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Aside from occupants of the White House, few people have ever looked out their front window and, over the course of a day, seen 500 people snake across their yard while waiting to tour their home.
As owners of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed "Jacobs II" since 1989, John and Betty Moore are accustomed to the fascination their house commands.
And as a National Historic Landmark, it also commands scrutiny from preservationists. Most recently, scrutiny was directed at what had been a crumbling concrete carport, which they transformed into a garage/studio/carport. The project earned a 2008 award from the Madison Trust for Historic Preservation for compatible new construction.
"This was an excellent project because it combines compatible new construction with preservation, because the limestone wall is original," said Trust member Erica Fox-Gehrig. "We also wanted to recognize the Moores for being good stewards of a landmark house."
Wright was in his 70s when he designed Jacobs II in 1943. After decades of using rectangles, triangles, hexagons and octagons in his designs, he turned to circles and spirals. The house he designed for Herb Jacobs, a reporter for The Capital Times, and his wife, Katherine Jacobs, would be his first residence with curved design. He called it a "solar hemicycle"...