Usonia: Frank Lloyd Wright’s ‘utopian’ town

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 6 June 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

In 1948, the foundation was laid for a “utopian” community of houses designed by a man described as America’s greatest ever architect.

Frank Lloyd Wright had been approached by a group who wanted to create a social collective of affordable homes, on land an hour north of New York city.

The group of 47 flat-roofed, open-plan homes became known as Usonia. Roland Reisley, now aged 100, is the last founding member of the community where he still lives.

He reveals what it was like to be a client of the famous, but controversial, Frank Lloyd Wright, and explains why Usonia has been the backdrop to a long and happy life.

This episode was produced in partnership with BBC Video, from an interview by Anna Bressanin, and presented by Jane Wilkinson.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Photo: Roland Reisley's home, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Credit AP Photo/Ed Bailey)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Why does some big successful brands go bust?
0:05.7	Toast is back for a new series, taking a look at the decisions that often left investors burnt.
0:11.6	I'm Sean Farrington, a BBC business journalist. I'll be hearing about the hype.
0:15.6	They're going to do the deal that makes them the most money at that point of time.
0:19.7	And I'm picking what went wrong, talking to owners and employees to ask, what can we learn?
0:25.4	It was being undercut by similar rivals.
0:28.4	It just couldn't survive.
0:30.3	Toast. Listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:43.3	Welcome to the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service with me, Jane Wilkinson.
0:56.7	This is a story about a small utopian town of 1940s houses designed by a man described as America's greatest ever architect, Frank Lloyd Wright.
1:03.7	I wouldn't like to change so much the way we live as what we live in and how we live in it.
1:10.4	I'd like to have architecture that belonged where you see it standing and was a grace to the landscape instead of a disgrace.
1:12.2	Right, interviewed on the American TV network CBS in 1957.
1:17.7	But although he might have been a genius, not everyone liked him.
1:22.2	Most people who know something of Frank Woodwright think that they know about his scandalous life.
1:27.2	He was arrogant, egocentric, not a nice person, left his wife and children, ran off with the
1:33.0	wife of a client, his houses cost too much, da, da, da, da, all of that stuff.
1:37.6	Meet Roland Reisley.
1:39.5	And if you think he's not a right fan, then you'd be wrong. Because Roland, now age 100, is the last of
1:47.5	the architect's clients, still living in that small American town, which became known as Yusonia.
1:54.0	My experience was in fact quite remarkable. Everything went smoothly. Every time we needed
1:59.6	something, he responded quickly. And Wright became a mentor and a friend, and we got along very well.
	...

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