The Affleck House
The first Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house to be built in the Detroit metropolitan area, the Affleck House represents one of the finest examples in the world of the architect’s Usonian style, the last great period of Wright’s career. Designed to exist in harmony with the home’s site and nature, the Affleck House was a part of Wright’s attempt to meet the need for low-cost housing for the average American. The importance of the house is borne by the fact that it was placed on the Michigan Register of Historic Places in 1978 and the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The Michigan Society of Architects includes the house among Michigan’s 50 most significant structures.
Built by Gregor S. and Elizabeth B. Affleck, the house was donated to Lawrence Technological University in 1978 by their children, Mary Ann Affleck Lutomski and Gregor P. Affleck, for use as a teaching resource for the University’s College of Architecture and Design faculty and students. Over the years, architecture students have lived in the house to provide access to the public, give tours, and advance the University’s research and restoration efforts.
Download the Affleck House Brochure 
Notable Features
|
- 2,359 square feet on 2.3 acres of land.
|
- $19,000 to build. The original 13 furniture units, such as tables, chairs, and sofas were all constructed of three plied wood for a total cost of $26.000.
|
- Built by contractor Harold Turner.
|
- Three bedrooms, with three and a half baths.
|
- Oriented to the sun, with many windows and skylights, and views of the woods.
|
- Design based on a four-by-four-foot modular grid to accomodate interior partitions, furniture, rugs, and cabinets.
|
- 600 feet of built-in shelving.
|
- Six-foot-high fireplace, holding three to five foot vertical logs.
|
- Indirect fluorescent lighting.
|
- Several lights and windows that bear a stylized “A” for Affleck.
|
- All floors are pigmented cement with radiant heating.
|
- Planter box atrium located in the center of the house looks down on a reflecting pool below. A window in the atrium can be opened to pull air cooled by the pool into the house, functioning as natural air conditioner.
|
- Interior walls are three-quarter-inch plywood between horizontally laid overlapping (ship-lapped) tidewater cypress planks.
|
- No nails were used, only brass screws with heads aligned to the grain of the wood.
|
- Interior door panel hinges disappear when doors are closed, leaving only doorknobs visible.
|
|
|
- Vertical joints in the brick and wood stripes are dyed to add to the overall feeling of width and spaciousness.
|
- Exterior is brick and tidewater cypress.
|
|
