Highrise of Homes
This unrealized proposal for a vertical community offers the cultural advantages of a dense urban center, without sacrificing the domestic identities and private garden spaces associated with suburbia. As opposed to the identical units of typical urban skyscrapers, lots would be developed in styles chosen by each owner, allowing for flexibility and individualism. Here, the houses are connected by interior streets within a vast, multistory U-shaped building, resulting in a villagelike community on each floor. The proposed variety of homes and gardens comments on the sense of identity and human connection that can be lost through architectural formalism. Through the art of chance, Wines’s high-rise becomes the collective creation of its inhabitants.
Artwork Details
- Title: Highrise of Homes
- Artist: James Wines (American, born Oak Park, Illinois, 1932)
- Date: 1981
- Medium: Pen and ink and wash over graphite on paper
- Dimensions: 10 11/16 × 13 5/8 in. (27.2 × 34.6 cm)
- Classification: Drawings
- Credit Line: Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace and Romenesa Foundation Gifts, 2016
- Object Number: 2016.338
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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James Wines
1985
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1928
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1924
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