Vanna Venturi House
| Vanna Venturi House | |
|---|---|
Front facade (view from north-east)
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| General information | |
| Type | Residence |
| Architectural style | Postmodern |
| Town or city | Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Country | United States |
| Coordinates | 40°04′15″N 75°12′29″W / 40.0707°N 75.2081°W |
| Construction started | 1959 (design) |
| Completed | 1964 |
| Cost | $43,000 |
| Client | Vanna Venturi |
| Technical details | |
| Structural system | light wood frame |
| Floor count | 2, plus basement |
| Floor area | 1,800 sq ft (170 m2) |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Robert Venturi |
| Architecture firm | Venturi and Rauch |
| Awards and prizes | 2012 AIA Philadelphia Landmark Building Award |
| Website | |
| Venturi, Scott Brown & Associates, Inc. | |
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 10 Buildings that Changed America #9 Vanna Venturi House, WTTW, |
The Vanna Venturi House, one of the first prominent works of the postmodern architecture movement, is located in the neighborhood of Chestnut Hill in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was designed by architect Robert Venturi for his mother Vanna Venturi, and constructed between 1962 -1964. The house was sold in 1973 and remains a private residence. The house is not open to the public.
The five-room house stands only about 30 feet (9 m) tall at the top of the chimney, but has a monumental front facade, an effect achieved by intentionally manipulating the architectural elements that indicate a building's scale. A non-structural applique arch and "hole in the wall" windows, among other elements, together with Venturi's book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture were an open challenge to Modernist orthodoxy. Architectural historian Vincent Scully called it "the biggest small building of the second half of the twentieth century.”
The design of "Mother's House", as architect Robert Venturi frequently calls the house, was affected by Vanna (née Luizi) Venturi as both the client whose needs had to be met, and also as the mother who helped develop the architect's talent and personality.
Vanna was a feminist, socialist, pacifist and vegetarian with an active intellectual life, reading books mostly on history, current events, and biography. She was born to Italian immigrant parents in Philadelphia in 1893. She dropped out of high school because her family could not afford to buy her a coat, so she was essentially self-educated. She did not marry until relatively late in life in 1924, marrying a fruit and produce merchant, Robert Venturi, Sr. Her only child, Robert, Jr. was born in 1925. Possibly because of her liberal views she perceived herself as an "outsider" and became a Quaker. Robert, Jr. said "I never went to public school: pledging allegiance to the flag - 'coercive patriotism' my mother called it - was anathema to her." The family made summer trips to Arden, Delaware and Rose Valley, Pennsylvania, two communities organized by architect Will Price who was inspired by the Arts and Crafts Movement and the then-radical economics of Henry George. In Rose Valley the family attended plays by George Bernard Shaw at the Hedgerow Theater.
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