2. Frank Lloyd Wright was born
in Richland Center,
Wisconsin, on June 8, 1867,
and died in Phoenix, Arizona,
on April 9, 1959, at the age of
91. (He often gave his
birthdate as 1869, but records
indicate that he was actually
born in 1867.)
3. •Mr. Wright's "organic architecture" was a radical departure from
the traditional architecture of his day, which was dominated by
European styles that dated back hundreds of years or even millenia.
While most of his designs were single-family homes (ranging from
small homes for families of modest incomes, to mansions like his
unbuilt design for Henry Ford), his varied output also includes
houses of worship, skyscrapers, resorts, museums, government
offices, gas stations, bridges, and other masterpieces showing the
diversity of Frank Lloyd Wright's talent.
Florida Southern College
4. Prairie houses were characterized by low, horizontal lines that were
meant to blend with the flat landscape around them. Typically, these
structures were built around a central chimney, consisted of broad
open spaces instead of strictly defined rooms, and deliberately blurred
the distinction between interior space and the surrounding terrain.
Wright acclaimed "the new reality that is space instead of matter" and,
about architectural interiors, said that the "reality of a building is not
the container but the space within."
Robie
House
Chicago,
Illinois
(1909)
5. Basic Principles of Wright
Designs
• Organic Colors
• Simple Geometric
Shapes
• Integration of
Building with Natural
Surroundings
• Strong Horizontal
Lines
• Hidden Entries
Frank Lloyd Wright Home
and Studio
Oak Park, Illinois (1889)
6. Which of these basic principles do you see in the Arthur
Heurtley House in Oak Park, Illinois built in 1902?
Organic Colors?
Simple
Geometric
Shapes?
Integration with
Natural
Surroundings?Strong
Horizontal
Lines?
Hidden Entry
Way?
7. Here are some other views of the same house:
Exterior View View from the Door
Music Room: Notice how the
same principles are in effect
in the interior.
8. Some of Wright’s earliest homes are in Oak Park. They
show a blend of Victorian and Prairie School elements.
These are sometimes called “bread and butter”
houses. (On your field trip, you’ll be asked to explain
why they might be referred to that way.)
9. "Fallingwater is a great
blessing - one of the great
blessings to be
experienced here on earth.
I think nothing yet ever
equalled the coordination,
sympathetic expression of
the great principle of
repose where forest and
stream and rock and all
the elements of structure
are combined so quietly
that really you listen not to
any noise whatsoever
although the music of the
stream is there. But you
listen to Fallingwater the
way you listen to the quiet
of the country..."
–Frank Lloyd Wright, 1955
Fallingwater (Mill Run,
Pennsylvania, 1937) is generally
considered to be Wright’s
residential masterpiece.
10. Another extraordinary Wright home in Oak Park is the
Nathan Moore house (1895, rebuilt in 1923 after a fire).
Most observers think it’s stunningly beautiful, or a
hideous monstrosity. Wright himself thought it was
unattractive.
11. Although Wright continued to design residences for the
rest of his life, his later career included commissions to
design some remarkable public buildings.
The
Guggenheim
Museum of
Modern Art
New York,
New York,
1959
“An ideal
American
architecture
should
develop in
the image of
trees.”
Frank Lloyd
Wright
12. The Marin County (California) Civic Center (1962) is
basically a courthouse and community gathering place.
“We know that the
good building is not
the one that hurts the
landscape, but is one
that makes the
landscape more
beautiful than it was
before that building
was built. In Marin
County you have
one of the most
beautiful landscapes I
have seen, and I am
proud to make the
buildings of this
County characteristic
of the beauty of the
County."
Frank Lloyd Wright
13. Wright designed Unity Temple in Oak Park (1905)
as a place of worship for the Unitarian faith. This is
his original drawing of the building.
As is consistent with the Unitarian faith, the
building is stately, solid, and devoid of religious
iconography.
14. Here are two more exterior views of Unity Temple.
Notice the solid concrete construction, as well as the
incorporation of other typical Wright elements.
15. Unity Temple’s interior completes Wright vision of a
marriage of spiritual beauty and architectural
perfection.
16. Frank Lloyd Wright designed the First National
Bank of Dwight, Illinois (population 4,300) in 1905.
Of three banks designed by Wright, it is the only
one still functioning as a bank. Notice how it
contrasts to the building next door, built at
roughly the same time.
Detail of Exterior Light Fixture
17. The Johnson Wax building in Racine, Wisconsin (1939)
is Wright’s vision for a corporate environment.
18. The interior of the Johnson Wax
building features this distinctive
lily-pad design which allows light to
filter to different floors.
19. Architecture is the triumph of Human
Imagination over materials, methods,
and men, to put man into possession of
his own Earth. It is at least the
geometric pattern of things, of life, of
the human and social world. It is at best
that magic framework of reality that we
sometimes touch upon when we use the
word “order.”
- Frank Lloyd Wright, 1930
20. Now we’ll visit the Oak Park web site to get a
more in-depth look at the neighborhood we’ll
be visiting.
William Martin House
Oak Park, Illinois (1905)
