| The Shocking Winslow House | |
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Continued from The House Wright Hated > Page 1, 2, 3, 4 |
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Frank Lloyd Wright despised the "stale" and "backward looking" ideas of designers who imitated historic styles. He thought that architects should create a vibrant, new American landscape, free from restrictions of the past. He was only in his twenties when he designed the long, low Winslow House. The house is considered by many to be an early form of Wright's revolutionary Prairie style architecture.
Frank Lloyd Wright created a stir when he designed the Winslow House
Photo copyright © Steve Estes. Reprinted with permission.
The Winslow House was praised by some, scorned by others. Wright was pleased with it, but his friend, Nathan G. Moore, insisted that he did not want his own home to create such a stir.
Wright needed money. He had a family to support. He agreed to build Mr. Moore a conventional house in a trendy style that was becoming popular in America's suburban neighborhoods: English Tudor.
This was not the first time Wright yielded to the whims of his clients. When he worked for the office of Louis Sullivan, he secretly designed quiet little Queen Anne houses for his friends. But the Nathan G. Moore house was a public affair. It carried Wright's name, and to his dismay, it became just as famous as the more adventuresome Winslow house.
"The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his clients to plant vines."
--Frank Lloyd Wright, New York Times Magazine,
October 4, 1953
The Moore House we see today is actually a remake of Wright's original plan. Wright was no longer a struggling young architect when he designed the second version, and yet many of the Tudor elements remain. In both designs, Wright combined historical conventions with innovations and unusual, sometimes exotic, details.
A Tale of Two Houses > Page 1, 2, 3, 4
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