Sunday Structures 4th Edition

As promised from my previous post, Frank Lloyd Wright's Home and Studio.

The home was built in 1889, and the studio added to the property in 1898. This is where he spent the first 20 years of his career living and working. He also lived here with his first wife and their six children. And let me tell you, the rooms were not that large, But the children's play room was pretty sweet.

The studio was added in 1898 and is where he and his associates developed the Prairie Style of homes, which is the most popular style of older American homes. He designed 125 different structures in his studio, including the Robie House, and Unity Temple, also in Illinois.

He uses a lot of different techniques in his home, like low ceilings in the hallways that lead to high vaulted ceilings in the main rooms. This creates a sort of anticipation as you are led down a narrow path that suddenly opens up into a massive space. This is the children's playroom. It had a piano in one corner, but because Frank didn't want to take up floor space, he pushed it into the wall. He took off the back leg of the piano and suspended it in the stair well with iron hooks. When you walk down the stairs under the playroom, you have to watch your head, or you might hit it on the piano! This room also features a gallery seating (not pictured) This was where the children would either seat their guests for the plays that they created, or they would make it their stage and the audience would watch from the main floor.

The dining room used to be their kitchen, but Frank expanded it. It features indirect lighting above the table, use of organic and geometric shapes that are echoes in the table and the lighting above the table, which is exactly the same size as the table below. He made use of built in furniture and built in bookshelfs and closets. He didn't like taking up his precious floor space. He designed all the furniture for the house as well.

The studio is amazing. He had his own private office and waiting room for his clients, the studio was full of old plans. The studio has rotating octagons all throughout the structure, and the final layer is actually suspended by iron chains. As in the second floor gallery is just hanging there. Pretty cool. The library served as his office to meet with clients and to showcase his plans. This also had a series of smaller octagons throughout the room from floor to ceiling. High windows and skylight let the sunlight in. The room was virtually sound proof. Frank didn't like his clients to be distracted from his speaking by sounds from the outside.

It was pretty cool to walk in the place that he had been in for twenty years of his life. He wasn't such a great person, but his architecture is amazing. I can't imagine living on Oak Park under the shadow of his name. Living in Illinois, there's always going to be that shadow that is Frank Lloyd Wright, but especially in Oak Park, you can't get away from him. He designed more homes on the street that he lived, you can do an entire walking tour of his designs in Oak Park.