Significance: The Vanna Venturi House is a national and international icon of Post
Modern architecture, appearing in numerous architectural history texts. Robert Venturi
(b. 1925), the architect who provided many of the theoretical underpinnings for the
movement, designed the house; it is held to be the first significant Post Modern building
constructed in the United States. The building represented one of a number of
architectural pathways that emerged from and reacted to the Modern glass and steel
boxes dominating design in the decades immediately following World War II. The house
was his first solo commission and an intensely personal one as the client was his recently
widowed mother; as such, the residence is also known as "Mother's House." The
building is equal parts a representation of Venturi's emerging concepts of contemporary
architecture and physical manifestation of the specific needs of a strong and independent
woman with whom he had a unique relationship