Soon after the interior of Albert Schulman's 3,000 square-foot house was destroyed by a devastating fire, 3D Building Systems was asked to provide emergency services, cleanup and complete restoration. While it seemed like just another house fire, they discovered was that this was not the typical Columbus, Ohio suburban home. It was a uniquely designed home inspired by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian style architecture of the mid 1900's. The job posed many challenges as a result.
   

These Usonian style homes emphasized flowing horizontal interiors and openness, aesthetic richness and reflected the natural surroundings they were built into. They utilized an abundance of natural light, incorporated geometric window compositions and had high walls. Natural materials like glass, wood, stone, brick and concrete block are favored and they were often combined and dramatically juxtapositioned. The homes emphasized earth tones and nature, had shallow pitched roofs and overhanging eaves, moveable partitions, and exposed wood beams. 

With the original builder unavailable, 3D set out to rebuild the unique interior to its pre-existing condition based solely on photographs, records, and the memory of homeowner Albert Schulman. Interior designer Victoria Ludaway of Custom Made By Design was hired by the homeowner and helped the team meet the many unique interior challenges during the successful restoration. 

The source of the fire was in the kitchen, which was completely destroyed. This area had to be totally reconstructed to match the original. 
 

Because of the horizontal shape of the kitchen space, the custom designed cabinetry served both as storage area and partition walls separating the food preparation and dining areas. The unit included built-in pass through spaces to efficiently get from area to area. Maintaining a clean, neat look on both sides of the cabinetry unit was critical since some of it served as a partition wall and the unit was the dominating visual element in the space. The unit had doors on both for easy access and glass windows were built into some of the cabinet doors. The original unit contained built-in indirect lighting on top and beneath the unit. 3D rebuilt all the fluorescent indirect lighting throughout the entire house and in the kitchen cabinet unit. Custom-made cone shaped fixtures were added to the top of the unit. These complimented the rest of the area's lighting fixtures and helped reflect more light up into the room. 

The original African mahogany wood floor was completely destroyed in the fire and 3D rebuilt and refinished it, and reapplied the unique black accent joint lines to match the look of the original. All the original Formica kitchen and bathroom countertops were replaced with Baltic Brown natural granite countertops to give it an aesthetically pleasing and natural look consistent with Wright's Usonian style. 

3D rebuilt the rest of the interior to match its original look or improve it with new elements. The entire home was lined with custom finished wood floor trim and casings that were milled on site. The trim had squared edges with a unique characteristic that required a special saw cut. 3D had to utilize a joining system at every intersection, including where the baseboard meets the casing. This helped the joints fit tightly and helped restore the original look. The house contained high ceiling windowsills in some areas that supported the geometric rectangular windows characteristic of a Usonian style. 3D replaced all the trim around these high windowsills in addition to the custom window casings of the more traditional windows in the house, including a large bay window. 

The bathroom cabinetry was also unique as it utilized an overlapping wood appearance. 3D rebuilt the cabinets to match the original and enhanced its appearance to make them functional. They added the Baltic Brown natural granite countertops to give it a richer look. 

Rebuilding the house's extensive low voltage lighting system was another major challenge for 3D because 95 percent of the lighting in the house was indirect. In total, the house contained more than 400 light bulbs. The kitchen and dining room areas alone contained half of them. The kitchen cabinets contained approximately 80 light bulbs. Master low voltage stations in the dining room and master bedroom controlled all the lighting throughout the house. In other rooms, there were light switch units with six buttons that could create different lighting effects in that particular room. 

Throughout the house, exposed stained wood beams accented the walls. These beams housed hundreds of indirect lights found throughout the house. The lights were built into the beams, which had to be rebuilt and refinished, especially in the front hall area. These new beams had to match the look, shape and appearance of the original beams. 

The house also had a custom made solid wood front door that contained 84 routed accent panels. 3D had a new solid oak door made to match the appearance of the original. There was an enclosed nature courtyard in the center portion of the house that could be seen from nearly every area of the house. 3D restored the rooms so the courtyard was once again a dominant feature of that area. 

While 3D helped Albert Schulman reduce his restoration costs through labor and material efficiencies, perhaps the largest reduced loss that resulted from the work was the overall satisfaction and peace of mind Albert Schulman received from seeing his home restored to the original Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian style. This makes his home one of the most unique in his neighborhood.