Usonia Historic District

Usonia is a wooded residential community in northeastern Westchester County, New York, built by a cooperative that bought ninety-seven acres in 1946. Frank Lloyd Wright prepared the site plan, which David Henken and Aaron Resnick modestly revised with his approval. Fifty-five circular one-acre building sites were first proposed, later reshaped into fewer, slightly larger lots, while the land between them stayed wooded and held in common. Houses were built from 1949 to 1964, and most went up before 1955. Wright designed three, Henken thirteen and Resnick another thirteen, with the rest by other architects. Typical houses are long and low, with concrete slabs, radiant floor heating, stone or brick chimneys, horizontal cypress siding, deep eaves, carports and terraces that connect indoor and outdoor space. Narrow roads follow the contours, fences are not allowed, and native plantings blur property lines. The district is recognized for this combination of planned landscape and organic architecture, which has kept a high degree of integrity.