Seth Saith: Frank Lloyd Wright Oak Park

Showing posts with label Frank Lloyd Wright Oak Park. Show all posts

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Appreciating the Beauty of Unity at Frank Lloyd Wright's Majestic Temple in Oak Park

I have long loved the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright and have availed myself of many opportunities to see, tour and/or photograph it.

This fascination with FLW is more robustly explained in a post from last year featuring photographs of homes Wright designed along Forest Avenue in Oak Park, IL, so I'll keep this post light in exposition.

Although I had toured Wright's Unity Temple (website) in the past, it has been quite awhile. So after a meeting in Oak Park the other day, I happily dropped in for a guided tour.

Led by a volunteer docent named Carole, the tour--which covered the building's social hall and other areas before leading into the glorious sanctuary--was quite worthwhile, and along with much else, delighted me through a somewhat odd collision of two of my greatest creative heroes.

While giving a variety of insights within the sanctuary, seemingly out of nowhere Carole asked if we--me and the other tour guest, who was an actual architectural historian in Chicago for a convention--knew who Bruce Springsteen was.

Rather than responding that I knew every lyric of every song on every album and had seen him live 43 times, I simply said yes. To which she said that his drummer--"Max Weinberg!" I exhorted--was a big architecture buff and had made a point of getting out to Oak Park to see Unity Temple the last time the band was in Chicago (presumably September 2012).

And that not only had he toured the masterpiece, but noting the ongoing restoration project and fundraising drive, Max had donated a pair of prime Springsteen tickets that were auctioned off and raised $4,000.

Pretty cool. As of course, is Unity Temple, which the photo gallery below should illustrate. But even if you're not in town for a convention or sold out rock concerts, it's well-worth the $15 admission fee to see it for yourself. (Those who love Frank Lloyd Wright may also want to see posts including photos of the Robie House and the Park Inn Hotel in Mason City, Iowa, where I stayed for a night last year.)

Friday, May 24, 2013

Frank Imagery: Photographing My Way Wright Down Forest Ave. in Oak Park

I first became fascinated by Frank Lloyd Wright and his brilliant architecture 20 years ago, in 1993, likely right around this time.

Although I had grown up in the Chicago area, with a childhood enchantment with architecture and a sister who would study it, I don't recall knowing--or certainly much caring--about Wright through college or my time living in California from 1990-1992.

I don't think I had ever gone to Oak Park--Wright's home from 1889-1909 and the city with the largest concentration of his work--nor had I visited any of his glorious California houses during my time in the Los Angeles area (though I would later).

This memory and chronology may not quite be exact, but after returning to Skokie in early January 1993, I went to Europe for the first time (London and Paris, with side trips to Liverpool and Giverny) in May of that year.

Although I'd always cherished and explored Chicago, and L.A. for that matter, I believe it was my experiences in Europe that truly turbo-charged my passion for becoming a tourist in my hometown, something I think everyone should do.

One aspect of this in 1993 was making a point of discovering classic movie theaters that still dotted the Chicago landscape, and though not quite as acute, I continue to relish old movie houses from the 1920s and such.

But I became even more ravenous about exploring the works of Wright, visiting his Home & Studio in Oak Park, seeing most of his homes (plus Unity Temple) in Oak Park and neighboring River Forest, elsewhere in the Chicago area, several in Madison, WI, his SC Johnson Wax building in Racine and subsequently places like the Guggenheim Museum in New York--my first visit to NYC was also in 1993, but only for a day, so I don't think I got to the Guggenheim--the Robie House in Chicago's Hyde Park, Taliesin in Spring Green, WI, the California homes, Fallingwater (near Pittsburgh) and many others. (Most I've only seen externally, but I have likely been inside at least 20 FLW homes & buildings.)

The Frank Lloyd Wright Home & Studio is at the corner of Chicago Ave. & Forest Ave. in Oak Park, and six other homes he designed or modified can be found on a 2-block stretch of Forest heading south from the home & studio, plus one other great one that sits just off of Forest on Elizabeth Court.

Though there are many other Wright homes in Oak Park and River Forest, making the area a prime destination for fans of America's greatest architect, I consider Forest Ave. the mecca of the mecca.

Though I believe I took my first walking tour of Forest Avenue in the spring or summer of 1993, that fall I got a job in Oak Park--about 45 minutes from Skokie--and would frequently drive down the famed street. That only lasted a year, but I've probably gotten to Oak Park at least once a year since, either to peruse the Wright sites or those related to the city's other favorite son, Ernest Hemingway.

As I wrote about in my most recent blog post, this Wednesday I went to Oak Park to try a Venezuelan restaurant called Aripo's, as part of my Chicago Dining World Tour. After also catching a movie, which enabled to rains to clear, I took a pleasant stroll down Forest Avenue.

Though I've seen these homes, and taken similar photos, many times, I thought I would share them here. Note that the homes are traditionally named for their original occupants, who commissioned Wright to design (or in some cases, remodel) them.