Artist Dot Replinger and architect John Replinger moved into their Yankee Ridge home in 1995 after John retired from the Illinois School of Architecture. The home is H-shaped, with two wings connected by a hallway. The front wing has private spaces, such as bedrooms and bathrooms, and the back wing contains a kitchen, living room, and two large studios. Dot’s weaving studio, with looms and walls of colorful yarn, filled a lofted two-story space at one side while John’s studio occupied a second-floor loft at the opposite end. The design presents a harmonious union of heteronormative marriage flourishing alongside artistic production.
McCall’s Article
John Replinger’s first design was a modest, single-story home for his family on a cul-de-sac in a new South Urbana neighborhood. The home extends from the curved street, allowing the house to open its windows to the private yard and carport on the wedge-shaped lot. Public spaces like the kitchen and dining room were closer to the street—bedrooms to the rear.
After a few years and more children, Dot submitted a proposal to redesign the boys’ bedroom to a “Remodel a Room” contest held by McCall’s Magazine, one of the most popular midcentury American women’s magazines. She won, and the magazine sponsored building the redesign in exchange for publishing photographs of the house and family.
How Do You Fit Three Boys into Two Rooms?
McCall's, November 1957
An Illinois housewife’s solution to the problem of having only two bedrooms for three active boys is a triumph of ingenuity over mathematics. And the plan Mrs. John Replinger submitted to McCall’s Remodel-a-Room contest made her one of the eight top-prize winners.
Before her prize-winning brainstorm, the two oldest Replinger boys, Johnny, six, and Bobby, four, shared one bedroom. Jimmy, two, was in the other. Both rooms were inevitably cluttered and strewed with toys. Both were a nuisance to tidy up, and neither offered adequate play space.
Mrs. Replinger got the bright idea of making the larger room a bedroom for three. The smaller became a playroom, with plenty of space to store books and toys. McCall’s carried out the remodeling just as she specified. Now the boys have an orderly room to sleep in and a wonderful place to play.
Wife of a professor at the University of Illinois, Dorothy Replinger enjoys the casual, cultural atmosphere of a university community. Always interested in art, she reserves the two-hour period each afternoon when Bobby and Jimmy take their naps as the time for her special activities—weaving, painting, and reading. The house is a lively reflection of her artistic interests.
"Before" photographs by Joe Stocks
"After" photographs by Bill Hedrich, Hedrich-Blessing
The Replingers built their modern house in an Urbana, Illinois, development four years ago. The whole family likes its comfortable informality
Delighted with their newly remodeled bedroom, three boys find bedtime almost painless now. White walls and clear colors make the room seem not only bright, but bigger than its actual 12½ by 9½ feet. Bed under the window is cleated to the wall, with its free corner supported by a steel rod suspended from the ceiling. Middle bed slides under it when not in use. When they chose their chests, all three boys coveted the orange one. They drew straws and Bobby won. Huge map over chests makes a handsome wall decoration as well as a pleasant way to learn geography. Boys enjoy charting family trips on it.
The same wall before Johnny and Bobby’s room was remodeled.
Redwood paneling, above, gives a nice color balance with the three white walls and provides a practical surface that can take a beating. It could make a dramatic background for pictures, too. Here middle bed is stowed away for the day. Cotton bedspreads are made with boxed corners, like the fitted sheets underneath, for speedy bedmaking and a neat look. Long shelf behind the beds has room for each boy’s favorite toy or hobby display. Three shielded fluorescent tubes under it let each boy control his own light. Good general lighting is provided by long fluorescent strip above the window. The bedroom’s new cork floor helps keep down clatter.
Same side of the bedroom before it was remodeled.
Now the boys have an honest-to-goodness playroom—and Mrs. Replinger has more peace of mind, knowing their games are going on in a room designed to take hard wear. The boys enjoy the absence of restrictions too. Toys needn’t be cleared off beds at night, and half-built castles can be left undisturbed. Mrs. Replinger’s solution to her space problem might be a good one for you if you have too many youngsters in too few rooms
Mrs. John G. Replinger’s bedroom for three boys
FURNISHINGS AND ACCESSORIES. Beds: carpenter-constructed. Bedspreads: Prestini, all-cotton, yellow, Knoll Textiles, Inc. Blankets: Glolon, 100 per cent Aerilan, Capri Blue, Pepperell Mfg. Co. Sheets: Lady Pepperell fitted percale. Pillows: white goose down, Hauptman Feather Co. Chests: Steelframe, Herman Miller Furniture Co. Wooden boxes: painted to match chests, The Elder Craftsmen Shop. Draperies: Fibra, pigment-print orange, yellow, rust and black on white linen, Knoll Textiles, Inc. Traverse rods: Stanley-Judd. Floor covering: 12-by-12 inch square cork tiles in graded tones, Kentile, Inc. Lighting: General Electric. Radio: General Electric. Pajamas: Nitey Nite by Glendale. Assembly kit: Yacht Atlantic, scale model reproduction, Ideal Toy Corp. Toys: Toy Guidance Council. Wooden monkeys: Seabon.
REMODELING. Redwood paneling: United States Plywood Corp. Paint: Super Kem-Tone, Kem-glo.
Dot Replinger Notebooks
Dot Replinger continuously worked in notebooks and scrapbooks recording ideas and images that inspired her alongside plans for finished designs for her weavings and other designs. Her collages can give the impression of random collections of images, but they often follow a complex internal logic and show her making connections from pop culture, literature, fashion, art, and architecture that inform her work. By presenting these unpublished notebooks, we hope to spark additional research and appreciation for this underknown artist.
Blueprints
Drawings for Dot and John Replinger Home and Studios, 1994. Blueprints (set no. 2), north elevation. Courtesy of Mark Opperman and Tomoko Hirose.
Yankee Ridge
John Replinger served on the initial architectural committee for the new Yankee Ridge subdivision in the mid-1960s and contemplated buying a lot and building a new home in Yankee Ridge 1 on Persimmon Circle. It was not until thirty years later, when a new section, Yankee Ridge 3, was platted that the Replingers finally bought a lot and moved to a newly constructed and heavily treed street, Yankee Ridge Lane.
Yankee Ridge III marketing brochure, ca. 1990. Offset lithograph. Courtesy of the University of Illinois Archives, record series 12/2/40, box 6, folder 5.
Yankee Ridge III
Come to Yankee Ridge III for prairie views and blue sky vistas. Professionally designed landscaping with over 40 trees enhance the curving street. Generous set-back and side yards will enhance the home you choose to build.
Just ten minutes from the University or downtown Urbana, Yankee Ridge III has that wide open feeling with in-town convenience.
Enjoy picnics by the nearby pond in the summer and ice skating in the winter. A commons area provides extra room for entertaining, and a lovely view of parkland and apple orchards.
Jogging and biking are a pleasure throughout the subdivision without the risks of traveling main roads.
Children attend Yankee Ridge School, Brookens Jr. High and Urbana High School.
Utilities include city water and sanitary sewer, gas for space heating. Away from highrise buildings, even the television reception is better!
Lots range from ¼ to ½ an acre, priced from $21,000. For more information, contact Margaret Morgan, 344-4547.
Yankee Ridge III site plan, ca. 1990. Offset lithograph with pencil annotations. Courtesy of the University of Illinois Archives, record series 12/2/40, box 6, folder 5.
Morning Courier Article
Georgeanne Marty, “New House Developed into Prairie Subdivision,” The Morning Courier. Newsprint on paper. Courtesy of the University of Illinois Archives, record series 12/2/40, box 6, folder 5.
New House Developed into Prairie Subdivision
By Georgeanne Marty, Morning Courier Living Editor
A Junior League Conference on land development last year in California sparked an interest in Margaret Morgan. Today she is developing some land of her own.
About the time she returned from the Los Angeles meeting full of new ideas and enthusiasm, she and her husband began to think about a new home of their own for a growing family.
“I really believe in shopping for a home,” Mrs. Morgan said. “When we moved here seven years ago, I looked at 70 houses before we bought our present home.”
“This time when we couldn’t find anything we really liked we decided to find a lot and build. At least that was our original intent. What developed was a development. I decided to take an option on additional land adjacent to our own building site and subdivide it employing landscaping techniques to enhance the prairie environment.”
Mrs. Morgan is handling all phases of her enterprise herself. Although her husband is on the law faculty at the University of Illinois she had asked of him—and received—only moral support. She has retained her own attorney.
The subdivision southeast of Urbana is called Yankee Ridge III. A “woodsy” atmosphere will be cultivated and maintained. The area already has 40 trees and will feature large set back lots and side yards. A pond and large commons area will add to the attractiveness of the property. City water and sewer connections and large commons area will add to the attractiveness of the property. City water and sewer connections and natural gas permits already are in effect. Lots will range from ¼ to ½ acre.
“An incentive I am offering is to match dollar-for-dollar up to $1,000 the amount of money for shade tree planting a homeowner wishes to spend during the first year he lives in his house.”
“Starting with the concept of a natural prairie grove, the landscape architect, Bruce Hutchings, has designed a comprehensive planting plan which includes a dense shade tree canopy at the top of the knoll, headlight screening and a mini-grove tree mass at the entry to the development. Flowering trees will provide accent,” Mrs. Morgan said.
This year Mrs. Morgan will be developing eight lots including her own and next year she will have eight additional lots available.
“I’ll always be looking for another parcel and I am interested in working with builders who want to develop land and do not have the time and expertise to do it themselves. I think I can put the package together for them and create areas that the community will be proud of. I’m not as interested in the so-called bottom line of profit as perhaps some persons might be. I think we have to have quality in our lives, too, and I think I will be fulfilling an unmet need in the community.”
Before she began her venture Mrs. Morgan said she had plenty of good advice, particularly from family members. Her uncle is a developer in Virginia and her brother-in-law, who designed her new home, is an architect and developer in Pennsylvania.
“Our home will be a two-story solar pre-fit house of 3500 square feet. We started out with a saltbox and that is what evolved. We’ve always been so traditional in our tastes,” Mrs. Morgan said surveying the antiques in her living room. “I think we surprised ourselves a bit when we chose a contemporary house plan, but I am looking forward to combining the old with the new. The maple flooring from an old bowling alley in Peoria will be my kitchen counter tops.”
Mrs. Morgan gives credit to the Junior League for the volunteer training she received as a member.
“Men are just beginning to accept women’s work in the volunteer sector as equivalent to employment experience. Our country is unique in the way it uses volunteers and this should be recognized. When I applied to finance my project and told the would-be lending agency I was a former teacher of German, they looked at me strangely until I mentioned my volunteer experience,” she said. Mrs. Morgan is a third generation Peorian who once worked in the late Sen. Everett Dirksen’s Washington office. “Volunteer work gets you out in the community where you are in touch with what is going on, able to assess needs and stimulates you to try to provide answers.”
Photo caption: Margaret Morgan: Woodsy environment
Champaign-Urbana Courier Article
“Replinger Solves Problem,” Champaign-Urbana Courier, 1953. Courtesy of the University of Illinois Archives, 12/2/40, box 4, folder 14.
Replinger’s ‘Economy’ House Nears Completion
Photo caption: A house designed by John G. Replinger of the University of Illinois department of architecture, to be constructed economically while giving the impression of being a much larger house, will be ready for occupancy in University Downs by the middle of June. Exactly one-half of the house is one room, with no partitions. Replinger says this will make the house seem much larger than it really is. In the front is a two-car carport, through which persons enter the house. On a terrace between the carport and garage is a play area, overlooked by the nearly solid glass area of the front of the house. A hole in the connecting roof between the carport and house allows sunshine into the play area.
Replinger Solves Problem
Architect Builds Economical But Roomy Home.
By David Phillips
John G. Replinger, instructor in the University of Illinois department of architecture, has solved—for himself, at least—the problem of compromising a small, economically built house, with one that offers plenty of elbow room.
He did it by designing a home in University Downs with the entire front half a single space, or room, with no partitions. There are three bedrooms in the back half, with a bathroom and laundry closet.
The large front room serves as living room, dining room and kitchen. He achieves differentiation through clustering of furniture and facilities.
For instance, the kitchen takes up an L-shaped portion at the north end of the 16×36-foot room. The working units are along the north and east walls. In the middle of the floor is a counter, running north and south, which separates the dining area from the kitchen.
Living room facilities comprise about half of the large room and include a steel pre-fabricated fireplace in the center wall.
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square feet, is small, but the large front room gives the impression of a larger home. Replinger said it is ideal for a young family. They have one child.
A licensed architect, Replinger designed the house, with the contracting being done mainly by Creative Buildings, Inc., 222 W. Main St., Urbana. Replinger is helping with construction, too, doing all the interior finishings.
Construction was begun about the middle of February. House will be occupied by the middle of June.
