Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called
organic architectureOrganic architecture is a philosophy of architecture which promotes harmony between human habitation and the natural world through design approaches so sympathetic and well integrated with its site that buildings, furnishings, and surroundings become part of a unified, interrelated...
. This philosophy was best exemplified by his design for
FallingwaterFallingwater or Kaufmann Residence is a house designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh...
(1935), which has been called "the best all-time work of American architecture". Wright was a leader of the
Prairie SchoolPrairie School was a late 19th and early 20th century architectural style, most common to the Midwestern United States.The works of the Prairie School architects are usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands,...
movement of architecture, and developed the concept of the
UsoniaUsonia was a word used by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright to refer to his vision for the landscape of the United States, including the planning of cities and the architecture of buildings...
n home, his unique vision for urban planning in the United States.
His work includes original and innovative examples of many different building types, including offices, churches, schools, skyscrapers, hotels, and museums. Wright also designed many of the interior elements of his buildings, such as the furniture and
stained glassThe term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
. Wright authored 20 books and many articles, and was a popular lecturer in the United States and in Europe. His colorful personal life often made headlines, most notably for the 1914 fire and murders at his
Taliesin studioTaliesin , near Spring Green, Wisconsin, was the summer home of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright began the building in 1911 after leaving his first wife, Catherine Tobin, and his Oak Park, Illinois, home and studio in 1909. The impetus behind Wright's departure was his affair with...
. Already well-known during his lifetime, Wright was recognized in 1991 by the
American Institute of ArchitectsThe American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
as "the greatest American architect of all time".
Early years
Frank Lloyd Wright was born in the farming town of
Richland CenterRichland Center is a city in Richland County, Wisconsin, United States, which also serves as the county seat. The population was 5,184 at the 2010 census.-History:Richland Center was founded in 1851 by Ira Sherwin Hazeltine, a native of Andover, Vermont...
, Wisconsin, United States, in 1867, and named Frank Lincoln Wright. His father, William Carey Wright (1825–1904) was a locally admired orator, music teacher, occasional lawyer and itinerant minister. William Wright had met and married Anna Lloyd Jones (1838/39 – 1923), a county school teacher, the previous year when he was employed as the superintendent of schools for
Richland County. Originally from
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, William Wright had been a
BaptistBaptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
minister but he later joined his wife's family in the
UnitarianUnitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
faith. Anna was a member of the large, prosperous and well-known Lloyd Jones family of Unitarians, who had emigrated from
WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
to Spring Green, Wisconsin. One of Anna's brothers was
Jenkin Lloyd JonesJenkin Lloyd Jones was a Unitarian minister in the United States. He founded All Souls Unitarian Church in Chicago, Illinois, as well as its community outreach organization, the Abraham Lincoln Centre. A radical modernist, he joined the "Unity Men" and stressed a creedless "ethical basis" as the...
, who would become an important figure in the spread of the Unitarian faith in the Western United States. Both of Wright's parents were strong-willed individuals with idiosyncratic interests that they passed on to him. In his biography his mother declared, when she was expecting her first child, that he would grow up to build beautiful buildings. She decorated his nursery with engravings of English cathedrals torn from a periodical to encourage the infant's ambition. The family moved to
WeymouthThe Town of Weymouth is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2010 census, Weymouth had a total population of 53,743. Despite its city status, it is formally known as the Town of Weymouth...
, Massachusetts in 1870 for William to minister a small congregation.
In 1876, Anna visited the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia and saw an exhibit of educational blocks created by Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel. The blocks, known as
Froebel GiftsThe Froebel Gifts are a range of educational materials designed by Friedrich Fröbel. They were first used in the original Kindergarten at Bad Blankenburg.Fröbel advocated the importance of free play in childhood...
, were the foundation of his innovative
kindergartenA kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
curriculum. A trained teacher, Anna was excited by the program and bought a set of blocks for her family. Young Wright spent much time playing with the blocks. These were geometrically shaped and could be assembled in various combinations to form three-dimensional compositions. Wright's autobiography talks about the influence of these exercises on his approach to design. Many of his buildings are notable for their geometrical clarity.
The Wright family struggled financially in Weymouth and returned to
Spring GreenSpring Green is a village in Sauk County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,444 at the 2000 census. The village is located within the Town of Spring Green.-Geography:Spring Green is located at ....
, Wisconsin, where the supportive Lloyd Jones clan could help William find employment. They settled in
MadisonMadison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
, where William taught music lessons and served as the secretary to the newly formed Unitarian society. Although William was a distant parent, he shared his love of music, especially the works of
Johann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
, with his children.
Soon after Wright turned 14 his parents separated. Anna had been unhappy for some time with William's inability to provide for his family and asked him to leave. The divorce was finalized in 1885 after William sued Anna for lack of physical affection. William left Wisconsin after the divorce and Wright claimed he never saw his father again. At this time Wright changed his middle name from Lincoln to Lloyd in honor of his mother's family, the Lloyd Joneses. As the only male left in the family, Wright assumed financial responsibility for his mother and two sisters.
Education and work for Silsbee (1885–1888)
Wright attended a Madison high school, but there is no evidence he ever graduated. He was admitted to the
University of Wisconsin–MadisonThe University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
as a special student in 1886. There he joined
Phi Delta ThetaPhi Delta Theta , also known as Phi Delt, is an international fraternity founded at Miami University in 1848 and headquartered in Oxford, Ohio. Phi Delta Theta, Beta Theta Pi, and Sigma Chi form the Miami Triad. The fraternity has about 169 active chapters and colonies in over 43 U.S...
fraternityFraternities and sororities are fraternal social organizations for undergraduate students. In Latin, the term refers mainly to such organizations at colleges and universities in the United States, although it is also applied to analogous European groups also known as corporations...
, took classes part-time for two semesters, and worked with a professor of
civil engineeringCivil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...
, Allan D. Conover. In 1887, Wright left the school without taking a degree (although he was granted an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the University in 1955).
In 1887, Wright arrived in
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
in search of employment. As a result of the devastating Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and recent population boom, new development was plentiful in the city. He later recalled that his first impressions of Chicago were that of grimy neighborhoods, crowded streets and disappointing architecture, yet he was determined to find work. Within days, and after interviews with several prominent firms, he was hired as a
draftsmanTechnical drawing, also known as drafting or draughting, is the act and discipline of composing plans that visually communicate how something functions or has to be constructed.Drafting is the language of industry....
with the architectural firm of
Joseph Lyman SilsbeeJoseph Lyman Silsbee was a significant American architect during the 19th and 20th centuries. He was well known for his facility of drawing and gift for designing buildings in a variety of styles.his most prominent works ran through Syracuse, Buffalo and Chicago He was influential as mentor to a...
. Wright previously collaborated with Silsbee – accredited as the draftsman and the construction supervisor – on the 1886 Unity Chapel for Wright's family in
Spring GreenSpring Green is a village in Sauk County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,444 at the 2000 census. The village is located within the Town of Spring Green.-Geography:Spring Green is located at ....
, Wisconsin.
While with the firm, he also worked on two other family projects: the All Souls Church in Chicago for uncle, Jenkin Lloyd Jones, and the Hillside Home School I in Spring Green for two of his aunts. Other draftsmen that also worked for Silsbee in 1887 included future architects, Cecil Corwin,
George W. MaherGeorge Washington Maher was a significant contributor to the Prairie School-style of architecture during the first-quarter of the 20th century. He also was known for blending the traditional with the Arts & Crafts-style. According to architectural historian H...
, and
George G. ElmslieGeorge Grant Elmslie was an American, though born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Prairie School architect whose work is mostly found in the Midwestern United States...
. Wright soon befriended Corwin, with whom he lived until he found a permanent home.
In his autobiography, Wright accounts that he also had a short stint in another Chicago architecture office. Feeling that he was underpaid for the quality of his work for Silsbee (at $8.00 a week), the young draftsman quit and found work as a
designerAn architectural designer is an architect that is primarily involved in the design of buildings or urban landscapes, as opposed to the construction documents and management required to construct it. Architectural designers have good creative skills, imagination and artistic talent...
at the firm of Beers, Clay, and Dutton. However, Wright soon realized that he was not ready to handle building design by himself; he left his new job to return to Joseph Silsbee – this time with a raise in salary.
Although Silsbee adhered mainly to
VictorianThe term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
and
revivalistRevivalism in architecture is the use of visual styles that consciously echo the style of a previous architectural era.There were a number of architectural revivalist movements in the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries....
architecture, Wright found his work to be more "gracefully picturesque" than the other "brutalities" of the period. Still, Wright aspired for more progressive work. After less than a year had passed in Silsbee's office, Wright learned that the Chicago firm of
AdlerDankmar Adler was a celebrated German-born American architect.-Early years:...
&
SullivanLouis Henri Sullivan was an American architect, and has been called the "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism" He is considered by many as the creator of the modern skyscraper, was an influential architect and critic of the Chicago School, was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an...
was "looking for someone to make the finish drawings for the interior of the Auditorium [Building]."
Wright demonstrated that he was a competent impressionist of
Louis SullivanLouis Henri Sullivan was an American architect, and has been called the "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism" He is considered by many as the creator of the modern skyscraper, was an influential architect and critic of the Chicago School, was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an...
's ornamental designs and two short interviews later, was an official
apprenticeApprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...
in the firm.
Adler & Sullivan (1888–1893)
Wright did not get along well with Sullivan's other draftsmen; he wrote that several violent altercations occurred between them during the first years of his apprenticeship. For that matter, Sullivan showed very little respect for his employees as well. In spite of this "Sullivan took [Wright] under his wing and gave him great design responsibility." As a show of respect, Wright would later refer to Sullivan as Lieber Meister (German for "Dear Master"). Wright also formed a bond with office foreman, Paul Mueller. Wright would later engage Mueller to build several of his public and commercial buildings between 1903 and 1923.
On June 1, 1889, Wright married his first wife, Catherine Lee "Kitty" Tobin (1871–1959). The two had met around a year earlier during activities at All Souls Church. Sullivan did his part to facilitate the financial success of the young couple by granting Wright a five year employment contract. Wright made one more request: "Mr. Sullivan, if you want me to work for you as long as five years, couldn't you lend me enough money to build a little house?" With Sullivan's $5000 loan, Wright purchased a lot at the corner of Chicago and Forest Avenues in the suburb of
Oak ParkOak Park, Illinois is a suburb bordering the west side of the city of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is the twenty-fifth largest municipality in Illinois. Oak Park has easy access to downtown Chicago due to public transportation such as the Chicago 'L' Blue and Green lines,...
. The existing Gothic Revival house was given to his mother, while a compact Shingle style house was built alongside for Wright and Catherine.
According to an 1890 diagram of the firm's new, 17th floor space atop the Auditorium Building, Wright soon earned a private office next to Sullivan's own. However, that office was actually shared with friend and draftsman George Elmslie, who was hired by Sullivan at Wright's request. Wright had risen to head draftsman and handled all residential design work in the office. As a general rule, Adler & Sullivan did not design or build houses, but they obliged when asked by the clients of their important commercial projects. Wright was occupied by the firm's major commissions during office hours, so house designs were relegated to evening and weekend overtime hours at his home studio. He would later claim total responsibility for the design of these houses, but careful inspection of their architectural style, and accounts from historian Robert Twombly suggest that it was Sullivan that dictated the overall form and motifs of the residential works; Wright's design duties were often reduced to detailing the projects from Sullivan's sketches. During this time, Wright worked on
Sullivan's bungalowThe Louis Sullivan Bungalow was a vacation home for noted architect Louis Sullivan on the Gulf Coast in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. It was built in the early 1890s, restored in the 1980s, but was completely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005....
(1890) and the James A. Charnley Bungalow (1890) both in
Ocean SpringsOcean Springs is a city in Jackson County, Mississippi, United States, about east of Biloxi. It is part of the Pascagoula, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 17,225 at the 2000 census...
, Mississippi, the Berry-MacHarg House (1891) and Sullivan's townhouse (1892) both in Chicago, and the most noted 1891 James A. Charnley House also in Chicago. Of the five collaborations, only the two commissions for the Charnley family still stand.
Despite Sullivan's loan and overtime salary, Wright was constantly short on funds. Wright admitted that his poor finances were likely due to his expensive tastes in wardrobe and vehicles, and the extra luxuries he designed into his house. To compound the problem, Wright's children – including first born
LloydFrank Lloyd Wright, Jr. , commonly known as Lloyd Wright, was an American landscape architect and architect, most active in Los Angeles and Southern California...
(b.1890) and
JohnJohn Lloyd Wright was an American architect and toy inventor. He invented Lincoln Logs in 1916. He was the son of Frank Lloyd Wright and brother of Lloyd Wright.-External links:*...
(b.1892) – would share similar tastes for fine goods. To supplement his income and repay his debts, Wright accepted independent commissions for at least nine houses. These "bootlegged" houses, as he later called them, were conservatively designed in variations of the fashionable
Queen AnneIn America, the Queen Anne style of architecture, furniture and decorative arts was popular in the United States from 1880 to 1910. In American usage "Queen Anne" is loosely used of a wide range of picturesque buildings with "free Renaissance" details rather than of a specific formulaic style in...
and
Colonial RevivalThe Colonial Revival was a nationalistic architectural style, garden design, and interior design movement in the United States which sought to revive elements of Georgian architecture, part of a broader Colonial Revival Movement in the arts. In the early 1890s Americans began to value their own...
styles. Nevertheless, unlike the prevailing architecture of the period, each house emphasized simple geometric massing and contained features such as bands of horizontal windows, occasional
cantileverA cantilever is a beam anchored at only one end. The beam carries the load to the support where it is resisted by moment and shear stress. Cantilever construction allows for overhanging structures without external bracing. Cantilevers can also be constructed with trusses or slabs.This is in...
s, and open floor plans which would become hallmarks of his later work. Eight of these early houses remain today including the
Thomas GaleThe Thomas H. Gale House, or simply Thomas Gale House, is a house located in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, United States. The house was designed by famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1892 and is an example of his early work...
,
ParkerThe Robert P. Parker House is a house located in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, United States. The house was designed by famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1892 and is an example of his early work. Real-estate agent Thomas H. Gale had it built and sold it to Robert P. Parker...
, Blossom, and
Walter GaleThe Walter H. Gale House, located in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and constructed in 1893. The house was commissioned by Walter H. Gale of a prominent Oak Park family and is the first home Wright designed after leaving the firm of Adler and Sullivan....
houses.
As with the residential projects for Adler & Sullivan, Wright designed his bootleg houses on his own time. Sullivan knew nothing of the independent works until 1893, when he recognized that one of the houses was unmistakably a Frank Lloyd Wright design. This particular house, built for Allison Harlan, was only blocks away from Sullivan's townhouse in the Chicago community of
KenwoodKenwood, located on the South Side of the City of Chicago, Illinois, is one of the 77 well-defined Chicago community areas.Kenwood was part of Hyde Park Township, which was annexed by the City of Chicago in 1889....
. Aside from the location, the geometric purity of the composition and balcony
traceryIn architecture, Tracery is the stonework elements that support the glass in a Gothic window. The term probably derives from the 'tracing floors' on which the complex patterns of late Gothic windows were laid out.-Plate tracery:...
in the same style as the Charnley House likely gave away Wright's involvement. Since Wright's five year contract forbade any outside work, the incident led to his departure from Sullivan's firm. A variety of stories recount the break in the relationship between Sullivan and Wright; even Wright later told two different versions of the occurrence. In An Autobiography, Wright claimed that he was unaware that his side ventures were a breach of his contract. When Sullivan learned of them, he was angered and offended; he prohibited any further outside commissions and refused to issue Wright the
deedA deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, or affirms or confirms something which passes, an interest, right, or property and that is signed, attested, delivered, and in some jurisdictions sealed...
to his Oak Park house until after he completed his five years. Wright could not bear the new hostility from his master and thought the situation was unjust. He "threw down [his] pencil and walked out of the Adler and Sullivan office never to return." Dankmar Adler, who was more sympathetic to Wright's actions, later sent him the deed. On the other hand, Wright told his
TaliesinTaliesin , near Spring Green, Wisconsin, was the summer home of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright began the building in 1911 after leaving his first wife, Catherine Tobin, and his Oak Park, Illinois, home and studio in 1909. The impetus behind Wright's departure was his affair with...
apprentices (as recorded by Edgar Tafel) that Sullivan fired him on the spot upon learning of the Harlan House. Tafel also accounted that Wright had Cecil Corwin sign several of the bootleg jobs, indicating that Wright was aware of their illegal nature. Regardless of the correct series of events, Wright and Sullivan did not meet or speak for twelve years.
Transition and experimentation (1893–1900)
After leaving Louis Sullivan, Wright established his own practice on the top floor of the Sullivan designed Schiller Building (1892, demolished 1961) on
Randolph StreetRandolph Street is a street in Chicago. It runs east-west through the Chicago Loop, carrying westbound traffic west from Michigan Avenue across the Chicago River on the Randolph Street Bridge, interchanging with the Kennedy Expressway , and continuing west. It serves as the northern boundary of...
in Chicago. Wright chose to locate his office in the building because the tower location reminded him of the office of Adler & Sullivan. Although Cecil Corwin followed Wright and set up his architecture practice in the same office, the two worked independently and did not consider themselves partners. Within a year, Corwin decided that he did not enjoy architecture and journeyed east to find a new profession.
With Corwin gone, Wright moved out of the Schiller Building and into the nearby and newly completed
Steinway HallSteinway Hall is the name of buildings housing concert halls, showrooms and sales departments for Steinway & Sons pianos. The first Steinway Hall was opened 1866 in New York City. Today, Steinway Halls and Steinway-Häuser are located in world cities such as New York City, London, Hamburg, Berlin,...
Building. The loft space was shared with Robert C. Spencer, Jr.,
Myron HuntMyron Hunt was an American architect whose numerous projects include many noted landmarks in Southern California...
, and Dwight H. Perkins. These young architects, inspired by the
Arts and Crafts MovementArts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
and the philosophies of Louis Sullivan, formed what would become known as the
Prairie SchoolPrairie School was a late 19th and early 20th century architectural style, most common to the Midwestern United States.The works of the Prairie School architects are usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands,...
. They were joined by Perkins apprentice,
Marion MahonyMarion Griffin was an American architect and artist. She was one of the first licenced female architects in the world, and is considered an original member of the Prairie School.-Biography:...
, who in 1895 transferred to Wright's team of drafters and took over production of his presentation drawings and watercolor
renderingsArchitectural rendering, or architectural illustration, is the art of creating two-dimensional images or animations showing the attributes of a proposed architectural design.-Computer-generated renderings:...
. Mahony, the first licensed female architect in the United States, also designed furniture, leaded glass windows, and light fixtures, among other features, for Wright's houses. Between 1894 and the early 1910s, several other leading Prairie School architects and many of Wright's future employees launched their careers in the offices of Steinway Hall.
Wright's projects during this period followed two basic models. On one hand, there was his first independent commission, the Winslow House, which combined Sullivanesque ornamentation with the emphasis on simple geometry and horizontal lines that is typical in Wright houses. The Francis Apartments (1895, demolished 1971)
Heller HouseThe Isidore H. Heller House is a house located at 5132 South Woodlawn Avenue in the Hyde Park community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, USA. The house was designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright...
(1896), Rollin Furbeck House (1897), and Husser House (1899, demolished 1926) were designed in the same mode. For more conservative clients, Wright conceded to design more traditional dwellings. These included the Dutch Colonial Revival style Bagley House (1894), Tudor Revival style
Moore House IThe Nathan G. Moore House also known as the Moore-Dugal Residence is a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The house was built one block south of Wright's home and studio at 333 Forest Avenue in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois. It was originally completed in 1895 in the Tudor Revival...
(1895), and
Queen AnneIn America, the Queen Anne style of architecture, furniture and decorative arts was popular in the United States from 1880 to 1910. In American usage "Queen Anne" is loosely used of a wide range of picturesque buildings with "free Renaissance" details rather than of a specific formulaic style in...
style Charles Roberts House (1896). As an emerging architect, Wright could not afford to turn down clients over disagreements in taste, but even his most conservative designs retained simplified massing and occasional Sullivan inspired details.
Soon after the completion of the Winslow House in 1894, Edward Waller, a friend and former client, invited Wright to meet Chicago architect and planner
Daniel BurnhamDaniel Hudson Burnham, FAIA was an American architect and urban planner. He was the Director of Works for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He took a leading role in the creation of master plans for the development of a number of cities, including Chicago and downtown Washington DC...
. Burnham had been impressed by the Winslow House and other examples of Wright's work; he offered to finance a four year education at the
École des Beaux-ArtsThe École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts is the distinguished National School of Fine Arts in Paris, France.The École des Beaux-arts is made up of a vast complex of buildings located at 14 rue Bonaparte, between the quai Malaquais and the rue Bonaparte, in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Près,...
and two years in Rome. To top it off, Wright would have a position in Burnham's firm upon his return. In spite of guaranteed success and support of his family, Wright declined the offer. Burnham, who had directed the classical design of the
World's Columbian ExpositionThe World's Columbian Exposition was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Chicago bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St...
was a major proponent of the
Beaux Arts movement, thought that Wright was making a foolish mistake. Yet for Wright, the classical education of the École lacked creativity and was altogether at odds with his vision of modern American architecture.
Wright relocated his practice to his home in 1898 in order to bring his work and family lives closer. This move made further sense as the majority of the architect's projects at that time were in Oak Park or neighboring
River ForestRiver Forest is a suburban village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Two universities make their home in River Forest, Dominican University and Concordia University Chicago. The village is closely tied to the larger neighboring community of Oak Park, Illinois. There are significant...
. The past five years had seen the birth of three more children – Catherine in 1894, David in 1895, and Frances in 1898 – prompting Wright to sacrifice his original home studio space for additional bedrooms. Thus, moving his workspace necessitated his design and construction of an expansive
studio additionThe Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio at 951 Chicago Avenue in Oak Park, Illinois, has been restored by the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust to its appearance in 1909, the last year Frank Lloyd Wright lived there with his family. Frank Lloyd Wright purchased the property and built the home in...
to the north of the main house. The space, which included a hanging
balconyBalcony , a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade.-Types:The traditional Maltese balcony is a wooden closed balcony projecting from a...
within the two story drafting room, was one of Wright's first experiments with innovative structure. The studio was a poster for Wright's developing aesthetics and would become the laboratory from which the next ten years of architectural creations would emerge.
Prairie House
By 1901, Wright had completed about 50 projects, including many houses in Oak Park. As his son John Lloyd Wright wrote:
"William Eugene DrummondWilliam Eugene Drummond was a Chicago Prairie School architect.-Early Years and Education:He was born in Newark, New Jersey, the son of carpenter and cabinet maker Eugene Drummond and his wife Ida Marietta Lozier...
, Francis Barry ByrneFrancis Barry Byrne was initially a member of the group of architects known as the Prairie School. After the demise of the Prairie School about 1914-16, Byrne continued as a successful architect by developing his own personal style.-Biography:Francis Barry Byrne was born and raised in Chicago...
, Walter Burley Griffin Walter Burley Griffin was an American architect and landscape architect, who is best known for his role in designing Canberra, Australia's capital city...
, Albert Chase McArthurAlbert Chase McArthur was a Prairie School architect, and the designer of the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona.-Early years:...
, Marion MahonyMarion Griffin was an American architect and artist. She was one of the first licenced female architects in the world, and is considered an original member of the Prairie School.-Biography:...
, Isabel RobertsIsabel Roberts was a Prairie School figure, member of the architectural design team in the Oak Park Studio of Frank Lloyd Wright and partner with Ida Annah Ryan in the Orlando, Florida architecture firm, “Ryan and Roberts”. It is fair to say that Roberts is an under-appreciated member of Wright’s...
and George Willis were the draftsmen. Five men, two women. They wore flowing ties, and smocks suitable to the realm. The men wore their hair like Papa, all except Albert, he didn't have enough hair. They worshiped Papa! Papa liked them! I know that each one of them was then making valuable contributions to the pioneering of the modern American architecture for which my father gets the full glory, headaches and recognition today!"
Between 1900 and 1901, Frank Lloyd Wright completed four houses which have since been considered the onset of the "Prairie style". Two, the
HickoxWarren Hickox House, also known as the Hickox/Brown house, is a Frank Lloyd Wright designed Prairie school home that was constructed in Kankakee, Illinois in 1900. Warren Hickox's wife was the sister of Mrs. B. Harley Bradley, of the Wright designed B. Harley Bradley House which is located next...
and Bradley Houses, were the last transitional step between Wright's early designs and the Prairie creations. Meanwhile, the
Thomas HouseThe Frank W. Thomas House is located in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, United States. The building was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1901 and cast in the Wright-developed Prairie School of Architecture. By Wright's own definition, this was the first of the Prairie houses -...
and
Willits HouseThe Ward W. Willits House is a building designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Designed in 1901, the Willits house is considered the first of the great Prairie houses. Built in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Illinois, the house presents a symmetrical facade to the street. The plan is a...
received recognition as the first mature examples of the new style. At the same time, Wright gave his new ideas for the American house widespread awareness through two publications in the
Ladies' Home JournalLadies' Home Journal is an American magazine which first appeared on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th century in the United States...
. The articles were in response to an invitation from the president of
Curtis Publishing CompanyThe Curtis Publishing Company, founded in 1891 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, became one of the largest and most influential publishers in the United States during the early 20th century. The company's publications included the Ladies' Home Journal and The Saturday Evening Post, The American Home,...
, Edward Bok, as part of a project to improve modern house design. Bok also extended the offer to other architects, but Wright was the sole responder. "A Home in a Prairie Town" and "A Small House with Lots of Room in it" appeared respectively in the February and July 1901 issues of the journal. Although neither of the affordable house plans were ever constructed, Wright received increased requests for similar designs in following years.
Wright's residential designs were "Prairie Houses" because the design is considered to complement the land around
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. These houses featured extended low buildings with shallow, sloping roofs, clean sky lines, suppressed chimneys,
overhangAn overhang in architecture is a protruding structure which may provide protection for lower levels. Overhangs on two sides of Pennsylvania Dutch barns protect doors, windows, and other lower level structure. Overhangs on all four sides of barns is common in Swiss architecture...
s and terraces all using unfinished materials. The houses are credited with being the first examples of the "
open planOpen plan is the generic term used in architectural and interior design for any floor plan which makes use of large, open spaces and minimizes the use of small, enclosed rooms such as private offices...
". Windows whenever possible are long, and low, allowing a connection between the interior and nature, outside, that was new to western architecture and reflected the influence of Japanese architecture on Wright . The manipulation of interior space in residential and public buildings are hallmarks of his style.
Public buildings in the Prairie style include
Unity TempleUnity Temple is a Unitarian Universalist church in Oak Park, Illinois, and the home of the Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation. It was designed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and built between 1905 and 1908. Unity Temple is considered to be one of Wright's most important...
, the home of the Unitarian Universalist congregation in Oak Park. As a lifelong
UnitarianUnitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
and member of Unity Temple, Wright offered his services to the congregation after their church burned down in 1905. The community agreed to hire him and he worked on the building from 1905 to 1909. Wright later said that Unity Temple was the edifice in which he ceased to be an architect of structure, and became an architect of space. Many architects consider it the world's first modern building, because of its unique construction of only one material: reinforced concrete. This would become a hallmark of the modernists who followed Wright, such as Mies van der Rohe, and even some post-modernists, such as Frank Gehry.
Many examples of this work are in
BuffaloBuffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, New York as a result of friendship between Wright and
Darwin D. MartinDarwin D. Martin was an early 20th Century New York State businessman best known for the house he commissioned from Frank Lloyd Wright.-Early life:...
, an executive of the Larkin Soap Company. In 1902, the Larkin Company decided to build a new administration building. Wright came to Buffalo and designed not only the
Larkin Administration BuildingThe Larkin Building was designed in 1904 by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1906 for the Larkin Soap Company of Buffalo, New York. The five story dark red brick building used pink tinted mortar and utilized steel frame construction. It was noted for many innovations, including air conditioning,...
(completed in 1904, demolished in 1950), but also homes for three of the company's executives including the
Darwin D. Martin HouseThe Darwin D. Martin House Complex, also known as the Darwin Martin House State Historic Site, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built between 1903 and 1905...
in 1904.
Other Wright houses considered to be masterpieces of the late Prairie Period (1907–1909) are the Frederick
Robie HouseThe Frederick C. Robie House is a U.S. National Historic Landmark in the Chicago, Illinois neighborhood of Hyde Park at 5757 S. Woodlawn Avenue on the South Side. It was designed and built between 1908 and 1910 by architect Frank Lloyd Wright and is renowned as the greatest example of his Prairie...
in Chicago and the Avery and Queene
Coonley HouseThe Avery Coonley House, also known as Coonley House, was designed by famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Constructed in 1907-1908, this is an estate of several buildings built on the banks of the Des Plaines River in Riverside, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, United States...
in
RiversideRiverside is an affluent suburban village in Cook County, Illinois. A significant portion of the village is in the Riverside Landscape Architecture District, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970. The population was 8,895 at the 2000 census...
, Illinois. The Robie House, with its soaring,
cantileverA cantilever is a beam anchored at only one end. The beam carries the load to the support where it is resisted by moment and shear stress. Cantilever construction allows for overhanging structures without external bracing. Cantilevers can also be constructed with trusses or slabs.This is in...
ed roof lines, supported by a 110-foot-long (34 m) channel of steel, is the most dramatic. Its living and dining areas form virtually one uninterrupted space. This building had a profound influence on young European architects after
World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and is sometimes called the "cornerstone of modernism". However, Wright's work was not known to European architects until the publication of the Wasmuth Portfolio.
Family abandonment
Local gossips noticed Wright's flirtations, and he developed a reputation in Oak Park as a man-about-town. His family had grown to six children, and the brood required most of Catherine's attention. In 1903, Wright designed a house for Edwin Cheney, a neighbor in Oak Park, and immediately took a liking to Cheney's wife,
Mamah Borthwick CheneyMartha "Mamah" Borthwick is primarily noted for her relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright, which ended when she was murdered....
. Mamah Cheney was a modern woman with interests outside the home. She was an early feminist and Wright viewed her as his intellectual equal. The two fell in love, even though Wright had been married for almost 20 years. Often the two could be seen taking rides in Wright's automobile through Oak Park, and they became the talk of the town. Wright's wife, Kitty, sure that this attachment would fade as the others had, refused to grant him a divorce. Neither would Edwin Cheney grant one to Mamah. In 1909, even before the
Robie HouseThe Frederick C. Robie House is a U.S. National Historic Landmark in the Chicago, Illinois neighborhood of Hyde Park at 5757 S. Woodlawn Avenue on the South Side. It was designed and built between 1908 and 1910 by architect Frank Lloyd Wright and is renowned as the greatest example of his Prairie...
was completed, Wright and Mamah Cheney went together to Europe, leaving their own spouses and children behind. The scandal that erupted virtually destroyed Wright's ability to practice architecture in the United States.
Scholars argue that he felt by 1907 that he had done everything he could do with the Prairie Style, particularly from the standpoint of the single family house. Wright was not getting larger commissions for commercial or public buildings, which frustrated him.
What drew Wright to Europe was the chance to publish a portfolio of his work with Ernst Wasmuth, who had agreed in 1909 to publish his work there. This chance also allowed Wright to deepen his relationship with Mamah Cheney. Wright and Cheney left the United States in 1909 going to Berlin, where the offices of Wasmuth were located.
The resulting two volumes, titled Studies and Executed Buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright, were published in 1911 in two editions, creating the first major exposure of Wright's work in Europe. The work contained more than 100 lithographs of Wright's designs and was commonly known as the
Wasmuth PortfolioThe Wasmuth portfolio is a two-volume folio of 100 lithographs of the work of the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright .Titled Ausgeführte Bauten und Entwürfe von Frank Lloyd Wright, it was published in Germany in 1910 by the Berlin publisher Ernst Wasmuth, with an accompanying monograph by Wright...
.
Wright remained in Europe for almost one year and set up home first in Florence, Italy and later in Fiesole, Italy. During this time, Edwin Cheney granted Mamah her a divorce, though Kitty still refused to grant one to her husband. After Wright's return to the United States in October 1910, Wright persuaded his mother to buy land for him in
Spring GreenSpring Green is a village in Sauk County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,444 at the 2000 census. The village is located within the Town of Spring Green.-Geography:Spring Green is located at ....
, Wisconsin. The land, bought on April 10, 1911, was adjacent to land held by his mother's family, the Lloyd-Joneses. Wright began to build himself a new home, which he called
TaliesinTaliesin , near Spring Green, Wisconsin, was the summer home of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright began the building in 1911 after leaving his first wife, Catherine Tobin, and his Oak Park, Illinois, home and studio in 1909. The impetus behind Wright's departure was his affair with...
, by May 1911. The recurring theme of Taliesin also came from his mother's side:
TaliesinTaliesin was an early British poet of the post-Roman period whose work has possibly survived in a Middle Welsh manuscript, the Book of Taliesin...
in
Welsh mythologyWelsh mythology, the remnants of the mythology of the pre-Christian Britons, has come down to us in much altered form in medieval Welsh manuscripts such as the Red Book of Hergest, the White Book of Rhydderch, the Book of Aneirin and the Book of Taliesin....
was a poet, magician, and priest. The family motto was Y Gwir yn Erbyn y Byd which means "The Truth Against the World"; it was created by Iolo Morgannwg who also had a son called Taliesin, and the motto is still used today as the cry of the druids and chief bard of the
Eisteddfod in Wales.
More personal turmoil
On August 15, 1914, while Wright was working in Chicago, Julian Carlton, a male servant from
BarbadosBarbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
who had been hired several months earlier, set fire to the living quarters of Taliesin and murdered seven people with an
axeThe axe, or ax, is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood; to harvest timber; as a weapon; and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol...
as the fire burned. The dead included Mamah; her two children, John and Martha; a gardener; a draftsman named Emil Brodelle; a workman; and another workman's son. Two people survived the mayhem, one of whom helped to put out the fire that almost completely consumed the residential wing of the house. Carlton swallowed muriatic acid immediately following the attack in an attempt to
kill himselfSuicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
. He was nearly
lynchedLynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...
on the spot, but was taken to the
DodgevilleDodgeville is the most populous city and county seat of Iowa County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 4,698 at the 2010 census, making it the 9th largest city within the Madison metropolitan area. The Greater Dodgeville Area however had a population of 6,529...
jail. Carlton died from
starvationStarvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy, nutrient and vitamin intake. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage and eventually, death...
seven weeks after the attack, despite medical attention.
In 1922, Wright's first wife, Kitty, granted him a divorce, and Wright was required to wait one year until he married his then-partner, Maude "Miriam" Noel. In 1923, Wright's mother, Anna (Lloyd Jones) Wright, died. Wright wed Miriam Noel in November 1923, but her addiction to
morphineMorphine is a potent opiate analgesic medication and is considered to be the prototypical opioid. It was first isolated in 1804 by Friedrich Sertürner, first distributed by same in 1817, and first commercially sold by Merck in 1827, which at the time was a single small chemists' shop. It was more...
led to the failure of the marriage in less than one year. In 1924, after the separation but while still married, Wright met
Olga (Olgivanna) Lazovich HinzenburgOlgivanna Lloyd Wright was the third and final wife of Frank Lloyd Wright and had significant influence in his life and work, due in part to her extensive Theosophical associations. She was a Serb Montenegrin dancer...
at a Petrograd Ballet performance in Chicago. They moved in together at Taliesin in 1925, and soon Olgivanna was pregnant with their daughter, Iovanna, born on December 2, 1925.
On April 20, 1925, another fire destroyed the bungalow at Taliesin. Crossed wires from a newly installed telephone system were deemed to be responsible for the blaze, which destroyed a collection of Japanese prints that Wright declared invaluable. Wright estimated the loss at $250,000 to $500,000. Wright rebuilt the living quarters again, naming the home "Taliesin III".
In 1926, Olga's ex-husband, Vlademar Hinzenburg, sought custody of his daughter, Svetlana. In October 1926, Wright and Olgivanna were accused of violating the
Mann ActThe White-Slave Traffic Act, better known as the Mann Act, is a United States law, passed June 25, 1910 . It is named after Congressman James Robert Mann, and in its original form prohibited white slavery and the interstate transport of females for “immoral purposes”...
and arrested in
MinnetonkaAs of the census of 2000, there were 51,301 people, 21,393 households, and 14,097 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,893.0 persons per square mile . There were 22,228 housing units at an average density of 818.9 per square mile...
, Minnesota. The charges were later dropped.
Wright and Miriam Noel's divorce was finalized in 1927, and once again, Wright was required to wait for one year until marrying again. Wright and Olgivanna married in 1928.
California and the textile block houses
Wright also built several houses in the Los Angeles area. Currently open to the public are the
Hollyhock HouseThe Aline Barnsdall Hollyhock House is a building in the East Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, originally designed by Frank Lloyd Wright as a residence for oil heiress Aline Barnsdall, built in 1919–1921...
(Aline Barnsdall Residence) in Hollywood and the
Anderton Court ShopsIn 1952, Frank Lloyd Wright completed his last Los Angeles building, the Anderton Court Shops, a small three-story group of shops on fashionable Rodeo Drive in the downtown section of Beverly Hills, California.-Design:...
in Beverly Hills.
Following the Hollyhock House, Wright used an innovative building process in 1923 and 1924, which he called the textile block system where buildings were constructed with precast concrete blocks with a patterned, squarish exterior surface: The
Alice Millard HouseMillard House, also known as La Miniatura, is a textile block house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1923 in Pasadena, California. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.-Wright's textile block houses:...
(Pasadena), the John Storer House (West Hollywood), the
Samuel Freeman HouseSamuel Freeman House is a Frank Lloyd Wright house in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles built in 1923. As an example of Wright's pre-Columbian or early Modernist architecture, the structure is noteworthy as one of the four textile block houses built by Wright in the Los Angeles area, the other...
(Hollywood) and the
Ennis HouseThe Ennis House is a residential dwelling in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA, south of Griffith Park. The home was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Charles and Mabel Ennis in 1923, and built in 1924....
in the Griffith Park area of Los Angeles. During the past two decades the Ennis House has become popular as an exotic, nearby shooting location to Hollywood television and movie makers. He also designed a fifth textile block house for Aline Barnsdall, the Community Playhouse ("Little Dipper"), which was never constructed. Wright's son,
Lloyd WrightFrank Lloyd Wright, Jr. , commonly known as Lloyd Wright, was an American landscape architect and architect, most active in Los Angeles and Southern California...
, supervised construction for the Storer, Freeman and Ennis House. Most of these houses are private residences closed to the public because of renovation, including the
George Sturges HouseThe George Sturges House is a single-family house, designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright and built for George D. Sturges in the Brentwood Heights neighborhood of Brentwood, Los Angeles, California. Designed and built in 1939, the one-story residence is fairly small, , but features a 21-foot...
(Brentwood) and the
Arch ObolerArch Oboler was an American actor, playwright, screenwriter, novelist, producer, and director who was active in radio, films, theater, and television. He generated much attention with his radio scripts, particularly the horror series Lights Out, and his work in radio remains the outstanding period...
Gatehouse & Studio (Malibu).
Mature Organic Style
During the later 1920s and 1930s Wright's Organic style had fully matured with the design of Graycliff, Fallingwater and Taliesin West.
GraycliffThe Graycliff estate was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and was built between 1926 and 1931. It is located about 20 minutes south of downtown Buffalo, New York, at 6472 Old Lake Shore Road in Derby, New York...
, located just south of Buffalo, NY is an important mid-career (1926–1931) design by Wright; it is a summer estate designed for his long-time patrons, Isabelle and
Darwin D. MartinDarwin D. Martin was an early 20th Century New York State businessman best known for the house he commissioned from Frank Lloyd Wright.-Early life:...
. Created in Wright's high Organic style, Wright wrote in a letter to the Martins that "Coming in the house would be something like putting on your hat and going outdoors." Graycliff consists of three buildings set within 8.4 acres of landscape, also designed by Wright. Its site, high on a bluff overlooking Lake Erie, inspired Wright to create a home that was transparent, with views through the building to the lake beyond. Terraces and cantilevered balconies also encourage lake views, and water features throughout the landscape were designed by Wright to echo the lake as well.
One of Wright's most famous private residences was built from 1934 to 1937—
FallingwaterFallingwater or Kaufmann Residence is a house designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh...
—for Mr. and Mrs.
Edgar J. Kaufmann Sr.Edgar J. Kaufmann was a prominent Jewish German-American businessman and philanthropist. He owned and directed Kaufmann's Department Store, the most prominent one in 20th century Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania...
, at Mill Run, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. It was designed according to Wright's desire to place the occupants close to the natural surroundings, with a stream and waterfall running under part of the building. The construction is a series of cantilevered balconies and terraces, using
limestoneLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
for all verticals and concrete for the horizontals. The house cost $155,000, including the architect's fee of $8,000. Kaufmann's own engineers argued that the design was not sound. They were overruled by Wright, but the contractor secretly added extra steel to the horizontal concrete elements. In 1994, Robert Silman and Associates examined the building and developed a plan to restore the structure. In the late 1990s, steel supports were added under the lowest cantilever until a detailed structural analysis could be done. In March 2002, post-tensioning of the lowest terrace was completed.
Taliesin WestTaliesin West was architect Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home and school in the desert from 1937 until his death in 1959 at the age of 91. Today it is the main campus of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture and houses the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.Open to the public for tours, Taliesin...
, Wright's winter home and studio complex in Scottsdale, AZ, was a laboratory for Wright from 1937 to his death in 1959. Now the home of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and archives, it continues today as the site of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture.
Wright is responsible for a series of concepts of suburban development united under the term
Broadacre CityBroadacre City was an urban or suburban development concept proposed by Frank Lloyd Wright throughout most of his lifetime. He presented the idea in his book The Disappearing City in 1932. A few years later he unveiled a very detailed twelve by twelve foot scale model representing a hypothetical...
. He proposed the idea in his book The Disappearing City in 1932, and unveiled a 12 ft2 model of this community of the future, showing it in several venues in the following years. He continued developing the idea until his death.
Usonian Houses
Concurrent with the development of
Broadacre CityBroadacre City was an urban or suburban development concept proposed by Frank Lloyd Wright throughout most of his lifetime. He presented the idea in his book The Disappearing City in 1932. A few years later he unveiled a very detailed twelve by twelve foot scale model representing a hypothetical...
, also referred to as Usonia, Wright conceived a new type of dwelling that came to be known as the
UsoniaUsonia was a word used by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright to refer to his vision for the landscape of the United States, including the planning of cities and the architecture of buildings...
n House. An early version of the form can be seen in the
Malcolm Willey HouseThe Malcolm Willey House is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. It was designed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and built in 1934. Wright named the house "Gardenwall".Malcolm Willey was an administrator at the University of Minnesota...
(1934) in Minneapolis; but the Usonian ideal emerged most completely in the
Herbert and Katherine Jacobs First HouseHerbert and Katherine Jacobs First House, commonly referred to as Jacobs I, is a single family home located in Madison, Wisconsin. Designed by noted American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, it was constructed in 1937 and is considered by most to be the first Usonian home.-History:Madison...
(1937) in Madison, Wisconsin. Designed on a gridded concrete slab that integrated the house's radiant heating system, the house featured new approaches to construction, including sandwich walls that consisted of layers of wood siding, plywood cores and building paper, a significant change from typically framed walls. Usonian houses most commonly featured flat roofs and were mostly constructed without basements, completing the excision of attics and basements from houses, a feat Wright had been attempting since the early 20th century.
Intended to be highly practical houses for middle-class clients, and designed to be run without servants, Usonian houses often featured small kitchens – called "workspaces" by Wright – that adjoined the dining spaces. These spaces in turn flowed into the main living areas, which also were characteristically outfitted with built-in seating and tables. As in the Prairie Houses, Usonian living areas focused on the fireplace. Bedrooms were typically isolated and relatively small, encouraging the family to gather in the main living areas. The conception of spaces instead of rooms was a development of the Prairie ideal; as the built-in furnishings related to the Arts and Crafts principles from which Wright's early works grew. Spatially and in terms of their construction, the Usonian houses represented a new model for independent living, and allowed dozens of clients to live in a Wright-designed house at relatively low cost. The diversity of the Usonian ideal can be seen in houses such as the
Gregor S. and Elizabeth B. Affleck HouseGregor S. and Elizabeth B. Affleck House, also known as the Affleck house, is a Frank Lloyd Wright designed Usonian home that was constructed in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan in 1940.- References :...
(1941) in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, which projects over a ravine; and the
Hanna-Honeycomb HouseThe Hanna-Honeycomb House, also known as simply the Hanna House, located on the Stanford University campus in Stanford, California, USA, was Frank Lloyd Wright's first work in the San Francisco region and his first work with non-rectangular structures...
(1937) in Palo Alto, California, which features a honeycomb planning grid.
Gordon HouseGordon House is a residential house designed by influential architect Frank Lloyd Wright as part of his Usonian vision for America.It is one of the last of the series designed for working-class U.S. consumers, which—in 1939—was considered $5,000–6,000 per year...
, completed in 1963, was Wright's last Usonian design. Less than 60 of Wright's Usonian houses were built.
His Usonian homes set a new style for suburban design that was a feature of countless developers. Many features of modern American homes date back to Wright, including open plans, slab-on-grade foundations, and simplified construction techniques that allowed more mechanization and efficiency in building.
Significant later works
The
Solomon R. Guggenheim MuseumThe Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a well-known museum located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions...
in New York City occupied Wright for 16 years (1943–1959) and is probably his most recognized masterpiece. The building rises as a warm beige spiral from its site on Fifth Avenue; its interior is similar to the inside of a
seashellA seashell or sea shell, also known simply as a shell, is a hard, protective outer layer created by an animal that lives in the sea. The shell is part of the body of the animal. Empty seashells are often found washed up on beaches by beachcombers...
. Its unique central geometry was meant to allow visitors to easily experience Guggenheim's collection of nonobjective geometric paintings by taking an
elevatorAn elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...
to the top level and then viewing artworks by walking down the slowly descending, central spiral ramp, which features a floor embedded with circular shapes and triangular light fixtures to complement the geometric nature of the structure. Unfortunately, when the museum was completed, a number of important details of Wright's design were ignored, including his desire for the interior to be painted off-white. Furthermore, the Museum currently designs exhibits to be viewed by walking up the curved walkway rather than walking down from the top level.
The only realized skyscraper designed by Wright is the
Price TowerThe Price Tower is a nineteen story, 221 foot high tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It is the only realized skyscraper by Wright, and is one of only two vertically-oriented Wright structures extant .The Price Tower was commissioned by Harold C. Price of the...
, a 19-story tower in
BartlesvilleBartlesville is a city in Osage and Washington counties in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The population was 43,070 at the 2010 census. Bartlesville is located forty-seven miles north of Tulsa and very close to Oklahoma's northern border with Kansas. It is the county seat of Washington County, in...
, Oklahoma. It is also one of the two existing vertically-oriented Wright structures (the other is the S.C. Johnson Wax Research Tower in
RacineRacine is a city in and the county seat of Racine County, Wisconsin, United States. According to 2008 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the city had a population of 82,196...
, Wisconsin). The Price Tower was commissioned by Harold C. Price of the H. C. Price Company, a local oil pipeline and chemical firm. It opened to the public in February 1956. On March 29, 2007, Price Tower was designated a
National Historic LandmarkA National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
by the
United States Department of the InteriorThe United States Department of the Interior is the United States federal executive department of the U.S. government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land and natural resources, and the administration of programs relating to Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native...
, one of only 20 such properties in the state of Oklahoma.
Other projects
Wright designed over 400 built structures of which about 300 survive as of 2005. Four have been lost to forces of nature: the waterfront house for W. L. Fuller in
Pass ChristianPass Christian , nicknamed The Pass, is a city in Harrison County, Mississippi, United States, along the Gulf of Mexico. It is part of the Gulfport–Biloxi, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, Mississippi, destroyed by
Hurricane CamilleHurricane Camille was the third and strongest tropical cyclone and second hurricane during the 1969 Atlantic hurricane season. The second of three catastrophic Category 5 hurricanes to make landfall in the United States during the 20th century , which it did near the mouth of the Mississippi River...
in August 1969; the
Louis Sullivan BungalowThe Louis Sullivan Bungalow was a vacation home for noted architect Louis Sullivan on the Gulf Coast in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. It was built in the early 1890s, restored in the 1980s, but was completely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005....
of
Ocean SpringsOcean Springs is a city in Jackson County, Mississippi, United States, about east of Biloxi. It is part of the Pascagoula, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 17,225 at the 2000 census...
, Mississippi, destroyed by
Hurricane KatrinaHurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
in 2005; and the Arinobu Fukuhara House (1918) in
Hakone, Japanis a town in Ashigarashimo District in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 2010, the town had an estimated population of 13,339 and a density of 144 persons per km². The total area was 92.82 km².-Geography:...
, destroyed in the
Great Kantō EarthquakeThe struck the Kantō plain on the Japanese main island of Honshū at 11:58:44 am JST on September 1, 1923. Varied accounts hold that the duration of the earthquake was between 4 and 10 minutes...
of 1923. The
Ennis HouseThe Ennis House is a residential dwelling in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA, south of Griffith Park. The home was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Charles and Mabel Ennis in 1923, and built in 1924....
in California has also been damaged by earthquake and rain-induced ground movement. In January, 2006, the
Wilbur Wynant HouseThe Wilbur Wynant House also known as 600 Fillmore or simply the Wynant House was a house designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The house was part of his American System-Built Homes Series. Although the house was built in 1916, it was not discovered to be by Frank Lloyd Wright until 1995....
in
GaryGary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city is in the southeastern portion of the Chicago metropolitan area and is 25 miles from downtown Chicago. The population is 80,294 at the 2010 census, making it the seventh-largest city in the state. It borders Lake Michigan and is known...
, Indiana was destroyed by fire.
In addition, other buildings were intentionally demolished during and after Wright's lifetime, such as:
Midway GardensMidway Gardens was a 300’ square indoor/outdoor entertainment facility in the Hyde Park neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. It was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who also collaborated with sculptor Alfonso Iannelli on the famous “sprite” sculptures decorating the facility...
(1913, Chicago, Illinois) and the
Larkin Administration BuildingThe Larkin Building was designed in 1904 by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1906 for the Larkin Soap Company of Buffalo, New York. The five story dark red brick building used pink tinted mortar and utilized steel frame construction. It was noted for many innovations, including air conditioning,...
(1903, Buffalo, New York) were destroyed in 1929 and 1950 respectively; the Francis Apartments and Francisco Terrace Apartments (both located in Chicago and designed in 1895) were destroyed in 1971 and 1974, respectively; the Geneva Inn (1911) in
Lake GenevaLake Geneva is a city in Walworth County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 7,148 at the 2000 census. A resort city located on Geneva Lake, it is southwest of Milwaukee and popular with tourists from metropolitan Chicago and Milwaukee.-History:...
, Wisconsin was destroyed in 1970; and the
Banff National Park PavilionThe Banff National Park Pavilion, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and Francis Conroy Sullivan, Wright's only Canadian student. Designed in 1911, in the Prairie School style, construction began in 1913 and was completed the following year...
(1911) in Alberta, Canada was destroyed in 1939. The
Imperial HotelThe Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, Japan, was created in the late 1880s at the request of the Japanese aristocracy to cater to the increasing number of western visitors to Japan. The hotel site is located just south of the Imperial Palace grounds, next to the previous location of the Palace moat...
, in Tokyo (1913) survived the Great Kantō earthquake but was demolished in 1968 due to urban developmental pressures.
One of his projects,
Monona TerraceMonona Terrace is a convention center on the shores of Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin.-Controversy:...
, originally designed in 1937 as municipal offices for Madison, Wisconsin, was completed in 1997 on the original site, using a variation of Wright's final design for the exterior with the interior design altered by its new purpose as a convention center. The "as-built" design was carried out by Wright's apprentice Tony Puttnam. Monona Terrace was accompanied by controversy throughout the 60 years between the original design and the completion of the structure.
Florida Southern CollegeFlorida Southern College is a private college located in Lakeland, Florida, United States. It was selected by U.S...
, located in
LakelandLakeland is a city in Polk County, Florida, United States, located approximately midway between Tampa and Orlando along Interstate 4. According to the 2008 U.S. Census Bureau estimate, the city had a population of 94,406...
, Florida, constructed 12 (out of 18 planned) Frank Lloyd Wright buildings between 1941 and 1958 as part of the
Child of the SunChild of the Sun is the title for a group of buildings designed for the campus of the Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida, USA, by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright from 1941 through 1958. The buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and together form one of...
project. It is the world's largest single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture.
A lesser known project that never came to fruition was Wright's plan for Emerald Bay,
Lake TahoeLake Tahoe is a large freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the United States. At a surface elevation of , it is located along the border between California and Nevada, west of Carson City. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in North America. Its depth is , making it the USA's second-deepest...
. Few Tahoe locals know of the iconic American architect's plan for their natural treasure.
The
Kalita Humphreys TheaterThe Kalita Humphreys Theater is a historic theater in Dallas, Texas . It is one of only three surviving theaters by architect Frank Lloyd Wright and one of the last completed buildings he designed...
in Dallas, Texas was Wright's last project before his death.
Wright's last design and first European project
A design that Wright signed off on shortly before his death in 1959 – possibly his last completed design – was realized in late 2007 in the Republic of Ireland. Wright scholar and devotee Marc Coleman worked closely with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, dealing with E. Thomas Casey, the last surviving Foundation architect who trained under Wright. Working with the Foundation, Coleman selected an unbuilt design that was originally commissioned for Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Wieland and due to be built in
MarylandMaryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, USA. However, the Wielands subsequently had financial problems and the design was shelved. The Foundation looked through its archive of 380 unbuilt designs and selected 4 for Coleman that were the closest fit for his site. In the end, he chose the Wieland house, largely because the
topographyTopography is the study of Earth's surface shape and features or those ofplanets, moons, and asteroids...
of his site is virtually identical to that for which the building was originally designed. The completed house, in only the fourth country in which a Wright design has been realized, is attracting broad interest from the international architectural community. Casey visited the site in County Wicklow, but died before construction began.
Community planning
Frank Lloyd Wright was interested in site and community planning throughout his career. His commissions and theories on urban design began as early as 1900 and continued until his death. He had 41 commissions on the scale of community planning or urban design.
His thoughts on suburban design started in 1900 with a proposed subdivision layout for
Charles E. RobertsCharles E. Roberts was an engineer, inventor and an important early client and patron of Frank Lloyd Wright. In 1896, Wright remodeled Robert's house in Oak Park....
entitled the "Quadruple Block Plan." This design strayed from traditional suburban lot layouts and set houses on small square blocks of four equal-sized lots surrounded on all sides by roads instead of straight rows of houses on parallel streets. The houses – which used the same design as published in "A Home in a Prairie Town" from the
Ladies' Home JournalLadies' Home Journal is an American magazine which first appeared on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th century in the United States...
– were set toward the center of the block to maximize the yard space and included private space in the center. This also allowed for far more interesting views from each house. Although this plan was never realized, Wright published the design in the Wasmuth Portfolio in 1910.
The more ambitious designs of entire communities were exemplified by his entry into the City Club of Chicago Land Development Competition in 1913. The contest was for the development of a suburban quarter section. This design expanded on the Quadruple Block Plan and included several social levels. The design shows the placement of the upscale homes in the most desirable areas and the
blue collarBlue collar can refer to:*Blue-collar worker, a traditional designation of the working class*Blue-collar crime, the types of crimes typically associated with the working class*A census designation...
homes and apartments separated by parks and common spaces. The design also included all the amenities of a small city: schools, museums, markets, etc. This view of decentralization was later reinforced by theoretical
Broadacre CityBroadacre City was an urban or suburban development concept proposed by Frank Lloyd Wright throughout most of his lifetime. He presented the idea in his book The Disappearing City in 1932. A few years later he unveiled a very detailed twelve by twelve foot scale model representing a hypothetical...
design. The philosophy behind his community planning was decentralization. The new development must be away from the cities. In this decentralized America, all services and facilities could coexist "factories side by side with farm and home."
Notable Community Planning Designs:
- 1900–1903 – Quadruple Block Plan – 24 homes in Oak Park, IL (unbuilt)
- 1909 – Como Orchard Summer Colony – Town site development for new town in the Bitterroot Valley
The Bitterroot Valley is located in southwestern Montana in the northwestern United States. It extends over 100 miles from remote Horse Creek Pass north to a point near the city of Missoula...
, MT
- 1913 – Chicago Land Development competition – Suburban Chicago quarter section
- 1934–1959 – Broadacre City
Broadacre City was an urban or suburban development concept proposed by Frank Lloyd Wright throughout most of his lifetime. He presented the idea in his book The Disappearing City in 1932. A few years later he unveiled a very detailed twelve by twelve foot scale model representing a hypothetical...
– Theoretical decentralized city plan – exhibits of large scale model
- 1938 – Suntop Homes
The Suntop Homes, also known under the early name of The Ardmore Experiment, were quadruple residences located in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, and based largely upon the 1935 conceptual Broadacre City model of the minimum houses...
also known as Cloverleaf Quadruple Housing Project – commission from Federal Works AgencyThe Federal Works Agency was an independent agency of the Federal government of the United States which administered a number of public construction, building maintenance, and public works relief functions and laws from 1939 to 1949...
, Division of Defense Housing – low cost multifamily housing alternative to suburban development
- 1945 – Usonia Homes
Usonia Homes is a planned community in the Town of Mount Pleasant, adjacent to the village of Pleasantville, New York. In 1945, a rural tract was purchased by a cooperative of young couples from New York City, who were able to enlist Frank Lloyd Wright to build his Broadacre City concept. Wright...
– 47 homes (3 designed by Wright himself) in PleasantvillePleasantville is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 7,019 at the 2010 census. It is located in the town of Mount Pleasant. Pleasantville is home to a campus of Pace University and to the Jacob Burns Film Center...
, New York
- 1949 – The Acres
The Acres, also known as Galesburg Country Homes, is a naturalistic residentialsubdivision designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Charleston Township, Michigan...
, also known as Galesburg Country Homes, 5 homes (4 designed by Wright himself) in Charleston TownshipCharleston Township is a civil township of Kalamazoo County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,813 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...
, Michigan
Japanese art
Though most famous as an architect, Wright was an active dealer in Japanese art, primarily
ukiyo-e' is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters...
woodblock printsWoodblock printing in Japan is a technique best known for its use in the ukiyo-e artistic genre; however, it was also used very widely for printing books in the same period. Woodblock printing had been used in China for centuries to print books, long before the advent of movable type, but was only...
. He frequently served as both architect and art dealer to the same clients; "he designed a home, then provided the art to fill it". For a time, Wright made more from selling art than from his work as an architect.
Wright first traveled to Japan in 1905, where he bought hundreds of prints. The following year, he helped organize the world's first retrospective exhibition of works by
Hiroshigewas a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, and one of the last great artists in that tradition. He was also referred to as Andō Hiroshige and by the art name of Ichiyūsai Hiroshige ....
, held at the
Art Institute of ChicagoThe School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
. For many years, he was a major presence in the Japanese art world, selling a great number of works to prominent collectors such as
John Spaulding-Life:He graduated from the University of Arizona, Tucson, with an M.A. in English literature and a Ph.D. in psychology. He also has an M.F.A. in creative writing from Boston University....
of Boston, and to prominent museums such as the
Metropolitan Museum of ArtThe Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
in New York. He penned a book on Japanese art in 1912.
In 1920, however, rival art dealers began to spread rumors that Wright was selling retouched prints; this combined with Wright's tendency to live beyond his means, and other factors, led to great financial troubles for the architect. Though he provided his clients with genuine prints as replacements for those he was accused of retouching, this marked the end of the high point of his career as an art dealer. He was forced to sell off much of his art collection in 1927 to pay off outstanding debts; the Bank of Wisconsin claimed his
TaliesinTaliesin , near Spring Green, Wisconsin, was the summer home of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright began the building in 1911 after leaving his first wife, Catherine Tobin, and his Oak Park, Illinois, home and studio in 1909. The impetus behind Wright's departure was his affair with...
home the following year, and sold thousands of his prints, for only one dollar a piece, to collector
Edward Burr Van VleckEdward Burr Van Vleck was an American mathematician.The son of astronomer John Monroe Van Vleck, he graduated from Wesleyan University in 1884, attended Johns Hopkins in 1885-87, and studied at Göttingen...
.
Wright continued to collect, and deal in, prints until his death in 1959, frequently using prints as collateral for loans, frequently relying upon his art business to remain financially solvent
The extent of his dealings in Japanese art went largely unknown, or underestimated, among art historians for decades until, in 1980, Julia Meech, then associate curator of Japanese art at the Metropolitan Museum, began researching the history of the museum's collection of Japanese prints. She discovered "a three-inch-deep 'clump of 400 cards' from 1918, each listing a print bought from the same seller—'F. L. Wright'" and a number of letters exchanged between Wright and the museum's first curator of Far Eastern Art, Sigisbert C. Bosch Reitz, in 1918 to 1922. These discoveries, and subsequent research, led to a renewed understanding of Wright's career as an art dealer.
Death and legacy
Turmoil followed Wright even many years after his death on April 9, 1959 while undergoing surgery in Phoenix, Arizona to remove an intestinal obstruction. His third wife, Olgivanna, ran
the FellowshipTaliesin West was architect Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home and school in the desert from 1937 until his death in 1959 at the age of 91. Today it is the main campus of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture and houses the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.Open to the public for tours, Taliesin...
after Wright's death, until her own death in
ScottsdaleScottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2010 the population of the city was 217,385...
, Arizona in 1985. That year, it was learned that her dying wish had been that Wright, she and her daughter by a first marriage all be cremated and relocated to
ScottsdaleScottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2010 the population of the city was 217,385...
, Arizona. By then, Wright's body had lain for over 25 years in the Lloyd-Jones cemetery, next to the Unity Chapel, near Taliesin, Wright's later-life home in
Spring GreenSpring Green is a village in Sauk County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,444 at the 2000 census. The village is located within the Town of Spring Green.-Geography:Spring Green is located at ....
, Wisconsin. Olgivanna's plan called for a memorial garden, already in the works, to be finished and prepared for their remains. Although the garden had yet to be finished, his remains were prepared and sent to Scottsdale where they waited in storage for an unidentified amount of time before being interred in the memorial area. Today, the small cemetery south of Spring Green, Wisconsin and a long stone's throw from Taliesin, contains a gravestone marked with Wright's name, though its grave is empty.
Personal style and concepts
Wright's creations took his concern with organic architecture down to the smallest details. From his largest commercial commissions to the relatively modest Usonian houses, Wright conceived virtually every detail of both the external design and the internal fixtures, including furniture,
carpetA carpet is a textile floor covering consisting of an upper layer of "pile" attached to a backing. The pile is generally either made from wool or a manmade fibre such as polypropylene,nylon or polyester and usually consists of twisted tufts which are often heat-treated to maintain their...
s, windows, doors, tables and chairs, light fittings and decorative elements. He was one of the first architects to design and supply custom-made, purpose-built furniture and fittings that functioned as integrated parts of the whole design, and he often returned to earlier commissions to redesign internal fittings. Some of the built-in furniture remains, while other restorations have included replacement pieces created using his plans. His Prairie houses use themed, coordinated design elements (often based on plant forms) that are repeated in windows, carpets and other fittings. He made innovative use of new building materials such as
precast concreteBy producing precast concrete in a controlled environment , the precast concrete is afforded the opportunity to properly cure and be closely monitored by plant employees. Utilizing a Precast Concrete system offers many potential advantages over site casting of concrete...
blocks, glass bricks and zinc
cameA came is a divider bar used between small pieces of glass to make a larger glazing panel, sometimes referred to as leaded glass. This process is then referred to as "leading". Cames are mostly made of soft metals such as lead, zinc, copper or brass. They generally have an H-shaped cross section,...
s (instead of the traditional lead) for his leadlight windows, and he famously used
PyrexPyrex is a brand name for glassware, introduced by Corning Incorporated in 1915.Originally, Pyrex was made from borosilicate glass. In the 1940s the composition was changed for some products to tempered soda-lime glass, which is the most common form of glass used in glass bakeware in the US and has...
glass tubing as a major element in the
Johnson Wax HeadquartersJohnson Wax Headquarters is the world headquarters and administration building of S. C. Johnson & Son in Racine, Wisconsin. Designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright for the company's president, Herbert F. "Hib" Johnson, the building was constructed from 1936 to 1939...
. Wright was also one of the first architects to design and install custom-made electric light fittings, including some of the very first electric floor lamps, and his very early use of the then-novel spherical glass lampshade (a design previously not possible due to the physical restrictions of gas lighting).
As Wright's career progressed, so did the mechanization of the glass industry. Wright fully embraced glass in his designs and found that it fit well into his philosophy of organic architecture. Glass allowed for interaction and viewing of the outdoors while still protecting from the elements. In 1928, Wright wrote an essay on glass in which he compared it to the mirrors of nature: lakes, rivers and ponds. One of Wright's earliest uses of glass in his works was to string panes of glass along whole walls in an attempt to create light screens to join together solid walls. By utilizing this large amount of glass, Wright sought to achieve a balance between the lightness and airiness of the glass and the solid, hard walls. Arguably, Wright's best-known art glass is that of the Prairie style. The simple geometric shapes that yield to very ornate and intricate windows represent some of the most integral ornamentation of his career.
Wright responded to the transformation of domestic life that occurred at the turn of the 20th century, when servants became a less prominent or completely absent from most American households, by developing homes with progressively more open plans. This allowed the woman of the house to work in her 'workspace', as he often called the kitchen, yet keep track of and be available for the children and/or guests in the dining room. Much of modern architecture, including the early work of Mies van der Rohe, can be traced back to Wright's innovative work.
Wright also designed some of his own clothing. His fashion sense was unique, and he usually wore expensive suits, flowing neckties, and capes. Wright drove a custom yellow 'raceabout' in the Prairie years, a red
CordCord was the brand name of a United States automobile, manufactured by the Auburn Automobile Company from 1929 through 1932 and again in 1936 and 1937....
convertible in the 1930s, and a famously customized 1940 Lincoln for many years. He earned many speeding tickets in each of his vehicles.
Colleagues and influences
Wright rarely credited any influences on his designs, but most architects, historians and scholars agree he had five major influences:
- Louis Sullivan
Louis Henri Sullivan was an American architect, and has been called the "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism" He is considered by many as the creator of the modern skyscraper, was an influential architect and critic of the Chicago School, was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an...
, whom he considered to be his 'Lieber Meister' (dear master),
- Nature, particularly shapes/forms and colors/patterns of plant life,
- Music (his favorite composer was Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
),
- Japanese art, prints and buildings,
- Froebel Gifts
The Froebel Gifts are a range of educational materials designed by Friedrich Fröbel. They were first used in the original Kindergarten at Bad Blankenburg.Fröbel advocated the importance of free play in childhood...
He also routinely claimed the architects and architectural designers who were his employees' work as his own design and claimed that the rest of the
Prairie SchoolPrairie School was a late 19th and early 20th century architectural style, most common to the Midwestern United States.The works of the Prairie School architects are usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands,...
architects were merely his followers, imitators and subordinates. But, as with any architect, Wright worked in a collaborative process and drew his ideas from the work of others. In his earlier days, Wright worked with some of the top architects of the
Chicago SchoolChicago's architecture is famous throughout the world and one style is referred to as the Chicago School. The style is also known as Commercial style. In the history of architecture, the Chicago School was a school of architects active in Chicago at the turn of the 20th century...
, including Sullivan. In his Prairie School days, Wright's office was populated by many talented architects including
William Eugene DrummondWilliam Eugene Drummond was a Chicago Prairie School architect.-Early Years and Education:He was born in Newark, New Jersey, the son of carpenter and cabinet maker Eugene Drummond and his wife Ida Marietta Lozier...
, John Van Bergen,
Isabel RobertsIsabel Roberts was a Prairie School figure, member of the architectural design team in the Oak Park Studio of Frank Lloyd Wright and partner with Ida Annah Ryan in the Orlando, Florida architecture firm, “Ryan and Roberts”. It is fair to say that Roberts is an under-appreciated member of Wright’s...
, Francis
Barry ByrneFrancis Barry Byrne was initially a member of the group of architects known as the Prairie School. After the demise of the Prairie School about 1914-16, Byrne continued as a successful architect by developing his own personal style.-Biography:Francis Barry Byrne was born and raised in Chicago...
,
Albert McArthurAlbert Chase McArthur was a Prairie School architect, and the designer of the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona.-Early years:...
,
Marion Mahony GriffinMarion Griffin was an American architect and artist. She was one of the first licenced female architects in the world, and is considered an original member of the Prairie School.-Biography:...
and
Walter Burley Griffin Walter Burley Griffin was an American architect and landscape architect, who is best known for his role in designing Canberra, Australia's capital city...
.
The Czech-born architect
Antonin RaymondAntonin Raymond, or , born: was a Czech architect, who lived and worked in the USA and Japan...
, recognized as the father of modern architecture in Japan, worked for Wright at Taliesin and led the construction of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. He subsequently stayed in Japan and opened his own practice.
Rudolf SchindlerRudolph Michael Schindler Rudolph Michael Schindler Rudolph Michael Schindler (born Rudolf Michael Schindler (1887 Vienna - 1953 Los Angeles) was an American, born in Austria, architect whose most important works were built in or near Los Angeles during the early to mid-twentieth century....
also worked for Wright on the Imperial hotel. His own work is often credited as influencing Wright's Usonian houses. Schindler's friend
Richard NeutraRichard Joseph Neutra is considered one of modernism's most important architects.- Biography :Neutra was born in Leopoldstadt, the 2nd district of Vienna, Austria Hungary, on April 8, 1892. He was born into both-Jewish wealthy family...
also worked briefly for Wright and became an internationally successful architect.
Later in the
TaliesinTaliesin , near Spring Green, Wisconsin, was the summer home of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright began the building in 1911 after leaving his first wife, Catherine Tobin, and his Oak Park, Illinois, home and studio in 1909. The impetus behind Wright's departure was his affair with...
days, Wright employed many architects and artists who later become notable, such as
Aaron GreenAaron Green was an American architect and protégé of Frank Lloyd Wright.- History :Aaron Green grew up in Florence, Alabama...
, John Lautner,
E. Fay Jones,
Henry KlumbHeinrich Klumb was a German architect who worked in Puerto Rico. He was one of Puerto Rico's most prominent architects in the mid 20th Century.-Education and Early Life:...
and
Paolo SoleriPaolo Soleri is an Italian-American architect. He established Arcosanti and the educational Cosanti Foundation. Soleri is a lecturer in the College of Architecture at Arizona State University and a National Design Award recipient in 2006.-Early life:Soleri was born in Turin, Italy...
in architecture and
Santiago Martinez DelgadoSantiago Martínez Delgado was a Colombian painter, sculptor, art historian and writer. He established a reputation as a prominent muralist during the 1940s and is also known for his watercolors, oil paintings, illustrations and woodcarvings....
in the arts. As a young man, actor
Anthony QuinnAntonio Rodolfo Quinn-Oaxaca , more commonly known as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican American actor, as well as a painter and writer...
applied to study with Wright at Taliesin. However, Wright suggested that he first take voice lessons to help overcome a speech impediment.
Bruce GoffBruce Alonzo Goff was an American architect distinguished by his organic, eclectic, and often flamboyant designs for houses and other buildings in Oklahoma and elsewhere.-Early years:...
never worked for Wright but maintained correspondence with him. Their works can be seen to parallel each other.
Recognition
Later in his life and well after his death in 1959, Wright received much honorary recognition for his lifetime achievements. He received Gold Medal awards from The
Royal Institute of British ArchitectsThe Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
(RIBA) in 1941 and the
American Institute of ArchitectsThe American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
(AIA) in 1949. He was awarded the
Franklin InstituteThe Franklin Institute is a museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the oldest centers of science education and development in the United States, dating to 1824. The Institute also houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial.-History:On February 5, 1824, Samuel Vaughn Merrick and...
's Frank P. Brown Medal in 1953. He received honorary degrees from several universities (including his "alma mater", the University of Wisconsin) and several nations named him as an honorary board member to their national academies of art and/or architecture. In 2000,
FallingwaterFallingwater or Kaufmann Residence is a house designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh...
was named "The Building of the 20th century" in an unscientific "Top-Ten" poll taken by members attending the AIA annual convention in Philadelphia. On that list, Wright was listed along with many of the USA's other greatest architects including
Eero SaarinenEero Saarinen was a Finnish American architect and industrial designer of the 20th century famous for varying his style according to the demands of the project: simple, sweeping, arching structural curves or machine-like rationalism.-Biography:Eero Saarinen shared the same birthday as his father,...
, I.M. Pei,
Louis KahnLouis Isadore Kahn was an American architect, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. After working in various capacities for several firms in Philadelphia, he founded his own atelier in 1935...
,
Philip JohnsonPhilip Cortelyou Johnson was an influential American architect.In 1930, he founded the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and later , as a trustee, he was awarded an American Institute of Architects Gold Medal and the first Pritzker Architecture...
and
Ludwig Mies van der RoheLudwig Mies van der Rohe was a German architect. He is commonly referred to and addressed as Mies, his surname....
, and he was the only architect who had more than one building on the list. The other three buildings were the
Guggenheim MuseumThe Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a well-known museum located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions...
, the Frederick C. Robie House and the Johnson Wax Building.
In 1992, The
Madison OperaMadison Opera is a regional opera company based in Madison, Wisconsin. It was founded in 1961 as an extension of the and came to national prominence with the commissioning and premiering of Shining Brow, the opera about Frank Lloyd Wright by composer Daron Hagen and librettist Paul Muldoon. The...
in
MadisonMadison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
, Wisconsin commissioned and premiered the opera
Shining BrowShining Brow is an English language opera by Daron Hagen, first performed by the Madison Opera in Madison, Wisconsin, April 21, 1993. It is based on events in the life of architect Frank Lloyd Wright...
, by composer
Daron HagenDaron Aric Hagen , is an American composer, conductor, pianist, educator, librettist, and stage director of contemporary classical music and opera.- Early life and education :...
and
librettistA libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
Paul MuldoonPaul Muldoon is an Irish poet. He has published over thirty collections and won a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the T. S. Eliot Prize. He held the post of Oxford Professor of Poetry from 1999 - 2004. At Princeton University he is both the Howard G. B. Clark ’21 Professor in the Humanities and...
based on events early in Wright's life. The work has since received numerous revivals. In 2000,
Work Song: Three Views of Frank Lloyd WrightWork Song: Three Views of Frank Lloyd Wright is a play by Jeffrey Hatcher and Eric Simonson. It premiered at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater in 2000. The play was commissioned by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company of Chicago....
, a play based on the relationship between the personal and working aspects of Wright's life, debuted at the
Milwaukee Repertory TheaterMilwaukee Repertory Theater, founded by Mary Widrig John in 1954, as the Fred Miller Theatre Company, is now located on the east bank of the Milwaukee River in the Patty and Jay Baker Theater Complex at 108 E Wells St, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is home to an eleven member Resident Acting Company...
.
In 1966, the
United States Postal ServiceThe United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
honored Wright with a
Prominent Americans seriesThe Prominent Americans series is a set of definitive stamps issued by the United States Post Office Department between 1965 and 1978....
2¢
postage stampA postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
.
Family
Frank Lloyd Wright was married three times and fathered seven children, four sons and three daughters. He also adopted Svetlana Milanoff, the daughter of his third wife,
Olgivanna Lloyd WrightOlgivanna Lloyd Wright was the third and final wife of Frank Lloyd Wright and had significant influence in his life and work, due in part to her extensive Theosophical associations. She was a Serb Montenegrin dancer...
.
His wives were:
- Catherine "Kitty" (Tobin) Wright (1871–1959); social worker, socialite (married in June 1889; divorced November 1922)
- Maude "Miriam" (Noel) Wright (1869–1930), artist (married in November 1923; divorced August 1927)
- Olga Ivanovna "Olgivanna" (Lazovich Milanoff) Lloyd Wright
Olgivanna Lloyd Wright was the third and final wife of Frank Lloyd Wright and had significant influence in his life and work, due in part to her extensive Theosophical associations. She was a Serb Montenegrin dancer...
(1897–1985), dancer and writer (married in August 1928)
One of Wright's sons, Frank Lloyd Wright Jr., known as
Lloyd WrightFrank Lloyd Wright, Jr. , commonly known as Lloyd Wright, was an American landscape architect and architect, most active in Los Angeles and Southern California...
, was also a notable architect in Los Angeles. Lloyd Wright's son (and Wright's grandson),
Eric Lloyd WrightEric Lloyd Wright is an American architect and the grandson of the famed Frank Lloyd Wright.Wright was born in Los Angeles on November 9, 1929 to Helen Taggart and Lloyd Wright , a landscape architect and architect who was the eldest son of Frank Lloyd Wright Sr.Educated at the University of...
, is currently an architect in
Malibu, California where he has a practice of mostly residences, but also civic and commercial buildings.
Another son and architect,
John Lloyd WrightJohn Lloyd Wright was an American architect and toy inventor. He invented Lincoln Logs in 1916. He was the son of Frank Lloyd Wright and brother of Lloyd Wright.-External links:*...
, invented
Lincoln LogsLincoln Logs is the name of a children's toy consisting of notched miniature logs, used to build miniature forts and buildings. They were invented by John L. Wright, son of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright...
in 1918, and practiced extensively in the San Diego area. John's daughter,
Elizabeth Wright Ingraham, is an architect in
Colorado SpringsColorado Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of El Paso County, Colorado, United States. Colorado Springs is located in South-Central Colorado, in the southern portion of the state. It is situated on Fountain Creek and is located south of the Colorado...
, Colorado. She is the mother of Christine, an interior designer in Connecticut, and Catherine, an architecture professor at the
Pratt InstitutePratt Institute is a private art college in New York City located in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica. Pratt is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States and offers programs in Architecture, Graphic Design, History of Art and Design,...
.
The Oscar-winning actress
Anne BaxterAnne Baxter was an American actress known for her performances in films such as The Magnificent Ambersons , The Razor's Edge , All About Eve and The Ten Commandments .-Early life:...
was Wright's granddaughter. Baxter was the daughter of Catherine Baxter, a child born of Wright's first marriage. Baxter's daughter, Melissa Galt, currently lives and works in Atlanta as an interior designer.
His adopted daughter Svetlana (daughter of Olgivanna) and her son Daniel died in an automobile accident in 1946. Her widower,
William Wesley PetersWilliam Wesley Peters was a noted architect and engineer, apprentice to and protégé of Frank Lloyd Wright.Born in Terre Haute, Indiana, Peters was educated at Evansville College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
, was later briefly married to
Svetlana AlliluyevaSvetlana Iosifovna Alliluyeva , later known as Lana Peters, was the youngest child and only daughter of Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin and Nadezhda Alliluyeva, Stalin's second wife...
, the youngest child and only daughter of
Joseph StalinJoseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
. They divorced after she could not adjust to the communal lifestyle of the Wright communities, which she compared to life in the
Soviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
under her father, and because of the constant interference of Wright's widow. Peters served as Chairman of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation from 1985 to 1991.
A great-grandson of Wright, S. Lloyd Natof, currently lives and works in Chicago as a master woodworker who specializes in the design and creation of custom wood furniture.
Archives
Photographs and other archival materials are held by the
Ryerson & Burnham LibrariesThe Ryerson & Burnham Libraries are the art and architecture research collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The libraries cover all periods with extensive holdings in the areas of 18th, 19th and 20th century architecture and 19th century painting, prints, drawings, and decorative arts...
at the
Art Institute of ChicagoThe School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
. The
Herbert and Katherine Jacobs ResidenceHerbert and Katherine Jacobs First House, commonly referred to as Jacobs I, is a single family home located in Madison, Wisconsin. Designed by noted American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, it was constructed in 1937 and is considered by most to be the first Usonian home.-History:Madison...
and Frank Lloyd Wright Records, 1924–1974, Collection includes drawings, correspondence, and other materials documenting the construction of two homes for the Jacobs as well as research files on Wright's life. The Frank Lloyd Wright in Michigan Collection, 1945–1988, consists of research documents, including photocopied correspondence between Wright and his clients, used for the book "Frank Lloyd Wright in Michigan." The Wrightiana Collection, c. 1897–1997 (bulk 1949–1969), includes a variety of printed materials and photographs about Wright and his projects. The Joseph J. Bagley Cottage Collection, c. 1916–1925, contains photographs and drawings documenting the Bagley cottage which was completed in 1916.
The architect's personal
archives are located at Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona. The Frank Lloyd Wright archives include photographs of his drawings, indexed correspondence beginning in the 1880s and continuing through Wright's life, and other ephemera. The Getty Research Center in Los Angeles, California, also has copies of Wright's correspondence and photographs of his drawings in their "
Frank Lloyd Wright Special Collection". Wright's correspondence is indexed in An Index to the Taliesin Correspondence, ed. by Professor
Anthony AlofsinAnthony Alofsin is an architect, artist, art historian, writer, and professor. Educated at Andover, Harvard, and Columbia University, he has been named a Fellow, Bogliasco Foundation, Liguria Study Center for the Arts and Humanities; Ailsa Mellon Bruce Senior Fellow, Center for Advanced Studies in...
, which is available at larger libraries.
Selected works
- Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio
The Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio at 951 Chicago Avenue in Oak Park, Illinois, has been restored by the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust to its appearance in 1909, the last year Frank Lloyd Wright lived there with his family. Frank Lloyd Wright purchased the property and built the home in...
, Oak ParkOak Park, Illinois is a suburb bordering the west side of the city of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is the twenty-fifth largest municipality in Illinois. Oak Park has easy access to downtown Chicago due to public transportation such as the Chicago 'L' Blue and Green lines,...
, Illinois, 1889–1909
- William H. Winslow House, River Forest
River Forest is a suburban village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Two universities make their home in River Forest, Dominican University and Concordia University Chicago. The village is closely tied to the larger neighboring community of Oak Park, Illinois. There are significant...
, Illinois, 1894
- Ward Winfield Willits Residence
The Ward W. Willits House is a building designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Designed in 1901, the Willits house is considered the first of the great Prairie houses. Built in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Illinois, the house presents a symmetrical facade to the street. The plan is a...
, and Gardener’s Cottage and Stables, Highland ParkHighland Park is a suburban municipality in Lake County, Illinois, United States, about north of downtown Chicago. As of 2009, the population is 33,492. Highland Park is one of several municipalities located on the North Shore of the Chicago Metropolitan Area.-Overview:Highland Park was founded...
, Illinois, 1901
- Dana-Thomas House, Springfield
Springfield is the third and current capital of the US state of Illinois and the county seat of Sangamon County with a population of 117,400 , making it the sixth most populated city in the state and the second most populated Illinois city outside of the Chicago Metropolitan Area...
, Illinois, 1902
- Larkin Administration Building
The Larkin Building was designed in 1904 by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1906 for the Larkin Soap Company of Buffalo, New York. The five story dark red brick building used pink tinted mortar and utilized steel frame construction. It was noted for many innovations, including air conditioning,...
, BuffaloBuffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, New York, 1903 (demolished, 1950)
- Darwin D. Martin House
The Darwin D. Martin House Complex, also known as the Darwin Martin House State Historic Site, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built between 1903 and 1905...
, BuffaloBuffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, New York, 1903–1905
- Unity Temple
Unity Temple is a Unitarian Universalist church in Oak Park, Illinois, and the home of the Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation. It was designed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and built between 1905 and 1908. Unity Temple is considered to be one of Wright's most important...
, Oak ParkOak Park, Illinois is a suburb bordering the west side of the city of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is the twenty-fifth largest municipality in Illinois. Oak Park has easy access to downtown Chicago due to public transportation such as the Chicago 'L' Blue and Green lines,...
, Illinois, 1904
- Frederick C. Robie Residence
The Frederick C. Robie House is a U.S. National Historic Landmark in the Chicago, Illinois neighborhood of Hyde Park at 5757 S. Woodlawn Avenue on the South Side. It was designed and built between 1908 and 1910 by architect Frank Lloyd Wright and is renowned as the greatest example of his Prairie...
, ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois, 1909
- Taliesin I, Spring Green
Spring Green is a village in Sauk County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,444 at the 2000 census. The village is located within the Town of Spring Green.-Geography:Spring Green is located at ....
, Wisconsin, 1911
- Midway Gardens
Midway Gardens was a 300’ square indoor/outdoor entertainment facility in the Hyde Park neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. It was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who also collaborated with sculptor Alfonso Iannelli on the famous “sprite” sculptures decorating the facility...
, Chicago, Illinois, 1913 (demolished, 1929)
- Imperial Hotel
The Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, Japan, was created in the late 1880s at the request of the Japanese aristocracy to cater to the increasing number of western visitors to Japan. The hotel site is located just south of the Imperial Palace grounds, next to the previous location of the Palace moat...
, Tokyo, Japan, 1923 (demolished, 1968; entrance hall reconstructed at Meiji Murais an open-air architectural museum/theme park in Inuyama, near Nagoya in Aichi prefecture, Japan. It was opened on March 18, 1965. The museum preserves historic buildings from Japan's Meiji , Taisho , and early Shōwa periods. Over 60 historical buildings have been moved and reconstructed onto of...
near Nagoya, Japan, 1976)
- Hollyhock House
The Aline Barnsdall Hollyhock House is a building in the East Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, originally designed by Frank Lloyd Wright as a residence for oil heiress Aline Barnsdall, built in 1919–1921...
(Aline Barnsdall Residence), Los Angeles, 1919–1921
- Ennis House
The Ennis House is a residential dwelling in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA, south of Griffith Park. The home was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Charles and Mabel Ennis in 1923, and built in 1924....
, Los Angeles, 1923
- Taliesin III, Spring Green
Spring Green is a village in Sauk County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,444 at the 2000 census. The village is located within the Town of Spring Green.-Geography:Spring Green is located at ....
, Wisconsin, 1925
- Graycliff
The Graycliff estate was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and was built between 1926 and 1931. It is located about 20 minutes south of downtown Buffalo, New York, at 6472 Old Lake Shore Road in Derby, New York...
. Buffalo, NY 1926
- Westhope
Westhope, also known as the Richard Lloyd Jones House, is a Frank Lloyd Wright designed Prairie School home that was constructed in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1929. Richard Lloyd Jones was Wright's cousin and the publisher of the Tulsa Tribune....
(Richard Lloyd Jones Residence, TulsaTulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...
, Oklahoma, 1929
- Fallingwater
Fallingwater or Kaufmann Residence is a house designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh...
(Edgar J. Kaufmann Sr. Residence), Bear Run, Pennsylvania, 1935–1937
- First Jacobs House
Herbert and Katherine Jacobs First House, commonly referred to as Jacobs I, is a single family home located in Madison, Wisconsin. Designed by noted American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, it was constructed in 1937 and is considered by most to be the first Usonian home.-History:Madison...
, 1936–1937
- Johnson Wax Headquarters
Johnson Wax Headquarters is the world headquarters and administration building of S. C. Johnson & Son in Racine, Wisconsin. Designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright for the company's president, Herbert F. "Hib" Johnson, the building was constructed from 1936 to 1939...
, RacineRacine is a city in and the county seat of Racine County, Wisconsin, United States. According to 2008 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the city had a population of 82,196...
, Wisconsin, 1936
- Herbert F. Johnson Residence ("Wingspread"), Wind Point, WI
Wind Point is a village in Racine County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,853 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Wind Point is located at ....
, 1937
- Taliesin West
Taliesin West was architect Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home and school in the desert from 1937 until his death in 1959 at the age of 91. Today it is the main campus of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture and houses the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.Open to the public for tours, Taliesin...
, ScottsdaleScottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2010 the population of the city was 217,385...
, Arizona, 1937
- Usonia
Usonia was a word used by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright to refer to his vision for the landscape of the United States, including the planning of cities and the architecture of buildings...
n homes, various locations, 1930s–1950s
- Child of the Sun
Child of the Sun is the title for a group of buildings designed for the campus of the Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida, USA, by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright from 1941 through 1958. The buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and together form one of...
, Florida Southern CollegeFlorida Southern College is a private college located in Lakeland, Florida, United States. It was selected by U.S...
, LakelandLakeland is a city in Polk County, Florida, United States, located approximately midway between Tampa and Orlando along Interstate 4. According to the 2008 U.S. Census Bureau estimate, the city had a population of 94,406...
, Florida, 1941–1958
- First Unitarian Society of Madison, Shorewood Hills
Shorewood Hills is a village in Dane County, Wisconsin, United States. Established in 1927, the population was 1,732 at the 2000 census. It is a suburb of Madison and part of the Madison Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...
, Wisconsin, 1947
- V. C. Morris Gift Shop
The V. C. Morris Gift Shop is located at 140 Maiden Lane in San Francisco, California, USA, and was renovated by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1948. The store was used by Wright as a physical prototype, or proof of concept for the circular ramp at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.Xanadu Gallery, the...
, San Francisco, 1948
- Price Tower
The Price Tower is a nineteen story, 221 foot high tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It is the only realized skyscraper by Wright, and is one of only two vertically-oriented Wright structures extant .The Price Tower was commissioned by Harold C. Price of the...
, BartlesvilleBartlesville is a city in Osage and Washington counties in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The population was 43,070 at the 2010 census. Bartlesville is located forty-seven miles north of Tulsa and very close to Oklahoma's northern border with Kansas. It is the county seat of Washington County, in...
, Oklahoma, 1952–1956
- Beth Sholom Synagogue
Beth Sholom Congregation is a Conservative synagogue located in the Philadelphia suburb of Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. It is the only synagogue designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright...
, Elkins ParkElkins Park is an unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is split between Cheltenham and Abington Townships in the suburbs of Philadelphia, roughly from Center City, Philadelphia.-Points of interest:...
, Pennsylvania, 1954
- Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, Milwaukee
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
, Wisconsin, 1956–1961
- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a well-known museum located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions...
, New York City, 1956–1959
- Kentuck Knob
Kentuck Knob, also known as the Hagan House, is a residence designed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in rural Stewart Township near the village of Chalk Hill, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, USA, about southeast of Pittsburgh...
, OhiopyleOhiopyle is a borough in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 77 at the 2000 census. While Ohiopyle has a tiny year-round population, it is often filled with tourists on the weekend, who come take advantage of outdoor recreation...
, Pennsylvania, 1956
- The Illinois
The Mile High Illinois, Illinois Sky-City, or simply The Illinois was a proposed skyscraper that would have been high, envisioned by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1956. The design, intended to be built in Chicago, would have included 528 stories, with a gross area of...
, mile-high tower in ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, 1956 (unbuilt)
- Marshall Erdman Prefab Houses
Throughout his career, Frank Lloyd Wright was interested in mass production of housing. In 1954, he discovered that Marshall Erdman, who contracted the First Unitarian Society of Madison, was selling modest prefabricated homes...
, various locations, 1956–1960
- Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church
Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, USA, was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1956, and completed in 1962. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The church is one of Wright's last works; construction was completed after his death. Its shallow...
, WauwatosaWauwatosa is a city in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States, and was incorporated on May 27, 1897. As of the 2006 census estimate, the city's population was 44,798. Wauwatosa is located immediately west of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is a part of the Milwaukee metropolitan area...
, Wisconsin, 1956–1961
- Marin County Civic Center
Marin County Civic Center, the last commission by Frank Lloyd Wright, is located in San Rafael, California. Groundbreaking for the Civic Center Administration Building took place in 1960, after Wright's death and under the watch of Wright's protégé, Aaron Green, and was completed in 1962. The...
, San Rafael, CASan Rafael is a city and the county seat of Marin County, California, United States. The city is located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area...
, 1957–1966
- Gammage Auditorium
Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium is considered to be the last public commission of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Groundbreaking took place and construction on the building began on May 23, 1962. It took 25 months to complete. The built-on-time, under-budget building opened in 1964 with the...
, TempeTempe is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, USA, with the Census Bureau reporting a 2010 population of 161,719. The city is named after the Vale of Tempe in Greece. Tempe is located in the East Valley section of metropolitan Phoenix; it is bordered by Phoenix and Guadalupe on the west, Scottsdale...
, Arizona, 1959–1964
Selected books and articles on Wright’s philosophy
- An Autobiography, by Frank Lloyd Wright (1943, Duell, Sloan and Pearce / 2005, Pomegranate; ISBN 0-7649-3243-8)
- Frank Lloyd Wright: A Primer on Architectural Principles, by Robert McCarter (1991, Princeton Architectural Press; ISBN 1878271261)
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian Homes: Designs for Moderate Cost One-Family Homes, by John Sergeant (1984, Watson-Guptill; ISBN 0823071782)
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian Homes (Wright at a Glance Series), by Carla Lind (1994, Pomegranate Communications; ISBN 1566409985)
- "In the Cause of Architecture", Architectural Record, March, 1908, by Frank Lloyd Wright. Published in Frank Lloyd Wright: Collected Writings, vol. 1 (1992, Rizzoli; ISBN 0-8478-1546-3)
- Natural House, The, by Frank Lloyd Wright (1954, Horizon Press; ISBN 0517020785)
- Taliesin Reflections: My Years Before, During, and After Living with Frank Lloyd Wright, by Earl Nisbet (2006, Meridian Press; ISBN 0-9778951-0-6)
- Truth Against the World: Frank Lloyd Wright Speaks for an Organic Architecture, ed. by Patrick Meehan (1987, Wiley; ISBN 0471845094)
- Understanding Frank Lloyd Wright's Architecture, by Donald Hoffman (1995, Dover Publications; ISBN 048628364X)
- Usonia : Frank Lloyd Wright's Design for America, Alvin Rosenbaum (1993, Preservation Press; ISBN 0891332014)
- Frank Lloyd Wright, by Daniel Treiber (2008, Birkhäuser Basel, 2nd, updated edition; ISBN 978-3764386979)
Biographies of Wright
- Frank Lloyd Wright: Architecture, man in possession of his earth, by Iovanna Lloyd Wright (1962, Doubleday; )
- Many Masks, by Brendan Gill (1987, Putnam; ISBN 0399132325)
- Frank Lloyd Wright, by Ada Louise Huxtable (2004, Lipper/Viking; ISBN 0670033421)
- Frank Lloyd Wright: a Biography, by Meryle Secrest
Meryle Secrest is an award-winning American biographer, primarily of American artists and art collectors.-Biography:Secrest was born in Bath, England and educated there. Her family emigrated to Canada, where she began her career as a journalist...
(1992, Knopf; ISBN 0394564367)
- Frank Lloyd Wright: His Life and Architecture, by Robert Twombly (1979, Wiley; ISBN 0471034002)
- Frank Lloyd Wright: by Vaccaro, Tony, (2002, Kultur-unterm-Schirm)
- The Fellowship: The Untold Story of Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Fellowship, by Roger Friedland and Harold Zellman (2006, Regan Books; ISBN 0060393882)
- Loving Frank, by Nancy Horan, (2008, Random House, Inc; ISBN 0345494997)
Selected survey books on Wright’s work
- Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, The, by Neil Levine (1996, Princeton University Press
-Further reading:* "". Artforum International, 2005.-External links:* * * * *...
; ISBN 0691033714)
- Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright: A Complete Catalog, The, by William Allin Storrer (2007 updated 3rd. ed., University of Chicago Press; ISBN 0-226-77620-4)
- Frank Lloyd Wright, by Robert McCarter (1997, Phaidon, London; ISBN 0 7148 31484 (hardback), ISBN 0714838543 (paperback))
- Frank Lloyd Wright: America’s Master Architect, by Kathryn Smith (1998, Abbeville Publishing Group (Abbeville Press, Inc.)
Abbeville Publishing Group is an independent book publishing company specializing in fine art and illustrated books. Based in New York City, Abbeville publishes approximately 40 titles each year and has an active backlist of over 700 titles on a wide range of subjects, including art, architecture,...
; ISBN 0789202875)
- Frank Lloyd Wright: Architect, by the Museum of Modern Art (1994, ISBN 087070642X)
- Frank Lloyd Wright Companion, The, by William Allin Storrer (2006 Rev. Ed., University of Chicago Press; ISBN 0-226-77621-2)
- Frank Lloyd Wright: Masterworks, by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer (1993, Rizzoli; ISBN 0847817156)
- Frank Lloyd Wright: Building for Democracy, by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer (2004, Taschen
Taschen is an art book publisher founded in 1980 by Benedikt Taschen in Cologne, Germany. It began as Taschen Comics publishing Benedikt's extensive comic collection...
; ISBN 3-8228-2757-6)
- Wrightscapes: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Landscape Designs, by Charles and Berdeana Aguar (2003, McGraw-Hill; ISBN 007140953X)
- Wright Space: Pattern and Meaning in Frank Lloyd Wright's Houses by Grant Hildebrand (1991, University of Washington Press; ISBN 0295970057)
- Frank Lloyd Wright Field Guide, by Thomas A. Heinz (1999, Academy Editions; ISBN 0-8101-2244-8)
- Frank Lloyd Wright's Glass Designs, by Carla Lind (1995, Pomegranate; ISBN 0876544685)
- The Gardens of Frank Lloyd Wright, introduction by James van Sweden, Frances Linden 2009 ISBN 978-0-711229678
- Frank Lloyd Wright Complete Works 1943–1959, by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer and Peter Gössel (editor) (2009, Taschen
Taschen is an art book publisher founded in 1980 by Benedikt Taschen in Cologne, Germany. It began as Taschen Comics publishing Benedikt's extensive comic collection...
; ISBN 978-3-8228-5770-0). First in a series of three monographs featuring all of Wright's 1,100 designs, both realized and unrealized.
Selected books about specific Wright projects
- Fallingwater Rising: Frank Lloyd Wright, E. J. Kaufmann, and America's Most Extraordinary House, by Franklin Toker
Franklin Toker is a professor of the History of Art and Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh and the author of eight books on the history of art and architecture, ranging from the excavations he conducted under Santa Reparata, Florence to 21st century American Urbanism. He is a President...
(2003, Knopf; ISBN 1400040264)
- At Nature's Edge: Frank Lloyd Wright's Artist Studio, by Henry Whiting II. (2007). ISBN 978-0-87480-877-3
External links
- Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Official Website
- Frank Lloyd Wright, Wisconsin Historical Society
- Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy
- Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust – FLW Home and Studio, Robie House
- Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture
- Frank Lloyd Wright Wisconsin Heritage Tourism Program
- Frank Lloyd Wright – PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
documentaryDocumentary television is a genre of television programming that broadcasts documentaries.* Documentary television series, a television series which is made up of documentary episodes....
by Ken BurnsKenneth Lauren "Ken" Burns is an American director and producer of documentary films, known for his style of using archival footage and photographs...
and resources
- American System-Built Houses by Frank Lloyd Wright – an overview with slideshow.
- Frank Lloyd Wright. Designs for an American Landscape 1922–1932
- Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings Recorded by the Historic American Buildings Survey
- Complete list of Wright buildings by location
- Sullivan, Wright, Prairie School, & Organic Architecture
- Audio interview with Martin Filler on Frank Lloyd Wright from The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs. Published in New York City, it takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity...
- Article on the 50th anniversary of Wright's only gas station.
- Frank Lloyd Wright and Quebec
- Frank Lloyd Wright interviewed by Mike Wallace
Myron Leon "Mike" Wallace is an American journalist, former game show host, actor and media personality. During his 60+ year career, he has interviewed a wide range of prominent newsmakers....
on The Mike Wallace Interview recorded September 1 & 28, 1957