20th-Century Architecture: Frank Lloyd Wright

Decades before his 20th-century architectural masterworks like Fallingwater and the Guggenheim Museum, the young draftsman Frank Lloyd Wright got his start in 1888 Chicago, designing comfortable suburban homes.  

By 1900, he was designing distinctive homes with strong horizontal lines, low-stacked masses and geometric, organic forms: Prairie Style houses, set back, turning a shoulder to the street, concealing their entrances under sheltered overhangs. Inside, another story: An open, multilevel plan to play with space and light, stone and woodwork in serene autumnal colors, accented by Wright-designed fixtures and furniture—and with a hearth, of course, at its center. 

However Wright’s style evolved, he held true to those principles. The 1934 Willey House, built during the Great Depression, was the first house he designed specifically for the middle class. It served as the template for 60 Usonian homes designed by Wright or his apprentices for standardized mass production.  

Wright’s influence permeated Taliesin—his “learn by doing” school of architecture. It graduated more than 1,200 architects over its 88-year existence. They, and Wright inspired this 

Luxury Defined celebration of the 20th-century designs of the master and his devotees. 

1. The Winslow House in River Forest, Illinois 

The Winslow House is the first of Frank Lloyd Wright’s commissions as an independent architect and stands as his first “Prairie house.”  

Completed in 1894, it was built for William Winslow, who hired the young architect shortly after leaving the firm of Adler & Sullivan.  

In his autobiography, Wright wrote: “[I] had been yearning for simplicity. A new sense of simplicity as ‘organic.’ This had barely begun to take shape in my mind when the Winslow house was planned. But now it began in practice.” 

His “prairie house” has all of Wright’s trademarks: The limestone and golden Roman brick symmetrical facade, with its wide windows, shelters under a gently sloping hip roof and wide eaves. The terracotta frieze and leaf-worked leaded glass are homage to Louis Sullivan’s organic ornamentation. 

The floor plan, more than 5,000 square feet, centers on the entrance hall with its signature inglenook fireplace (one of three wood-burning fireplaces), from which flow the library, living room and dining room—all with hand-carved woodwork and art glass accents. 

More than $1 million in new renovations preserved the historical integrity. Air conditioned throughout, the home features a thoroughly contemporary eat-in island kitchen, a family room, and a conservatory overlooking the rear gardens. 

The five upstairs bedrooms (with three full bathrooms) include the primary en suite, with its luxurious walk-in closet.  

The third floor has an office/recreation space with a full bath and ample storage. The coach house accommodates a three-car garage and a self-contained apartment with a kitchen, bathroom, and two bedrooms. 

2. The Henry O. Bollman Residence in Los Angeles, California 

After collaborating on Frank Lloyd Wright’s seminal Hollyhock House, Wright’s son Lloyd Wright built the Henry O. Bollman Residence in a modernist Mesoamerican style, using the knit-block construction technique later adopted by his father.    

It was 1923 and just his second independent commission, but the 33-year-old Wright had learned his craft from his father and master designers of his era. Today, the younger Wright’s vision remains entirely intact, a Los Angeles Cultural Historical Monument, with sensitive updates for 21st-century living.  

Those patterned concrete blocks and Mesoamerican masses evoke a sense of Hollywood spectacle, while the open plan interior and easy exterior were decades ahead of their time.  

The Wrightian glasswork, the four light-filled bedrooms, two vintage-inspired bathrooms, an airy, contemporary island kitchen, and a verdant private patio offer 2,518 square feet of move-in-ready living space—in a masterpiece of Los Angeles modernism. 

The property, preserving elements of Wright’s original landscape design, sits on more than 8,100 square feet in the Sunset Square Historic Preservation Overlay Zone, with significant property tax savings transferred to the new owners under the Mills Act. 

Related: Discover Riverfront Retreats

3. Lakefront Midcentury Modern in St. Joseph, Michigan 

This 1938 Mid-century Modern ranch house on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s elegant Usonian designs.  

The current owners rebuilt, re-engineered, and redesigned to contemporary standards yet held true to its Wright-inspired design.  

The 2,236-square-foot structure, built on one level on a 1.5-acre wooded bluff, raises its low-slung roof with a tall brick chimney to balance the symmetries. The carport adds dimension and a sightline to the dramatic lakeside setting. 

Hardwood floors and handcrafted wood finishes distinguish the open-concept floor plan. Its earth tones and textures are amplified by white paint and tile, and sunlight, streaming in from oversized windows and sliding glass doors. 

The home takes advantage of its wooded, blufftop location, with two lake-view decks, an outdoor kitchen, and an outdoor shower. The 250 feet of lakefront is protected by a seawall. A private pier with a swim deck has a perfect sunset view.  

4. Deer Isle Coastal Contemporary in Stonington, Maine 

Penobscot Bay is the setting for this eclectic, Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired contemporary home on the coast of Deer Isle, Maine.  

Built in 2001, the three-bedroom, two-bathroom house raises its bold angles and cantilevered rooflines above the wooded 13.11-acre estate and its 814 feet of shorefront. Architect James W. Schildroth designed the cantilever’s great slope to embrace ground-level rock-garden landscaping—and a stairway rising to a second-floor sundeck.  

Those structural members that frame the house show Wright’s organic themes at play. Architectural glass walls, doors and windows let in the landscape while illuminating large interior spaces, all warmly finished in lustrous iroko wood walls and ceilings, and granite floors.  

A fireside lounge flows to the double-height great room, adjoining a glass-walled dining alcove. The doors of the sleek stainless-steel galley kitchen open to a veranda. 

There is also a magnificent, paneled office/study and an acoustically tuned media space. A pantry/utility room connects the main part of the house to the oversized, heated, three-car garage and workshop. 

The shorefront includes an expanse of sandy beach. The property is subject to a Conservation Easement held by Maine Coast Heritage. 

5. The Frederick C. Bogk House in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

The Bogk House was Wright’s only single-family residential project in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as “a good house from a good period for a good client.”

The client, alderman and entrepreneur Frederick C. Bogk and his wife, Mary, commissioned the house while Wright was set to sail for Japan to oversee construction of Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel. That complex, which later survived a devastating earthquake, made Wright famous.

This is only the second time the Bogks’ 6,712-square-foot house on Milwaukee’s east side has been offered for sale in its 107-year history. The present owners have been faithful stewards since 1955.

The monolithic concrete ornamentation of the façade evokes the Unity Temple (1904). The use of sculptural decorative elements recalls those of Midway Gardens (1913).

The entrance, true to form, is on the side of the house to avoid disrupting the façade’s elaborate concrete ornamentation. The green-tiled hip roof and the substantial lintel over the windows emphasize the home’s vertical and horizontal lines. That intricately patterned frieze on the exterior conceals Wright’s uncharacteristic inclusion of an attic—a feature Mrs. Bogk demanded to keep her laundry indoors.

Perhaps more significant in the design, however, is the architect’s emphasis on a free-flowing, open first-floor plan—the design strategy that would become the hallmark of Wright’s domestic interiors for the rest of his career.

Find Frank Lloyd Wright’s inspired style here.