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Frank Lloyd Wright’s first home

architecturaldigest.com

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Re: Frank Lloyd Wright’s first home

#21

Post by TremendousJudge »

allknowingfrog wrote: post #16
twright wrote: post #4

It never ceases to amaze me how Wright's style was so ahead of the times. A lot of people immediately think the houses are mid-50's but they're in fact 20 to 30 years earlier! If you happen to be driving through somewhere near one of the houses that are under conservancy[1] they are well worth a stop. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Frank_Lloyd_Wright_wor...

Isn't Wright sort of famous for designing structures that leak when it rains? My understanding is that Falling Water House is a beautiful money pit.

well, it's often said that all good architecture leaks [0]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0j0d2ymixY

Re: Frank Lloyd Wright’s first home

#22

Post by notahacker »

burkaman wrote: post #5

I know houses used to be cheaper but I was still struggling to understand how a 22-year-old from what doesn't sound like a very rich family could have afforded this. His foundation website says "he negotiated a five-year contract with Sullivan in exchange for the loan of the necessary money" and then "it was not long before escalating expenses tempted him into accepting independent residential commissions". I guess y…

22 year olds lucky or gifted enough to be able to borrow 10x the national average earnings from a boss paying them a high enough salary to expect repayment within five years would to be able to think about buying a small house in an outer suburb of most cities today if that was their priority. Especially if they took on extra contract work.

Obviously most 22 year olds in 1890 didn't earn a few times the national average salary. At the beginning of the twentieth century 81% of households were rented, and most of those were not nearly as nice as Frank Lloyd Wright's first home, which was not nearly as nice as it is today after decades of extensions.

Re: Frank Lloyd Wright’s first home

#23

Post by burkaman »

Aurornis wrote: post #17
burkaman wrote: post #5

I know houses used to be cheaper but I was still struggling to understand how a 22-year-old from what doesn't sound like a very rich family could have afforded this. His foundation website says "he negotiated a five-year contract with Sullivan in exchange for the loan of the necessary money" and then "it was not long before escalating expenses tempted him into accepting independent residential commissions". I guess y…

The house you see in the photos is the result of years of additions and expansions, funded by his success as a world-class architect. The original construction was much more modest in size.

Thanks I guess I should have realized that, now it seems less insane.

Re: Frank Lloyd Wright’s first home

#24

Post by Aurornis »

burkaman wrote: post #23
Aurornis wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The house you see in the photos is the result of years of additions and expansions, funded by his success as a world-class architect. The original construction was much more modest in size.

Thanks I guess I should have realized that, now it seems less insane.

I’m sure the original home was amazing for its size, given who was driving the construction.

Re: Frank Lloyd Wright’s first home

#25

Post by jameshart »

Zigurd wrote: post #15

I grew up in Oak Park and I've been in the home and studio several times. It's a remarkably homey home, in contrast with Wright's reputation for art over practicality. It's also what you'd expect from a tech nerd's work at home home: it has a whole house audio system in the form of a player piano built into a central stairway.

The homes architects build for themselves are fascinating studies. Walter Gropius’s house in Lincoln, Massachusetts is similarly human in scale with incredible attention to detail.

Like the Frank Lloyd Wright house in Oak Park there’s something a little underwhelming about them at first to a modern sensibility - they feel like spaces you are familiar with from modern houses (albeit often realized with greater skill than is typical - both houses make incredible use of their window perspectives for example). But then you need to recognize how far ahead of their time they were; Gropius’s aesthetic was his invention; that you can replicate it in your own home out of an ikea catalog today is because of him.

Re: Frank Lloyd Wright’s first home

#26

Post by shooker435 »

> Wright left Oak Park and separated from Tobin Wright in 1909. Before leaving, he divided the studio and the home, allowing Tobin Wright and the children to live in the studio wing and rent out the house for income. Wright sold the property in 1925 and later owners divided the building into six units and neglected to preserve the historically significant property.

This is a really generous interpretation of what happened... He ran off to Europe with one of their neighbors, and his ex-wife (not divorced yet, though!) was left high and dry with no money and was forced to turn the studio into apartments for income.

Re: Frank Lloyd Wright’s first home

#27

Post by frantathefranta »

shooker435 wrote: post #26

> Wright left Oak Park and separated from Tobin Wright in 1909. Before leaving, he divided the studio and the home, allowing Tobin Wright and the children to live in the studio wing and rent out the house for income. Wright sold the property in 1925 and later owners divided the building into six units and neglected to preserve the historically significant property. This is a really generous interpretation of what hap…

FLW almost always gets very generous interpretations of his intentions. I've been to 5 of his houses (including this one) and I've not heard anything negative about him on the tours. I say this as someone who likes his houses a lot (and considers themselves as someone who's gotten over the "FLW is overrated" hump).

Re: Frank Lloyd Wright’s first home

#28

Post by frantathefranta »

twright wrote: post #4

It never ceases to amaze me how Wright's style was so ahead of the times. A lot of people immediately think the houses are mid-50's but they're in fact 20 to 30 years earlier! If you happen to be driving through somewhere near one of the houses that are under conservancy[1] they are well worth a stop. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Frank_Lloyd_Wright_wor...

It's really amusing when you tour something like Casa Loma[0] in Toronto (a gothic revival house) and then compare it to the Darwin Martin house[1] in Buffalo, which was built basically 10 years before. I can't imagine visiting a FLW house in the early 1900s and then building a super kitschy castle.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_Loma

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_D._Martin_House

Re: Frank Lloyd Wright’s first home

#30

Post by leoc »

twright wrote: post #4

It never ceases to amaze me how Wright's style was so ahead of the times. A lot of people immediately think the houses are mid-50's but they're in fact 20 to 30 years earlier! If you happen to be driving through somewhere near one of the houses that are under conservancy[1] they are well worth a stop. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Frank_Lloyd_Wright_wor...

Things like the Dessau Bauhaus and the German Pavilion in Barcelona were built in the 1920s. Post-war Modernism was a bit of a second wind.
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