FRANK LLYOD WRIGHT

AND THE MYTH OF THE PRARIE (1890-1916)

PRAIRIE SCHOOL:

Prairie school was a late 19th and early 20th century architectural style, most common to
the Midwestern United States. The term "Prairie School" was not actually used by these
architects to describe themselves; the term was coined by H. Allen Brooks, one of the first
architectural historians to write extensively about these architects and their work.

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES:

1. Horizontal lines,
2. Flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves,

3. Windows grouped in horizontal bands,

4. Integration with the landscape,

5. Solid construction,

6. Craftsmanship, and

7. Discipline in the use of ornament.

8. Horizontal lines were thought to evoke and relate to the native prairie landscape.

EXAMPLES:

1. Oak Park, Illinois

2. Robie House,

3. Willits house

4. Bradley House

5. Winslow house

 FORMATIVE PERIOD(1890’s)
 F.L,Wright spent his formative period (early 1890’s) with Adler and Sullivan

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  “The transformation of industrial techniques through art”-this exotic vision was what
inspired his early career.
 Yet what form this vision would take was not very clear
 Like his master he oscillated between the authority of the classical order and the vitality
of the asymmetrical form
 Issues of monumentality seems to have been problematic for both Sullivan and Wright
 The initial solution was the doubly articulated formula of:
1. The classical land stone-for urban
2. Gothic- for the rural

 1890
 After 1890, Wright was virtually in charge of Sullivan’s domestic work
 For Sullivan and Wright, the young egalitarian culture of the new world could not be based
on something so ponderous
 Hence they turned towards the more exotic places like India, China ,Egyptian and the
Assyrian origins(sources which were all removed from the west)

 WINSLOW HOUSE1893-1908

o Built at river Forest, Illinois

o 1893
o In the Winslow house the problem of evolving an egalitarian but appropriate
format was provisionally resolved by providing 2 distinctively different
aspects
o The street or the urban façade-being symmetrical and entered on an axis
o Rural or garden façade being asymmetrical and entered on one side
o This anticipates the planning strategy of Wright’s Prairie style” in which
irregular distortions to the rear of the formal façade conveniently
accommodate awkward ingredients such as the service elements
o Winslow house was a transitional work.
o It is clearly confirmed by the mixed fenestrations, part sash and part
casement
o The low hipped Prairie roof appears for the first time.
o The animation of surfaces with Sullivan esque bands of ornament and string
courses testifies to the continued influence of Wright’s master.

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o The early emphasis on fireplace testifies to another more critical influences,

that of
Japanese architecture

o
o Wm Winslow House,  River Forest, IL, 1893

o A. Heurtley House,
Oak Park, IL, 1902

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o
o Ward Willetts House,
Highland Park, IL, 1900-02
o