-
Vernon House (David Gebhard and Gerald Mansheim)
The Chicago architect Jerome C. Cerny, along with David Adler, was one of the country's most sophisticated exponents of traditional architectural imagery. Cerny's general preference was for the American Colonial (Georgian and Federal) and the French Norman or Provincial. The Vernon house represents one of his post-World War II French farmhouse types. Though of reasonable size, this one-and-a-half-story dwelling was seemingly maneuvered by the architect around courts and terraces so that one experiences only a fragment at a time. The second floor is snuggled down beneath low gables, roofs, and wall dormers so that the house really appears as a single-floor dwelling. What is evident in a house such as this is that the architect, knowing his precedent well, has been able to transform it into something that is modern and at the same time highly personal. This is apparent in the overall composition of the Vernon house and in the way in which wood detailing has been carefully injected into the painted brick walls.