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Saturday, December 3, 2011

Frank Lloyd Wright

I have a bit of a thing for Frank Lloyd Wright. Not the man himself (he was quite a crazy man and beyond egotistical, but then again aren't most architects?), but his architecture. I blame my father for this, not that it's a bad thing, because he too loves Frank Lloyd Wright.

In fact, in the 20 years that I lived in my childhood home, my dad rehabbed nearly the entire house from top to bottom with an arts and crafts flavored style-- simple designs and lines, wood built-ins, stained glass light fixtures in the arts and crafts style. And when my parents moved, I was crushed. Not only because it was my childhood home, but because the house was beautiful and I worried that the next person to buy it would change it all. So what did my dad do with their new house? Began the process over again, naturally.

Maybe it's cliche to say that Frank Lloyd Wright is your favorite architect, but I'm ok with that. And just as it happens, Andrew (who is an architect himself) claims Wright as his favorite as well. In fact, in the process of redoing small parts of our row house in Baltimore, we've toyed with adding little Wright-esque features here and there. The most recent being our staircase. The stairs have been completed, but our banister remains unfinished with an architectural debate at hand. We'd love to take it out and install something like this:
But wouldn't that stray from the more traditional style that these Baltimore row houses are supposed to maintain? Maybe it's a deliberation of a nerdy architect sort, but at the same time shouldn't a house be stylistically the same throughout, rather than a bit of this and that throughout? Such a tough decision.

Needless to say, during our time in Indiana this past Thanksgiving weekend, we spent a morning in Oak Park, outside of Chicago, at Frank's home and studio. While we weren't able to take photos inside, I got some shots of his home and studio exterior as well as some of the other homes he designed in the neighborhood.


















While I love most of what Wright designed, I must say that my favorite are the Usonian homes with the cantilevered roof lines and balconies, similar to the characteristics seen in Fallingwater.



Do you see a trend here? We tend to include architectural visits in our travels. Maybe one days if I get rich, I can buy a Frank Lloyd Wright home, but somehow I'd guess that I'm more likely to own a home designed by Andrew. At $875,000 a pop, buying a Wright home is no small investment!

6 comments:

  1. i love Wright so much, my hubs and I actually got married in one of his buildings in Phoenix. We were down to two location options, and they were both frank lloyd wright. I would love to visit falling water, it's always been a dream of mine to go! The staircase you posted is just gorgeous, how amazing if you could get that in your home!

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  2. We love the arts and crafts style. That is kind of what we're going for as we redo our house, mixed with a cottage feel as well. I love all of the wood and the straight lines, like what you show on that staircase. I think I like that green house the best of them.

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  3. I, too, love Frank Lloyd Wright & anything arts & crafts. We're actually styling our front stairs after a Greene & Greene stairway.
    Did you know that one of Wright's Usonian houses is in South Bend?

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  4. Frank is my all-time favorite. We have a few pieces of arts and crafts furniture, and when we move out of this blasted condo, we'll re-do a house to have a few architectural details to reflect that. A staircase would be a good option! I think you should do it. :-)

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  5. I'm a huge Frank fan. I studied his work in college & have always been in love with his style. I would die to see the Robie house someday. My bf is from Chicago & there are a lot of Frank Lloyd Wright houses out there, so hopefully someday soon when we make another trip out to see his family, I can sneak in a few houses :)

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  6. These are wonderful photos! Thank you so much for sharing them. The style never looks dated to me.

    Visiting from EtsyGreetings :-).

    Empty On the Inside
    Dough, Dirt & Dye

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