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Frank Lloyd Wright

FLW from https://flwright.org/researchexplore/wrightschicagoyears	A window from the Unity Temple.

Frank Lloyd Wright was an architect around the turn of the century, who has left many buildings in Chicago Illinois, as well as scattered about throughout the US. Frank not only designed buildings but also has a very distinctive style for stained glass windows and household furnishing. Think of art-deco merged with Japanese woodblock prints.

Note that starting in early April, 2020, virtual tours of FLW masterpieces are being offered every Thursday Noon during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Another link to the same material is here:

Dr. Hain's medical clinic in Chicago is furnished somewhat in the style of FLW.

If you visit Chicago, perhaps as part of a visit to see Dr. Hain in his clinic, you may also want to take in some of the more accessible FLW collections. As a general comment, most of these places are just houses with an admission ticket. We are not so sure that it is worth $20 per house. Sadly, there is no "Wright pass". I guess keeping all of those beautiful but structurally weak buildings in repair isn't cheap.

• Closest of all is the stained glass museum at Navy Pier. While it only has about 2-3 FLW stained glass windows, there are many other pieces of stained glass that are similar. This is roughly 6 blocks from the clinic. It is free.
• There is also a "Dreihaus" Museum which is pretty amazing, just a few blocks from the clinic. It is not FLW, but it does have quite a bit of similar stuff. It is not free.
• About 10 blocks away is the Architecture foundation store, roughly at the intersection of Michigan Avenue and the Chicago river. This one is free too. We are not impressed with this store.
• Also very accessible is the Robie House in Hyde Park (take a cab from clinic is best). This is a rather small house, but it has some very nice windows and a great gift shop. Not free.
• Roughly 10 miles away, in Oak park, is a large collection of FLW houses as well as his studio -- again a cab will probably be needed. I would say that this tour is a bit pricey.
• Riverside Illinois, roughly a mile south of Oak Park, has the Coonley house, which it thought by some to be FLW's best house. This house is awesome, but doesn't seem to have a tour.
• About 4 hours away is Spring Green Wisconsin, where FLW had the summer campus of his architecture school, Taliesin. There are other fun Wisconsin things to do around there as well, such as the House on the Rock. We would say best to make this an overnight 2 day excursion.
• There is a restaurant -- Fields steak house -- close by, designed by a protege of FLW, at the Wisconsin Dells (a good place to find water parks for those of you with small children).
• The AD German Warehouse is also in Wisconsin. I am doubtful that there is a tour -- looks like you just admire it from the outside.
• We have been told that the Johnson Wax building is very cool as well. This is in Racine Wisconsin. The tours here are free (amazing for Wright stuff).

Some pictures of FLW sites that Dr. Hain has visited as well as some comments about the tours is below.

• Biltmore resort in Phoenix -- you will definitely need a GPS to find this hotel. It is very well hidden.
• Frank Lloyd Wright home in Oak Park -- very nice and surrounded by many nifty FLW houses
• Marin county civic building -- very cool
• Unity Temple in Oak Park -- very nice but small. I am dubious that it is worth the admission charge. It also seems to me that people should generally not charge to visit a small church.
• Robie House (see above)

Some interesting history about FLW.

Frank Lloyd Wright was born in 1887 in Richland Center, Wisconsin. So in other words, Frank was a midwesterner. After college he became the chief assistant to architect Louis Sullivan in Chicago. He then founded his own firm, and developed a style known as the "Prairie School". He designed many structures in Chicago, but also designed a total of 33 buildings for Madison Wisconsin. Of those he designed only about half were built. The most common reason was that the architect and client parted ways. Wright's dropout rate was higher than average -- 47%. The usual architectural firm dropout rate is 30-35%.

I have talked with people whose relatives knew FLW. Generally speaking, their relatives did not have much good to say concerning his behavior.

In 1909 FLW abandoned his wife in Chicago and eloped to Europe with a client's wife, Mamah Borthwick Cheney. The couple returned to Wisconsin and built a home for his mistress. In 1914, A servant named Julian Carlton poured gasoline under a door, lit a fire, and stood outside the door with an axe. Carlton died without revealing his motivation for the rampage. Frank eventually got a divorce, and married twice again. More about this interesting story can be found here.

Acknowledgement

Dr. Hain is very grateful to several patients of his medical practice that share his enthusiasm for FLW, and send him literature about local buildings.