Frank Lloyd Wright – American Architect

Contact Your Elected Officials

Frank Lloyd Wright was born Frank Lincoln Wright on June 8, 1867. After his parents divorced, he choose to change his middle name from Lincoln to Lloyd in honor of his mother’s family, the Lloyd Joneses. His mother, Anna Lloyd Jones, was a trained teacher. She believed her son would grow up to build great buildings. She first introduced him to architecture through engravings of English cathedrals torn from a periodical and hung in his nursery. In 1876, when Frank was nine, she bought her family educational blocks. The blocks were geometric shapes, part of a range of educational materials designed by Friedrich Frรถbel, to provide self-directed activity for children. The blocks were used as part of the foundation of Wrights innovative kindergarten curriculum. Of them Wright said, “For several years I sat at the little Kindergarten table-top . . . and played . . . with the cube, the sphere and the triangleโ€”these smooth wooden maple blocks . . . All are in my fingers to this day . . .” This is what probably lead to Wright’s preoccupation with geometric forms and on to intersecting planes.

Wright is known as an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator. He designed more than 1,141 buildings. These buildings included houses, offices, churches, schools, skyscrapers, hotels, libraries, bridges, and museums. He completed Five hundred and thirty-two of his designs and 409 still stand today.

Wright believed in what he called “organic architecture”, structures were designed to be in harmony with the environment and humanity. Fallingwater (1935), is the best example of his design philosophy and has been called “the best all-time work of American architecture”. Wright was a leader of the Prairie School movement of architecture. Their design was marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands, integration with the landscape, solid construction, craftsmanship, and discipline in the use of ornament. The use of horizontal lines helped relate the structure to the native prairie landscape.

Frank Lloyd's Fallingwater by digital artists Jim Van Schaack
Frank Lloyd’s Fallingwater by digital artists Jim Van Schaack

Wright had a unique vision for urban planning. He developed “Usonian Homes”. These houses were small, single-story dwellings without a garage or much storage. They were L-shaped to fit around a garden terrace and so they would fit on inexpensive lots. They were made with native materials, had flat roofs and large cantilevered overhangs designed for  passive solar heating and natural cooling. Clerestory windows provided natural lighting and they used radiant-floor heating. Wright wanted his Unisonian homes to visually connect the interior space with the exterior space, thus staying in harmony with the environment and his organic architecture concept. The word carport was coined by Wright to describe an overhang for a vehicle to park under.

Wright also experimented with the hemicyle form or half-circle in architecture, incorporating the hemicycle into a wall, building, or architectural feature. An example of one of Wright’s hemicyle structures is the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

 

Price Tower, completed in 1956, is architect Frank Lloyd Wrightโ€™s only built skyscraper. This handsomely designed structure was Wrightโ€™s pioneer experiment of a multi use skyscraper, combining retail, business offices and apartments. It is located in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

Frank Lloyd Wrights Price Tower by Jim Van Schaack
Frank Lloyd Wrights Price Tower by Jim Van Schaack

Wright didn’t limit himself to structure design, but he also designed many of the interior elements of his buildings, including furniture. Wright once again brought his style of using geometric forms and intersecting planes into his furniture design, as well as attempting to make his furniture functionally and visually unify with their surroundings. He designed a series of metal desks and chairs for the Larkin Building in Buffalo, New York and they are a perfect example of this.

Frank Lloyd Wright Larkin Office Building Chair
Frank Lloyd Wright Larkin Office Building Chair

Wright also created in stained glass. Most often he used natural shapes as inspiration for stained glass designs, and he usually used neutral colors. He did a wonderful design for clerestory windows for a playroom in a private home using geometric forms and primary colors perfect for a child’s play area.

Frank Lloyd Wright Clerestory Playroom Windows
Frank Lloyd Wright Clerestory Playroom Windows

Wright was a popular lecturer in the United States and in Europe and he wrote more than 20 books and many articles.

Frank Lloyd Wright was well known during his lifetime and in 1991 he was recognized by the American Institute of Architects as “the greatest American architect of all time.”

Frank Lloyd Wright died in Arizona on April 9, 1959, at the age of 91.

More By Digital Artist Jim Van Schaack

The Thinking Conservative
The Thinking Conservativehttps://www.thethinkingconservative.com/
The goal of THE THINKING CONSERVATIVE is to help us educate ourselves on conservative topics of importance to our freedom and our pursuit of happiness. We do this by sharing conservative opinions on all kinds of subjects, from all types of people, and all kinds of media, in a way that will challenge our perceptions and help us to make educated choices.

Why the Trump Administration is Sitting on the Epstein Files

President Trump, AG Bondi, and FBI Dir. Patel have the advantage over us in that they see the big overall picture when it comes to the Epstein List.

Trumpโ€™s โ€œMajor Statementโ€ On Russia Is A Clumsy Attempt To Thread The Needle

The โ€œmajor statementโ€ on Russia Trump hyped up turned out to be an attempt to thread the needle between escalating US involvement in Ukrainian and walking away from it.

AI Takes Customer Service from Doublespeak to Triplespeak

Corporations are replacing customer service agents with AI agents. Here's a real-life example of attempting to use AI to have my internet restored.

The Left’s Descent into Extremismย ย 

The political left, from mainstream Dems to radical Antifa, have embraced extremism, alienating swaths of the public and undermining their own influence.

Roger Stone Speaks About Trump at Turning Point USA

Longtime Donald Trump friend, Roger Stone, gave a speech at the 2025 TPUSA convention offering his take on the recent Epstein List controversy.

Border Czar Says Physical Appearance โ€˜Canโ€™t Be the Sole Reasonโ€™ to Detain Someone

Border czar Homan said comments were โ€œtaken out of contextโ€ and federal immigration enforcement agents can't detain people based on physical appearances alone.

Capacity of US Coal-Fired Power Plants to Fall Over 15 Percent by 2028

Total operating capacity of coal-fired power plants in US is set to drop to 145 GW by end of 2028, a 15% decline from the 172 GW in operation as of May.

Violence Against ICE Escalates Across America

ICE officers face increased confrontation on the street, which crosses the line between free speech and physical violence.

International Buyers Purchased $56 Billion Worth of US Homes in 1 Year

Foreign buyers purchased $56 billion worth of existing homes in the US between April 2024 and March 2025, up by 33.2% from the previous 12 months.

CMS Eyes 3.8 Percent Pay Hike for Doctors, Medicare Cost Cuts, and Chronic Care Expansion

Trump admin plan will save billions on wasteful spending, boost rates for doctors, and modernizing Medicare services, said HHS Sec. RFK, Jr.

DOGE Announces Billions of Dollars in Federal Contracts Terminated

In post on X on July 12, DOGE, stated that โ€œover the last week, agencies terminated 230 wasteful contracts,โ€ resulting in savings of $407 million.

Trump to Announce $70 Billion Energy and Innovation Investment in Pittsburgh

President Trump is meeting with business leaders to discuss how best to meet the energy and computing needs of the future.

Attorney General Pam Bondi Dismisses Justice Departmentโ€™s Top Ethics Lawyer

AG Pam Bondi terminated the head of the DOJโ€™s ethics division, according to a letter posted to social media by the fired official.
spot_img

Related Articles