Re-Wright-Ing American Architecture

Re-Wright-ing American Architecture

Picture this: it’s the late-nineteenth century, squarely amidst the Victorian era. You want to be fashionable, so you look to the current styles in Europe. You want to buy art that’s en vogue, so you purchase a painting or a sculpture that’s European. You want your home to look stylish, so not only do you furnish it with Italian marble and French textiles, but even the design of the home itself is derived from the newest buildings in––you guessed it––Europe. Seems like a theme of sorts is appearing, right?

If we take ourselves back to this point in the American consciousness, we must consider that in the nineteenth century, the United States wasn’t necessarily new, but it also wasn’t the centuries-old country like many of the nations in Europe. At this particular point in time, we could possibly liken the United States to being in its teenage years, experimenting with its own individuality. By the time the turn of the century rolls around, we start seeing a surge in artists and cultural figures working to be the ones to create a uniquely American style. In the fine arts, we see artists like John Singer Sargent developing aesthetics that are not direct derivatives of European movements. And, of course, in architecture, we have arguably the most well-known architect emerge with his own ideas for American individualism: Frank Lloyd Wright.

According to his autobiography, Wright was apparently born to be an architect; when his mother learned she was expecting, she announced that he would, “grow up to build beautiful buildings” and she subsequently decorated his nursery with engravings of English cathedrals to inspire him right from the start. He was eager to get his career started, to say the least, and left his studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison behind after only two years. From there, Wright headed to the great city of Chicago, whose devastating fire a decade earlier created a strong need for architects and builders to replace what had been lost.

Upon his arrival, Wright bounced from drafting job to drafting job before getting hired by the firm Adler and Sullivan. Although their bread and butter were commercial projects, for their best clients, Adler and Sullivan did design residential buildings, and Wright, being the apprentice, assisted in their design. At some point in his tenure with this firm, good ole Frank started “bootlegging” home designs; he took commissions independently for home designs—a breach of his contract with Adler and Sullivan, I may add. With these bootleg commissions, Wright flew a bit too close to the sun, and he was discovered when one of Mr. Adler’s neighbors started sporting a new home that looked eerily similar to his subordinate’s design style. Accounts differ on what happened between the two when the bootlegging was discovered, but what we do know is that after this, Wright and Adler did not speak for twelve years.

Nathan G. Moore House in Oak Park, IL.

Fallingwater in Mill Run, PA.

By 1896, Wright established his own practice and was working with other young architects and designers; all of them drew inspiration from the new Arts and Crafts movement and the philosophies of Wright’s old mentor. This group was the root of what would eventually be known as the Prairie School of Architecture. Wright was taking residential commissions through this time, although not many of his clients were particularly enthusiastic about his new style. Through the rest of this decade, Wright was still designing conservatively, taking inspiration from Queen Anne and Edwardian styles hailing from Europe (but with his small twists, of course). He continued to develop his craft and push for a uniquely American style of architecture, even going so far as turning down a scholarship to study at L’École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

So, when did Prairie style actually come around? Just a few years after going solo, between 1900 and 1901, Wright designed four houses which are considered the first onset of the true Prairie style designs. Why “Prairie”? A critical aspect of Wright’s design ethos was to take inspiration from the landscape where the homes were built. Ultimately, this rejected the Greek and Roman classicism of European architectural styles because the nature of the midwestern United States was unique to this area alone. Prairie homes all have a few common elements, including an open floor plan, low-pitched roofs with overhanging eaves, strong horizontal lines, and a wide use of natural materials.
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For Frank Lloyd Wright, the uniquely American style of architecture we call Prairie solidified his legacy, and its tenets are something we see in design today. The Prairie School informed upon the Midcentury style, and it informed today’s fashionable open-concept design. In part thanks to Wright, American design sets itself apart on the world stage. On the subject of legacy, I leave you with this: Frank’s second son, John Lloyd Wright, arguably inspired countless more people to become architects than Frank himself with his little invention of...Lincoln Logs.

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by: Emma H. 

Emma works as the Marketing Manager at Studio21 Architects. For each of our newsletters, Emma conducts interviews, writes articles, and formats the pages to make sure they reflect the great design we value so strongly at this firm. She may not be an architect, but she certainly makes sure that our marketing materials have the same high-quality design that our architecture has!