George Nakashima House, Studio and Workshop

The story

Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com

The George Nakashima House, Studio and Workshop is a National Historic Landmark at 1847 and 1858 Aquetong Rd. in Solebury, Bucks County; its house and workshop were built beginning in 1946. George Nakashima is named as its architect, along with Louis Kahn, Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer; its buildings mix the International Style with Rustic elements.

Why it's listed

It was listed in the National Register in 2008 under Criterion B, with national-level significance in art, and under Criteria Consideration G. Its period of significance runs from 1946, when construction began, to 1990, and the nomination ties that significance to Nakashima, its architect.

Physical character

Structural engineers Paul Weidlinger, Mario Salvadori and Matthys Levy are named for the property, whose roofs include hyperbolic-paraboloid and conoid shells alongside gables and flat sections, with casement windows and scissor-truss framing. Foundations are concrete, and walls are built variously of concrete, stucco, glass, wood, cement block, plywood, stone and asphalt, under roofs of wood, cement block, stucco or corrugated Transite. A heating house was added to the complex in 1976.

Historical context

From 1946 to 1954 the property held only the house and workshop; in 1986 one of Nakashima's works was installed in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.