Located in Los Banos, California, the property is in a somewhat unusual location—even for a Usonian home, which are often in lower profile areas. A town where the largest employer is the local school district, the rural city in California’s central valley has a population of less than 50,000. It’s not the type of place you typically associate with world-class architecture and design, but then again, nothing about the home’s origins are what you’d expect.
After graduating from Los Banos High School, Randall “Buck” Fawcett continued his academic career at Stanford University. On campus, he was a star athlete and participated in football and track. After enlisting as a paratrooper in the army during World War II, he was picked by the Chicago Bears in the 1944 NFL Draft. Instead of accepting a jersey with his name on the back, Fawcett touchingly chose to return to Los Banos to help out on his father’s farm. It was here that he and his wife met with Wright to design their family home, which they built themselves over two years using the architect’s blueprints.
