Frank Lloyd Wright's
SAMARA
John E. Christian, Owner


SAMARAQuest


Benton Third Grade Team

The Usonians

Brandon Chenoweth / Brad Spencer / Lindsey Keaton

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SAMARAQuest
    1   What do you like living in SAMARA?
    2   Do you like the furniture?

Living in SAMARA is a most unique experience. It is a Usonian house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright during the period 1953 to 1955.

During this priod in the last few years before his death, Mr. Wright designed and built masterly homes as well as elabrate projects such as the Guggenheim Museum, Marin County Civic Center, Grammage Memorial Auditorium, Greek Orthodox Church, The Dallas Theater, and the Price Company Tower, to name a few.

Yet in the midst of these many large commissions and very busy schedules, Frank Lloyd Wright continued to produce unique designs for a succession of modest, uppre-middle class homes that were highly functional, livable, reasonably priced and aesthetic.

SAMARA is an excellent example with full integrity of the Usonian homes. It is based on a characteristic building system:

• masonry supported walls, both inside and outside
• wooden partitions
• colored concrete floors
• radiant (gravity) heat
• cantilevered overhangs

The end result was to make my family's home a work of striking art and at the same time unique to the needs of my family.

To study the plans of SAMARA is to find a great many similarities to other Frank Lloyd Wright designs. At the same time we come upon a disposition of spaces and rooms that are totally individual.

It is this uniqueness that makes it a real pleasure to live in SAMARA.

Much of Mr. Wright's designs for furnitureis of the built-in type; however, he supplied plans (specific for my house) for the dining room table, chairs, hassocks, coffee table, lamp tables, planters, a set of 12 small television tables, and a television cabinet. Of special interest is the Origami (Butterfly) chair located in the guest bedroom.

The furniture was all skillfully crafted of especially selected Philippine Mahogany which is very sturdy. Flexibility is exemplified by six-triangular tables when placed in a row create a "coffee table".

The tables can be separated to make small individual tables for seating or a variety of other uses. Two of them can be placed together to make a diamond shaped table. They can also be stacked to form a lamp table.

It is all very fine furniture designed for beauty and versatality. Because of this, I like the SAMARA furniture very much.

I've enjoyed responding to your questions. To learn more about SAMARA, I encourage you to visit the other Benton Third Grade Team pages. You may also be interested in taking a look at the Benton SAMARAQuest Challenge.

The Benton SAMARAQuest Challenge is designed to expand your learnings beyond what you already know about Frank Lloyd Wright and SAMARA. The Challenge suggests activities for exploring things you're interested in learning more about in your studies of the world's greatest architect.

Be sure to visit other
Benton Third Grade Teams
to learn more about
SAMARA
The Benton SAMARAQuest Third Grade Teams Samara / Samara2 / Cherokees
The Usonians / Lafayette Live / The Dragons
Visit these other Benton SAMARAQuest Teams
Grade 3 / Grade 4 / Grade 5 / Grade 6

Return to the Benton SAMARAQuest Main Directory

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Copyright © 1998   All rights reserved.
The John Christian Family Memorial Trust, Inc. and LEARNING ASSOCIATES
Latest revision September 30, 1998