The Prairie School was an architectural style popularized by Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis H. Sullivan in the 1890s. It emphasized incorporating nature into residential design and breaking free from traditional constraints. Wright and other architects lived together in The Loop and influenced each other’s work. The style featured natural materials, open spaces, and blurred indoor-outdoor boundaries. Wright also acted as an interior designer for his houses. Notable examples include the Willits and Robie houses in Chicago. The style declined after World War I.
The Prairie School is an architectural design style made famous by Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis H. Sullivan and other architects beginning in the 1890s. The Prairie School of design originated in Chicago. Prairie School architects were inspired by the idea of incorporating nature into residential home design and breaking free from traditional architectural constraints.
Louis H. Sullivan was one of the movement’s most vocal advocates. Sullivan taught other Prairie School architects, including Wright, who was greatly influenced by him. Wright and other prominent architects such as Robert C. Spender, Jr. and Dwight Perkins began living together and influencing each other’s work in 1896. Their home, housed in the Steinway Piano Company of Chicago, was called The Loop. These productive exchanges continued as Wright built a studio adjacent to his own home.
Many of the Loop designers were employed by Wright’s studio at various times, including Walter Burley Griffin, Barry Byrne, Marion Mahoney Griffin and William E. Drummond. These men and women all continued to actively design and influence each other after Wright left the firm for Europe in 1909. These Prairie School designers were covered extensively in the prestigious Western Architect magazine, beginning in 1911. This style remained popular and productive until the end of the First World Word, when Wright’s aesthetic shifted towards Usonian houses and Americans as a whole adopted more conservative tastes.
The Prairie School houses emphasize natural material unmasked by paint or varnish. Intended to blend into the flat Midwest landscape, these homes were designed around a fireplace, with an intentional blurring of indoor and outdoor space. The rooms were not divided by doors and had many windows, again an attempt to unite the house and its surroundings. The covered entryways and skylights were also a hallmark of the Prairie School’s design.
Wright also tended to act as interior designer for his Prairie School houses, selecting carpets and furniture for the owners. The nine-room Beachy house still contains a Wright-designed dining room. Wright’s WW Willits home, located in Highland Park, Illinois, was built in 1902 and embodies Wright’s interpretation of the Prairie School style. Another notable example of Wright’s Prairie School designs is the Robie House in Chicago, built in 1909. The Roberts house, built in 1908 for Wright’s secretary, features a porch built around an elm, another incorporation of the nature in Wright’s projects.
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