Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright had an amazing ability to make art out of ordinary objects and materials. He was inspired by nature & geometric patterns and tried to achieve simplicity, unity, and harmony in his designs.

He designed private residences and public buildings with every detail in mind. Landscape, structure, fireplaces, windows, furniture, lighting were all components of a unified environment.

Click on the small link to be taken to the Frank Lloyd Wright Wikipedia page.

Frank Lloyd Wright (born Frank Lincoln Wright, June 8, 1867 - April 9, 1959) 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 architecture. This philosophy was best exemplified by his design for Fallingwater (1935), which has been called "the best all-time work of American architecture". Wright was a leader of the Prairie School movement of architecture and developed the concept of the Usonian home, his unique vision for urban planning in the United States.

read the rest of the Wikipedia article

The Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust held it's 39th Annual Wright Plus Housewalk in Oak Park, Illinois on Saturday, May 18th. It was a chance for people to tour inside 9 private homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and his contemporaries as well as 3 landmark Wright buildings.

Frank Lloyd Wright:

Harry S. Adams House

Robert P. Parker House

Louisa and Harry Goodrich House

Wright Home and Studio

Unity Temple

Robie House

George O. Garnsey

T. S. Rattle Hosue

H.G. Fiddelke

W. A. Rogers House

E. E. Roberts

Frank Keefer House

John S. Van Bergen

Flori Blondeel House #2

Leon Stanhope

Frank Long House

Wright Plus 2014 will be Saturday, May 17th.

For information head over to gowright.org.

Buffalo New York

FLW designed a boathouse for the University of Wisconsin in 1905. He felt it was one of his greatest designs but when the school didn't take on the project he never got to see it built.

Fast forward to 1997 when a few men from upstate New York, who came across the plans at a conference of Wright scholars, wanted to revive the project. Further work had to be done to make that happen. They enlisted the help of Anthony Puttnam from Taliesin Architects, an apprentice of Wright's, who took the sketches and worked out the final details so it could be built.

102 years after it was designed, on Friday, September 28th, 2007, Frank Lloyd Wright's vision became a reality. The project was completed and opened to the public in Buffalo, N.Y. on the Niagara River.

You can read about the project and check out a few videos at the wrightsboathouse.org website.

Frank Lloyd Wright built in 33 States of the US, most notably Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan.

The images above are (from left to right):

Susan Lawrence Dana House, Springfield, IL

Unity Temple, Oak Park, IL

Frederick C. Robie House, Chicago, IL

Taliesin, Spring Green, Wisconsin

Melvyn Maxwell Smith House, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

Arizona, California...and Japan

The images above are (from left to right):

Taliesin West, Scottsdale, Arizona

Arizona Biltmore Hotel, Phoenix Arizona

Hollyhock House, Los Angeles, California

Charles Ennis House, Los Angeles, California

Imperial Hotel, Inuyama City, Japan

There are a good number of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in Pennsylvania and New York

The images above are (from left to right):

Falling Water, Mill Run, Pennsylvania

Isaac Newton Hagan House, Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania

Beth Sholom Synagogue, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania

Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY

Darwin D. Martin House, Buffalo, NY

When I was in school for architecture one of my professors was Grattan Gill. He was an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright. Grattan is one of a small number of Wright's students from the 1950s still actively practicing architecture. He taught a class called Frank Lloyd Wright: A Life's Work. Who better to teach such a class than one who learned from FLW directly. Since I was in the class my uncle thought he should stock me up on books and videos about Mr. Wright and some of those are shown below.

The Zimmerman House was one of the homes that Grattan brought us to. We were in school in Rhode Island so two houses in Manchester, New Hampshire were the closest Frank Lloyd Wright buildings for us to visit. Unfortunately I can not find my photographs.

The other house was the Kalil House, a private residence that is not open to the public. We were able to go in since Grattan knew the owners. I'm very sad to say that I have no photos to share.

Froebel Gifts

Frank Lloyd Wright was introduced to Froebel Gifts when his mother bought a set for him at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. They were developed by Friedrich Froebel in the 1830s to help children learn about geometric form and design. Wright was fascinated by them and much of his work as an adult was influenced by the geometric shapes he experimented with as a child.

The Froebel Gifts 2-6

Hands-on learning that will provide years of enriching play.

Ages 3 and up.

Froebel Gift 2 - Cylinder, Sphere, Cube, Hanging Apparatus

Froebel Gift 3 - 2 Inch Cube

Froebel Gift 4 - 2 inch cube

Froebel Gift 5 - 3 Inch Cube

Froebel Gift 6 - 3 Inch Cube

Taliesin West - Scottsdale, Arizona

Taliesin West was the Winter home, school, and studio of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Taliesin is a Welsh term meaning "shining brow". Taliesin West was literally built from the desert floor on the brow of a hill in the Sonoran Desert...

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