The Revere Quality House is a house located in Siesta Key, Florida that was designed by architects Paul Rudolph and Ralph Twitchell. It is a breakthrough in twentieth-century residential architecture which blends elements of the International Style with site-sensitive design that is considered one of the notable examples of the Sarasota School of Architecture. The house represents a substantial advancement in how people should live within their environment, and established a new paradigm in tropical home construction.
The Revere Quality Institute
The Revere Quality Institute was a consortium of the Revere Copper Company, Architectural Forum magazine, and select architects and builders across the country. It was established during the post-war building boom of the late 1940s, with the goal of promoting the development of bold, new, creative, and affordable approaches to residential living. This would be accomplished by building prototype homes in select cities across the country. These designs would promote the use of new, lower-cost, synthetic and re-engineered materials. Paul Rudolph was encouraged by a publisher in New York City to participate, and was offered one of the projects for the firm of Twitchell and Rudolph of Sarasota, Florida. Their project would be the third of eight homes planned for 1948.
Developing the concept
Roberta Finney was a local patron and friend of Ralph Twitchell. She provided a large flat plot of land on Siesta Key, near a bayou that spilled out onto the Gulf of Mexico. This location would facilitate any number of design approaches.
Although both Twitchell and Rudolph were architects, the two had established a unique relationship where Rudolph generally produced conceptual designs, while Twitchell translated them into buildable plans and managed construction. For most of the project, Rudolph worked out of his office in New York City and sent them to Sarasota for review.
In 1948, Rudolph traveled to Europe as part of a Harvard architecture fellowship. He was struck by the scale and construction of European urban design. He became particularly interested in the transposition of structures and integration of inner and outer space. This was reflected in his first (and most grand) concept for the Revere project, a large open plan covering the entire lot, with six detached but intertwined homes. It featured a shared public space and parking area, all surrounded by a six foot high wall. This initial idea was dismissed in favor of a traditional single-house suburban plan. A variation of this urban concept was redeveloped into the Lamolithic Houses of Siesta Key, completed by Twitchell and Rudolph later that year.
Going back to the drawing board, Rudolph produced a new plan, loosely based on the Mies van der Rohe (Barcelona Pavilion); a scaled-down (1,000 square foot), linear, flat-roof, single-story structure, to be constructed almost entirely of concrete and glass. The low roof (less than eight and a half feet off the ground) would be supported by steel perimeter poles, and extend beyond the frame of the house to create overhangs for shade. At one end, the roof overhang would extend several feet to serve as a carport. The exterior walls were to be made of lamolithic panels, as well as floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors that would open onto large exterior patio areas. Jalousie windows were strategically positioned to promote natural ventilation and cooling. A hole would be cut into the roof to bring light into an incorporated screened-in porch (with grass inside) to further intermingle interior and exterior space.
The floor plan was simple and functional, highlighting a single space that conceptually consolidated living, dining, and patio areas. One of the walls would incorporate a large copper-hooded fireplace (provided by Revere Copper and Brass Company). This ‘great room’ would constitute more than half of the interior capacity of the house. A small galley kitchen was positioned behind a partition wall, along with a narrow hallway that led to two corner bedrooms and shared bath.
It was a radical plan at the time, and to create it would require new building applications and methods.