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Prairie School
Prairie School is a late 19th and early 20th-century architectural style, most common in the Midwestern United States. The style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands, integration with the landscape, and solid construction and craftsmanship. It reflects discipline in the use of ornament, which was often inspired by organic growth and seen carved into wood, stenciled on plaster, in colored glass, veined marble, and prints or paintings with a general prevalence of earthy, autumnal colors. Spaciousness and continuous horizontal lines were thought to evoke and relate to the wide, flat, treeless expanses of America's native prairie landscape, and decoration often depicted prairie wildlife, sometimes with indigenous materials contributing to a sense of the building belonging to the landscape.
The Prairie School sought to develop an indigenous North American style of architecture, distinguishing it from historical revivals that were popular at the time. It shared many ideals and design aesthetics of the Arts and Crafts Movement, though it embraced the machine and also shared ideals with modernist movements. Many architects were also part of the Chicago School, but Prairie School buildings were seen less in the commercial skyscrapers of Chicago and more in the suburban residences, though the style can be seen in throughout a variety of building types, including banks, schools, and churches. Japanese architecture and prints, interests of Frank Lloyd Wright in particular, inspired the focus on simplicity and openness in addition to the prairie landscape.
The Prairie School was influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement, a decorative and fine arts movement led by John Ruskin, William Morris, and others in late 19th century England. Along with the kindred American Craftsman movement, it embraced handcrafting and craftsman guilds as a reaction against the new assembly line mass production manufacturing techniques, which were felt to create inferior products and dehumanize workers. A major arbiter of this link was Joseph Twyman, who moved from England to Chicago, promoting Morris's work and philosophy by doing things like writing papers and delivering lectures to the Chicago Architectural Club. Elements of the philosophy like focus on the nature of a material worked well with the Prairie School, but they discarded the ubiquitous disdain for the machine, incorporating thoughtfulness and reflectiveness in the design process, not strictly the handicraft process.
The Prairie School attempted to develop an indigenous North American style of architecture that did not share design elements and aesthetic vocabulary with earlier styles of European classical architecture. The World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago World's Fair) of 1893 aimed to herald the city of Chicago's rebirth after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Unlike the Greek and Roman classicism widely seen in buildings at the fair, many of the Midwestern architects of what would become the Prairie School sought to create new work in and around Chicago that would display a uniquely modern and authentically American style inspired by the American landscape.
The name reflects the dominant horizontality of Prairie style buildings, which echoes the wide, flat, treeless expanses of the Midwestern United States. Author Wilhelm Miller may have been the first to coin "the prairie spirit in landscape gardening" in 1915 to refer to Midwestern landscape architecture that differed from European styles. The most famous proponent of the style, Frank Lloyd Wright, promoted an idea of "organic architecture," (p. 53) asserting that a structure should look as if it naturally grew from the site; in Wright's words, buildings that appeared as if they were "married to the ground" (p. 53). Wright also felt that a horizontal orientation was a distinctly American design motif since the younger country had much more open land than many highly urbanized European nations.
The University of Illinois was the second institution offering a college degree in architecture after the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor Nathan C. Ricker believed that students learned by doing and, being exposed to different architectural practices such as theater design, developed a cultural and technical understanding of architecture, which could help overcome the limitations of formal academic study and foster a sense of design. Early graduates like Clarence Blackall, Joseph Llewellyn, and Henry Bacon followed the more popular academic approach and historicist design aesthetic, but later graduates like William Drummond, William L. Steele, and Walter Burley Griffin contributed to the emerging Prairie School style. Ideas were shared by and with Prairie School architects in the Architectural League of America and the Chicago Architectural Club. These professional networks were important to architects' learning and development; their value was reflected by Sullivan's ideas in the essay collection Kindergarten Chats, devaluing formal education and lauding mentorship in architectural education. At a Chicago convention in 1900, Sullivan spoke about the power of mental logic and the study of nature to inspire stylish and logical buildings. One League convention introduced the idea of pure design – composing a building by analyzing parts that could be expressed as simple geometric shapes – to Wright, who incorporated the idea into his designs. Inspired by Sullivan's ornamental geometry, Elmslie featured the hexagon in Thornton Fractional Township High School (Calmut City, 1934–35) and the Thomas A. Edison School (Hammond, 1935–37), Wright highlighted the hexagon in the Hanna House ("honeycomb house, Palo Alto, California, 1936), and Griffin used the octagon in Northern Illinois University's campus. Prairie School architects Wright, Elmslie, and Maher worked for Joseph Silsbee, who instilled a sense of informality, irregularity, and complexity through planning and rough, organic surfaces in these architects, Wright especially, giving a picturesque and dynamic quality to the Prairie School style.
By the early 1920s, "Tudor and Mediterranean Revivals were popular for suburban houses and shopping districts, and Georgian was favored for large city houses; even the middle-class Arts and Crafts bungalow had been dipped in Renaissance or Spanish Colonial frosting. Church and university architects employed the academic Gothic of Ralph Adams Cram” (p. 544). The Prairie School was in conversation with other modernist movements like Art Nouveau, Bauhaus, Expressionism, and Constructivism.
Architectural historian H. Allen Brooks identifies works built in or before 1902 as being part of "the Sullivan Phase," – emphasizing simplification, structured ornament, and a new uniquely American architecture – buildings built from 1902–1909 as the "Wrightian" phase – spanning from when Wright reached maturity as an architect to his departure from Oak Park to Europe, rural Wisconsin, California, and Japan – and the Prairie School's full maturity in 1909–1914/16. Professors Richard Guy Wilson and Sidney K. Robinson divide Prairie School periods into the style that spread from the Chicago area from the late 1890s to the late 1920s, and a post-hiatus-Wright-led era of creativity on a more national scale from the mid-1930s on, including the "Usonian" house.
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Prairie School
Prairie School is a late 19th and early 20th-century architectural style, most common in the Midwestern United States. The style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands, integration with the landscape, and solid construction and craftsmanship. It reflects discipline in the use of ornament, which was often inspired by organic growth and seen carved into wood, stenciled on plaster, in colored glass, veined marble, and prints or paintings with a general prevalence of earthy, autumnal colors. Spaciousness and continuous horizontal lines were thought to evoke and relate to the wide, flat, treeless expanses of America's native prairie landscape, and decoration often depicted prairie wildlife, sometimes with indigenous materials contributing to a sense of the building belonging to the landscape.
The Prairie School sought to develop an indigenous North American style of architecture, distinguishing it from historical revivals that were popular at the time. It shared many ideals and design aesthetics of the Arts and Crafts Movement, though it embraced the machine and also shared ideals with modernist movements. Many architects were also part of the Chicago School, but Prairie School buildings were seen less in the commercial skyscrapers of Chicago and more in the suburban residences, though the style can be seen in throughout a variety of building types, including banks, schools, and churches. Japanese architecture and prints, interests of Frank Lloyd Wright in particular, inspired the focus on simplicity and openness in addition to the prairie landscape.
The Prairie School was influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement, a decorative and fine arts movement led by John Ruskin, William Morris, and others in late 19th century England. Along with the kindred American Craftsman movement, it embraced handcrafting and craftsman guilds as a reaction against the new assembly line mass production manufacturing techniques, which were felt to create inferior products and dehumanize workers. A major arbiter of this link was Joseph Twyman, who moved from England to Chicago, promoting Morris's work and philosophy by doing things like writing papers and delivering lectures to the Chicago Architectural Club. Elements of the philosophy like focus on the nature of a material worked well with the Prairie School, but they discarded the ubiquitous disdain for the machine, incorporating thoughtfulness and reflectiveness in the design process, not strictly the handicraft process.
The Prairie School attempted to develop an indigenous North American style of architecture that did not share design elements and aesthetic vocabulary with earlier styles of European classical architecture. The World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago World's Fair) of 1893 aimed to herald the city of Chicago's rebirth after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Unlike the Greek and Roman classicism widely seen in buildings at the fair, many of the Midwestern architects of what would become the Prairie School sought to create new work in and around Chicago that would display a uniquely modern and authentically American style inspired by the American landscape.
The name reflects the dominant horizontality of Prairie style buildings, which echoes the wide, flat, treeless expanses of the Midwestern United States. Author Wilhelm Miller may have been the first to coin "the prairie spirit in landscape gardening" in 1915 to refer to Midwestern landscape architecture that differed from European styles. The most famous proponent of the style, Frank Lloyd Wright, promoted an idea of "organic architecture," (p. 53) asserting that a structure should look as if it naturally grew from the site; in Wright's words, buildings that appeared as if they were "married to the ground" (p. 53). Wright also felt that a horizontal orientation was a distinctly American design motif since the younger country had much more open land than many highly urbanized European nations.
The University of Illinois was the second institution offering a college degree in architecture after the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor Nathan C. Ricker believed that students learned by doing and, being exposed to different architectural practices such as theater design, developed a cultural and technical understanding of architecture, which could help overcome the limitations of formal academic study and foster a sense of design. Early graduates like Clarence Blackall, Joseph Llewellyn, and Henry Bacon followed the more popular academic approach and historicist design aesthetic, but later graduates like William Drummond, William L. Steele, and Walter Burley Griffin contributed to the emerging Prairie School style. Ideas were shared by and with Prairie School architects in the Architectural League of America and the Chicago Architectural Club. These professional networks were important to architects' learning and development; their value was reflected by Sullivan's ideas in the essay collection Kindergarten Chats, devaluing formal education and lauding mentorship in architectural education. At a Chicago convention in 1900, Sullivan spoke about the power of mental logic and the study of nature to inspire stylish and logical buildings. One League convention introduced the idea of pure design – composing a building by analyzing parts that could be expressed as simple geometric shapes – to Wright, who incorporated the idea into his designs. Inspired by Sullivan's ornamental geometry, Elmslie featured the hexagon in Thornton Fractional Township High School (Calmut City, 1934–35) and the Thomas A. Edison School (Hammond, 1935–37), Wright highlighted the hexagon in the Hanna House ("honeycomb house, Palo Alto, California, 1936), and Griffin used the octagon in Northern Illinois University's campus. Prairie School architects Wright, Elmslie, and Maher worked for Joseph Silsbee, who instilled a sense of informality, irregularity, and complexity through planning and rough, organic surfaces in these architects, Wright especially, giving a picturesque and dynamic quality to the Prairie School style.
By the early 1920s, "Tudor and Mediterranean Revivals were popular for suburban houses and shopping districts, and Georgian was favored for large city houses; even the middle-class Arts and Crafts bungalow had been dipped in Renaissance or Spanish Colonial frosting. Church and university architects employed the academic Gothic of Ralph Adams Cram” (p. 544). The Prairie School was in conversation with other modernist movements like Art Nouveau, Bauhaus, Expressionism, and Constructivism.
Architectural historian H. Allen Brooks identifies works built in or before 1902 as being part of "the Sullivan Phase," – emphasizing simplification, structured ornament, and a new uniquely American architecture – buildings built from 1902–1909 as the "Wrightian" phase – spanning from when Wright reached maturity as an architect to his departure from Oak Park to Europe, rural Wisconsin, California, and Japan – and the Prairie School's full maturity in 1909–1914/16. Professors Richard Guy Wilson and Sidney K. Robinson divide Prairie School periods into the style that spread from the Chicago area from the late 1890s to the late 1920s, and a post-hiatus-Wright-led era of creativity on a more national scale from the mid-1930s on, including the "Usonian" house.
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