See how Frank Lloyd Wright and others continue to influence home design of our time

My name is Bud Dietrich and I am an architect located in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. I am licensed to practice architecture in Illinois, Florida, New Jersey & Wisconsin and I am a certificate holder from the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB). Since 1996 I have worked from my home office and provide full architectural services exclusively to the single family residential market. My passion is to transform my clients' houses into their homes. I strive to have the "new" home accommodate my clients' lives without fighting them at every junction. I look to add curb appeal to encourage a beautiful streetscape. And I design any addition to look and feel like it has always been there. Our projects have won numerous design awards as well as having been featured on television...

My name is Bud Dietrich and I am an architect located in the Tampa Bay... More »

As the 19th century waned and the 20th century was dawning, a group of architects and designers in the Upper Midwest banded together to form the Prairie School. An entirely new approach to domestic design, the Prairie School featured a new language. Rooms made of four walls and small holes for windows were replaced with cantilevered roofs, floating planes, bands of windows and open corners to create spaces that would be all open and light and bright.

The most famous of the Prairie School architects, Frank Lloyd Wright, designed of such iconic houses as Robie, Willits, Coonley, Martin and more, Wright's designs served as the bases for the International Style and today's modernism. A line can be easily drawn from Wright to Mies to the best of today's modern aesthetic.

So in celebration of the Prairie School and the upcoming Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy conference, it's entirely appropriate that we take a look at this enduring style and see how it continues to influence domestic design in our time.

More: Visit Fallingwater, a Frank Lloyd Wright Masterpiece

Comments

myhouzzisyourhouzz says:

Live in the Huertley House Wright Historic District in Oak Park! Wright Home and Studio, and Unity Temple every day. Your examples are brilliant (again!). Love the contemporary adaptations. So elegant. Come visit OP!

8 months ago · Like

Denise Vilim says:

Very nice! The Definitive Prairie Style Ideabook!!

8 months ago · Like

mousemaker says:

grew up in an FLW inspired home. except, thank goodness, for the furniture. it's beautiful to look at, but terribly uncomfortable :) the extended overhangs are great when it's raining, although cranking open windows was never easy and they tended to collect spiders.
i always loved the open hearth fireplaces and the sandstone..

8 months ago · Like

judy1857 says:

They all look more like commercial buildings than homes.

8 months ago · Like

jkubik says:

Each year Wright Plus offers a remarkable house tour of many of the privately owned Wright designed homes in the Oak Park and River Forest, Illinois area.

For any fans of Wright's work, this home tour provides a remarkable opportunity to view the interiors of many private homes that are neighbors to his own Home and Studio (a National Trust for Historic Preservation property).

In several instances, the current owners have made sympathetic additions and/or renovations to expand the home or create a more modern kitchen or bath, while remaining consistent to the architect's vision.

The 2012 Tour will be offered June 2. It is always a Sell-Out.
http://gowright.org/wright-plus.html

And I am in no way affiliated with the sponsors! Just found the tour one of my favorite lifetime experiences.

8 months ago · Like

patscats2 says:

Those furnishings look so uncomfortable. Who can live in that?

8 months ago · Like

Brooke Knight says:

There are definately typical Arts and Crafts elements to these examples shared here! My husband and I have designed a "Arts and Crafts" design style home in Ontario on beautiful Lake of Bays! It's going to have plenty of stone, cedar shingles and horizontal Certainteed Cladding with "some" Arts and Crafts finishings on the inside but not too much...I think it can look too heavy. Transome windows are going to be implemented as well. There is nothing feminine about this style of build; instead incorporating all natural elements! I think the Arts and Crafts Home is like no other design and i love it!

8 months ago · Like

Bud Dietrich, AIA says:

How lucky you are "myhouzzisyourhouzz" to live in Oak Park. A really wonderful collection of Prairie School homes! And yes, jkubik, the annual Wright Plus home tour is great! I try to go every year but, alas, didn't get to it this year and, of course, the Huertley House was open! But I'm looking forward to next year, it's a become a springtime must. Patscats2, you'll love the anecdote that Wright even complained of the uncomfortable nature of his furniture. Oh well, I guess that sometimes form doesn't follow function. And thanks to everyone else for sharing their story about this style of home.

8 months ago · Like

Vel Criste says:

i so love this house!!! Haven't seen the falling water yet in person, but when I did the Oak Park and northside tour, this was just majestic - simple but beautiful. How I wish i could take a real peek inside!!!

8 months ago · Like

anub says:

I just LOVED the 11th Photo.........
Even the others are out of this world!!!
Oh, how i wish i have a house like that!!

4 months ago · Like

Getting it Wright: Today's Prairie Style

See how Frank Lloyd Wright and others continue to influence home design of our time

Comments

News From Our Partners