Samara (John E. Christian House)

Samara — the name means "seed of the tree" — is the John E. Christian House in West Lafayette, Indiana, completed in 1954 and one of Wright's finest late Usonian works. Christian was a professor at Purdue University, and the house sits on a wooded lot just minutes from campus. Wright designed it as a Usonian Automatic, a system using precast concrete blocks that homeowners could theoretically assemble themselves — a late evolution of the Textile Block concept he had pioneered in California in the 1920s. The Christians lived in the house for decades and worked closely with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation to preserve it. It is now operated as a house museum and is open for guided tours, making it one of the most accessible and best-preserved Usonian Automatics in existence.