Simon Herold House

• Designed by: William B. Wiener Sr. of William B. Wiener and Associates
• Design year: 1954

William B. Wiener Sr. designed a residence at 1050 Ontario for Shreveport attorney, and fellow B’nai Zion congregation member, Simon Herold in 1954. Most residences designed by one or both of the Wiener brothers between 1948 and 1954 were “T” plans, as discussed in the brief narratives for the Tullos, Muslow and William B. Wiener houses. But at the Herold house, William elected to design an almost square compact house with an internal atrium.  The compact design decision appears to be driven by the topography of the site more so than any formal driving force.

The house is organized in bi-nuclear fashion (inspired by Marcel Breuer.) The public areas of living, dining, breakfast, game rooms are located on the south side of the house and the private areas of bedrooms and bathrooms are located on the north side. The public and private zones are separated, approximately, at the roof ridge of the gently sloping gabled roof.  The bathrooms are positioned to serve as acoustical buffers separating the bedrooms from more public areas of the house.  The house is clad in brown-colored, vertical v-groove siding resting on a brick masonry plinth on the west side.  The small atrium provides a mechanism to introduce light into the living, breakfast, foyer, and game rooms.  The standing-seam copper-clad protrusion off the dining room accommodates serving buffets, as well as, windows which face north and south instead of west.

The carport is prominently located on the south side of the house with respect to the street and illustrates the importance of the automobile in post-war society.  Unlike most Wiener-designed “T” plans, the Herold house employs two different structural modules: a 6’-0” module on the north face of the house at the bedrooms and a 3’-4” module on the east side of the house at the game room, service porch and kitchen.