Around America with Frank Lloyd Wright

The Prairie School is considered one of the first distinctly American styles of architecture. Wright was its greatest proponent, and the Robie House with its red brick, low roofs, and wide eaves, exemplifies the style. It's no surprise it's now a US National Historic Landmark.

When Herbert and Katherine Jacobs commissioned their first house from Wright in 1937, he used the opportunity to build a utopian 'Usonian' home, constructed from plywood, designed around 'workspaces' rather than grand rooms, and intended to be built all over the USA.

For all his utopianism, Wright was a difficult person to live and work with. In 1903 he began an affair with a client's wife, and the pair ended up eloping to Europe. When they returned, he bought up a parcel of land and by 1911 had built a new house for himself, named Taliesin.

In 1914, Taliesin was the scene of a horrific crime. While Wright was working in Chicago, a servant named Julian Carlton set fire to the building and murdered seven people, including Wright's girlfriend Mamah Cheney and her children, with an axe. Wright later rebuilt Taliesin.

Later in life, Wright's style underwent another major shift, as shown in the singular Guggenheim Museum. The spiralling building was conceived as a 'temple of the spirit', and allows visitors an uninterrupted flow of art from floor to ceiling.