Affleck House
This building, exemplary of Wright’s Usonian style, represents the architect’s answer to low-cost housing for the average American.
The one-story structure eliminates the attic to cut down on unusable space, save money, and echo the horizontality of the plains of the American Midwest. In radical opposition to the typical style of the day, its kitchen, living and dining rooms merge to form one unified space, with large windows further enhancing the open living that Wright promoted. The main living space spans a forty-foot ravine, and is anchored to the hill by the bedroom wing that culminates in a ground-level master suite. The Afflecks lived in the house until their deaths in the early 1970s. In 1978, their children donated the house to the Lawrence Technological University so that it could be used as an educational resource.
