FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
1867 - 1959
BIOGRAPHY (1867 – 1909)
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Born June 8, 1867 in Richland Center, Wisconsin
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Ancestors moved to America in 1844
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Moved five times over ten years
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Were very righteous and their motto was “Truth against the World.”
Welsh branch of the Unitarian faith. “The idea of unity, ‘the UNITY of all things!”
Helped FLW learn to make friends easily and engage in new places.
Mother, Anna, was predetermining his life by hanging pictures of architecture in his
rooms.
Froebel Schooling
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Emphasizes learning from nature, and learning by doing.
Helps FLW to distinguish geometric shapes that hide beneath external appearances
giving structure to every natural and manmade thing, and “to see each thing in its
organic unity.”
FLW’s respect for nature and the ideal of unity were reinforced through this training.
“..it is in drawing that the child pre-eminently shows himself to be creative.”
BIOGRAPHY (1867 – 1909)
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Chicago 1887
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Moved to Chicago and worked for Silsbee.
Worked for Adler & Sullivan
Oak Park, Illinois, upper class Chicago
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Opens own practice in 1893
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Prairie Style 1899 – 1909
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In the Cause of Architecture 1908
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The program for Prairie Style Houses between 1893 and 1910
Six principles in Prairie Style Homes, which is based on nature and Japanese art
Europe 1909
EARLY INTELLECTUAL INFLUENCES
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FLW fundamental principles and beliefs formed by the Transcendental thinkers.
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Transcendentalism is best represented by the writings of Emerson.
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Transcendentalist thinking was also influenced by Whitman and Greenough.
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“Transcendentalists held that each physical thing was the consequence of, and
had consequences for, spiritual thought, and that the forms we made were a
direct effect of our characters.”
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“…because human being were a product of nature, they were eminently suited
to intuit the principles of nature.”
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“All form had moral meaning, and nature was the model”
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Tried to achieve a harmony with nature after the industrial revolution.
EARLY INTELLECTUAL INFLUENCES
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Transcendentalist were united through their early religious thoughts of
Unitarianism – “…the ideal of unity, the unity of all things understood to be the
beginning and the end of all humankind’s efforts to achieve truth.”
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An exploration of non-western philosophies, such as the traditions of Oriental
spirituality.
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Belief and judgments were founded upon each individual’s ethical intuition.
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“Wright was far more interested in designing the world than in representing it –
designing here understood as discerning the underlying structure of nature and
working with it.”
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Froebel Schooling reiterated these teachings.
INFLUENCES IN CHICAGO
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Silsbee 1887
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“Silsbee influenced by the wood shingle-clad houses of Henry Hobson Richardson,
considered the father of American architecture by his contemporaries.”
Cecil Corwin through Silsbee would teach FLW a lot about the house and the needs of
a home.
Adler & Sullivan 1888
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Transcendentalist like FLW
“…learn principles, not copy shapes.”
“…begin from the heart as the nucleus, and work outwards.” Form follows function.
Against classical forms and ornamentation that was exhausted in the Western world
Learned acoustics and structures from Adler.
Art of nurture – “a process of design where the architect seeks a fit between function
and form, fitting the spatial geometry to the pattern of human activity, and where the
nature of the materials with which the design is made has a significant effect on the
design..
INFLUENCES IN CHICAGO
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Japanese Art (Phoenix Hall of the Exposition of 1893)
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Based on the Ho-o-den.
Would transform many aspects of it like the cruciform plan, horizontal proportions,
screen-like walls, lack of rigid interior room divisions, cantilevered roofs that gave
shade, and the tokonoma at the center.
Tokonoma served as an inspiration of FLW to “…treat the dwelling as a form of
temple to tradition family life – based around the ‘alter’ or central communal hearth.”
PHOENIX HALL
EARLY WORKS
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Moonlight house designs
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Charnley family vacation cottage.
Sullivan vacation cottage
Sullivan’s mother’s house
Bootleg house designs
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1887 School house for aunts Jane and Nell
 Shingle-clad, house-like structure. Influenced by Silsbee.
Dr. Allison Harlan House
George Blossom House
Warren MacArthur House
Robert Emmond House
1891 James Charnley House
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“…first sensed the definitely decorative value of the plain surface…the flat plane.”
Inspired by John Root
CHARNLEY HOUSE
EARLY INDEPENDENT WORKS
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1893 FLW opens own practice
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1894 Monolithic Concrete Bank
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Related to the forms of the Egyptian Temples.
Exposed concrete, radical for this time.
Fusion of its form, structure and material, is opposite of the steel-frame office building.
1895 Luxfer Prism Company Building
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Used specially formed glass blocks that bounced the light inward.
Used the oldest forms of geometries. Learned from Froebel training, The Grammar of
Ornament, and work with Sullivan.
Bring these geometries the rest of his life.
EARLY INDEPENDENT WORKS
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1895 Francisco Terrace Apartments
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1896 Isidore Heller House
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Living and dining room are each cruciform in plan.
Narrow, deep lot.
1899 Joseph Husser House
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Spacious interior court with corner stairs
Open-air balcony walkway. Early example of “street in the air” employed in Europe 25
years later.
Rooms aligned along a central axis.
1893 – 1899
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12 single family houses
6 apartment building
1 public project
23 unbuilt projects
EARLY LECTURES
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1894 and 1896 public lectures
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Would teach the latest thinking of the house.
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“…concepts of integrating with the natural site; simpler roof-forms; introduction of
sunlight to the interior; being smaller and simpler in organization; containing as few
rooms as possible – eliminating the parlor and collecting all family activities, including
dining and entertainment for guests, into one large living room; using built-in and
machine-made furniture; integrating services within the fabric of the house, such as
building in heating radiators under window; employment of newly available, ‘truly
modern’ and ‘matchless’ plumbing fixtures’ and efficient, well-organized kitchens –
which Wright employed the nomenclature of the housing reformers, as well as his own
ideal of an indigenous architecture that achieves both utility and beauty.”
In the 1894 lecture FLW states, “there should be as many types of homes as there are
types of people, for it is the individuality of the occupants that should give character
and color to the building.”
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These houses and ideas would develop and influence FLW’s later designs
creating his own concepts and principles in the Prairie Style.
HUSSER AND HELLER HOUSE
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Heller House
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Husser House
PRAIRIE STYLE 1899 - 1909
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Two buildings published for The Ladies’ Home Journal commissioned in 1901.
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A Home in a Prairie Town
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A Small House With Lots of Room in It
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“arranged to offer the least resistance to a simple mode of living, in keeping with a
high ideal of the family life together.”
Horizontal exterior with deep roof overhangs “recognizes the influence of the prairie.”
First appearance of an American Suburb
Cruciform plan: Center space the most important, spaces become one.
Hickox House
Price $6,970 (166,124.27)
Clients wanted houses smaller and less expensive, but with lots of space and good
features
Pinwheel plan
Bradley House
Price $5,835 (142,759.22)
Both developed from the cruciform plan which would be brought into every
Prairie Style for this period.
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Allows for light, air, and views to enter the home
Projecting and pin wheeling spaces that revolves around a central fireplace.
PRAIRIE STYLE 1899 - 1909
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A Home in a Prairie Town
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Cruciform Design
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Hickox House
PRAIRIE STYLE 1899 - 1909
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A Small House With Lots of Room in It
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Pinwheel Design
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Bradley House
PRAIRIE STYLE 1899 - 1909
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Pinwheel and Cruciform evolution
PRAIRIE STYLE 1899 - 1909
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At this point FLW developed his own designs, principles, and themes for these
homes.
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“In a fine art sense these designs have grown as natural plants grow, the
individuality of each is integral and as complete as skill, time, strength and
circumstances would permit.”
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“Nature’s wealth of artistic suggestion, ensuring him a guiding principle within
which he can never be wholly false, out of tune, or lacking in rational motif.
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“This connection to nature, the positive reason families were moving to the
suburbs, remained for Wright the primary inspiration for his Prairie Houses.”
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“…were characterized by exceptional spatial freedom, rigorous formal order, and
a combination of usefulness and comfort heretofore unknown in either the Old or
New World.”
PRAIRIE STYLE 1899 - 1909
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1900 Concerning Landscape Architecture lecture
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Honor each plant and tree.
“Landscape architecture were equally important in creating a community, and that the
natural environment was more influential on our character than the cultivated conduct
of good society – though indeed he two are not that widely separated. You will find
the environment reflecting unerringly the society.”
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Weave together exterior and interior spaces.
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The community should be built through the house. The rest will follow.
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The landscape and the home shall be one.
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Either one cannot appear complete without the other with this interdependence.
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Prairie House projects during this period
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65 Built
65 Unbuilt
PRAIRIE STYLE 1899 - 1909
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Prairie Style
PRAIRIE STYLE 1899 - 1909
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Prairie Style
ARCHITECTURE AND MACHINES
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The Art and Craft of the Machine 1901
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Based on Morris and Ruskin’s ideas
Criticized and exulted the British Arts and Craft Movement.
Machines were an absolute necessity in modern art and architecture.
Architecture is a kind of weaving, reconceived in modern terms.
“…the straight-line rectangular cuts of sawmill machines will provide the wood trim of the modern age,
free of any decorative pattern except for the natural grain of the wood itself.”
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FLW engaged the machine and nature as paradigms for architectural design in the modern
age.
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Nature of the material is revealed in the machines work.
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“The machine is here to stay. It is the forerunner of the democracy that is our dearest
hope.”
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“The machine is the normal tool of our civilization, give it work that it can do well – nothing
is of greater importance.”
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“There is no more important work before the architect now that to use this normal tool of
civilization to the best advantage instead of prostituting it as he has hitherto done in
reproducing with murderous ubiquity forms born of other times and other conditions and
which it can only serve to destroy.”
IN THE CAUSE OF ARCHITECTURE
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In the Cause of Architecture (1908)
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Program containing six principles based on nature and Japanese art.
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1. Simplicity an Repose
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A building should contain the fewest rooms possible for living conditions.
Comfort and utility should go hand and hand with the beauty
Only three rooms on the ground floor: living, dining, and kitchen
Openings should occur as integral features of the structure and form.
Decoration is dangerous. Just because it looks good does not mean you should use it.
Appliances and fixtures should be integrated into the design.
Pictures should be decorative not unnecessary
The furniture should be built in so that it is part of the overall scheme.
2. “There should be as many kinds (styles) of houses as there are kinds (styles) of
people and as many differentiations as there are different individuals.”
IN THE CAUSE OF ARCHITECTURE
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3. “A building should appear to grow easily from its site and be shaped to harmonize
with its surroundings.”
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4. Colors should come from nature.
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5. “Bring out the nature of the materials.”
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Reveal the nature of the wood, plaster, brick, or stone.
They are all by nature, friendly and beautiful.
6. “Buildings like people must first be sincere, must be true and then withal as
gracious and lovable as may be.”
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A house that has good character will grow more valuable as times change.
PRAIRIE STYLE HOMES
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1902 Willits House
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First true Prairie Style House.
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Pinwheel plan with cruciform structure.
Form of house comes from the “primary, central, comparatively solid, vertical volume of the living
room.”
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PRAIRIE STYLE HOMES
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1902 Dana House
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Open rooms with movement occurring through them.
Encourages shared experiences and social encounters
PRAIRIE STYLE PUBLIC BUILDINGS
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1902 Hillside Home School for aunts Ellen and Jane
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Same cruciform plan and the homes.
Primary space of the school is the meeting room, two story in space and having a
mezzanine balcony.
PRAIRIE STYLE HOMES
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1903 Martin House
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High point in the Prairie Style
Five separate structures linked by interlocking gardens.
Series of cruciform pavilions creates a matrix of places in the landscape.
PRAIRIE STYLE PUBLIC BUILDINGS
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1902 Larkin Building
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Created a humane workplace and environment.
Organized around a central courtyard illuminated with skylights.
Higher windows create views of the sky and not the industrial surroundings
First air-conditioning in the U.S.
Services and stairs located on the outer corners of the building opening up the interior.
First built in filing cabinets.
First wall-hung toilets and partitions.
Cantilevered desk chairs for quicker cleaning.
The company officers on the ground floor while the workers were located above them,
creating them as equals.
Music played during the day from an organ and Emerson was read during the workers
breaks.
PRAIRIE STYLE PUBLIC BUILDINGS
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Larkin Building 1902
PRAIRIE STYLE PUBLIC BUILDINGS
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1905 Unity Temple
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New expression for liberal religious space.
Engaged FLW’s deep understanding of Unitarianism.
Complete integration of material and space, and unity of place and experience.
First exposed, reinforced cast concrete public building in America.
Top-lit central sanctuary with 25 amber colored skylights.
A square integrated with a cruciform so it forms balconies at the edges.
Central room supported by four massive square piers. These carry structural loads
and heated air.
Four stairways are located on the outer corners.
Intimate and monumental.
PRAIRIE STYLE PUBLIC BUILDINGS
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Unity Temple
PRAIRIE STYLE HOMES
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1908 Robie House
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Single large space separated by the fireplace.
Daring overhangs
Full length glass doors running the whole length of the open space on the south side.
June 21, the longest day of the year, the overhangs were designed so the sun
touches the bottom of the edge of the glass doors. On December 21, the shortest day
of the year, the sun enters throughout the whole dining and living spaces heating the
floor.
PRAIRIE STYLE PUBLIC BUILDINGS
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Robie House
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QUESTIONS?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Birk, Melanie. Frank Lloyd Wright and the Prairie. New York: Universe Publishing, 1998.
City of Springfield. Historic Sites Commission of Springfield, Illinios. 25 February 2008
<http://www.springfield.il.us/Commissions/HistSites/images/SubPages/LargePhotos/pic2-Dana-Thomas-House.jpg>.
Heinz, Thomas A. The Vision of Frank Lloyd Wright. Edison, NJ: Chartwell Books, 2001.
Hoffmann, Donald. Frank Lloyd Wright Architecture and Nature. Toronto: Constable and Company, Ltd, 1986.
Kruft, Hanno-Walter. A History of Architectural Theory From Vitruvius to the Present. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1994.
McCarter, Robert. Frank Lloyd Wright. London: Reaktion Books Ltd, 2006.
—. On and By Frank Lloyd Wright: A Primer of Architectural Principles. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2005.
Online Photograph Boston College. Hillside Home School. 25 February 2008 <http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/flw/hillside03.jpg>.
Online Photograph DK Images. Charnley House. 23 February 2008 <http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/906/50475261.JPG>.
Online Photograph Encyclopaedia Britannica Junior. Phoenix Hall. 23 February 2008 <http://junior.britannica.com/eb/art-2865>.
Online Photograph Exploring Art. Martin House. 25 February 2008 <http://www.exploringart.net/uploads/FrankLloydWright/martin-3.jpg>.
Online Photograph Grand Island Historical Society. Darwin Martin House. 25 February 2008 <http://www.isledegrande.com/giimages11/darwinmartin-house-a.jpg>.
Online Photograph Prairie Styles. Charnley House. 23 February 2008 <http://www.prairiestyles.com/images/architects/sullivan_l/charnley.jpg>.
—. Willits House. 25 February 2008 <http://www.prairiestyles.com/images/architects/wright/willits2.jpg>.
Online Photograph PrairieMod. Monolithic Concrete Bank. 23 February 2008 <http://prairiemod.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/bank.jpg>.
Online Photograph Walt Lockley. Larking Building. 25 February 2008
<http://www.waltlockley.com/architecturalsculpture/LarkinAdministrationBuilding1906.jpg>.
Online Photograph Wikipedia. Dana-Thomas House. 25 February 2008
<http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Dana_House_plans_Springfield%2C_IL.jpg>.
Williamson, Samuel H. Five Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.S. Dollar Amount, 1790-2006. 24 February 2008
<http://www.measuringworth.com>.
Wright, Frank Lloyd. "In the Cause of Architecture." Architectural Record (1975): 53 - 119.