A New Avenue of Architecture for America "Why, I just shake the buildings out of my sleeves."ÃÂ"ÃÂFrank Lloyd Wright The Prairie School homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright during the turn of the century have influenced modern day architecture when homes took on a new meaning"ÃÂtheir improved functionality and the appearance were a refreshing change. Americans were brought out of the typical box-like home of that time and given an opportunity to live in an open spaced living quarters. The stuffy gingerbread homes were traded in for Wright's Prairie style homes, which were more attuned to the earth, and not just sitting clumsily atop of it like the Victorian homes did. Wright designed homes that were not of the typical European influence.
The importance of the Prairie School development marked a turning point in American lifestyles, for it tailored the American home"ÃÂgiving it a new identity"ÃÂand was an inventive and welcomed style.
Frank Lloyd Wright House and Studio, Oak Park, Chi...
Photo c by Jeff Dean.
Frank Lloyd Wright's Darwin D. Martin House, in Bu...The way we live today is directly influenced by Wright's work in the way modern homes allow for open and airy interiors and how the exteriors have evolved from the claustrophobic Victorian style. His versatile talent has shown his ability to shape and improve America.1 He has given America a new meaning to sophistication in architecture.
His prominent use of deep horizontal lines and the way his homes extend out lengthwise give the appearance of blending and compromising with the earth, rather than contradicting its beauty, as most of the Victorian style homes of that time did. Prairie style architecture became popular because it is not just aesthetically pleasing to the eye, but was an original approach and "free from stylish trappings of historic architecture"ÃÂ (Sprague 5). Homes up until the Prairie School time were generally all the same. The rooms were separated and the homes all...