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Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

1945

  • Work on this object began.

1955

  • Work on this object ended.

2016

2025

  • You found it!

Drawing, Design for Spiral Form (Hemicycle House)

This is a Drawing. It was designed by Bruce Goff. It is dated ca. 1950. Its medium is pen and ink, colored pencil on tracing paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

This ink and colored pencil drawing of a hemicycle house might be associated with Goff’s design for the John Frank House from 1954. Photos and drawings of this realized project reveal a far more linear construction spread out on a single, semi-submerged level, but both conceptions are hemicycles and share the use of flat, overhung roofs, thin chimneys, and curved perpendicular exterior walls. The two different designs also employ rich natural building materials. The 1950 drawing shows a design that rises at least two stories. The evidence of a mid-level roof or balcony shows a relationship to the description of Goff’s 1948 Ledbetter house in which the home's perimeter was surrounded by hinged wood panels that could be lowered to create an outdoor deck. Other potential projects with related attributes include the never-realized Blakely house in Dallas, Texas (1949). The project initially called for two curved forms connected by a suspended vaulted roof. It was redesigned multiple times before plans to build it were canceled. Goff’s use of spiral forms and spatial distribution is perhaps best exemplified in his seminal Bavinger House (1950). Articulated around a central mast, cables hold up the flat roof in a logarithmic spiral.

This object was donated by George R. Kravis II. It is credited Gift of George R. Kravis II.

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Its dimensions are

Image: 19 × 24.2 cm (7 1/2 × 9 1/2 in.) Frame: H x W x D: 43.8 × 54 × 3.2 cm (17 1/4 × 21 1/4 × 1 1/4 in.)

Cite this object as

Drawing, Design for Spiral Form (Hemicycle House); Designed by Bruce Goff (American, 1904 - 1982); pen and ink, colored pencil on tracing paper; Image: 19 × 24.2 cm (7 1/2 × 9 1/2 in.) Frame: H x W x D: 43.8 × 54 × 3.2 cm (17 1/4 × 21 1/4 × 1 1/4 in.); Gift of George R. Kravis II; 2018-22-112

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Energizing the Everyday: Gifts From the George R. Kravis II Collection.

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<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-4.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/420556983/ |title=Drawing, Design for Spiral Form (Hemicycle House) |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=11 February 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>