Architecture in Chicago Illinois

Male: In Oak Park just outside Chicago in a neighborhood of Victorian homes, Illinois favorite son and architect Frank Lloyd Wright began his career.

Female: This is where he started his architectural practice he came to Chicago as a very young man and he was only 20 years old. And when he met his—what was to be his future wife Catherine, he came out Oak Park because he decided this would be a good place to live. It was very easy to get here from the city and he was just starting his career.

So they came out here and bought this land and he built the house first which was built in 1889. And in 1898 he added the studio where we’re standing in today and you can see from where we are right here. He wanted to be a very rich engaging place and there is beautiful art class on the ceiling. Beautiful bronze colored walls and everything about it has been very well thought out. And that is one of the things about Frank Lloyd Wright that is really unique. He thought about every element in the building, there was nothing that was left to chance and he was very creative about it and when you see the finished products starting in here in his home studio.

And then in his later buildings you will see how that really happened. He used this building, the home studio as an experimental laboratory. He was testing out his techniques and this is where he developed the prairie style of architecture for which is mostly commonly known. He was here for 20 years and we’ve restored this building to 1909.

Mr. Wright believed in breaking open the box. He wanted to have wide open spaces where people could come in and if you when you come in the front door of the home. You would see that you can see all the way through to what was originally the dining room with very wide doorways where the typical Victorian home would have a center hallway with square rooms off of it, so it is much more welcoming, it is much more open and as the precursor to a lot of things, people still do today.

Male: Examples of Wright’s early designs are sold throughout the historic Oak Park neighborhood.