Written by Beginning in 1936, Frank Lloyd Wright designed and built over 140 Usonian Homes. His intent was for the architect to engage the affordable single-family housing market. Wright’s first usonian home, the Jacobs house cost $5,500 in 1936 including the architects fee. That is about $85,000 in today’s dollars. At 1,550 square feet, that is about $55/sf. If Frank Lloyd Wright could do it 80 years ago, why can’t we do it now with such easy communication methods and technological tools? Imagine a world where D.R. Horton’s 55,000 homes built in 2006 were based on an architectural model such as the Usonians. Horton’s $15.1 billion revenue could have been higher, and the architects could have shaped America’s suburban environment.
