Frank Lloyd Wright
By Paul Butterfoss

"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 architecture" -
Frank Lloyd Wright, 1937


     Frank Lloyd Wright (born Frank Lincoln Wright in Richland Center, Wisconsin on
June 8, 1867) is widely regarded as one of the greatest architectural geniuses
of all time.  His innovative designs, based on naturally occurring formations
(termed by Wright himself as organic architecture) strongly differed from those
of traditional European styles and influenced the evolution of Western
architecture.  His architectural career lasted more than seven decades and was
unrivaled in output.  Throughout his life, he designed thousands of buildings
and houses, of which nearly 500 were actually constructed.  While most of his
designs were single-family homes (ranging from small homes for middle-class
families, to huge mansions like his unbuilt design for Henry Ford), he also
proposed blueprints for various other structures, including houses of worship,
skyscrapers, resorts, museums, government offices, gas stations, bridges and
other masterpieces.
     However, Wright did not simply focus on the exterior of his buildings.  He also
actively pursued the field of interior decorating, going beyond the building
itself to the finest details of the interior living space, including glass,
art, furniture and other aspects of interior design.  In addition, he wrote
numerous books on architectural design and founded and managed a successful
school in the field, training many future architects.
     After spending a short time at the University of Wisconsin studying civil
engineering, Wright moved to Chicago and worked for a year in the architectural
firm of J. Lyman Silsbee.  Afterwards, he was hired as a draftsman in the firm
of Adler and Sullivan, a practice on the leading edge of American architecture.  He
was assigned the job of chief draftsman of Chicago's Auditorium Building,
as well as supervisor of the firm's residential designs.
     Under Adler and Sullivan, Wright began illegally designing and building his own
residential homes while developing his unique architectural style.  His style
differed heavily from that of Adler and Sullivan's.  Wright's designs were
centered on massive brick or stone fireplaces, and his rooms were much more
open to one another.  His overall designs were much more asymmetrical with low
sweeping rooflines and walls of uninterrupted windows.  These stolen or
"bootlegged" houses caused him to be fired from his position at Adler and
Sullivan, so Wright simply started his own firm in 1893.  In the next eight
years, 49 of his buildings were constructed and during this period he began
developing the ideas that would later be called his "Prairie House" style. 
These homes were much like those he designed while working for Adler and
Sullivan, low ground-hugging houses with spacious interiors and terraces
leading out into nature.
     In contrast to the spaciousness of these prairie houses, Wright's urban
buildings which he began building in the early 1900s tended to be walled in. 
However, they still preserved their organic nature.  Wright built his
skyscrapers almost in the same way that trees were "built."  His urban edifices
had a central "trunk" deeply rooted in the ground and floors that spread from
that trunk, like branches.  In keeping with the natural style, these buildings
would be illuminated with natural light through skylights above.  Some of his
finest buildings of this type were the Larkin Company Administration Building
(1904; demolished 1950) in Buffalo, New York, and the Unity Church in Oak Park,
Illinois.
     During the next thirty years of his life, Wright suffered through much change
and personal turmoil.  Few commissions were completed during these three
decades.  However, the post-World War II time period saw a rejuvenation of
Wright's creative spirit.  In the last 15 years of his life, he received over
270 house commissions, and designed and built the Price Tower skyscraper in
Bartlesville, Oklahoma, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, New York, and the
Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, California.  Wright never retired and
continued working until he died on April 9, 1959 in Arizona at the age of
ninety-two.
     Frank Lloyd Wright is considered by many to have been the most influential
figure of Western architecture in the first half of the 20th century.   In
almost every residential home built today, a small portion of his designs can
be found (Wright is credited with developing the living room, carport, and the
open floor-plan).  His unique ideas regarding architectural and interior space,
decoration, and relationship to site, and his views concerning the place of
architecture in art, philosophy and life have inspired generations of architects
and artists all over the world.