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| Exterior of the Frederick C. Robie House. Photographer: Tim Long. Photo courtesy of the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust. |
Frederick C. Robie
House
and
The Treasure: Considered by many to be the culmination of
his Prairie style phase, the Frederick C. Robie House is a key architectural
masterpiece in the Frank Lloyd Wright canon.
Accessibility: The Frederick C. Robie House is open Thursday
through Monday, with a variety of tour options available.
Background: There’s spiritual power in a fully-realized
Frank Lloyd Wright building. Time after time, Wright found ways to take his observations of nature, his knowledge of his clients’ needs, his own
aesthetic ideals, and his endless urge to push the envelope on the latest
engineering science—and emerge with spiritual statements eloquently expressed through form,
space, and light.
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| Frank Lloyd Wright in 1926. Source: Wikimedia Commons |
When 41-year-old Frank Lloyd Wright accepted the commission
to design a house for Frederick C. Robie and his wife in 1908, he had already spent nearly a decade
developing and implementing the radically new ideas behind his Prairie style. Although
Wright’s ever-restless mind was ready to move in new directions, Robie House
provided an opportunity to showcase the Prairie style on a grand scale.
The exterior and the interior of Robie House offer a
near-complete catalog of Wright’s Prairie style themes. Its strong horizontality
places it in harmony with its original flat landscape setting. American
political and social freedom is embodied in the flow of large open spaces
within the house. Stylized Wright-designed art glass panels suggest natural
forms, linking the interior with the world outside and bathing the living
spaces in natural light.
Responding to American architect Louis Sullivan’s famous
dictum that “form follows function,” Wright elaborated, “Form follows function—that has been misunderstood.
Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.” Wright’s
response has often been quoted simply as “form and function should be one,” leaving
out his dedication toward creating that spiritual union. Looking for inspiration in
nature and art, Wright’s holistic architectural designs always move toward the
spiritual.
During the checkered
history of the Robie House, one-time owners the Chicago Theological Seminary
sought to tear down Wright’s masterpiece in 1957. Wright himself joined the efforts
to save the house. Referring to the seminary leaders, he revealingly quipped,
“It all goes to show the danger of entrusting anything spiritual to the
clergy.” There’s never a division in Wright’s world—even the domestic setting
of a house needs to be respected as a spiritual space.
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| The living room of the Frederick C. Robie House, showing Wright's characteristic use of open space and art panel windows. Photographer: Tim Long. Photo courtesy of the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust. |
The Robie House
has been hailed as a masterpiece from the start. Within a year of the house’s
completion in 1910, Wright promoted the Robie House in the Wasmuth Portfolio, a publication that spread Wright’s revolutionary
architectural ideas throughout Europe . The
American Institute of Architects named the Robie House as one of the ten most
significant structures of the 20th century. In 1956, the Architectural Record cited it as “one of
the seven most notable residences ever built in America
Other Recommended
Sites: When my family visited Chicago a couple of years ago, we
didn’t get to the Robie House but we had a truly wonderful time touring the
Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, another important site managed by the Frank
Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust. Located in Oak Park , the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and
Studio is where Wright developed his Prairie style. Advance tickets are
recommended, so check their site in advance for availability.
After our docent-led tour of the Home and Studio, we enjoyed
the self-guided walking tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright Historic District. It
takes you past many Wright-designed homes and even up into town to see his
famous Unity Temple
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| The Frederick C. Robie House, bedroom level, showing work on the roof. The Save America's Treasures grant was used toward a roof restoration project, involving removal of non-historic clay tiles, stabilization of the roof structure, and installation of historically correct clay shingles. Photo courtesy of the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust. |
Tour America's History Itinerary
Thursday’s destination: Chicago Botanic Garden
© 2013 Lee Price
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