(FAB06_008) The Gilbert Cooley House, 1925: Walter Burley Griffin's Last American Building

In the small river town of Monroe in northern Louisiana stands the only house designed by Walter Burley Griffin to be constructed in the United States after Griffin finally closed his American office in 1917 (Figs 1 and 21.l originally created in 1908 for G B Cooley, an amateur river-boat captain and owner of a laundry business, it was redesigned in 1925 and bnilt the following year under the guidance of a young Australian protege of Griffin. The result is a building that, by combining aspects of the sometimes opposing worlds of Griffin's American and Australian practices, is unique among his hundreds of designs. Detailed study of the two versions reveals much about the evolution of Griffin's practice, as well as the essential unity of his entire career.