Balfour Ames Lanza’s Conway Road Home

Balfour Ames Lanza’s Conway Road home exemplifies a highly unique, natural style created by the well-respected Lake Forest, Illinois architect who studied Frank Lloyd Wright. The home’s style is a prime example of Lanza’s signature style, designed and crafted by the architect following the Usonian style.

The modest four-bedroom home features a red brick façade and angular, pointed accents on the roof and significantly follows the Usonian style. Inside the home, which is surrounded by woods on the two and half acres property, windows replace the space where walls normally would be, drawing natural light into the open living room, dining area and kitchen.

Of importance for this home is that Lanza designed and built this home more than 50 years ago in in 1966. He raised his family in this home while he worked throughout the local community.

“Architect Balfour Lanza (1928-1996) designed at least fourteen Lake Forest homes, according to a 1997 pamphlet prepared by the Lake Forest/Lake Bluff Historical Society. His local residential work reflects a Wrightian inspiration for natural materials and earth-tone colors, sensitivity to ravine and prairie sites, and full-height windows that draw the landscape into the house. The Davies house, too, warmly reflects Wright’s enthusiasm for Japanese balance between the built and natural environments with its roof forms and Asian styled atrium gardens. Lanza also seems inspired by Philip Johnson’s idea of incorporating interior courtyards into open plans. In the commodious, elegant Davies house just north of Wright’s only local commission, Lanza created an outstanding example of the local modernist impulse, perfect for landscape-prioritizing Lake Forest.”

The modest four-bedroom Conway home that Lanza designed and built more than 50 years ago (in 1966) features a red brick façade and angular, pointed accents on the roof and significantly follows the Usonian style. Inside the home, which is surrounded by woods on the two and half acres property, windows replace the space where walls normally would be, drawing natural light into the open living room, dining area and kitchen.

Lanza’s style, in his own words, is not traditional or modern. It’s natural. His design process demonstrated an awareness of the period’s technology in a candid way and strayed away from traditional and post-modern design. He was aware of his client’s needs, but even more so aware of the site and climate he was designing, according to his resume. “His integrated details gave a feeling of openness combined with a great sense of shelter,” Lanza’s obituary said.