Frank Lloyd Wright Tour of Oak Park (Cook County, Illinois)

 

I'm in Chicago, Illinois this weekend and for a while now, I've wanted to revisit Frank Lloyd Wright's Home and Studio in nearby Oak Park, as well as the nearby homes he designed. I toured this area about twenty years ago, but as a great admirer of the genius architect's works, I couldn't pass up a chance to tour this neighborhood once again.

Heading into the welcome area of his former Home and Studio, which once served as his garage, I check-in for my guided tour and browse the gift shop, while waiting for the tour guide to arrive. Right on time, our guide calls for my tour time and we reconvene in the courtyard just outside underneath the largest gingko tree I have ever seen. The tree is over a century hold and it's trunk is roughly three feet in diameter at the base. Broad limbs extend to provide a canopy over the courtyard and the yellow leaves and ripening fruit provide a blessing of autumn to the entire experience. 

After a few words from our tour guide, we walk around to the front of the structure while he provides numerous interesting details about the property, the structure, and Wright's time in Oak Park. With that, we enter the semi-concealed front entrance. Refusing to make the main entrance obvious to visitors was something of a trademark of Wright's, as he wanted to encourage visitors to explore the design of the structure, rather than just walk in and ignore the beauty in front of them.

Unlike most of his works, this house was torn up and redesigned many times over his time in Oak Park (1889-1909) while he honed his craft and developed his own style. It was also necessary to rebuild many sections of the house as his circumstances of employment, self-employment, and the addition of children to the family changed over the years. It's obvious though that he put a great amount of attention and detail into every aspect of his home. Wright practiced the concept of integrated design in which he not only designed the structure, but also the furniture and adornments. This allowed the experience to be whole and complete.

We continue through the rooms of the home and then into the studio where his draftsman worked to commit to paper the genius springing from his mind. A false memory pranked me here, as I somehow recall an entire conversation about a geodesic dome atop the studio from my last visit, but in talking with the guide and reviewing the history, I seem to have imagined that. There is however an entire pully system supporting the balcony above the draftsmens' work area. This was part of the memory, but I recalled it being more intricate and associated with the dome. Ah well, I guess that's what I have to look forward to as I get older and my mind deteriorates, lol.

Having completed the initial guided part of the tour, I return to the gift shop and sign-out the audio player, which will accompany me on my self-guided tour of the neighborhood, which includes several more homes designed by Wright. It's just a short walk, but with each design, one can see his style evolving until finally, he perfects what will become known as the prairie style of architecture.

   

Each home a masterpiece in its own right, the desires and designs of the client obviously played a role in the building's final form, but these take a back seat to Wright's genius. He considers all aspects of the home and how it becomes part of the area around it. Not one to contrast with nature, Wright often incorporates aspects of it into the design. The most famous example of this being Falling Water in western Pennsylvania, where a natural waterfall actually flows through the home. While there is nothing that extreme in these early designs, you can still see the roots of these concepts in his choice of materials and colors.

 

     

After the short walk of about 0.9 miles, I return to the audio player to the gift shop and call for an Uber to get me to the airport. As I sit nearby waiting for my ride, I can't help but to mentally explore the patterns and geometry of the structural works of art I have just visited. Wright was at least a century ahead of his time and while his personal life may have been less than storybook, the genius he shared with the world will forever remain the stuff of legend.