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Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years.
- Overview
- Early life
- The early Chicago years
As an infant, Frank Lloyd Wright moved to Iowa in 1869 with his family before living in Rhode Island and Massachusetts and eventually moving back to his mother’s home state of Wisconsin. He attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1885–86, but as there were no architecture courses, he took engineering courses.
What is Frank Lloyd Wright best known for?
Frank Lloyd Wright was a great originator and a highly productive architect. He designed some 800 buildings, of which 380 were actually built. UNESCO designated eight of them—including Fallingwater, the Guggenheim Museum, and Unity Temple—as World Heritage sites in 2019. He is known as chief practitioner of the Prairie school of architecture.
How did Frank Lloyd Wright become famous?
Frank Lloyd Wright became famous as the creator and expounder of “organic architecture”—his phrase indicating buildings that harmonize with their inhabitants and their environment. The boldness and fertility of his invention and his command of space are probably his greatest achievements. Throughout his career, Wright emphasized ornamental detail, earthy colours, and rich textural effects.
Frank Lloyd Wright (born June 8, 1867, Richland Center, Wisconsin, U.S.—died April 9, 1959, Phoenix, Arizona) architect and writer, an abundantly creative master of American architecture. His “Prairie style” became the basis of 20th-century residential design in the United States.
Wright’s mother, Anna Lloyd-Jones, was a schoolteacher, aged 24, when she married a widower, William C. Wright, an itinerant 41-year-old musician and preacher. (There is uncertainty over whether Frank was given the middle name Lincoln at birth. However, he later adopted Lloyd as his middle name.) The Wrights moved with their infant son to Iowa in 1...
Wright left Madison early in 1887 for Chicago, where he found employment with J.L. Silsbee, doing architectural detailing. Silsbee, a magnificent sketcher, inspired Wright to achieve a mastery of ductile line and telling accent. In time Wright found more rewarding work in the important architectural firm of Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan. Wright soon became chief assistant to Sullivan, and in June 1889 he married Catherine Tobin. He worked under Sullivan until 1893, at which time he opened his own architectural practice. His family grew to six children, while his firm grew until as many as 10 assistants were employed.
The first work from the new office, a house for W.H. Winslow, was sensational and skillful enough to attract the attention of the most influential architect in Chicago, Daniel Burnham, who offered to subsidize Wright for several years if Wright would study in Europe to become the principal designer in Burnham’s firm. It was a solid compliment, but Wright refused, and this difficult decision strengthened his determination to search for a new and appropriate Midwestern architecture.
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Artists, Painters, & Architects
Other young architects were searching in the same way; this trend became known as the “Prairie school” of architecture. By 1900 Prairie architecture was mature, and Frank Lloyd Wright, 33 years old and mainly self-taught, was its chief practitioner. The Prairie school was soon widely recognized for its radical approach to building modern homes. Utilizing mass-produced materials and equipment, mostly developed for commercial buildings, the Prairie architects discarded elaborate compartmentalization and detailing for bold, plain walls, roomy family living areas, and perimeter heating below broad glazed areas. Comfort, convenience, and spaciousness were economically achieved. Wright alone built about 50 Prairie houses from 1900 to 1910. The typical Wright-designed residence from this period displayed a wide, low roof over continuous window bands that turned corners, defying the conventional boxlike structure of most houses, and the house’s main rooms flowed together in an uninterrupted space.
During this period Wright lectured repeatedly; his most famous talk, The Art and Craft of the Machine, was first printed in 1901. His works were featured in local exhibitions from 1894 through 1902. In that year he built the home of the W.W. Willitses, the first masterwork of the Prairie school. In 1905 he traveled to Japan.
Jan 23, 2024 · Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect known for his significant contributions to modern architecture. He was born on Saturday, June 8, 1867, in Richland Center, Wisconsin, United States (U.S.). Wright received his education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison but left college before completing his degree.
Apr 2, 2014 · Who Was Frank Lloyd Wright? Frank Lloyd Wright was an architect and writer whose distinct style helped him become one of the biggest forces in American architecture.
Dec 2, 2019 · Dr. Jackie Craven has over 20 years of experience writing about architecture and the arts. She is the author of two books on home decor and sustainable design. Frank Lloyd Wright (born June 8, 1867 in Richland Center, Wisconsin) has been called America's most famous architect.
- Jackie Craven
The next year, 1914, while Wright was in Chicago working on Midway Gardens, an insane servant set fire to the living quarters of Taliesin, killing Mamah Cheney, her two children, and four others. Although stunned by the tragedy, Wright began immediately to rebuild Taliesin.
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Apr 1, 1977 · In a volume that continues to resonate more than seventy years after its initial publication, Frank Lloyd An Autobiography contains the master architect's own account of his work, his philosophy, and his personal life, written with his signature wit and charm.
