The project began shortly after the death of Venturi's father in 1959. His mother Vanna was keen to move out of the family home in favour of a more modestly sized residence, so she asked her son to come up with a design for a plot on Milman Street in the Philadelphia suburb of Chestnut Hill.
The architect was 34 years old, had yet to complete any buildings and was working as a teacher at the University of Pennsylvania – where the following year he was to meet his future wife and business partner, fellow architect Denise Scott Brown. He was also a teaching assistant to the already established architect Louis Kahn.