Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio

Category: Attraction

More than one hundred years ago, Frank Lloyd Wright sparked an architectural revolution with the opening of his Oak Park studio. The Home and Studio is one of two museum sites maintained by The Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust. Through its restoration and preservation efforts and many programs, the not-for-profit Preservation Trust presents Wright's structures, as well as his architectural and artistic principles, to a worldwide audience.

Wright added a studio to his personal Oak Park residence in 1898 and thereafter this complex served as Wright's architectural laboratory until 1909. Here he conceived the Prairie style of architecture, testing ideas that found their fullest expression in many of the surrounding homes he designed for clients.

The restoration of the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio was an intensive, meticulous effort that spanned 13 years and took $3 million to complete. Now open to the public as an historic house museum, the building has been restored to its 1909 appearance, the last year Wright lived and worked on the property. The restoration project involved some 30 architects and other design professionals, 80 contractors, craftsmen and major suppliers, more than 350 individuals from the building industry, the support of 100 board members, 50 staff members, in excess of 1,000 volunteers, and the financial contributions of more than 300,000 visitors, members and other donors since 1974. In 1987, the American Institute of Architects recognized this exemplary restoration effort with a prestigious National Honor award.