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4 unusual facts about Villa Cook


Independence, Iowa

When Cook returned to Paris, he used part of his inheritance to commission a young architect named Le Corbusier to design, on the outskirts of Paris, what is now considered to be the first Cubist house, called Maison Cook or Villa Cook.

Villa Cook

The sculptor Jacques Lipchitz introduced them to architect Le Corbusier, then largely unknown, who, during this time, was designing a series of villas, including innovative homes for Michael Stein (Gertrude's brother) and Lipchitz himself.

William Edwards Cook's father died in 1924, at which time he became an heir (along with a sister and two brothers) to a substantial amount of money.

William Edwards Cook

Today he is chiefly remembered not for his artistic achievements, but because, during World War I, he taught Stein to drive an automobile so that she could contribute to the French war effort, and because, in 1926, he commissioned the Swiss architect Le Corbusier (whose career was at an early stage) to design an innovative cubist home, on the outskirts of Paris, now called Maison Cook or Villa Cook.



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