of the Tod Company in 1938 in an attempt to set a new standard for the entry-level housing market in the United States and to increase single-family dwelling density in the suburbs. The Suntop Homes, also known under the early name of The Ardmore Experiment, were quadruple residences located in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, and based largely upon the 1935 conceptual Broadacre City model of the minimum houses.
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