
Located off Old Richmond Road, the “O’Neill House” is one of a small handful of remaining structures designed by by noted architect Herb Greene, who lived and taught in Lexington for 18 years. Photo by Emily Giancarlo
Nestled in the rolling hills off Richmond Road, one of the remaining houses designed by noted architect Herb Greene still stands.
From the outside, the white modern structure settles into the hillside like a limestone rock. Inside, sunlight glimmers through the numerous windows in the morning sun, giving those inside a view of the creek just beyond the house’s expansive deck and heating the house. Greene designed it in 1966 with the natural environment in mind, as well as to fit into the surrounding area. It was a house ahead of its time.
But its sleek design with an eye to sustainability and ecology was something homeowner Mark Payton wanted when he and his wife moved here from Las Vegas and bought the house in 2022.
“When we looked at the house, it was like, ‘Oh, this is a great house,’ and then we started looking at where it was and how it fit with a creek, and the trees, and the gardens, and it was like, ‘Oh, this all fits together,’” Payton said. “We’re very much into sustainability, ecological solutions, renewable energy, but the way the house felt and fit into the environment was even better.”
He said the house now fitted with solar panels, runs entirely on electricity. But the house is situated on the land in a way that it aids the heating and cooling system. Windows are positioned so the sun lights the house and heats it in the morning, but doesn’t blaze through the windows during the hotter afternoon hours. Windows on the other side of the house are designed to bring in light and heat as the sun sets.
“It’s more efficient than you would think. We asked (contractors) whether we should add some insulation and they said, ‘No, you don’t need to.’ Our electric bills, even before we put in solar, were low,” he said. “The house has been designed to maximize light. When it was built in 1973, it was the predecessor to sustainable design.”
Greene, who is now 94, was a pioneer of the organic architecture movement, his great-niece Lila Cohen said. Cohen, also an architect, is currently producing a documentary, “Remembering the Future, with Herb Greene,” which tells the story of her great uncle’s life and his influence on organic architecture.

Greene's great-niece, architect and documentarian Lila Cohen, is currently producing a documentary about her great uncle’s life and his influence on organic architecture. Photo furnished
“Initially, I really just felt that it was important for me as an architect and as the great-niece of Herb Greene, that I document what his work was all about,” Cohen said. “I’ve spent so many years with Uncle Herb and have gotten this very front and center, up-close experience of what mattered to him, how he thinks, and how he’s tried to translate those thoughts through art and architecture. I felt these were ideas that maybe haven’t always been well understood.”
Greene studied architecture at the University of Oklahoma. After graduating in 1953, he went to work as an associate architect under Bruce Goff and Joseph Krakower in Oklahoma and Texas, before returning to the University of Oklahoma to teach. During that time, he designed and built houses still considered historically significant.
In 1961, Greene created his Prairie House in Norman, Oklahoma. Designed as a green building before green buildings were a thing, the house features natural materials, lighting and ventilation as well as energy efficiency and sensitive site placement.
“He found very inventive ways to use simple materials to create a lot of richness,” Cohen said. “The Prairie House is made entirely out of shingle boards and shingles and shakes, so it’s very inexpensive. It was designed for himself and his family out on the Oklahoma Prairie and what he wanted to do was reflect the prairie in the design, and to write a poem to the prairie by reflecting the prairie grasses in the lines of those shingled boards.”
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The Prairie House, a truly innovative structure located in Oklahoma, is perhaps the design for which Greene is best known. Photo furnished
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The Prairie House, a truly innovative structure located in Oklahoma, is perhaps the design for which Greene is best known. Photo furnished
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The Prairie House, a truly innovative structure located in Oklahoma, is perhaps the design for which Greene is best known. Photo furnished
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Lila Cohen reenacts a photo taken of her great-uncle decades prior. Photo furnished
According to U.S. Modernist, it is considered one of the most significant examples of organic architecture. When pictures of the house were published in Look and Life magazines, as well as numerous journals in Europe and Japan, it caused an international sensation.
Organic architecture like her great uncle’s pulls its inspiration and design from the building’s surroundings, Cohen said.
“How Uncle Herb was interpreting it — and also his classmates and his teacher, Bruce Goff — they saw organic architecture as kind of an outgrowth of the place that the architecture was going to be built on and the people that it was going to be built for,” she said. “The design would always be this very open interpretation and individual to these different factors and to the architect. So, it was always something that would be unique.”
In 1964, Greene was recruited by the University of Kentucky to teach architecture.
“The dean of the school of architecture at the time was very forward-thinking and he wanted to have just a slew of different professors and instructors that could bring perspectives from all these different points of view, all these different approaches,” Cohen said. “He invited Uncle Herb to come and teach at UK because of the acclaim for the kind of work he was doing and how different it was.”

Architect Herb Greene next to one of his paintings at the University of Kentucky in 1976. Photo furnished
Greene, who taught and lived in Lexington for 18 years, designed a number of buildings after he moved to Kentucky, including the Unitarian Universalist Church on Clays Mill Road.
Rev. Dr. Brian Chenowith said the design of the building, one of only a few public buildings Greene designed, very much reflects the congregation’s values and principles.
“The design of the church is quite intentional and reflects a naturalistic worldview,” Chenowith said. “The sanctuary does not have a steeple or a vaulted ceiling. Instead, the angled windows draw your gaze to the natural world around us. Unitarian Universalism celebrates the here and now, and nature is a big part of our spiritual path. We call this the ‘interdependent web of existence,’ which reminds us that everything is connected in this moment.”
When the church was built in the 1960s, it cost roughly $160,000, he said, and was paid for by founding congregation members mortgaging their homes.
“It’s really quite remarkable the level of dedication, trust and hope our founders had to do that,” he said. “Their dream and risk is part of why we are a thriving congregation that has provided a spiritual home for people who believe differently for nearly 75 years now.”
Other buildings Greene designed in Kentucky have long since been changed or destroyed. The Villa Blanca Farm, a horse farm on Carrick Pike in Lexington, was built in 1983 for Dr. Jesus Sahagun, former oil minister of Venezuela. The home featured an 8,000 square-foot main house with a separate earth manager’s residence. With Spanish character throughout, the house mirrored Dr. Sahagun’s Venezuelan roots, including a swimming pool with a terrace, fireplace, and pool kitchen to re-create the owner’s year-round patio life in his home country.
Since then, however, the main residence has burned down, Cohen said, and the manager’s residence is being remodeled.
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Located off Clays Mill Road, the Unitarian Universalist Church is one of a few public buildings that Greene designed. The church was intentionally designed in a way that reflects the views of its congregation. Photo by Emily Giancarlo
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Located off Clays Mill Road, the Unitarian Universalist Church is one of a few public buildings that Greene designed. The church was intentionally designed in a way that reflects the views of its congregation. Photo by Emily Giancarlo
Cohen said she hopes the documentary will help secure her great uncle’s legacy instead.
“I think his legacy really is his philosophy, his ideas, and, at this point, the buildings,” she said. “Most of the buildings have been greatly altered or are completely gone. The architecture is kind of disappearing, the buildings are disappearing, but I think it’s his ideas that will endure.”
A handful of local events surrounding the film are being planned for September:
- Presentation on Herb Greene’s Legacy: "Remembering the Future with Herb Greene in Kentucky" - Wednesday, Sept. 11 at 6 -7:30 p.m. // University of Kentucky Gray Design Building
- Film sample screening of "Remembering the Future with Herb Greene" documentary in progress with Q&A. Thursday, Sept. 12 at 7 p.m. // Kentucky Theater, 214 E. Main St. Party
- Fundraiser for "Remembering the Future with Herb Greene" documentary Saturday, Sept. 13, 7-10 p.m. // O’Neill House, hosted by homeowner Mark Payton. Tickets available for purchase on Eventbrite
More information on those events as they near, the film’s trailer, and a place to make a tax-deductible donation to the film can be found at www.herbgreenefilm.com.