Between 1898 and 1909, Frank Lloyd Wright’s residential studio in the idyllic Chicago suburb of Oak Park served as a nontraditional work setting as he matured into a leader in his field and formulized his iconic design ideology. Here, architectural historian Lisa D. Schrenk breaks the myth of Wright as the lone genius and reveals new insights into his early career. With a rich narrative voice and meticulous detail, Schrenk tracks the practice’s evolution: addressing how the studio fit into the Chicago-area design scene; identifying other architects working there and their contributions; and exploring how the suburban setting and the nearby presence of Wright’s family influenced office life. Built as an addition to his 1889 shingle-style home, Wright’s studio was a core site for the ideological development of the prairie house, one of the first truly American forms of residential architecture. Schrenk documents the educational atmosphere of Wright’s office in the context of his developing design ideology, revealing three phases as he transitioned from colleague to leader. This heavily illustrated book includes a detailed discussion of the physical changes Wright made to the building and how they informed his architectural thinking and educational practices. Schrenk also addresses the later transformations of the building, including into an art center in the 1930s, its restoration in the 1970s and 80s, and its current use as a historic house museum. Based on significant original and archival research, including interviews with Wright’s family and others involved in the studio and 180 images, The Oak Park Studio of Frank Lloyd Wright offers the first comprehensive look at the early independent office of one of the world’s most influential architects.

Frank Lloyd Wright began making contributions to the Modern movement in his home in Oak Park.

"Frank Lloyd Wright lived and worked in Oak Park from 1889 until 1909. He raised six children with his first with, Catherine, in the home and began his remarkable seventy-year career in the adjacent studio. Here Wright created a wholly new form of American architecture known as the Prarie style because it reflects the landscape of midwestern plains. Through frequent additions and modifications, Wright's Oak Park home and studio served as the first testing ground for his imaginative genius. A tour of the building moves from the early home to the later studio, a sequence that reveals the evolving ideas of his first twenty years in practice and thr origin of the principles he was to develop throughout the rest of his career." -- pg. 3.

"Lisa Schrenk offers a detailed assessment of Frank Lloyd Wright's studio in Oak Park, Illinois. She focuses on the educational atmosphere of Wright's office in the context of his developing design ideology, revealing three phases as Wright transitioned from colleague to leader to teacher between 1898 and 1909. She investigates both the minutiae of daily operations and the larger relationship between the school and Wright's design ethos, as well as his place in the Chicago architectural world. The school was in many ways a laboratory for Wright's work, yet it was also his first sustained attempt at teaching others"--

Oak Park and River Forest are a mecca for Wright scholars and enthusiasts. Nowhere else can one visit so many Frank Lloyd Wright buildings and experience the architect's Prairie-style philosophy so fully. Hometown Architect is a thorough chronicle of that experience. Even if you have not had the good fortune to see these houses firsthand, the textual and photographic tours comprising this book will make you feel as though you have. Hometown Architect presents twenty-seven Wright homes, and Unity Temple, documenting one of the architect's most influential periods of his career. The last chapter surveys eight lost, altered, and possibly Wright homes. More than ninety photographs of the buildings' exteriors and interiors are accompanied by descriptive captions, while introductory text to each chapter details the story behind each commission, addressing Wright's relationships with his clients, the importance of each building in Wright's oeuvre, and the characteristics that make each house unique. The endpapers of this book feature a map locating all the sites discussed. By Patrick F. Cannon, introduction by Paul Kruty, photography by James Caulfield. Published in cooperation with the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust.