Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements of the twentieth century, influencing architects worldwide through his works and mentoring hundreds of apprentices in his Taliesin Fellowship.A Directory of Frank Lloyd Wright Associates: APPRENTICES 1929 to 1959 , jgonwright.net, accessed February 10, 2021. Wright believed in designing in harmony with humanity and the environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture. This philosophy was exemplified in Fallingwater (1935), which has been called "the best all-time work of American architecture".
Wright was a pioneer of what came to be called the Prairie School movement of architecture and also developed the concept of the Usonian home within Broadacre City, his vision for urban planning in the United States. Wright also designed original and innovative offices, churches, schools, skyscrapers, hotels, museums, and other commercial projects. Wright-designed interior elements (including leaded glass windows, floors, furniture and even tableware) were integrated into these structures. He wrote several books and numerous articles and was a popular lecturer in the United States and in Europe. Wright was recognized in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects as "the greatest American architect of all time". In 2019, a selection of his work became a listed World Heritage Site under the name The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright.
Raised in rural Wisconsin, Wright studied civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin and later apprenticed in Chicago, first briefly with Joseph Lyman Silsbee, and then with Louis Sullivan at Adler & Sullivan. Wright opened his own successful Chicago practice in 1893 and established a studio in his Oak Park, Illinois, home in 1898. His fame increased, and his personal life sometimes made headlines: leaving his first wife Catherine "Kitty" Tobin for Mamah Cheney in 1909; the murder of Mamah, her children, and others at his Taliesin estate by a staff member in 1914; his tempestuous marriage with second wife Miriam Noel (m. 1923–1927); and his courtship and marriage to Olgivanna Lazović (m. 1928–1959).
Early life and education Childhood (1867–1885) Frank Lloyd Wright was born on June 8, 1867, in Richland Center, Wisconsin, though he claimed throughout his life that he was born in 1869. In 1987, Brendan Gill's biography of Wright suggested that his full name was "Frank Lincoln Wright", chosen by his father, but the middle name was soon changed to Lloyd by his mother.Gill, Brendan, Many Masks, a Life of Frank Lloyd Wright, Ballantine Books, 1987 p. 25. There are no references to "Frank Lincoln Wright" prior to Gill's book and the earliest official documentation of his full name was in an 1880 United States census that listed a Frank Loyd Wright (sic) working as a hired hand for his uncle, James Lloyd Jones.McCrea, Ron, Building Taliesen, Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2012, p.57
Wright's father, William Cary Wright (1825–1904), was a gifted musician, orator, and occasional preacher who had been admitted to the bar in 1857. He was also a published composer. Originally from Massachusetts, William Wright had served as a Baptist minister, but he later joined the Unitarian faith through his wife's family.
Wright's mother, Anna Lloyd Jones (1838/39–1923), was a teacher and a member of the Lloyd Jones clan, whose Welsh parents had emigrated to Wisconsin from the United Kingdom. One of her brothers, Jenkin Lloyd Jones, was a prominent figure in promoting the Unitarian faith in the Midwest.
According to Wright's autobiography, his mother believed her first child would grow up to build beautiful buildings. She decorated his nursery with engravings of English cathedrals torn from periodicals to nurture the child's ambition.Secrest, p. 58.
Wright had two younger sisters: Maginel Wright Enright (1880–1966), a successful children's book illustrator and the mother of the writer and illustrator Elizabeth Enright, and Jane Wright (1869–1953).
Architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable wrote that Wright grew up in an unstable household marked by a constant lack of resources, poverty, and anxiety, which resulted in what she described as a deeply disturbed and obviously unhappy childhood. His father held pastorates in McGregor, Iowa (1869), Pawtucket, Rhode Island (1871), and Weymouth, Massachusetts (1874). When financial hardship followed them to Weymouth, the family returned to Spring Green, Wisconsin, where the supportive Lloyd Jones family could help William find employment. In 1877, they had moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where William gave music lessons and served as the secretary to the newly formed Unitarian society. Though William was a distant parent, he shared his love of music with his children.
In 1876, Anna discovered an exhibit of educational blocks called the Froebel Gifts, the foundation of an innovative kindergarten curriculum. As a trained teacher, she was excited by the program and bought a set, which the nine-year-old Wright spent much time playing with. The blocks in the set were geometrically shaped and could be assembled in various combinations to form two- and three-dimensional compositions. In his autobiography, Wright described the influence of these exercises on his approach to design: "For several years, I sat at the little kindergarten table-top... and played... with the cube, the sphere and the trianglethese smooth wooden maple blocks... All are in my fingers to this day... "Alofsin, Anthony (1993). Frank Lloyd Wright – the Lost Years, 1910–1922: A Study of Influence. University of Chicago Press. p. 359. ; Hersey, George (2000). Architecture and Geometry in the Age of the Baroque. University of Chicago Press. p. 205. .
In 1881, shortly after Wright turned 14, his parents separated. In 1884, his father filed for divorce from Anna on the grounds of "... emotional cruelty and physical violence and spousal abandonment".Hendrickson, Paul, Plagued By Fire, New York: Alfred A Knopf, 2019, p. 399. Wright attended Madison High School. His father left Wisconsin after the divorce was granted in 1885. Wright said that he never saw his father again.Wright, Frank Lloyd, An Autobiography, Duell, Sloan and Pearce, New York City, 1943, p. 51.
Education (1885–1887) In 1886, at age 19, Wright was admitted to the University of Wisconsin–Madison as a special student. He studied civil engineering under professor Allan D. Conover before leaving the school without taking a degree;Secrest, p. 82. in 1955, the university presented him with an honorary doctorate of fine arts at the age of 88.
Wright's uncle, Jenkin Lloyd Jones, had hired the Chicago architectural firm of Joseph Lyman Silsbee to design the All Souls Church in Chicago in 1885. The following year, Jones commissioned Silsbee to design the Unity Chapel, a private family chapel in Wyoming, Wisconsin.
Although not officially employed by Silsbee, Wright was a skilled draftsman and "looked after the interior [drawings and construction]" in Wisconsin.Frank Lloyd Wright's Monona Terrace: The Enduring Power of a Civic Vision, by David V. Mollenhoff and Mary Jane Hamilton (The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wisconsin, 1999), p. 54. This chapel is considered his earliest known work.
After the chapel was completed, Wright moved to Chicago.
Early career Silsbee and other early work experience (1887–1888) In 1887, Wright arrived in Chicago in search of employment. Following the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and a population boom, new construction was widespread. In his autobiography, Wright described his first impression of Chicago as an ugly and chaotic city. Within days of arriving and after interviewing with several prominent firms, he was hired as a draftsman by Joseph Lyman Silsbee. While at the firm, he also worked on two other family projects: All Souls Church in Chicago for his uncle, Jenkin Lloyd Jones, and the Hillside Home School I in Spring Green for two of his aunts. Others working in Silsbee's office at the time included Cecil S. Corwin (1860–1941), George W. Maher (1864–1926), and George G. Elmslie (1869–1952). Corwin, who was seven years older than Wright, soon took his young colleague under his wing and the two became close friends.
Feeling underpaid and seeking to earn more, Wright briefly left Silsbee to work for architect William W. Clay (1849–1926).It is often reported incorrectly that Wright worked Beers, Clay and Dutton, but Clay was at this time in private practice. The mistake is understandable as it is based on Wright's own account in his autobiography. However, he soon felt overwhelmed by his new level of responsibility and returned to Silsbee, but this time with a raise in salary. Although Silsbee mainly followed Victorian and Revivalist styles, Wright considered his designs more "gracefully picturesque" than the other "brutalities" of the period. Wright stayed with Silsbee for just under a year before leaving to join Adler & Sullivan around November 1887.
Adler & Sullivan (1888–1893)
Wright learned that the Chicago firm of Adler & Sullivan was "... looking for someone to make the finished drawings for the interior of the Auditorium Building".. Wright demonstrated that he was a competent impressionist of Louis Sullivan's ornamental designs and two short interviews later, was an official apprentice in the firm.. Wright did not get along well with Sullivan's other draftsmen; he wrote that several violent altercations occurred between them during the first years of his apprenticeship. For that matter, Sullivan showed very little respect for his own employees as well.. In spite of this, "Sullivan took [Wright] under his wing and gave him great design responsibility." As an act of respect, Wright would later refer to Sullivan as (German for "dear master"). He also formed a bond with office foreman Paul Mueller. Wright later engaged Mueller in the construction of several of his public and commercial buildings between 1903 and 1923.
By 1890, Wright had an office next to Sullivan's that he shared with friend and draftsman George Elmslie, who had been hired by Sullivan at Wright's request. Wright had risen to head draftsman and handled all residential design work in the office. As a general rule, the firm of Adler & Sullivan did not design or build houses, but would oblige when asked by the clients of their important commercial projects. Wright was occupied by the firm's major commissions during office hours, so house designs were relegated to evening and weekend overtime hours at his home studio. He later claimed total responsibility for the design of these houses, but a careful inspection of their architectural style (and accounts from historian Robert Twombly) suggests that Sullivan dictated the overall form and motifs of the residential works; Wright's design duties were often reduced to detailing the projects from Sullivan's sketches. During this time, Wright was assigned to work on the Sullivan bungalow (1890) and the James A. Charnley bungalow (1890) in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, the Berry-MacHarg House, James A. Charnley House (both 1891), and the Albert Sullivan House (1892), all in Chicago..