Frank Lloyd Wright
In 1887 a man from Richland Center, Wisconsin came to Chicago in search of a prosperous career. He had no set arrangements in the city, very little architectural training, and a promise that he would send money home to his family living in Madison. In only four days this man found a job with a well-known architectural firm. (McDonough 29) With this, Frank Lloyd Wright decided that Chicago would be the city that he uses as his sanctuary for the rest of his career. Not only would Chicago develop as a gallery of over 100 of his architectural masterpieces, but it also served as his laboratory in making structures all over the world. (Frank Lloyd Wright page online) The architect's choice of dwellings was equally beneficial to the city as it was to him. He is credited to bringing thousands of tourists to Chicago and Oak Park, IL each year. (Samuels online) Wright would not be the famous architect he is today without the connections and breakthroughs that he made while in !Chicago. Throughout his entire seventy-year career, Frank Lloyd Wright used Chicago to develop both his life and his unique style of architecture. Although he spent the majority of his life here, Frank Lloyd Wright is not a Ch
As soon as Wright returned to Chicago, he received two of the largest job offers he'd yet received. The first was to build a grand entertainment building called Midway Gardens in Chicago. It would involve having two parts, an open aired summer garden and an enclosed winter garden. Both contained a stage and a street-like atmosphere. The second project was to build the huge Imperial hotel in Tokyo, Japan. (Rykwert Firstsearch) Wright devoted six years of his life to the creation of this colossal project. It consisted of two low wings of rooms, connected with pavilions. It is one of his most significant works. The project was finished in 1922. In September of 1923 a massive earthquake struck the city. There were very few buildings that remained standing, however Wright's masterpiece was one of them. (Brief Biography page online) Although Wright was enjoying himself working under Silsbee, he felt he deserved more. Despite being given a four-dollar raise to eighteen dollars a week, Wright applied for a job working with architect Louis Henri Sullivan, who was rather famous at the time. Sullivan paid Wright twenty-five dollars per week, but what Wright valued most from the job was being able to learn from a great architect. (McDonough 34-35) Sullivan and Wright had a very close relationship. To Wright, Sullivan was known as the "Lieber Meister" or beloved master. Sullivan called Wright his "good pencil in his hand" (Jacobs 38). Together they worked on new American styles of architecture. Then at the 1893 World's Fair held in Chicago, disaster struck. The trend people seemed to be taking was toward a classical style of architecture borrowed from Europe and ancient Rome. This was the opposite of the style that Sullivan and Wright were developing. (Jacobs 44) "Louis Sullivan thought that it would! In the last few years of his life, Frank Lloyd Wright received a plethora of honors and awards. In 1951, an exhibit was opened in Florence dedicated to Wright called Sixty Years of Living Architecture. In 1955, the University of Wisconsin gave him an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts degree. And in Chicago, the city that gave way to the start of his career, Mayor Richard Daley declared October 17 as Frank Lloyd Wright Day. (Brief Biography page online) n April 9, 1959 at the age of 91. (McDonough 104) Samuels, Gary. "The Wright Stuff" Forbes 17 Jun 1996: 246-247. First Search. St. Ignatius College Prep Library, Chicago. 16 Mar 2001. .Around 1900, Frank Lloyd Wright began to inspire other architects to follow his ideas. In 1901 he gave a talk at the Hull House called "The Art and Craft of the Machine". Architects around Chicago had formed a movement called the Prairie School. Wright rejected this name, but still served as its chief practitioner. Wright constructed the most famous of his prairie houses, the Robie House. It sits in the Hyde Park area of Chicago's Southside, on the campus of the University of Chicago. Another major feat at this time was the Unity Temple in Oak Park. This is America's first important architectural work in poured concrete. (Brief Bio
Some common words found in the essay are:
Brief Biography, Lloyd Wright, Lloyd Jones, Firstsearch Wright, Chicago Wright's, Wisconsin Chicago, Museum York, Wright Silsbee, Testament Wright, World's Fair, frank lloyd, lloyd wright, frank lloyd wright, page online, brief biography page, biography page, brief biography, biography page online, online wright, oak park, mar 2001, page online wright, rykwert firstsearch, library chicago, college prep library,
Approximate Word count = 2119
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
