Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959)       

Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, designer, writer and educator.  He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. As a young architect, Frank Lloyd Wright worked for Louis Sullivan in his Chicago-based architecture firm. 

The mission of an architect is to help people understand how to make life more beautiful, the world a better one for living in and to give reason, rhyme and meaning to life.

Frank Lloyd Wright

Ask the average citizen to name a famous American architect and you can bet that their answer will be .. Frank Lloyd Wright.  Wright gained such cultural recognition for good reason:  he changed the way we build and live.  Designing 1,114 architectural works of all types only 532 works were realized.  Of the 532 over 425 houses were designed and built.  Wright created some of the most innovative spaces in the United States.  With a career that spanned seven decades Wright's visionary work cemented his place as the American Institute of Architect's "greatest American architect of all time".

Seven iconic Frank Lloyd Wright buildings are Taliesin West, Scottsdale AZ; Robie House, Chicago IL; Fallingwater, Mill Run PA; Guggenheim Museum, NYC; Taliesin, Spring Green WS; Marin County Civic Center, San Rafael CA; and Jacobs House, Madison WS.

Frank Lloyd Wright and His Eager to Learn Students from the Master

Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin the son of William Carey Wright, a preacher and a musician and Anna Lloyd Jones, a teacher whose large Welsh family had settled the valley area near Spring Green, Wisconsin.  His early childhood saw his father traveling from one ministry position to another in Rhode Island, Iowa and Massachusetts before settling in Madison, Wisconsin in 1878.  Wright's parents divorced in 1885, making already challenging financial circumstances even more challenging.  To help support the family, 18 year old Wright worked for the dean  of the University of Wisconsin's department of engineering while also studying at the university.  He knew, early on, that he wanted to be an architect so in 1887 he left Madison for Chicago where he found work with two different firms before being hired by the prestigious partnership of Adler and Sullivan.  There he worked, directly, under Louis Henry Sullivan for six years. 

Frank Lloyd Wright became famous as the creator of "organic architecture".  These two words was his phrase indicating buildings that harmonize with their inhabitants and with their environment.  The boldness of this design element and his command of space are probably his greatest achievements. His style of architecture is often referred to as .. the Prairie style. It emerged in Chicago around 1900 from the work of a group of young architects including FLW.  These architects blended the ideals of the Arts & Crafts movement with its emphasis on nature, craftsmanship, simplicity and the work and writings of architect, Louis Henry Sullivan (1856-1924).

Sullivan was an American architect.  He has been called a "father of skycrapers" and a "father of modernism".  He was an influential architect of the Chicago School and a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright.  He was an inspiration to the Chicago group of architects who have come to be known as the Prairie School of Architecture. Along with Wright and Henry Jobson Richardson, Sullivan is one of "the recognized trinity of American architecture. In 1944, Sullivan was the second architect to posthumously receive the AIA Gold Medal.

The AIA Gold Medal is awarded by the American Institute of Architects conferred "by the national AIA Borad of Directors in recognition of a significant body of work of lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture".

Guaranty Building

Buffalo NY

Louis Sullivan's Masterpiece

The Guaranty Building was completed in 1896 with 13 floors and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1975. This building was known as Sullivan's masterpiece and most mature skyscraper.  Its terracotta facade and clean vertical lines are nothing short of breathtaking!  Two other famous Sullivan buildings are The Auditorium in Chicago and The Carson, Pirie & Scott Building in Chicago.  

Terra cotta (Italian for "baked earth") was a favorite material of Louis Sullivan both for ornamental design and as a fire retardant  Many notable buildings in Buffalo use terra cotta including Shea's Performing Arts Center.

A tall building must be every inch a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheer exultation that from bottom to top it is a unit without a single dissenting line.

Louis Sullivan

The Guaranty represents the pinnacle of Sullivan's forward-thinking design and marks the beginning of the uniquely American style of architecture that influenced the young Frank Lloyd Wright, who worked for Dankmar Adler and Louis Henry Sullivan from 1888 to 1893.  Even after leaving the the firm, Wright continued to revere Sulllivan calling him "the Master".  Eventually, Sullivan gave Wright an extensive collection of his drawings.  The drawings, along with other Wright memorabilia, are housed at the Avery Library on the campus of Columbia University in NYC. 

Question: Why was Louis Henry Sullivan known as "the father of the skyscraper"?  

Answer: Louis Henry Sullivan designed more skycrapers than any other architect of his generation.