Construction drawings could be ordered from the architects for a modest fee and the reader would build or contract for construction from these plans.
This bi-annual publication provided house designs by some of the nation’s most talented architects for readers to review. He was paging through an issue of New Homes Guide magazine when he came across a plan that he found most striking – design #1632 contributed by John Randal McDonald. Not only did James’s business demand an eye for the aesthetic but he was an artist and enjoyed painting. James Maloney, along with his wife Ruby, owned and operated a jewelry store in Beaver Dam in 1957. He considered his designs so “honest” that a room should look attractive without a single piece of furniture in it.
Or when we use stone or brick on the outside, that same stone or brick comes into the home as well.” Some describe this as Organic Architecture – he liked to call it American Architecture. When we use wood on the outside on a particular wall, the warmth of the wood is in relation to the property, and that same wood then comes inside the home as well. McDonald explained: “I want your home to be so quietly designed that all the materials woven outside are woven inside as well. These affordable, distinctive designs were best described by the materials he designed with: wood, stone and glass. McDonald began at once designing homes for clients, often young professionals that wanted a house quite different than most others, but the house had to be built within a limited budget. He declined the opportunity in order to return to Wisconsin, with his wife Josephine and their daughter, to begin his practice in Racine. Yale awarded McDonald its highest honor, the Winchester Fellowship, to study abroad. McDonald studied fine art at Milwaukee Teachers College (today’s UW-Milwaukee), served as a navigator in World War II, and after the war, earned a Master’s Degree in Architecture from Yale University in 1949.
The architect responsible for the design of the house built by the Maloney family in 1957 was John Randal McDonald, a Wisconsin native who was born in Milwaukee and grew up in Wauwatosa. Sunlight and shadows paint the natural surfaces that conceal even the entry to the house. The long, horizontal stretch of the house seems to complement the landscape rather than intrude. You see the front of a house constructed entirely of wood, stone and glass. Currently residing in Cudahy in a home designed by John Randal McDonald, he is working on a book, along with a co-author, that will not only provide written and photographic documentation of McDonald’s work but also include many stories surrounding the architect, the homes and the incredible people encountered along the way.Ī home situated on the eastern shore of Beaver Dam Lake will likely challenge those that pass by to describe it in familiar terms. He also enjoys volunteer work in the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Digital Lab. After leaving corporate life, Dave Erickson has established himself as a freelance photographer and does image and document restoration.
0 kommentar(er)
