?The most effective way to preserve a house is to use it? The stuffed lion is the least likely thing to be sitting in the window, and yet there it is, with its friendly, stitched mug propped up on the sill. It?s surrounded by an army of other stuffed animals: a leopard, a bunny, bears. Their beady eyes stare out the window, down the long, straight driveway of the Vanna Venturi House.
When Robert Venturi built this house for his mother, Vanna, in 1964, he did so with a spirit of meticulous irreverence. The architect, who is known as the father of postmodern architecture, assembled the house as a jigsaw puzzle of features that fit together both perfectly and reluctantly. An oversized chimney juts out of a subtly asymmetrical front facade that?s painted a shade of rust green. Venturi positioned the square window where the toys sit just shy of center, so that the facade?s split pediment obscures the window?s left half and leaves only an L-shaped sliver of glass visible.
?There?s a lot of foolery going on here,? said David Lockard, the home?s current owner, as he padded around the living room in athletic shorts and navy Crocs on a Sunday morning in early summer. Lockard, a 60-something personal injury lawyer with a gentle voice and easy laugh, wasn?t talking about the row of stuffed animals he placed in the window as an inside joke with his daughter; he was referring to the house itself. ?Bob had a great sense of humor,? he said.
Earlier that morning, Lockar...