Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio
951 Chicago Avenue at Forest Avenue
Oak Park
Illinois
Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studio is not a
good place to visit if you are feeling past your prime: Wright designed and built this
house in his early twenties, as a wedding present. (For those of you now looking askance
at your spouse, further investigation into the personal biography of Wright is advisable.)
As with Wrights Robie house, excellent tours are offered that provide
interesting and well-researched information. The home and studio are known not so much for
their architectural prowess as for housing the family and office of Frank Lloyd Wright in
his early years. A disappointment is the loss, due to lightning, of the lovely mature tree
around which Wright built the connective hallway from home to studio, a poetic expression
of the intertwining of architecture and landscape that characterizes Wrights work. A
spindly young tree has been replanted in its place; the only reasonable course of action,
but ridiculous-looking until it matures.
The buildings were restored between 1976 and
1986 by the Restoration Committee of the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio Foundation.
Christy Rogers, 1998
How to visit
From downtown Chicago, take the Eisenhower
Expressway (290) west to Harlem Ave. (43) and exit north. Take Harlem to Chicago Ave., and
turn right on Chicago Avenue. No 951 is about 3 blocks along.
Oak Park is also accessible by Green Line train
and the Metra; call +1 312 836 7000 for information.
Driving from downtown Chicago to Oak Park is not
the most inspiring experience, but Oak Park is home of the Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie
School National Historic District, with over 25 Wright buildings in the area. Tours of the
Home and Studio and of the Historic District both begin at the Home & Studio
bookstore. Call +1 708 848 1976 for detailed information on guided and self-guided tours.
Another important Frank Lloyd Wright project in
the area is Unity Temple.
Books and other web
sites
Click the book titles to view and to order
direct from
A practical visitors' guide to thirty six
publicly accessible Frank Lloyd Wright sites, with a straightforward one or two page
description of each, with black and white photographs.
www.geocities.com/SoHo/1469
provides both its own Frank Lloyd Wright content and a set of links to other Frank Lloyd
Wright sites on the web.
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