FLW Tour Around Chicago – Last Part

With an afternoon flight home out of Chicago, I had one major Frank Lloyd Wright site to visit; his Home and Studio in Oak Park.

Last time I was through Chicago, many years ago, I’d tried to get onto one of the tours of the Home and Studio but there were no places for walk-ins. So this time around, I’d booked my tickets mid-week. On Sunday morning a colleague and I drove out to Oak Park. He was able to get a ticket on the spot and we took the 1-hour tour around the buildings.

The day before I’d visited Taliesin; his home that covered the period from when he returned from Europe to his death. It reflected the period when he was an established architect with ideas that were uniquely his own.

The Oak Park studio covered the 20 years from his early days under Adler & Sullivan (1890′s) and with his own practice (into the 1900′s). The house reflects this transition with many of the older rooms showing Sullivan’s influence and the latter rooms and Studio very much his own design. The Studio is particularly impressive.

The buildings include much of the original furniture. So, as with the Dan Thomas House, you get a great feeling for how the space was intended to be used. The House and Studio is well worth the time to visit.