The Bavinger House
The Bavinger House was designed by Bruce Goff for Eugene and Nancy Bavinger in 1950. The form of the house is comprised of a spiral wall constructed from local stone, which culminates in a tower at the center of the spiral. Cable supports were used to hang the roof structure. Inside the house was filled with pools and planting beds, creating the sense that the outdoors and indoors were continuous. Bedrooms consisted of hanging pods, visible from the main living space on the ground level. Goff used local, found and scrap materials such as slag glass. Bavinger built the house over a number of years with the help of students from the art and architecture programs at OU as well his neighbor, engineer and architect William “Bill” Wilson. The Bavinger House was considered one of Goff’s most important works and was awarded the American Institute of Architects 25-year award in 1987. The house was destroyed in 2011.
The Ledbetter House
The Ledbetter House was designed by Bruce Goff in 1947 and built just a few blocks away from the University of Oklahoma campus in 1948. William H. Wilson assisted Goff with the structural design of the house. Located on a small flat corner site, the house opens towards the south with extensive glass in the façade. A reflecting pool separates the semi-circular drive and entryway from the public sidewalk. Inside planter beds, local stone and a large reflecting pool and fountain serve to extend the natural world into the manmade interior. A ramp over the pool leads one up to the second story where bedrooms are located, while a stone stair cuts into the earth and leads to a sunken den below. Goff incorporated local and industrial materials in the design including ashtrays and prefabricated oil drilling structural elements. In 1948, thousands of visitors waited hours in line to see the Ledbetter House as part of a charity fundraiser. LIFE magazine captured the looks of amazement and “bewilderment” on the faces of visitors.