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Ruth and Sam Ford House, Aurora, Illinois, Elevation Showing Wall

Date:

1947–1949

Artist:

Bruce Alonzo Goff
American, 1904–1982

About this artwork

Bruce Goff designed buildings for the Navy during World War II and became acquainted with the versatile Quonset hut, a demountable steel structure with a distinctive half-tube shape. This experience fueled Goff’s increasingly experimental approach to architecture after the war. When asked to create a home for the director of an arts school in Aurora, Illinois, Goff returned to the Quonset hut, whose semicircular ribs created an opportunity for spatial play. Military materials found their way into other parts of the rounded structure as well—including army surplus rope in the ceilings and aircraft domes repurposed as skylights— creating a kind of postwar fantasy far removed from the formulaic ranch houses being built across the Chicago suburbs.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Architecture and Design

Artist

Bruce Alonzo Goff (Architect)

Title

Ruth and Sam Ford House, Aurora, Illinois, Elevation Showing Wall

Place

Aurora (Building address)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1947–1949

Medium

Graphite on white tracing paper

Dimensions

48 × 92 cm (18 7/8 × 36 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Shin'enKan, Inc.

Reference Number

1990.809.16

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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