Travel Tips

As a bit of an architectural buff, I enjoy visiting Frank Lloyd Wright buildings. He was the first architect I took a serious interest in. It started when I was an undergraduate at Washington University in St. Louis, and I took a class called "Art and Civilization" offered by a grand old professor, Norris Kelly Smith. He was that rare educator who changes the way you look at the world. Everyone on campus _had_ to take his class, everyone had an opinion about "Norris K," and everyone wanted to know and talk about what he thought about modern art and architecture. Smith had written one of the most important early studies of F. L. Wright's "Fallingwater" house. And I thought that if an architect was worthy of the praise and consideration of my professor, he must have done something of value with his life.

Frank Lloyd Wright is one of the seminal figures of American Culture. I would say that he is a perfect representive of that Culture, with tremendous strengths and glaring weaknesses. Certainly his life and work has mesmerized generations. Novels and operas have been written about his stormy personal turmoils, he inspired Ayn Rand's fantasy "The Fountainhead," he has been the subject of a Ken Burns documentary.

The Dana-Thomas House, in Springfield Illinois, is one of the best preserved Wright houses in the Midwest.

Cedar Rock, a Wright House in Quasqueton Iowa. Again, the key principle is light, and the way in which Wright was concerned with taking maximum advantage of the topography of the building site.

There are several Frank Lloyd Wright residences in and around Milwaukee.

There are a slew of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings on the campus of Florida Southern College. Check out my Lakeland Florida page to see some of them. These "esplanades" - covered walkways - are another important Wright contribution to FSC.

The Greek Orthodox Church, in Wauwatosa Wisconsin - it's on my Milwaukee Page.

Wright's designs for a Madison WI conference center - Monona Terrace - were essentially completed in the 1950s, but the project was abandoned for decades, and it was only "realized" in the 1990s. Thus, this is the "newest" Frank Lloyd Wright" building in the world. Do you notice how the semi-circle "shell" motif from the Greek Orthodox Church in Milwaukee re-appears here?