Wright Chat

I was wondering how many true Prairie Style homes designed by FLW were actually constructed? And of those homes, how many of them included pergolas as part of the design?



Any help to these questions from the members and/or guests of the Forum would be greatly appreciated.



Thanks.

The easiest way to answer the first question would be to look in Storrer and count up whatever meets your criteria. The plans there might give enough information to answer the second question, too.



Martin in Buffalo is Wright's best-known example of a pergola. He built extensive gardens for William Martin in Oak Park, down to the end of the block, long since subdivided away. I understand he had plans for a covered walkway, never built, from the Coonley house to the Playhouse.



Peter

First three are Bradley, Warren Hickox, Davenport. You can get the rest after these from Storrer's Frank Lloyd Wright Companion.

Coonley did have a pergola along the raised garden, and of course, there's Westcott.



I've always liked the Cutten House project of 1911. Though not built, it would have been similar to Taliesin in execution and employed extended pergolas. This would have been a "true" prairie house, since it actually was out on the open prairie and not confined to a city lot. It would have been an important work. Wright was starting to experiment more and more with free flowing spaces and how they related to their surroundings, attempting to shed the overt "Prairie style".



The "last" prairie house, Wingspread, also had a large pergola.



And doesn't Fallingwater have the ultimate pergola?

That prompts another related question on the the topic of Prairie style houses done by FLW.



While I frequently see references to Wingspread as the "last Prairie house", done in the mid 1930's, I have also seen numerous claims that the Allen-Lambe House, built in Witchita in the mid-to-late teens, was the last true, honest-to-goodness Prairie style house executed by Wright.



I'm interested to hear the opinions of the members and guests of the forum on this topic. Is Allen-Lambe the final Prairie house by the master of the genre? Is Wingspread a true Prairie building, meeting all of the criteria of this uniquely American architectural style?



I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Thanks.

I cast my vote for the Allen House as the last Prairie House. I do not see how one can call Wingspread a Prairie House.

I'm sure Wright never thought in terms of "prairie" houses.



That said, I believe Wright referred to Wingspread as the "last" only because it indeed posessed a perfect prairie setting (if near a large body of water!), and the zoned, expansive layout Johnson's money allowed was a perfect opportunity for him to "reminisce" and indulge in the kind of mansions he had produced for wealthy clients in the Oak Park days. He did employ many attributes of earlier designs, but in my opinion, it was a "modern" building and more akin to the usonians rather than the "prairie" period.



There is a good argument for the 1916 Allen residence as the last prairie house, if that term must be used. If it is the "last", it is a beautifully detailed finale. The plan indicates the usonians to come, as in its L-shape around a garden ala Jacobs, zoned living areas freer from formality, but its hip roof and porte cochere contextually relating to its earlier brethren. Spacial plasticity of the soon to follow block houses evolved into the infinite zoning possibilities of the usonians.



By the end of his career Wright's output became almost hybrid. He never shied from using elements from previous eras, and his built legacy is evidence of his genius in doing that.

It seems that all who have studied FLLW and the "Prairie School" architects, have a pretty good idea how they would describe a prairie house, but I cannot find that Wright ever defined it. He did use the term to describe Wingspread.



Looking at the chapter titled BUILDING THE NEW HOUSE in Book Three of his 1943 autobiography, he refers to specific elements regarding the houses he built "out there on the prairie". Many of these elements reached back to Winslow (excepting the closed dining room and individual double-hung windows), and can be seen in Husser. They seem complete by Bradley, which also has a wonderful sense of human scale and perfect proportions that can only be felt at the site itself. Of course Bradley was built on a river, Husser on a lake, and many of the others in a forest, rather than on a prairie.



Nonetheless, his described elements continued through his career, and were certainly present in Wingspread, which was built on a prairie, near a lake. So I think I know what a prairie house might be, but looking for help.



Doug Kottum, Battle Lake, MN

I find it interesting that several seem to think FLLW was wrong when he referred to Wingspread as the last prairie house. But, I guess there are some on this site that know more about FLLW's architecture than FLLW did.



As far as I'm concerned if FLLW said Wingspread was a prairie style, then who am I (or the rest of you) to argue with that.

"Prairie" in one sense is a style, and anything that fits the definition qualifies, regardless of date. In another sense it's a phase of Wright's career that ended some time around 1913. He never was much of a scholar, and you can't take for granted that his remarks about Wingspread, or about a lot of topics, are serious.



On stylistic grounds you could call Ablin, from 1958 and a long way from the prairie, a Prairie house, with the classic cross-shaped plan and central fireplace (see Wright on the Market at this site). I think that delimiting the usage chronologically is a good idea, keeping it from becoming too broad to be useful.



Peter

Wouldn't the Vosburgh House in 1916 be the last Prairie House?

I like the comment of Peter Reidy that "prairie" represents a phase in Wright's career, otherwise I can't narrow down where it started and where it ended. Bands of windows, soaring cantilevers, low hip roofs, open floor plans. They are everywhere. Probably good that Wright was a great artist and not a great scholar. Artists make history, and scholars write about it.



Doug Kottum, Battle Lake, MN

Anonymous wrote:I find it interesting that several seem to think FLLW was wrong when he referred to Wingspread as the last prairie house. But, I guess there are some on this site that know more about FLLW's architecture than FLLW did.



As far as I'm concerned if FLLW said Wingspread was a prairie style, then who am I (or the rest of you) to argue with that.

On occassion Frank Lloyd Wright overstated for effect. He was not infallible. Careful anlysis and discussion of his work is healthy and it perpetrates his ideas and vision.

Minnesota is divided into three parts diagonally. The lake country occupies the northeastern portion, a swath cutting from the northwest corner to the southeast corner is referred to as the driftless area, and the southwestern corner is the northeast extent of the prairie, all of it defined by the paths of the glaciers which came and went many weeks ago. Describing any part of Wisconsin as prairie, "a flat grassland," is stretching it. FLW did not invent the prairie nomenclature for his work, and I doubt it meant all that much to him; too limiting. (He once regretted coming up with the term "organic.") The qualities that typically define prairie architecture can readily be seen in the Hardy House in Racine, and it's perch above the lake could hardly be called prairie. The broad, horizontal line of nature that informed Wright's work throughout his career was a metaphor to describe the expansive nature of American culture and its release from the constraints, not only of old Europe, but of the Europe-based culture of the east coast. As such, it should not be limited to any time frame.



... in my humble opinion.

Without getting sucked into a food fight, I was implying that Wrights usage of "prairie" relative to Wingspread was to make a statement (not unusual!) concerning that genre. Real or imagined, he felt he was never given full recognition for what he created in the earlier days and which was copied mercilessly. Twombly gives a good accounting of this.



I believe at the time he was designing Wingspread he was saying "You want Prairie? THIS is Prairie!" In that context he was alluding to the fact that HE had been the preeminent prairie architect (and still was!), and all others wannabe's. He no doubt felt this way. He was well aware early on that what he had created had become a "style", and is still true today. He had no reason to look at it any other way, since the prairie association to him was not stylistic, but a seminal and "organic" reference to the genesis of his design ethos. When labels were appropriate, he had no problem applying them, such as "usonian".



Since Wright abhorred "style" and took his relationship with architecture so personally, I'm convinced he never seriously considered the term "prairie house" an adequate expression of his art-when that term was, and is, used with such reckless abandon.