Alum Still Lives in the House Frank Lloyd Wright Designed for Him

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By Joe Wilensky

It’s a Thursday in mid-April, and a resident of New York’s Westchester County is giving a tour of his home—one he has occupied for the past 73 years. “When you enter a Frank Lloyd Wright building, without exception, it is through a compressed entryway, with a low ceiling,” explains Roland Reisley ’46, BA ’45, walking from the hallway toward the living room at the house’s center.

“And when you emerge from the corridor, that compression is released and the expansion occurs in each of the rooms, giving you a greater sense of each of those spaces.”

The Arts & Sciences alum is now in his spacious living room—a stunning, hexagonal, wood-and-stone-lined space whose design ethos extends through the ample windows to the patio, yard, and wooded surroundings.

It’s an exquisite view, but one Reisley is used to—and he has given a version of this tour countless times before.

At the age of nearly 101 (his birthday is in May), Reisley is the last original client of Frank Lloyd Wright who's still living in the home that the legendary architect designed.

In 1952, Reisley and his wife, Rosalyn “Ronny” Sachs Reisley ’47, BA ’46, moved into the house—and lived there together for more than half a century, until her passing in 2006.

“In recent years, because I’m old—and people fuss about the fact that I’m old—the house has gotten a little extra attention,” Reisley says.

“Many of my friends will say, ‘I have a good friend who’s interested in architecture. Can I bring them in?’ And I always say yes.”

The home is one of four dozen in Usonia, a hilly, wooded community in the town of Pleasantville, about 30 miles north of NYC.

Wright, who served as the supervising architect for the 100-acre community, believed that houses should be integrated into the landscape—that they should be of the land, rather than simply on it.

In recent years, because I’m old—and people fuss about the fact that I’m old—the house has gotten a little extra attention.

He personally designed three of Usonia’s homes, including Reisley’s.

Says Reisley: “Wright envisioned, and we have largely maintained, a wooded enclave with beautiful homes scattered like jewels.”

Wright, who lived from 1867–1959, enjoyed a seven-decade career that produced such seminal buildings as Fallingwater, the Robie House, the Guggenheim Museum, and Taliesin, to name just a few.

In 1991, the American Institute of Architects named him the greatest U.S. architect of all time.

Wright’s philosophy and influence led to the widespread embrace of open-concept plans featuring free-flowing interior spaces and buildings that were less like “boxes inside boxes,” and more in harmony with their surroundings.

His single-story “Usonian” homes—which Wright designed late in his career, during and after the Depression—represented his vision of a more affordable form of organic architecture.

While Reisley’s Pleasantville development was the only fully realized Usonian community, Wright designed dozens of other such houses—featuring flat roofs, ample natural light, open floor plans, overhangs, carports, radiant heating delivered via concrete flooring, and as much natural material as possible.

Wright envisioned, and we have largely maintained, a wooded enclave with beautiful homes scattered like jewels.

“All the angles in the house are based on a hexagonal system,” says Reisley, continuing the tour.

“With this angular system, you get both 120-degree angles and 60-degree angles. You can’t have one without the other; that’s how it works.”

He gestures to the interior stone fireplace and walls, which continue directly to the outside.

“We wanted to put down roots someplace,” Reisley says. “We were looking around; if we saw something we liked, we couldn’t afford it. If we could afford it, we didn’t like it.”

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They visited the new Usonia development—which then had just 10 homes. As he recalls: “The enthusiasm of these people for what they were creating here, in this new modern world, was so infectious.”

The newlyweds took the money they’d received for their honeymoon and instead used it to buy into the community.

“When you joined, you selected a site and an architect—either Frank Lloyd Wright, or one of five or six architects that he approved,” Reisley says.

“Maybe it was a May–December kind of thing,” Reisley muses. “Maybe he sensed, ‘Here’s a young person who’s enthusiastically supportive.’ But one way or another, he became a mentor and a friend.”

The Reisleys even found that Wright was amenable to their feedback—as when they realized their home’s plans lacked bookshelves and a broom closet.

With trepidation, Reisley went to see him about it—“It was not so easy; it was like talking to God”—and was relieved by Wright’s attitude.

“Come on Roland—you’re my client, I’m your architect,” Reisley recalls him saying. “I’ll redesign your house as many times as I have to until I’ve satisfied all of your needs.”

Before Wright’s death at 91, he worked with the Reisleys once more: to accommodate their growing family, he designed an expansion that doubled the original 1,200 square feet.

The home has proved sturdy over the decades, Reisley says, needing only typical maintenance.

You’re my client, I’m your architect. I’ll redesign your house as many times as I have to until I’ve satisfied all of your needs.

Frank Lloyd Wright to Roland Reisley ’46, BA ’45

The cypress walls have required a single washing and waxing; the stone exterior has undergone some repointing; and the living room ceiling was recently painted for a second time.

Like many residents of Wright houses, Reisley has become something of an expert on its creator, welcoming countless architects, historians, students, and other visitors.

(And in fact, he attributes his own long life—at least in part—to the house and its surroundings, which have allowed him to view something beautiful every day.)

Reisley eventually co-founded the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, which facilitates the maintenance and preservation of Wright’s surviving structures.

In 2001, he cowrote a history titled Usonia, NY: Building a Community with Frank Lloyd Wright.

And while Reisley has visited many Wright buildings around the country, he believes that Pleasantville’s Usonia remains something special.

The neighborhood began with many young families, who formed close bonds—and turnover was rare.

In fact, in its first four decades, only 12 homes changed hands—half of them to the next generation of the same family.

“The sense of connection to this community was so powerful,” Reisley says, “that nobody wanted to leave.”

(All images by Joe Wilensky / Cornell University, unless otherwise indicated.)

Published April 24, 2025

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Comments

1. 

   Kim Bixler, Class of 1991

   25 Apr, 2025

   I grew up in a home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright—the Edward E. Boynton house (1908) in Rochester, NY.
   When I was 8 years old, my mom handed me a set of notecards, led me to a spot in front of the fireplace (“the heart of Wright’s homes”) and I began leading the first of many tours. I gave numerous tours to architecture students and professors from Cornell.
   After graduating from Cornell (no, I didn’t pursue a career in architecture), I wrote a book about my experience growing up in a Frank Lloyd Wright house.
   Kim Bixler (A&S ‘91)

   Reply

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