No. 79 Lovelace Avenue

No. 79 Lovelace Avenue is a house of 1955-59 designed by D. Rosslyn Harper of the architectural practice Yorke, Harper and Harvey as his own residence. It represents an interpretation of Frank Lloyd Wright's early 20th-century 'Prairie' house style adapted to the English Midlands.

The building is constructed in brick laid in stretcher bond with flush vertical mortar joints and recessed horizontal mortar joints, with oak boards to the upper storey. It forms a 2-storey slim rectangular range under a hipped roof with deep eaves having timber-detailed soffits, supported on brick corner piers at ground floor and with a flat cantilevered roof between storeys. A single-storey advanced garage with an open car-port is positioned under a similar cantilevered roof in a different plane. The design achieves pronounced horizontality through its massing and materials.

Windows throughout are casements with slender wood mullions and small square fixed panes. Frameless plate glass windows to corners have sheets that are chamfered and butted together. Ribbon clerestory windows run beneath the cantilevered roofs.

The south elevation, the main frontage, features a flat cantilever to the left corner with void beneath, followed by a wide bay window of 6 casement lights, one of which is double and fixed, divided by slender timber mullions and set on a low brick wall with an advancing low brick planting box. A narrow stretch of brick wall to the centre has 4 square lights arranged vertically. The entrance passage projects beneath the deep cantilevered overhang of the car-port roof. A brick wall to the right is punctuated by recessed brick detail, and a high brick planting box to the left forms an L-shape with the planting box already described, culminating in a discrete main entrance with a glass door. Above the flat roof are ribbon clerestory windows with brick at the corners, then a band of horizontal timber boards at the base of the first floor. The first floor has a single and double light frameless window to left and right with chamfered corner treatment. Between these is a band of vertical boards with similar square lights to the centre, arranged 4-over-4. A central short brick chimney rises to the ridge.

The west elevation features an advanced section of 6-light casements, the central one double and fixed, on a low wall. A brick partition wall to the left supports the cantilevered roof, which extends broadly to each side, supported on the left by a slender timber column and to the right as a true cantilever with a terrace of 3 shallow steps descending to the garden. Above the flat roof are 3 ribbon clerestory windows with brick piers at the sides, then continued horizontal boarding at the base of the first floor. A 2-light corner window continues from the front to the right, and a single light window continues to the rear on the left.

The north elevation has a mostly continuous brick wall at ground floor punctuated by 4 square lights to the kitchen and an opening to service space. The flat roof has a shallow overhang supported on slender steel columns at each corner. The first floor is similarly detailed with horizontal boarding at its base, set back from the brick wall below, corner windows each of 2 lights, vertical boarding between, and a wide undivided window to the centre.

The east elevation is similar to the rear, with an advanced brick wall at ground floor and a wide window with a central square fixed light flanked by 2 pairs of single light casements. To the left the wall advances slightly and extends to form the outside garage wall, which is slightly lower and under a separate, lower flat roof. A deep overhang to the front of the open garage features a stepped plywood soffit.

Interior walls are mostly finished with polished vertical boards set with faceted-head nails, and brick interior walls are detailed similarly to the exterior. Below the ribbon clerestory windows is a horizontal band at cornice level with triangular projecting light fittings in the main rooms. Ceilings are of unpolished square plywood panels. Radiators are concealed behind wood doors with lattice vents. Wood interior doors and casements have brass hardware. Built-in wooden seating, desks and shelving are provided in most rooms, and 3 bedrooms contain hidden pull-down single beds. The first floor cornice is detailed with repeated square panels incised with a geometric motif, some sections of which pull down to provide ventilation.

At ground floor level, the entrance vestibule has 3 steps to a central hall, with doors to the right leading to a bathroom at the front and main bedroom to the rear, which are connected by an internal door. The main bedroom has a ribbon clerestory window to the rear wall above a built-in cupboard. A pair of dressing rooms feature built-in cupboards and dressing tables with drawers and cupboards below. The central stair has 3 winders at its base, behind a low wood wall, with a small 'greenhouse' in the wall, operated from above by pulleys, separating the base of the stair from the living room. The living room has a brick hearth with piers at the sides angled back to the centre, and a V-plan brick projection to the centre housing the flue. The rear wall has clerestory lights above the cornice band with triangular projecting light fittings, an internal window to the kitchen and built-in bench seating below. A frosted glass door on swinging hinges opens to a rear galley kitchen under the extended flat roof. Built-in bench seating is provided within the 2 bay windows, some of which incorporates storage.

The first floor features a stair with a brick wall to the left and wood wall to the right. At mid-point a plywood panel bears a signature pencil sketch of one of the builders. A corridor runs to the rear of the first floor. To the right is a bathroom with glazed pale blue panelling to the walls and similar cornice detail to the hall. A bedroom to the front has built-in cupboards, desk and a pull-down single bed within the wall, flush and with discrete handles. To the left of the first floor is a pair of bedrooms divided by a flexible partition housed in a wooden cupboard that also accommodates a wardrobe. The cornice is as in the hall, with built-in shallow shelving, and 2 pull-down single beds similarly housed. A small room at the centre front contains the pulley for the small glasshouse below, ladder access to the loft, and is lit by the small square windows central to the facade.

The design achieves its effect through highly effective horizontality pronounced through massing and materials, a plan featuring a central hearth, car-port and clear relationship to the garden, and well-detailed brick, timber and glass.