“What is architecture anyway “What is architecture anyway? Is it the vast collection of the various buildings which have been built to please the varying taste of the various lords of mankind? I think not. No, I know that architecture is life; or at least it is life itself taking form and therefore it is the truest record of life as it was lived in the world yesterday, as it is lived today or ever will be lived. So architecture I know to be a Great Spirit….Architecture is that great living creative spirit which from generation to generation, from age to age, proceeds, persists, creates, according to the nature of man, and his circumstances as they change. That is really architecture.” 1867-1959

Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer, educator, and philosopher who lived from 1867 to 1959. Already well-known during his lifetime, Wright was recognized in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects as “the greatest American architect of all time”

Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer, educator, and philosopher who lived from 1867 to 1959. Already well-known during his lifetime, Wright was recognized in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects as “the greatest American architect of all time” Architect: someone who creates plans to be used in making something (usually a building)

Wright was born on June 8, 1867. He started his formal education in 1885 at the University of Wisconsin School for Engineering. In 1887 he stopped his education without taking a degree and moved to Chicago, where he was consecutively a part of two architectural firms. In 1893 he started his own architectural practice. Wright designed more than 1,000 projects, which resulted in more than 500 completed works.

When Wright was nine, his mother gave him a set of Froebel blocks, a children's learning toy. Through the blocks, Wright learned to use geometry to create flat designs on paper and to build designs with blocks. As he got older, he started to see geometric shapes in everything around him.

Frank Lloyd Wright is considered the most influential American architect of the 20th century. His legacy is an architectural style that departed from European influences to create a purely American form, one that included the idea that buildings can be in harmony with the natural environment. He blended ancient architectural elements, such as columns, with new construction technologies, such as reinforced concrete, to create his buildings. Over his long career Wright designed a wide variety of structures, both public and private, including the home known as Fallingwater, the Johnson Wax Building and New York's Guggenheim Museum.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio at 951 Chicago Avenue in Oak Park, Illinois, served as Wright's private residence and workplace from 1889 to 1909— the first 20 years of his career. Here he raised six children with his first wife, Catherine Tobin. Wright used his home as an architectural laboratory, experimenting with design concepts that contain the basis of his architectural philosophy.  

and declared a National Historic Landmark four years later. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and declared a National Historic Landmark four years later.

In 1898, Wright added a studio, described by a fellow architect as a workplace with "inspiration everywhere." In the Studio, Wright and his associates developed a new American architecture: the Prairie Style, and designed 125 structures, including such famous buildings as the Robie House, the Larkin Building and Unity Temple.

Between 1901 and 1911 Wright worked on a series of suburban houses called "Prairie Houses". These houses were low buildings with shallow roofs and often with an open interior plan. Many of the design elements found in these structures can be seen in modern suburban houses.

5757 South Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago The Robie House 5757 South Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago

Wright practiced what is known as organic architecture, an architecture that evolves naturally out of the context, most importantly for him the relationship between the site and the building. Wright’s creations took his concern with organic architecture down to the smallest details. Wright believed that design and art should be an integral part of our lives.

What can be considered Wright's most famous building, Fallingwater, was constructed from 1935 to 1939. In this house he took advantage of reinforced concrete to create a flowing, cantilevered design. His goal with the design was to put the inhabitants of the house in as close contact with nature as possible. A stream flows right through the structure and is accessible from within the house. Other houses have been built alongside nature, but this one is truly built into nature.

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“The visit to the waterfall in the woods stays with me and a domicile has taken shape in my mind to the music of the stream” Frank Lloyd Wright (to Edgar J. Kaufmann)

Another prominent building of Wright's is the Johnson Wax Headquarters Another prominent building of Wright's is the Johnson Wax Headquarters. This building started construction in 1936 and was designed at the same time as Fallingwater. Much like Fallingwater the structure took heavy advantage of the strength and versatility of reinforced concrete.

The interior columns were a unique reverse of what is typically seen with a wide, lily-pad top that narrows as it approaches the base. In a fairly radical move the building had very few exterior windows, instead relying on plastic tubing to bring in and diffuse outside light. The overall result was a style that had never before been seen.

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 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 The building rises as a warm beige spiral. Its interior is similar to the inside of a seashell. Its unique central geometry was meant to allow visitors to easily experience Guggenheim's collection of nonobjective geometric paintings by taking an elevator to the top level and then viewing artworks by walking down the slowly descending, central spiral ramp.

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.

Wright conceived virtually every detail of both the external design and the internal fixtures, including furniture, carpets, windows, doors, tables and chairs, light fittings and decorative elements. He evolved a new concept of interior space in architecture. Rejecting the existing view of rooms as single-function boxes, Wright created overlapping and interpenetrating rooms with shared spaces.

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.

The Meyer May House Grand Rapids, MI

Information compiled by Jean Blowers 2010