FLLW

The height and massing of the home and its roof deck are uncommon for a Wright Prairie-style home, which usually emphasizes the horizontal over the vertical. Early in his career, Wright designed a number of Prairie-style houses in Glencoe, which has the third-largest collection of Wright-designed structures in the world. Much of the credit for this is due to his lawyer, Sherman Booth, and his wife, Elizabeth.In 1911, Sherman, who was also a conservationist and founding commissioner of the Glencoe Park District, and Elizabeth, a prominent suffragette instrumental in Illinois granting women the right to vote for president of the United States, tasked the architect with designing the estate. The idea was that the 15 acres surrounding the structures could serve as a nature preserve. Wright created plans for a large estate house and other structures in 1911, while his friend, iconic landscape architect Jens Jensen, worked on the landscape plans. The stable-garage and a caretakers cottage were completed in 1912. A summer cottage that would serve as housing for the family during construction of the large house was completed in 1913. It has since been moved to another site in town.A Change in PlansThat large house is another story in itself. Alas, it was never built. In Wright’s office’s renderings, you can see that the site planning is almost as dramatic as Fallingwater’s and that there are architectural moves echoing Taliesin. Financial setbacks for the Booths caused them to scale back on their dreams for the property. In 1915, they had the land subdivided into a neighborhood, Ravine Bluffs. Wright designed additional houses for the neighborhood that were much more modest than the Booths’ home, as well as sculptural street markers, a train station and a bridge that crosses the neighborhood’s namesake ravine. Five of these homes were built. Meanwhile, Jensen designed the landscape for the subdivision.The Booths’ belt-tightening resulted in new plans for the house as well. They scrapped the design for the large home that emphasized long horizontal lines perched right up next to and over the ravine. Instead, Wright created a home that related to the ravine via the vertical. He connected the existing caretakers cottage and the stable-garage with a tall central core in the middle to serve as their home. The main core is three stories, and the porch that leads out to the roof deck is the fourth story. The roof deck’s purpose: to look out over the trees to the ravine.

Frank Lloyd wright home Glenco Illinois 1912

Frank Lloyd wright. What can one say!

垂直よりも水平方向を強調するライトのプレーリー住宅としては、この家の高さとマッシングや、屋上デッキがあることは珍しい。 ライトはキャリアの初期に、グレンコーで複数のプレーリー住宅を設計しており、グレンコーはライトが手掛けた建築が世界で3番目に多い町となっている。その大きな要因が、ライトの弁護士だったシャーマン・ブースとその妻エリザベスの存在だ。