George Fred Keck’s 1939 Sloan House, in Glenview Illinois just north of Chicago, was one of the first houses built with careful attention to its solar dynamics. The house has a long, narrow plan which gives all of the living areas – including bedrooms, living rooms, kitchen and study – a full south-facing exposure. The south façade is largely glass, with panels alternating between insulated Thermopane units and operable, single paned glass windows. Keck worked with experts at Chicago’s Adler Planetarium for three months to track the seasonal and diurnal path of the sun, so as to precisely extend the eave of the roof to block sunlight in the summer and let it in during the winter.
Citation:
George Fred Keck (Keck and Keck Architects), Sloan House, 1939, photograph and drawing, Glenview, Illinois.
Library Item date:
1939