University of Louisville Louisville 8,Kentucky ALLEN R. HITE ART INSTITUTE February 18 Dear Rietveld en Mevrouw Schröder, Last week I visited the Parkhurst family in Oberlim, and I had a chance to see the beginnings of the first Rietveld building in the U.S. It is completed only up to the roof, so it is far from klaar. But it far enough completed so that I could see and understand the spatial design; and it looks as though it will be extremely fine when finished. And, incidentally, the Parkhursts themselves are very happy with it. The site (situatie) is unbelievably beautiful, and the house is very we11 related to the form of the land and to the uitzicht. I did not feel too enthusiastic from the model, but the real building is excellent, maybe the richest spatial design of any of your houses. It is too bad, Rietveld, that Holland is so flat and you are not able to do more buildings on hilly sites. The Parkhursts are building almost the entire house with their own hands, the only beroepte bouwer that they hired is a bricklayer, because they did not trust thenselves to that properly. But the foundation, heating, lighting, woodwork, etc. was done by the Parkhursts themselves; and they are doing a very good job. ffi don't imagine that too many Dutch "Professors" would build their house with their own hands, not too many American's either. Mrs. Parkhurst said that she would send you some photos of the work; I hope that you can have some idea of how nice it will look. Nothing new has happened here. We are all we11 and I do not complain TOO much.