A postcard from Chicago: Oak Park
Frank Lloyd Wright
This is a house in Oak Park, just outside Chicago, one of several private homes in this neighbourhood designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. In my feature photo above you can clearly see the contrast between the clean horizontal lines of his Prairie style and the more traditional houses based on historical European styles of architecture.
Although it’s not possible to go inside, we did visit several houses and other buildings designed by Wright. Watch out for a future post on his ideas and work in the Chicago area!
45 Comments
Cat Lover
Excellent
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you
Jane Lurie
A women after my own heart, Sarah. My husband and I love FLW architecture and have been to the “Wright in May” house tours a few times when they open private homes up for viewing. What a treat. Hope you enjoyed the home and studio among others!
Sarah Wilkie
I did, and I’ll do a full post once I get all my photos sorted – also the Unity Chapel and Robie House 🙂
Wetravelhappy
How could I miss this post earlier. Lovely postcard Sarah! Hope you’re enjoying your time in there. 🙂
Sarah Wilkie
I’m home now (it was only a week’s visit) but yes, i enjoyed it very much thank you 🙂
Sylvia
I typically have an intense dislike for modern residential architecture, especially when it “disrupts” the character of a traditional neighborhood. But in the case of the home you feature here, the FLW house seems softened by the landscape in front of it. And, it is also quite a vintage design now which somehow makes it more acceptable in this neighborhood at this point in time.
For me, the jury is still out as to whether I admire Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture or not. Some years ago I visited Taliesin West in Arizona and ‘frankly’ and there were some aspects of it that I very much liked; however, on the whole I was disappointed. For me, even though it was located in the desert, the interior seemed too austere for my taste. But there were some decorative designs which had similarities to Art Deco that I liked!! So thank you for sharing!!
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you for your thoughts Sylvia. I’m planning to do a fuller post on the FLW tour we took. Like you I am very much drawn to the decorative details that echo Art Deco, but I also like the cleanness of his lines. Plus, the detailed information about his design principles that our guides shared helped me to understand and appreciate the buildings even more 🙂
Amy
Looking forward to view more from your series, Sarah! 🙂
Sarah Wilkie
I got home this morning and am battling jet lag while trying to sort through all the photos!
rkrontheroad
Interesting… I’m sure it’s an architectural work of art. But it does break up the character of the neighborhood. I like the small Victorians that are it’s neighbors. My old area of Denver is gentrifying in this way, and the modern buildings look out of place and change the feel of the street.
Sarah Wilkie
In some ways this house is part of the character of the neighbourhood as there are a number of Lloyd Wright houses on these streets – not side by side but dotted here and there. He lived here himself, with his family, and had a studio here.
grandmisadventures
I always love his style of simple lines and natural colors 🙂
Sarah Wilkie
I really liked the Unity Chapel and Robbie House for those reasons 😄
leightontravels
It’s quite the contrast, as you point out, between the traditional houses and Wright’s creation. Wonder what the neighbours thought. I imagine quite a few people did not like this development. I must say I’m partial to the two beauties next to it. It looks like a lovely green street. Have a great time in Chicago.
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks Leighton. It is a lovely area and with quite a few Wright houses among the more traditional ones. Currently at the airport, about to fly home!
thehungrytravellers.blog
Enjoy Chicago x
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you – I am!
kzmcb
I like the one on the left better. It’s what we see, in Australia, as typical American houses on tv.
Sarah Wilkie
Yes, I think a lit of us think of these as typically American, so it’s interesting that Wright wanted to move away from what he saw as an imported European aesthetic to develop one that would be uniquely American!
Marie
I wonder what the neighbours in the more traditional houses thought of it when it was being built! I love the setting and colours
Sarah Wilkie
I suspect more were horrified than were pleased, but opinion was probably divided just as it is today (including in the comments here!)
Anabel @ The Glasgow Gallivanter
I do like the look of FLW houses. We’ve only been to one, Pope-Leighey House in Alexandria, which looked great internally – till I imagined all the clutter of my every day life messing it up.
Sarah Wilkie
Ah yes, that’s the catch! We learned on the tour how he liked to dictate through his designs how a space would be used, with minimal free-standing furniture.
maristravels
What a lovely ‘clean’ shot helped by the FLW clean architectural lines. I think I may have visited this place on my last time in Chicago, nearly 20 years ago, but I was so tired by the last couple of days there that it all passed in the blur. I didn’t get that photo though, so perhaps not. We’d been to a wedding in New Orleans and 3 days of celebrations that all went long into the night so by the time we hit Chicago I was already exhausted but didn’t have the sense to take a few hours ot to recuperate. Story of my life!
Sarah Wilkie
Wow that sounds tiring! There are several Frank Lloyd Wright houses in that area so you could have seen this or a different one!
rosalieann37
I was in Chicago for work (the training center for OSHA was near there) and on one visit, my daughter came in for the weekend and we did a walking tour of Oak Park. We also did a boat tour of the downtown building architecture (in the rain) and we went to the Waterworks and the Science museum. On another trip, we ate at the Hamburger, Hamburger, Hamburger place and the lady I was with was annoyed that there were no vegetables. I don’t know where those photos are now – all film pictures in those days of course.
Sarah Wilkie
We didn’t boat tour too, yesterday 😃
Alison
Another wonderful shot, are you away in the US
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks Alison – yes, in Chicago for a Virtual Tourist meeting 😃
Sue
Will be interesting to see more!
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks Sue ☺️
Sue
So please post!
Sarah Wilkie
Will do soon after I get home hopefully!
Sue
No pressure!
margaret21
Oh, this could be an interesting series. Thanks for the postcard!
Sarah Wilkie
Glad you liked the card Margaret 😊
restlessjo
Your Header is a classic shot.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Jo – quite likely to reappear in a future Monday Walk!
Washe Koda
I was an electrician for 45 years and was fortunate enough to have done work on 3 of Frank Lloyd Writes buildings 🙂 thanks for sharing
Sarah Wilkie
How interesting that must have been!
Washe Koda
I got my journeyman license before I graduated High School in Minnesota ’72
satyam rastogi
Nice post
Washe Koda
cool 😎
Cat Lover
Pretty cool actually