Frank Lloyd Wright: A Brief Biography and His Works

This paper provides a brief literature of Frank Lloyd Wright, his birthplace, time in history, family background and also attempts to explain how his early childhood contributed in nurturing his prowess for the architectural world. It covers his early life and education, young career developer, works in the architectural world and lastly examples of his works highlighted in brief. Learn about his contributions to the Prairie School movement and his famous designs such as Falling Water and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Architectural History 1
Frank Lloyd Wright
by Student’s Name
Code + Course Name
Professor’s Name
University Name
City, State
Date

Architectural History 2
Introduction
Just like any other child, the American architect Frank Lioyd Wright traces his biography back in
the 1860s. this paper therein provides a brief literature of Frank Lioyd Wright, his birthplace,
time in history, family background and also attempts to explain how his early childhood
contributed in nurturing his prowess for the architectural world. Therefore, it is divided into
different sections. For instance, early life and education, young career developer, works in the
architectural world and lastly examples of his works highlighted in brief1.
Early Life and Education
Frank Lloyd Wright was born by an American Frank Lincoln who lived in the 1800s. the father
came from a small town with peasant farming as their primary mode of production. The town
was known as Richland Center, Wisconsin, in the United States of America. Frank was born in
the year 18672. After he was born, Frank’s father barely lived for 37 years when he passed away
in 1904 at the age of 79 years. Frank’s father William was a great orator and this inspired a lot in
the young Wright who still had a deep quest for education. Besides being an orator, his father
was also a music teacher, a lawyer though he never practiced it much and also a minister. The
mother Anna, however, was a classroom teacher. History has demonstrated that the artistic taste
Frank Lioyd had was inherited from his parents who were described to have strong will for
artistic works.
1 Heinz, T.A., 2016. The Vision of Frank Lloyd Wright: A Complete Guide to the Designs of an Architectural
Genius. Chartwell Books.
2 Mumford, L., 2016. The culture of cities (Vol. 19). Open Road Media.

Architectural History 3
When Frank became of age, he was motivated by some of the stories he was told, for instance,
his mother had made a declaration that the first born they would have would grow to be an
architect to build beautiful buildings. Sooner after his birth, he got to learn of the works of
Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel. The exhibits from Friedrich formed the basis of Frank’s
kindergarten curriculum3.
In his teenage life, the family broke apart. His mother divorced the father when Lioyd was 14
years of age. After the final divorce, Lioyd never saw his father again after the mother had asked
him to leave, the court granted the two4.
Frank Wright was also the pioneer of the movement known as the Prairie School. This
movement found its base in architecture. In the City of Broad acre, Frank developed the home
concept of Usonian. This came after he had discovered he had a unique vision in planning of
urban structures in the United States of America5. He was able to add to his house structures, he
begun to move into designing of offices, schools, hotels, skyscrapers, churches, museums among
many others. Often times, he could design elements of interior design of buildings and in
addition, he begun to venture into making furniture alongside strained glass. In the later years, as
a renowned lecturer, he was able to further his career by writing articles and book journals. He
3 Levine, N., 2016. The Urbanism of Frank Lloyd Wright. Princeton University Press.
4 Lloyd, F., 2017. Wright.
5 Williams, D.A. and Kratz, A.L., 2016. Patient-reported outcomes and fibromyalgia. Rheumatic Disease Clinics,
42(2), pp.317-332.

Architectural History 4
obtained the title of being ‘the greatest architect in America of all the time’ and awarded
recognition by Institute of American Architects in 19916.
Usonian Houses
According to Abercrombie (2018) the Disappearing City made a proposal of a 12 square foot
(1.1 m2) which was a reflection of the future plan of the community. Again, he was responsible
in suburban development concepts in series as a unification model. It showed on it several
venues in the preceding years7. This unification was referred to as Broadacre City showing it in
several venues in the following years. The City was called Usonian, which was in simultaneous
with Broadacre City. He later imagined a new type of apartment that came to be called the
Usonian House. Despite having a slight resemblance with the old version of the house of Willey
Malcolm, the Usonian house, its ideal nature emerged most entirely in the Katherine Jacobs and
Herbert First House built back in 1937 in Madison, Wisconsin. The Usonian house had
incorporated new artistic methods which had not been so widely applied. In the design, the house
had integrated radiant heat system gridded on a slab made of concrete. Usonian house had
features of new construction abilities. The walls were made of layers which were uniquely
sandwiched; the layers were those of siding wood. Furthermore, cores of plywood and building
papers made a change from the walls of typical frames. The Usonian houses frequently featured
roofs which were flat in nature and their construction made without attics or basements. These
were among the features that Wright had been working to promote from the 20th century.
6 Watson, J.M., 2017. Topographies of the future: urban and suburban visions in Edward Bellamy’s utopian fiction.
Planning Perspectives, 32(4), pp.639-649.
7 Rattenbury, J., 2016. Frank Lloyd Wright.

Architectural History 5
Wright’s Usonian houses remained his response so constructed to transform the society. This had
emanated at a time when the servants had become unnoticeable or absent completely in the 20th
century from the United States of American households. More open and simple plans came into
the light when Wright advanced his design to develop homes. He selected for the women a
'workspace' which he termed as the kitchen, according to him, it is here in the kitchen where the
woman could keep trajectory to prepare food for the children and the visitors in the dining room.
Just like the Prairie Houses, the Usonian living rooms had at the pivotal point of the room a
fireplace8. The bedrooms however were isolated and they were also made slightly smaller than
rooms like the living rooms which motivated them to spend more time in the living rooms. The
ideal of Prairie to give spaces was also recognized. The houses constructed in the Usonian
designs made people feel a little more comfortable. They had ample spaces and inspired for
modern furnishing. They looked more beautiful. There cost of living was also lowered with this
advent by Lioyd Wright. Movements in marts and crafts provided a principle which had
influenced the early works of Write. Despite all these, they also gave room for independent
living9.
Falling water
In the 1930s, another model was discovered. The model was constructed for Edgar family. The
house was known as Falling water and was completed in 1937. These houses attracted a lot of
attention as Wright one of the famous residences of private living. Falling water was constructed
8 Quinan, J., 2018. Frank Lloyd Wright’s intuitive sound modernity. The Journal of Architecture, 23(6), pp.961-985.
9 Murray, S., 2018. Architects and the Cultural Agency of Television. Frank Lloyd Wright on The Mike Wallace
Interview, 1957. Thresholds, pp.146-157.

Architectural History 6
at Mill Run, Pennsylvania. With this advent, Wright had the intention of a new design which was
to put people around natural features such as rivers, forests and mountains. For the falling water,
it was grounded on more than 30 waterfall foot. The sole reason was to make it more of a
gateway for the family and not a home to live in. for the construction work, Wright made a
number of terraces and balconies. Limestone was chosen here for the verticals whereas the
horizontals were made of concrete. It is this time in the history of construction that expensive
houses started sprinkling in. and this house was the most expensive houses of Wright. To silence
the likes of Kaufmann alongside other engineers who had placed an argument that Write’s house
was not strong, Write made another reinforcement of steel to the concrete elements at the
horizontal. this was done secretly by the contractor.
During the period of the second world war at the time Wright was now turning 80years of age,
this was after the end of the second world war. However, he still enjoyed a busy schedule despite
of his growing old age. In the City of New York, Wright was preoccupied by his ideas. The
museum which lasted for 16 years remained a remarkable Wright’s masterpiece. The Museum
was known as Solomon R. Guggenheim. Another key design of Wright is a building erected with
a beige colour standing with a spiral shape. The internal design of the building resembles a
seashell. The building was so designed for a number of reasons, one of the reasons being that it
was to help the visitors to experience Guggenheim collection of paintings which are
nonobjective geometry10. The visitors were to have a tour to the top using an elevator which
reduced chances of being tired as a result of climbing staircases. The building lies along the Fifth
Avenue. Once at the building top, one is able to view artworks by making a walk using the
10 Samara, T., 2017. Making and Breaking the Grid, Updated and Expanded: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop.
Quarry Books Editions.

Architectural History 7
elevator to the peak. After this he he/she continues to walk slowly to descend down using the
centrally placed spiral ramp11. Light fixtures of triangular shapes together with the circular
shaped floor have an embedment complementing the structure and its geometric nature.
However, upon completion of the museum, wright’s desire to paint the interior white in colour
alongside his other designs was ignored12.
Consequently, in the year 1937, the original design of the Monona Terrace, which was
exclusively for the Madison municipal offices was completed later in the 1997 just on its
original site. Some slight variations were made for example; the designing of the interior was
changed exclusively with the final design of Wright. It now became a convention center. Tony
Puttnamm was the apprentice of Wright who carried out the design13.
Florida Southern College
Between the years of 1941 and 1958 the Florida Southern College was located in Lakeland,
Florida. Frank Lloyd Wright buildings between 1941 and 1958 as part of the Child of the Sun
project. It is the world's largest single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture.
11 Tan, M.H., Alquraini, H., Mizokami-Stout, K. and MacEachern, M., 2016. Metformin: from research to clinical
practice. Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinics, 45(4), pp.819-843.
12 Quinan, J., 2017. Wright sites: a guide to Frank Lloyd Wright public places. Chronicle Books.
13 Stello, D., Huber, D., Grundahl, F., Lloyd, J., Ireland, M., Casagrande, L., Fredslund, M., Bedding, T.R., Palle,
P.L., Antoci, V. and Kjeldsen, H., 2017. Asteroseismic masses of retired planet-hosting A-stars using SONG.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 472(4), pp.4110-4116.

Architectural History 8
Some of the works of Wright are traced to the Japanese art. He was also an active architect in the
Japanese art just like he did in the American architecture. It has been proved that Wright
combined both architectural works alongside dealing in art to his clients who had now become
familiar with his services. Apart from just mere designing of homes, Wright would also provide
the art to fill in the houses. In some period in history of his long architectural journey, Write was
able to sell more of the art bat the expense of his own work of architect. He also migrated to
being an avid prints collector of Japanese base; these prints formed his materials for teaching his
apprentices something which was termed as print parties.
When he first made a trip Japan back in 1905, he became interested in prints and made a lot of
purchases in bundles of hundreds of Japanese prints. When the Hiroshige organized the first
world’s retrospective exhibition, Write came to their aid to ensure it was a success. The event
took place in Chicago at the Art Institute. He remained at the limelight in the Japanese world of
art engaging in constant trade with the prominent museums and also sold his services to great
men of that time in Japan, Boston’s John Spaulding was one of is great and prominent collectors.
The museums included the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1912 He compiled a book on the art
of the Japanese14.
Scholars have written time after time tracing back to the 1920s, during this time, the rumors
stated hoovering around over the claim that Write had been dealing in retouched prints selling
them to his clients. The rumors created a decline for Write in his architectural capacity. With this
gap, his financial stability began to shake his work. In return, Write had to prove him to convince
14 Ochsner, J.K., 2018. The Experience of Prospect and Refuge: Frank Lloyd Wright's Houses as Holding
Environments. American Imago, 75(2), pp.179-211.

Architectural History 9
his clients that all these were just mere rumors. He provided new genuine prints to all those that
the rumors had touched on and accused of selling retouched prints to them. However much he
tried to make himself relevant to the people, he began to experience a steady decline in his
career. At this point he was tired of debts, sold off all he left to clear the debts. The next year
Wisconsin Bank claimed his home in Taliesin. He had to sell a thousand of his prints for just a
dollar per piece to Edward Van15.
Community Planning
Back in the early 1900 when Frank Wright began the theories he commissioned urban designs,
during this period, for the purposes of his career, these designs came with unique features that
could be identified to him as the pioneer. Up to the time of his death he continued with his
designs and never thought of going back to his way of life. On community scale, he also
commissioned about 41 designs of urban planning16.
He also made a remarkable contribution to the designs of suburban nature the thoughts he made
about these designs began in the early 1900, a block plan ‘Quadruple Block Plan’ which was a
Charles E Roberts proposal. The proposed design stayed from the traditional lot layout of
suburban and was also set on small square block houses with lots made of sizes which are four
equals surrounded by roads on all the sides rather than houses arranged on straight rows lying on
the parallel streets. These houses, often described to have been made of equal design were
published in the town of Prairie at a home. This was done by the Home Journal of Ladies. This
15 Smith, K., 2017. Wright on Exhibit: Frank Lloyd Wright's Architectural Exhibitions. Princeton University Press.
16 Scrivano, P., 2017. Building Transatlantic Italy: Architectural Dialogues with Postwar America. Routledge.

Architectural History 10
moreover gave room for more interesting opinions from each house. Although this strategy was
never comprehended, in 1910, Wright printed the plan in Wasmuth Portfolio17.
Key Contributions
Wright had a number of designs which are attributed to him as the pioneer and architect, some of
these include:
Willits House
This is a building made and designed by Frank Lloyd Wright as the architect. He designed it in
1901; among the great houses of Prairie is the Willits house18. The house is found in Chicago in
the suburb region of Highland Park, Illinois. It presents an equal front to the street. In this design,
17 Roulier, S.M., 2018. Democracy and Individuality: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Broadacres and the Burbs. In Shaping
American Democracy (pp. 105-132). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Architectural History 11
the ability of Write to association of nature with architecture. This was one of the unique designs.
from the middle fireplace, extend four wings crispate. Moreover, it had windows of stained-glass
together with screens made of wood. Most of the furniture in this house was done by Wright19.
There was entry into the competition on land development in Chicago, and this sparked the
ambitions of most people in 1913. This contest was based to develop the suburban quarter area.
This design made an expansion on the Block Plan of Quadruple grounded on numerous social
levels. It also showed placement of homes in the higher regions desired by people and alongside
apartments separated by common spaces and parks. Examples of such homes were referred to as
Blue collar20.
Winslow House (River Forest, Illinois)
Another key works of Frank Lioyd was the Winslow House. It is found River Forest Auvergne
515.this house became a landmark since it was one of the first architectural designs that he
commissions independently between 1893 and 1894, was his first major commission as an
independent architect21.
18 Shah, N., Frey, K.A., LTM Müller, M., Petrou, M., Kotagal, V., Koeppe, R.A., Scott, P.J., Albin, R.L. and
Bohnen, N.I., 2016. Striatal and C ortical β‐A myloidopathy and C ognition in P arkinson's D isease. Movement
Disorders, 31(1), pp.111-117.
19 Lehmann, S., 2017. The challenge of transforming a low-density city into a compact city: the case of the City of
Perth, Australia. In Growing Compact (pp. 95-119). Routledge.
20 Johnson, D.L., 2016. On Frank Lloyd Wright's Concrete Adobe: Irving Gill, Rudolph Schindler and the American
Southwest. Routledge.
21 Choo, H., Nasar, J.L., Nikrahei, B. and Walther, D.B., 2017. Neural codes of seeing architectural styles. Scientific
reports, 7, p.40201.

Architectural History 12
The design of the house had an inspiration from Louis Sullivan who was Wright’s mentor. It also
anticipates maturity of Prairie School mature buildings of the following decade. Sheltered under
a roof of low pitch with wider eaves, the house is equal and horizontally divided into different
sections. For instance, a stone section, a section for the golden Roman, and lastly ornament
Sullivanesque section. Contrary to the quiet and stable front facade, the back is a frame of
unbalanced geometric forms. The inside echoes both his own house and the House of Charnley,
it has the fireplace at the middle facing the entrance with rooms on both sides and a secret focal
staircase22.
Below is a picture of the house
22 Alford, S., 2017. Ellen Gates Starr and Frank Lloyd Wright at Hull House: The Machine as the ‘Will of Life’.
Journal of Design History, 30(3), pp.282-299.

Architectural History 13
Unity Temple
Another key unique work by Write includes the Unity temple located in Oak Park, in Illinois. It
was considered one of the great contributions of Wright. The architectural design was built
between 1903 and 1909. It was consolidated with intent of aesthetic structure using a single
material technique. The temple was also reinforced with concrete and later became of focal
importance to the architects of modern time23.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The museum is often called The Guggenheim. It is based 1071 Fifth Avenue. York City. It is a
permanent house of the incessantly increasing collection of both Impressionist and Post-
Impressionist, the early Modern versus contemporary art and it also features distinct exhibitions
all through the year. Its architect was Frank Lloyd Wright. The building is cylindrical in nature
and appears wider at the top than at the bottom. It has a unique gallery ramp extending from the
ground to the top and has a continuous spiral running along the outer edges24.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, Frank Wright Lioyd made tremendous contributions to the field of architecture.
The contributions and examples of his works between the periods of the 1900 to 1970s
highlighted above reflect part of his career interest. Living in our time his legacy still runs in the
whole world.
23 Ching, F.D., Jarzombek, M.M. and Prakash, V., 2017. A global history of architecture. John Wiley & Sons.
24 Abercrombie, S., 2018. A philosophy of interior design. Routledge.

Architectural History 14
Today, the American architect who grew to be a good interior designer, writer and alongside an
educator is proved to have designed more than 1,000 of architectural structures. 532 of these
known structures were completed. History has also demonstrated that Wright believed and
designed structures that were in close proximity. Besides this, he also made sure they confront
with humanity and harmony from the environs. According to falling water dated 1935, this
phenomenon has been described to be the best American architecture of all time work. His
period of creativity spanned for longer than 70years. His creative period spanned more than 70
years.

Architectural History 15
References
Abercrombie, S., 2018. A philosophy of interior design. Routledge.
Alford, S., 2017. Ellen Gates Starr and Frank Lloyd Wright at Hull House: The Machine as the ‘Will of Life’.
Journal of Design History, 30(3), pp.282-299.
Ching, F.D., Jarzombek, M.M. and Prakash, V., 2017. A global history of architecture. John Wiley & Sons.
Choo, H., Nasar, J.L., Nikrahei, B. and Walther, D.B., 2017. Neural codes of seeing architectural styles. Scientific
reports, 7, p.40201.
Heinz, T.A., 2016. The Vision of Frank Lloyd Wright: A Complete Guide to the Designs of an Architectural Genius.
Chartwell Books.
Johnson, D.L., 2016. On Frank Lloyd Wright's Concrete Adobe: Irving Gill, Rudolph Schindler and the American
Southwest. Routledge.
Lehmann, S., 2017. The challenge of transforming a low-density city into a compact city: the case of the City of
Perth, Australia. In Growing Compact (pp. 95-119). Routledge.
Levine, N., 2016. The Urbanism of Frank Lloyd Wright. Princeton University Press.
Lloyd, F., 2017. Wright.
Mumford, L., 2016. The culture of cities (Vol. 19). Open Road Media.
Murray, S., 2018. Architects and the Cultural Agency of Television. Frank Lloyd Wright on The Mike Wallace
Interview, 1957. Thresholds, pp.146-157.
Ochsner, J.K., 2018. The Experience of Prospect and Refuge: Frank Lloyd Wright's Houses as Holding
Environments. American Imago, 75(2), pp.179-211.
Quinan, J., 2017. Wright sites: a guide to Frank Lloyd Wright public places. Chronicle Books.
Quinan, J., 2018. Frank Lloyd Wright’s intuitive sound modernity. The Journal of Architecture, 23(6), pp.961-985.

Architectural History 16
Rattenbury, J., 2016. Frank Lloyd Wright.
Roulier, S.M., 2018. Democracy and Individuality: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Broadacres and the Burbs. In Shaping
American Democracy (pp. 105-132). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Samara, T., 2017. Making and Breaking the Grid, Updated and Expanded: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop.
Quarry Books Editions.
Scrivano, P., 2017. Building Transatlantic Italy: Architectural Dialogues with Postwar America. Routledge.
Shah, N., Frey, K.A., LTM Müller, M., Petrou, M., Kotagal, V., Koeppe, R.A., Scott, P.J., Albin, R.L. and Bohnen,
N.I., 2016. Striatal and C ortical β‐A myloidopathy and C ognition in P arkinson's D isease. Movement Disorders,
31(1), pp.111-117.
Smith, K., 2017. Wright on Exhibit: Frank Lloyd Wright's Architectural Exhibitions. Princeton University Press.
Stello, D., Huber, D., Grundahl, F., Lloyd, J., Ireland, M., Casagrande, L., Fredslund, M., Bedding, T.R., Palle, P.L.,
Antoci, V. and Kjeldsen, H., 2017. Asteroseismic masses of retired planet-hosting A-stars using SONG. Monthly
Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 472(4), pp.4110-4116.
Tan, M.H., Alquraini, H., Mizokami-Stout, K. and MacEachern, M., 2016. Metformin: from research to clinical
practice. Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinics, 45(4), pp.819-843.
Watson, J.M., 2017. Topographies of the future: urban and suburban visions in Edward Bellamy’s utopian fiction.
Planning Perspectives, 32(4), pp.639-649.
Williams, D.A. and Kratz, A.L., 2016. Patient-reported outcomes and fibromyalgia. Rheumatic Disease Clinics,
42(2), pp.317-332.