Frank Lloyd Wright Home & Studio, Oak Park, Illinois

Frank Lloyd Wright Home & Studio
951 Chicago Avenue

This extraordinary building in Oak Park, Illinois was the Wright family residence from 1889 to 1909. Wright began the construction of this house in 1889 shortly after his marriage to Catherine Tobin, using $5,000 borrowed from Louis Sullivan. The Wright family - Frank and Catherine, and their six children - lived here while he developed his architectural practice, creating what became the "Prairie Style" of architecture.

West Face Detail

Originally, the room at the front of the house on the second floor served as his drafting room, until the completion of the Studio Annex in 1898. In 1895, Wright added the two story polygonal Bay on the south side. In the first floor of this Bay Wright built his inspired Dining Room, with the spectacular Dining Table & Chairs that perfectly express the spirit of the room, and of his style. The windows of the Dining Room Bay were later modified when the house to the south of the Wright Home was built, blocking the flow of light into the Bay. The same year, Wright also added a two story extension to the east side of the house (seen at the far left in the photo at right,) whose upstairs is the celebrated Children's Playroom. This room receives light from rows of art glass windows along both the north and south walls, and from the overhead skylight, creating and etherial effect, not to be missed!
North Face (Front) of the Home

Studio Annex

North Face (Front) of the Home The studio annex was completed in 1898, and is one of the most marvelous workspaces to be imagined! The reception area; the octagonal designed hanging lights in the drafting room; the presentation library; and much more.
Storks Greet Clients

Wright remodeled the main house into a rental unit in 1911, changing the layout significantly! A porch was added, and the main entrance was moved to the south side (unseen in the photgraphs here, as that now leads directly to the neighboring house.)
A major restoration program by the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust has returned the Wright Home and Studio to the way it was in 1909 -- the last time that the Wright family lived here. Today, Wright's Home & Studio is a historic house museum and a center for education on the works and ideas of Frank Lloyd Wright.

A brief description cannot capture the effects of picturing yourself living in this house as you walk through it. For the Wright connoisseur, you can see the early experimentation with many of his trademark designs in his own living spaces, before sharing them with clients.
The Wright Home & Studio received two stars in the 1996 Michelin Guide to Chicago. Having seen many three star distinations in Europe, this is is a very conservative rating for anyone with an interest in the development of Architecture in America. One hundred thousand visitors a year (and an additional fifty thousand web visitors a year) agree, Wright's Home & Studio is a must see!