Norman Lykes House (Phoenix, AZ) : Context view, looking southwest, showing view of downtown Phoenix in the distance

Creator:

Rattenbury, John, 1928-
Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867-1959

Published/Created:

6836 North 36th Street, Phoenix, Arizona, United States
1959-1960 (design); completed 1968

Date Depicted:

12/22/2005
1950 AD - 2010 AD

Materials:

concrete block

Notes:

In architectural history the Norman Lykes House is the very last design credited to Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright died in 1959, leaving behind a profusion of signed work, unfinished and unsigned work, reusable elements, partially approved work of students, tantalizing suggestions, dusty archives, rejected projects. The Lykes House was finished in 1967, finished off by Taliesin architect John Rattenbury for the original client on the original site, so it counts as the last official FLW house. In exterior form the Lykes House is interesting because it's a "desert rose" circular concrete-block castle mounted onto and into the hillside. Its 2800-square-foot interior floor-plan based on five or six intersecting circles and cylinders, bigger and smaller, geometrically intersecting each others' centers (not visibly), with all the built-in furniture and fixtures built into the same curves and forming concentric circles. The original design included five bedrooms trailing off to the south, like a tail, some of them unworkably tiny. In 1993 Rattenbury renovated them down to three more spacious bedrooms.

Topics:

Architecture -- United States -- 20th century -- (YVRC)

Period/Style:

Modern
Modernist
Twentieth century

Culture:

American

Accession Number:

1A1-WFL-LR-A11

Genre:

architecture (AAT)
houses (AAT)

Format:

Image

Content Type:

Sculptures, Models, & Architecture

Rights:

Copyright Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc
The use of this image may be subject to the copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) or to site license or other rights management terms and conditions. The person using the image is liable for any infringement.

Access Restrictions:

Yale Community Only

Digital:

architectural exteriors; dwelling construction buildings; dwellings; houses

Source Creator:

Gilchrist, Scott

Source Title:

Archivision Module Three

Source Created:

2878 Chamonix, Montreal QC
Archivision, Inc.
12/22/2005

Source Note:

Purchase, Visual Resources Collection, May, 2011; photographer Scott Gilchrist

Yale Collection:

Visual Resources Collection

Digital Collection:

Visual Resources Collection

Local Record Number:

4152

OID:

10162287

PID:

digcoll:1867719