Hoffman Villa Redux

Rumor has it Marc Jacobs recently traded in his luxe West Village Manse for swell digs on Manursing Island, a tiny enclave tucked away on Long Island Sound's upper west side. Jacobs has acquired the Maximillan Hoffman House - one of Frank Lloyd Wright's last compositions and considered by some as his final 'Prairie' house. In any case such reports give pause to wonder if there is not an encouraging trend underway in which the city's luminaries are heading for greener pastures in suburbia.

Were it only so as no less an architectural impresario than Wright foretold the end of urban life a century ago. 'In the past one had no choice but to take up residence in the city if there was to be any hope of culture and civilized life' Wright wrote. Yet technology even in Wright's time had circumvented such necessity. By today all eyes seem to be on the suburbs as the future for civilized society. Architecture must now get onboard, focusing its attention and efforts in working out a new understanding of what suburban life ought to be.

VRT hazards such a guess vis a vis the Hoffman House, using it as a template in combination with the courtyard of the Roman domus of antiquity, the peristylium walled garden of the back quarters.

This peristylium is chopped in half with the two ends put back and front. The back portion forms a 'loggia' with pool and spa while the front creates alfresco dining with outside kitchen. The interior dining room protrudes into the interior court, set with glass on three sides. The living room is set just behind the centrally placed kitchen where reduced lighting facilitates its use as a viewing room for very large format projector TV. This living room is quite large - combining into one the usual 2 or 3 quite small living rooms so commonplace in American homes - and ringed with sofa banques in the mode of the Moroccan salon

Each unit is designed to fit one next another along the direction of the street. The sidewall is windowless and runs the length of the building, serving as a courtyard garden wall for the next door neighbor. At the front is a motor court with streetside hedge screening off the house from the street. This design makes pleasant living space out of the entire lot as opposed to more conventional layouts where setbacks tend to go unused.

Dimensions: Lots for this configuration are around 170 ft deep, 90 ft wide - 15,000 sq ft or 1/3 acre. The interior courtyard is around 110 ft long and 60 ft wide. The living / dining / kitchen area is 50 ft by 50 ft for 2,500 sq ft. The office over the garage adds another 1,000 sq ft. Bedrooms are in a wing 30 ft by 50 ft for a total of 1,500 sq ft.

The total sq ft including laundry / utility is on the order of 5,500 sq ft.