Frank Lloyd Wright

Born on June 8th, 1867 in Richland Center in Wisconsin and named Frank Lincoln Wright by his parents Anna Lloyd-Jones and William Cary Wright, he would later change his name to Frank Lloyd Wright when his parents divorced. He enrolled in Madison High School after his parents settled in Madison, Wisconsin.

He started to appreciate his dream of becoming an architect during a summer he spent on the farm of James Lloyd Jones, his uncle in Spring Green in Wisconsin. Frank Lloyd left Madison and went to work for university of Wisconsin, department of engineering dean, Allan Conover in 1885, without accomplishing high school. Wright spent two semesters learning civil engineering while at the university before he left in 1887 for Chicago.

Wright worked for Joseph Lyman Silsbee, an architect in Chicago. It is during this period when Wright drafted the structure of his initial building famously known as the unity chapel. Wright worked for Joseph Lyman Silsbee for one year and went to work for Sullivan and Adler firm, under Louise Sullivan directorates.

Sullivan believed that American architecture must be established on American culture, a theory which was further developed by Frank Lloyd Wright later. He incorporated Sullivan as his main inspiration on his architectural career although he utilized very few Europe influences. The business relationship between him and Sullivan came to an end in 1893. Wright started his own architecture firm in Chicago where he operated for five years before moving the practice it in Oak Park, in his home.

The early Frank Lloyd Wright buildings depicted a special talent in the young, influential architect. All the structures had unique styles of their own, resembling a horizontal plane, without upper floor or basements. He built his structures with natural materials and he never applied any paint on them.

Wright’s simplistic buildings served as motivation to the prairie school, an architect’s group whose Midwestern architectural style was homegrown. Wright was later made one of the main practitioners of the prairie school. His most recognized structures include Illinois, Robie House in Chicago and the Martin House in Buffalo in New York

Wright inspiration continued to earn more popularity in the United States of America and Europe. With time, Wright’s innovative architectural style spread abroad. He was contracted to design the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. His innovative architectural styles and modern designs made him famous globally. Frank Lloyd Wright died on April 9th, 1959 at age of ninety two years. He had drafted over a thousand designs, of which above half were completed.