Frank Lloyd Wright’s early years

In 1867, just two years after President Lincoln’s assassination, Frank Lincoln Wright was born to William Cary Wright and Anna Lloyd-Jones. Influenced by his father’s love of classical music and his mother’s creative teaching methods, young Frank was introduced to famous architecture through drawings and paintings.  His mother believed he was destined to be an architect and design great buildings.  Upon the divorce of his parents, Wright would change his name to Frank Lloyd Wright to honor his mother’s family.  Eventually his family would locate to Madison, Wisconsin, where Frank would attend Madison High School, but never graduate.

As a teen, Wright worked on his uncle’s farm developing an appreciation of nature and a love for architecture.  Upon abandoning high school, he went to work for the dean of the Engineering Department at the University of Wisconsin and spent some time at the University studying engineering.  In 1887, he relocated to Chicago, Illinois.

In Chicago, Wright would be given the opportunity to draft his first building, the Unity Chapel. Within a year, he would work directly under local famed architect, Louis Sullivan. Louis Sullivan would be the one to teach Wright that “form follows function.” Wright would later re-adapt this philosophy as “form and function are one.”

Famous Frank Lloyd Wright buildings

During his seventy years as an architect, Frank Lloyd Wright would become famous  across the world. He was commissioned to design buildings as far away as Tokyo.

In 1991, the American Institute of Architects named Wright the greatest American architect of all time.  In 2000, the A.I.A. selected their top ten favorite buildings of the twentieth century: Wright’s Fallingwater topped this list, with the Robie House, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Johnson Administration Building also among the select few. His ideas about the environment and architecture allowed for truly unique buildings that are still loved, even today.