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Hers was an auspicious beginning. Born
in a room over the garage in her grandfather’s home and
studio in Oak Park, Ill., Elizabeth Wright immediately entered
a world of architecture. The daughter of architect John Wright
and granddaughter of Frank Lloyd Wright, Elizabeth at first
wanted to become a physicist. But at 14 she gave up trying
to master the concept of infinity and chose, instead, to study
and build finite space, to become an architect. "How
very original," her mother said upon hearing the news.
Though her life has been infused with
architecture from the start, her philosophy now comes not
from architecture but from the writer George Bernard Shaw,
who said that one’s life belongs to the whole community.
He wanted, Elizabeth says, to be thoroughly used up when he
died. It is a compelling idea, and one that clearly appeals
to Ingraham as she embarks on the next, political phase of
her architectural career. A little passionate preaching for
architecture is certain to be on her agenda.
Elizabeth Wright Ingraham sees La
Casa as an "intervention"
on the landscape, not a "statement." The 5,017-square-foot
house sits on a soaring cliff outside Colorado Springs, where
winds have been clocked at 110 miles per hour. The continuous
erosion of the cliff forced Ingraham to place the house back
from the edge, but she recaptured the drama of the steep drop
with a 27-foot skywalk cantilevered from the second floor.
The skywalk is supported by a 58-foot steel truss that pierces
the house and adds drama to an otherwise simple plan. The
owners, two doctors, can enter the house from the garage through
a protected glass-block-lined corridor. Glazed concrete-block
walls, concrete terraces, and radiant-heated floors insulate
the interior against the extreme temperature changes throughout
the day. A rooftop entertainment deck over the study keeps
parties free of the rattlesnakes ruling the natural terrain.
Sustainable architecture that weathers the elements and is
easy to maintain is one of Ingraham’s priorities. Solaz,
a residence and artist’s studio for a professional couple,
nestles into a hillside beside a tall stand of oaks where
it cannot easily be seen from the road. The 3,200-square-foot
dwelling is built primarily of durable, unfinished concrete-block
walls with a standing-seam metal roof that barely overhangs
the facade. To add visual interest, Ingraham penetrated the
two long facades with steel brise- soleils that cast shadows
inside and out, and support lighting fixtures within. A protected
concrete courtyard connects the studio and garage with the
house and then flows into a raised terrace along the southeast
elevation. The slope of the natural terrain exposes the house
as it drops away, allowing a lower-level guest-and-office
suite to be inserted underneath the living room and master
bedroom.
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