For 42 years the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust has hosted an annual housewalk featuring a selection of private residences designed by the visionary architect, his home and studio, the Robie house in Hyde Park and Oak Park’s Unity Temple — plus examples of significant works by other early 20th-century architects.
That’s why the Trust named the annual fundraising event Wright Plus, to emphasize comparisons between Wright, his competitors and followers.
For this year’s housewalk on May 21, the comparisons will reveal far more similarities to Wright’s style. For the first time, every building on the tour has been designed by Wright himself or an architect trained in his studio.
“It’s the first year we’ve been able to curate a group of homes designed by his studio architects and develop that as a theme,” said Angela Whitaker, coordinator of the annual event.
For anyone who has ever considered taking part in the tour, this is a special opportunity. Tying the walk together through the studio allows us to emphasize Wright’s influence in a new way. Even for people who have participated previously, this is a great time to come back and see things in a different light.”
The walk will include five Prairie-style residences designed by Wright studio architects: William E. Drummond (Wright’s chief architect), John S. Van Bergen, Charles White and Barry Byrne. The Drummond-designed River Forest United Methodist Church will also be accessible May 21 as a Prairie School exhibit area including a presentation and displays.
Wright fans can explore Wright-designed buildings managed by the Trust year round (with the current, temporary exception of Unity Temple, which is undergoing reconstruction) and take walking tours featuring the exteriors of his buildings — 29 in the Oak Park area and nine in River Forest, the largest concentration anywhere. But Wright Plus offers the rare opportunity for inside access to some of those private homes and attracts large numbers of participants from around the world. Altogether, roughly 2,300 people (most of them from within a few hundred miles) attend the event.
Typically, three Wright-designed homes are included in the house walk, but this year there are four, including two special attractions. The Victorian-influenced Thomas Gale House (1892), an example of Wright’s early work, will be included for the first time and the William Winslow House (1893-4, Wright’s first independent commission) is returning to the tour for the first time in 39 years. What’s more, the inclusion of the Louisa and Harry Goodrich House (1896) and the Harry S. Adams House (1913, Wright’s final commission in Oak Park) offers an overview of Wright’s prolific 20-year career in the area and the development of his style.
“If people automatically connect Wright with Prairie design, they sometimes won’t know that he also worked in other styles,” Whitaker said. “That’s very much the case with the Winslow house, where you can see the influence of Sullivan in some of the metal work. Yet you can also see the beginnings of Prairie style there, especially in its linear feel.
“That’s why having the opportunity to compare the Winslow house to the Adams House and its fully developed Prairie style is so remarkable. You can really see the range Wright had and all the cycles he went through, even personally.”
The Wright Plus Housewalk will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 21 beginning at the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, 951 Chicago Ave., Oak Park. Tickets are $95 for Trust members; $110 for non-members. Tickets include admission May 22 to Wright’s Frederick C. Robie House and St. Thomas the Apostle Church (Barry Byrne) in Hyde Park. For more information, call 312-994-4000 or visit www.flwright.org