Its design is almost nautical—linear in a way that Wright so mastered over the years. Goetsch-Winckler is an example of Wright’s later-career Usonian designs, which were the architect’s vision for easily replicable and affordable middle-class housing in the mid-century. There is no real formal entry, no obvious front door, even. The entrance is a cleverly masked pane of glass within a stretch of windows on the northwestern side of the building (its only giveaway is a lockbox hanging from a discreet knob).
Once inside, the real Wrightian rapture started to sink in. The architecture catches and cleaves light in ways I’ve not seen in another’s work. Goetsch-Winckler House features two long walls of glass on either side of the structure, striated vertically by wooden partitions. As the day passes, shadows trace the earthen-red floors, clock-like in their sweep and complemented by golden beams of light from clerestory windows above the main living area. Replete with many original Wright furniture pieces, the interior feels both lost in time and ahead of the times—minimal, open, but thoroughly and spatially enriched. The bedrooms are small and functional, and smell of antique cedar. I picked Goetsch’s room, the more discreet of the two by design—she had requested the chamber with more “security.”
If you’re a creative, the home’s atmosphere is highly conducive for work. I’m a writer, so I spent my 48 hours at Goetsch-Winckler doing just that, at a near-record pace. In between, I explored the owners’ impressive collection of Wright literature, took dozens of photographs, and tried to take in all of its quirks (Wright’s builds are infamously eccentric). For example, the ceiling in the kitchen, bedrooms, and hallway was remarkably low at just seven feet, and at 6’6″, this felt a little close overhead. The living room heated up naturally in the afternoon, but it was recommended that I still set the thermostat to my preferred nighttime temperature by early evening because the radiant floor heating took time to kick in. And in the bathroom, to prevent humidity from damaging the wood, the owners requested that I prop open the window while showering to release steam.
Okemos may not be a typical tourist destination, but it provided a unique window into classic Americana—where the midcentury-modern architecture in Michigan is truly some of the best in the country and the chance to stay at the iconic Goetsh-Winckler house is once in a lifetime.
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