THE FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT TOUR

Frank Lloyd Wright designed these oak side chairs as a part of a dining room suite for his lawyer Sherman Booth's house. Located in Glencoe, Illinois, the Sherman Booth House is a part of the Ravine Bluffs Development. Wright said of his furniture: "I found it difficult...to design it as architecture and make it 'human' at the same time -fit for human use. I have been black and blue in some spot, somewhere almost all my life from too intimate contact with my own early furniture."

Frank Lloyd Wright designed this oak armchair for the Raymond Evans House in Chicago, Illinois circa 1908. Wright would commonly use wooden screens in his design, as seen in this example.

This Barrel Chair was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, circa 1904, with oak. It was originally designed for the Darwin Martin House in Buffalo, New York. Frank Lloyd Wright and the Martin Brothers -Darwin and Martin, had a long lasting relationship that resulted in numerous commissions. Darwin Martin was Wright's ideal client, with deep pockets.

VC Morris Gift Shop

140 Maiden Lane

San Francisco, CA 94108

San Francisco's only Frank Lloyd Wright designed structure was originally named the V.C. Morris Gift Shop, and was designed by Wright in 1948. The V.C. Morris Gift Shop was originally a warehouse that Wright remodeled into this renowned building. It is quite unlike any of Wright's other structures, yet it retains characteristics that cross different periods of Wright's extensive career. The outer facade is unassuming, and would not stand out as a Wright designed structure to the common fan, but there is a certain complex modernism in its simplicity. The vast span of windowless, uninterrupted brick would normally strike the viewer as plain, but Wright's use of bold, yet simple geometric shapes creates a visually exciting experience. The arched entrance is the most identifiable feature of the building, and is reminiscent of Wright's employer of more than half a century earlier, Louis Sullivan, as well as the Arthur Heurtley House of 1902 in Oak Park, IL. The precise curves against a wall of sharp lines invite the viewer to enter this mysterious building, unmarked and unrecognizable as any particular form of establishment.

The interior of the V.C. Morris Gift Shop in San Francisco is not unlike a unrefined version of the Guggenheim Museum. Here is one of Wright's earliest tangible expressions of the spiral ramp, which would culminate in the Guggenheim. Wright would have already been well into the design process of the Guggenheim Museum at the time of the V.C. Morris Gift Shop design, but Wright's origin of this type of spiral ramp came from his design of the Gordon Strong Automobile Objective. An unbuilt project that looked like an inverted Guggenheim Museum, the Gordon Strong Automobile Objective was originally designed for Sugarloaf Mountain, Florida, and was built as a destination reachable only by car. 

In 1979, the V.C. Morris Gift Shop building was reestablished as the Xanadu Gallery, an upscale purveyor of Asian art. 

William Greene House, front

William Greene House, rear

William B Greene House

1300 W Garfield Ave

Aurora, IL 60506

In addition to the P D Hoyt, A W Gridley, and Fabyan Villa constructions, the far western suburbs of Chicago saw one more house built by Frank Lloyd Wright half a decade later than the first three. In 1912, the town of Aurora, Illinois saw the construction of the William B Greene House. It was one of the first houses to be built in that particular neighborhood on Garfield Avenue. However, despite its arguably disorganized layout, Wright's  Greene House is more modern than any other in the nearby vicinity. The rest are charming tributes. 

The Greene House is larger today than when Wright originally designed it. There was a 1926 addition to the western side of the house, which according to Wright Historian Thomas Heinz, was supervised by Greene's college roommate Harry Robinson. Heinz also suggests the house's disarrayed layout indicates Robinson may have played a large role in the original design process and construction.

Over the years, Wright's Greene House has seen various alterations and additions. Today, the house has a Japanese trellis-like fence closing off the back yard. Early photographs of the house show that the enclosed, back porch originally had a flat slab roof, which has now been replaced with a low hip roof to match the roof of the home. 

A W Gridley House

605 N Batavia Road

Batavia, IL 60510

Set atop a small, rolling hill in Batavia, Illinois is the Frank Lloyd Wright designed A W Gridley House of 1906. Wright worked on three house projects all within a mile of one another between 1906 and 1907, in the far western suburbs of Chicago, in the towns of Batavia and Geneva. Though the three commissions are all independent of one another, the George Fabyan Villa and A W Gridley House commissions came as a result of P D Hoyt's introduction of Wright to Fabyan and Gridley. Wright built Hoyt's house in Geneva first, which then led to the A W Gridley commission. 

The plaque in front of the Mrs. A W Gridley House reads:

Built in 1906, the Mrs. A. W. Gridley House was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, who named it "Ravine House," because of the gently sloping wildflower ravine on the south side of the original 15-acre site. With a low-pitch hip roof, projecting eaves, uninterrupted cedar trim and casement windows grouped into horizontal bands, the 14-room stucco and wood house is an excellent example of Wright's Prairie Style architecture. Wright's plan included a stucco wall surrounding the front wing which has been removed and a barn that was never built.

In 1912, the house was sold to Frank Snow, president of Batavia's Challenge Feed Mill and Wind Mill Company. Members of the family lived in the house, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, until 1981. All restoration work, including a small kitchen addition, was carefully designed to retain the original integrity of the landmark house.

PD Hoyt House

318 S Fifth Street

Geneva, IL 60134

Frank Lloyd Wright designed this Prairie House for the Hoyt's in 1906. The house features a two story, square floor plan capped by a low hip roof with broad, overhanging roof eaves.  The Hoyt House originally had a matching hip roof above the entry, but that was replaced with a Japanese influenced trellis after the privacy wall in front of the house was added in the 1980's. 

The house bears a resemblance to Frank Lloyd Wright's cottage designed for Grace Fuller of Glencoe, IL, which was never built. Of note is the "H" design, for Hoyt,  seen in the window work. The facade is covered in stucco, and wooden trim defines its geometric massing. Hoyt was responsible for the introduction of Frank Lloyd Wright and AW Gridley and later Colonel George Fabyan. Wright then designed a house for AW Gridley in Geneva's neighboring town of Batavia in 1906, and remodeled a farmhouse for Fabyan on his Riverbank Estate in Geneva the following year. 

Fabyan Villa, Frank Lloyd Wright 1907, Front View

Fabyan Villa, Frank Lloyd Wright 1907, Detail

Fabyan Villa, Frank Lloyd Wright 1907, Rear View

Fabyan Villa Windmill

Fabyan Villa Bear Cage

Fabyan Villa

1511 S Batavia Road

Geneva, IL 60134

One of Frank Lloyd Wright’s lesser known buildings turned house museum is the George Fabyan Villa in Geneva, Illinois. Located on more than 200 acres along the Fox River, this incredible site is full of whimsy and ruins. Previously owned as a private estate, the Fabyan Villa is now operated by the Preservation Partners of the Fox Valley.

Colonel George Fabyan was born in 1867, the same year as Wright. Fabyan was a millionaire, whose fortune he acquired from his father’s successful cotton business. In 1905, George Fabyan and his wife Nelle acquired a mid 19th century farmhouse on more than 300 acres of land, and they dubbed their estate “Riverbank”. Initially used as a retreat from their Chicago home, Fabyan commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to extensively remodel the farmhouse in 1907, at which point the Fabyan’s made Riverbank their permanent home. Wright also designed a country club on the estate, which later burned to the ground.

Frank Lloyd Wright completely transformed the original farmhouse into a charming villa with Prairie motifs. Though not considered to be a fully mature Prairie House, the Fabyan Villa carries many of the typical Wright characteristics of his early 20th century work. The floor plan was modified so that the Fabyan Villa now has a semi cruciform layout. The cross gabled roof is reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright’s own Oak Park home. Broad overhanging roof eaves articulate the roof and provide shelter to the windows beneath. A combination of materials was used in Wright’s remodeling of the Fabyan Villa, including concrete, wood, brick , and plaster. Concrete pylons support the terraces, while wooden screens surround them. Bands of geometric windows allow for maximum light efficiency. Overall the Fabyan Villa conveys a sense of shelter and a positive relationship to its natural site.

The Fabyan Villa sinks into the earth near the top of a very long, low grade hill that terminates at the Fox River and overlooks the estate. Walking down the hill, one knows not where to begin. Just below the Fabyan Villa and off to the side are ruins of a once great fountain. On the other side of the hill, below the Villa, is the historic 1910 Japanese Garden designed by Taro Otsuka, containing small, arched bridges, ponds, and a Japanese teahouse. Next to the Japanese Garden is a curious pavilion in the shape of an octogan, with barred windows. Turns out, this used to be the home of the Fabyan’s pet black bears: Mary, Tom, and Jerry. After the bears’ passing, picnic tables were inserted in the cage and its function became a picnic site. Humorously, the bars were not removed, and it still retains a sign that reads “Bear Cage”.

Directly beneath the Villa, a long, open-air tunnel covered in vines brings guests to a rustic gate opening to the Fox River. A questionable concrete bridge allows visitors to cross a manmade cove and continue on to cross the Fox River. There, they are led by peculiar sculptures to a massive windmill that seems fantastically out of context. The Fabyans purchased the windmill in 1914 from a farm in Elmhurst, Illinois, where they had it transferred to Riverbank. The windmill housed a bakery that, according to legend, supposedly made bread for the Fabyan’s bears. The windmill was later honored with a US postage stamp for providing a source of grain for the local community during war-time rationing.

The Fabyan’s lived on this eccentric estate fit for royalty until 1939, at which point the Kane County Forest Preserve purchased most of the estate and turned the Fabyan Villa into a museum. In 1995, the Preservation Partners of the Fox Valley took over that role, and continue to operate tours of the home and the estate.

Special thanks to the Beth Sholom Preservation Foundation for providing the photographs.

Beth Sholom Synagogue

8231 Old York Road 

Elkins Park, PA 19027

One might question how a Gentile could have the ability to effectively design a Jewish synagogue, but Frank Lloyd Wright did just that in his modern abstraction of Beth Sholom Synagogue. 

In 1957, Mike Wallace interviewed Frank Lloyd Wright on a number of topics related to his architectural philosophy, including the topic of religion:

Wallace: You write, at some small length any anyway, in your latest book A Testament, published by Horizon Press, you write about your religious ideas. I understand that you attend no church.

Wright: I attend the greatest of all churches.

Wallace: Which is?

Wright: And I put a capital "N" on Nature and call it my church...and that's my church.

Wallace: You uh- Your attitude toward organized religious is... 

Wright: That's what enables me to build churches for other people. 

Wallace: Well I want to...this I do want to understand.

Wright: If I belonged to any one church, they couldn't ask me to build a church for them. But because my church is elemental, fundamental, I can build for anybody a church.

The story of the Beth Sholom Synagogue begins in 1918, with the establishment of the congregation. It was named Beth Sholom -House of Peace in Hebrew - to signify the end of World War I. The congregation was originally based in the Logan section of northern Philadelphia, but moved out to the suburb of Elkins Park after World War II. Wright was commissioned by Rabbi Mortimer Cohen in 1953 to design a new synagogue, after a referral from Boris Blai, the dean of the Stella Elkins Tyler School of Fine Arts of Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and master sculptor.  

Blai was a friend of Wright's, and had worked with him on Florida Southern College. He was one of only two living students of Rodin at the time, and spent six weeks sculpting a bust of Frank Lloyd Wright. In 1962, three years after Wright's death, severe coastal storms on the Atlantic swept away Blai's Long Beach Island home, where $45,000 worth of sculptures were housed. All of the sculptures were swept to sea, with the exception of one sculpture -that of Frank Lloyd Wright, which Blai then donated to Florida Southern College. 

The planning of Beth Sholom Synagogue began in 1953, with the final design submitted by Wright in 1954. Rabbi Cohen played an unusually large role in the design process of Beth Sholom. Rabbi Cohen wrote to Wright with admiration of the architect's work, but also with ground rules of how the synagogue should be designed, complete with relevant aspects of Judaism to be incorporated into the synagogue. He envisioned an abstract tribute to Mount Sinai in a triangular formation, symbolic of "the hands of ancient priests, outstretched in blessing".

A number of financial setbacks delayed the construction and completion of Beth Sholom. Frank Lloyd Wright himself attended a fundraiser for Beth Sholom in 1954, a rare move on behalf of the architect. To magnify the financial problem, they were unable to find a Philadelphia contractor who could build the synagogue for less than twice what they were hoping for. As a result, Frank Lloyd Wright contacted Haskell Culwell, the contractor responsible for Wright's Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, who agreed to build the synagogue at their asking price of $750,000. The final price tag was more than this, of course, as Wright typically went well over budget with his projects.

Groundbreaking began in 1955. Construction workers poured concrete in wooden casts on site, fitted with steel reinforcing beams. The steel window frame was erected, not without difficulty, and glass was inserted to create glowing walls, as natural light pours through the walled ceiling. As with the vast majority of Frank Lloyd Wright's projects, the architect was responsible for total design, including the interior furnishings of the 1,030 seat synagogue. The recurring theme throughout Beth Sholom Synagogue is the use of triangles, seen in the overall massing of the building, and in detail throughout.

Beth Sholom is comprised of four primary materials: concrete, steel, glass, and copper. The foundation and lower walls are made of steel reinforced concrete, while the bulk of the building rises in sheer exaltation, with walls of glass and copper converged to form a tent like interior. As stated in the Torah's Book of Numbers 3:8 "They shall keep all the furnishings of the Tent of Meeting, and the obligations of the children of Israel, to do the service of the tabernacle."

The Beth Sholom Synagogue was dedicated in 1959, five months after the death of Frank Lloyd Wright, and continues to be an icon of Jewish American Architecture. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007, and was singled out by the American Institute of Architects as one of Wright's seventeen most important structures for preservation. 

For information on visiting the Beth Sholom Congregation, visit the Beth Sholom Preservation Foundation.

      Special thanks to Wright in Kankakee for providing the photographs.

B Harley Bradley House

701 S Harrison Avenue

Kankakee, IL 60901

The easiest way to tell the story of the B Harley Bradley House is to first share that the house has had many alterations over the years. From a private residence, to a restaurant, to a law firm, to a museum, the B Harley Bradley House has worn many hats. But its real hat, and the stucco body underneath, have the distinction of beginning Wright's Prairie Period. 

It is in the B Harley Bradley House that we see the first organized realization of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie Style. Here we begin to see a culmination of new ideas and previously experimental ideas, that would carry through in Wright’s work for the rest of his Prairie Period, and the rest of his seventy plus year career. One could argue that this was the first time a Frank Lloyd Wright house looked like a Frank Lloyd Wright House.

The B Harley Bradley House was incredibly modern for the time period. The contemporary reaction to the house from its late Victorian era neighbors would have ranged from curiosity to confusion. Everything about it was different. The house is low to the ground, hugging the earth, and only half the height of some of its neighboring houses. It is simple in expression, though complex in function. It has an inherent grandiosity that speaks of great prestige and beauty through simplified geometrical masses. If one stands from the street, the house mysteriously conceals the entrance, so that by the time you do find the entrance, you are surrounded by the building before you enter the building. The entrance of this house, and of Wright’s typical house in the future, is unassuming and needs not shout for attention.

Inside the Bradley House, we see common themes of Wright’s later work for the first time with elements such as wooden trim boards running along the ceiling and soft, earthy hues mixed into the stucco. In the spatial layout of the house, the great room, would be the prototype of Wright’s future Prairie Houses, including the Ward Willits House, the Edwin Cheney House, and the Avery Coonley House. As pointed out by Wright historian Thomas Heinz, the great room has dimensions of 24’x 27’ which were replicated in the aforementioned properties.

The Bradley’s moved into their new home in the summer of 1901, but lived there only for twelve years, and moved out by 1913 to a farm in Iowa. Their time in the house named for them, was perhaps the least interesting of its century plus existence. The Bradley’s sold their house to a Mr. Cook, who in turn sold them his Iowa farm.

Cook lived in the B Harley Bradley House only until 1915, when he sold it to Joseph Dodson, a long time Chicago Board of Trade member and bird lover. Dodson was a one time president of the National Audubon Society, and selected the Bradley House as his place of retirement with the intention of using the carriage house as a space for making and selling birdhouses. Dodson lived there until his death in 1949, whereupon he bequeathed the Bradley House and the carriage house to his secretary Mrs. Nellis.

In 1953, Marvin Hammack and Ray Schimel purchased the Bradley House and converted into a restaurant known as The Yesteryear. It was a very popular restaurant for thirty years, with diners sometimes traveling hundreds of miles to eat there. However, Yesteryear closed in 1983 when the owners fell ill and many of the home’s Wright designed pieces were sold off, including some of the original art glass. The following year, a Kankakee resident unsuccessfully tried to revive the restaurant.

In 1986, the B Harley Bradley House was purchased by Stephen Small, a wealthy businessman who intended to restore the house and live there. However, Small never had the chance to restore the house as he was kidnapped and subsequently murdered in September of 1987.

Small was an officer of Mid America Media, a multi-state media conglomerate, and served on the board of Meadowview Bank. In the early morning of September 2, 1987, Small received a phone call from the house he and his wife were living in while the Bradley House was being restored. The caller himself as a Kankakee Police Officer and said there had been a break in at the Bradley House. Small left their home to investigate the Bradley House, where he was then kidnapped.

The kidnappers called Small’s wife and demanded a ransom of $1million for Small, whom they handcuffed and buried alive in a 6’x3’ plywood box underground. Mrs. Small then contacted the authorities against the explicit wishes of the kidnappers, and her phone lines were tapped. She received several more calls from the kidnappers throughout the day regarding the ransom, but later received a phone call from them rejecting the ransom because they knew authorities had been contacted.

FBI agents were able to track down the kidnappers, and Danny Edwards and Nancy Rish were arrested. Edwards then took police to the site where they had buried Small, and police officers dug up the box with Small’s body enclosed. Also in the box were a light connected to a car battery, a gallon of water, candy bars, gum, and a flashlight. There was also a tube that ran from the box above ground, but its diameter was too small for sufficient breathing and Smalls subsequently suffocated.

After Small’s death, the house remained vacant until 1990, when four business partners purchased the Bradley House and converted it into an office complex. They dramatically altered the Bradley House by knocking down interior walls. In the time lapse of fifteen years through 2005, the carriage house remained vacant and fell into disrepair.

Threat of the carriage house’s demolition prompted Gaines and Sharon Hall to purchase the property and fully restore it back to Wright’s 1901 condition. They poured an ungodly amount of time, energy, money, and heart into the restoration with the hope of it eventually becoming a museum.

In January of 2010, a not for profit corporation called Wright in Kankakee formed with the intent to acquire the B Harley Bradley House and open the house through the Hall’s vision. By the end of June 2010, the Halls sold the house to Wright in Kankakee and it is now open to the public as a house museum.

Ward Willits House, Frank Lloyd Wright 1901

In 1908, The Architectural Record published a manifesto authored by Frank Lloyd Wright, which he titled In the Cause of Architecture. In this declaration, Wright divulges a contemporary analysis of the Prairie School, what he referred to as the "New School of the Middle West". Wright's architectural theories are outlined through personal anecdotes of various commissions and clients. Twenty years later, in 1928, Wright would publish eight more articles of architectural declaration under the name In the Cause of Architecture in The Architectural Record. The following analysis concerns the first installation. 

Wright opens In the Cause of Architecture with a testament to the importance of nature in architecture, saying "there is no source so fertile, so suggestive, so helpful aesthetically for the architect as a comprehension of natural law."  We begin to see Wright using words like "organic" to describe his theories. Wright then refers back to an essay he wrote in 1894 with a number of "propositions" as he called them. These include Wright's truths of architecture, and a little bit of interior design advice. In summary:

I Simplicity and Repose are qualities that measure the true value of any work of art.

II There should be as many kinds (styles) of houses as there are kinds (styles) of people and as many differentiations as there are different individuals. A man who has individuality has a right to its expression in his own environment.

III A Building should appear to grow easily from its site and be shaped to harmonize with its surroundings if Nature is manifest there.

IV Use the soft warm, optimistic tones of earths and autumn leaves in preference to the pessimistic blues, purples, or cold greens and grays of the ribbon counter.

V Bring out the nature of materials, let their nature intimately into your scheme. Reveal the nature of the wood, plaster, brick, or stone in your designs, they are all by nature friendly and beautiful.

VI A house that has character stands a good chance of growing more valuable as it grows older while a house in the prevailing mode, whatever that mode may be, is soon out of fashion, stale, and unprofitable. Above all, integrity.

Wright goes on to explain how these ideals have been put into use as of late ( 1908 ) but explains how Americans got into the mess of poor architecture in the first place:

Then the skylines of our domestic architecture were fantastic abortions, tortured by features that disrupted the distorted roof surfaces from which attenuated chimneys like lean fingers threatened the sky; the invariably tall interiors were cut up into box-like compartments, the more boxes the finer the house.....Even cultured men and women care so little for the spiritual integrity of their environment; except in rare cases they are not touched, they simply do not care for the matter as long as their dwellings are fashionable or as good as those of their neighbors and keep them dry and warm.

In other words, people do not care about Principle (Wright spelled it with a capital P), they care about fashion. If it is trendy, it will do. But fashions come and go, and if houses are not built out of principle, then they contain no truth and find no organization in chaos. Wright asserts that it is his intention to create an American domestic architecture by establishing an organic integrity through the ideal of Democracy," the highest possible expression of the individual as a unit not inconsistent with a harmonious whole."

And that is the secret of Wright's architecture. It is Democratic in his sense of the word. Wright executed more than 500 buildings, and rarely did he identically replicate any given design, but there is something about a building that consistently evokes the architect.  One may see a building and say it has a Frank Lloyd Wright "look". Wright did not develop his own style, he developed his own order by stripping down an idea until all that was left was Principle. All of his buildings are individuals, with individuals characteristics, but only so far that they do not disrupt the organic whole.

In Frank Lloyd Wright's In the Cause of Architecture, the architect-author describes the organic design process of his Prairie School Houses, though the specific  term  "Prairie School" would not be coined until later in the century. WIth 87 photographs published in The Architectural Record to accompany the article, Wright identifies three different Prairie expressions based on roof composition,  and cites examples of his then existing inventory of buildings:

a. The low-pitched hip roofs, heaped together in pyramidal fashion or presenting quiet, unbroken skylines (Winslow House, Henderson House, Willits House, Thomas House,  Heurtley House, Heath House, Cheney House, Martin House, Little House, Gridley House, Millard House, Tomek House, Coonley House, Westcott House, Hillside Home School, and Pettit Memorial Chapel),

b. The low roofs with simple pediments countering on long ridges (Bradley House, Hickox House, Davenport House, and Dana House), and

c. Those topped with a simple slab (Unity Church, the concrete house of The Ladies' Home Journal, and other designs in process of execution).

Wright then describes the design process from the ground up. "There is good, substantial preparation at the ground for all the buildings and it is the first grammatical expression of all the types. This preparation, or water table, is to these buildings, what the stylobate was to the ancient Greek temple." A simplification of wall surfaces creates a greater emphasis on window composition, and Wright defines fenestration "as elementary constituents of the structure grouped in rhythmical fashion". This is accomplished through use of ribbons of casement windows. Wright declares his disdain for double hung windows, referring to them as "guillotine windows", and emphasizes his determination to make the casement window prominent.  Wright claimed that a great source of conflict between client and architect often resulted from client refusal of casement windows, in which the architect essentially says take the house with casement windows, or leave it all. 

In regard to floor plan and spatial composition, Wright asserts "although the symmetry may not be obvious, always the balance is usually maintained". A more thoughtful, and personalized ground plan sets these homes apart from the Beaux-Arts, but while a complexity of individual characteristics articulates the buildings, again it is only so far as they do not disrupt the organic whole. 

Decorating the houses naturally takes its form by "providing certain architectural preparation for natural foliage or flowers" and Wright further promotes that "what architectural decoration the buildings carry is not only conventionalized to the point where it is quiet and stays as a sure foil for the nature forms from which it is derived and with which it must intimately associate, but it is always of the surface, never on it." This is a notion conceived by Louis Sullivan, whose captivating ornament was  floral, and free flowing, often inspired by geometric intricacies found in nature. Importantly, it doesn't look like it is pasted to the outside of the facade, but rather it appears to rise organically from the structure. This not only links Wright to Sullivan, but also separates Wright from his later rival, Mies van der Rohe, who did not simplify ornament, but rather eliminated it entirely. At the time of In the Cause of Architecture's publication, no ornamentation was not yet a factor as it would be decades before the European modernists eliminated the use of ornament, but rather the opposite -there was too much ornament in the general scheme of domestic and commercial architecture. Wright explains "To let individual elements arise and shine at the expense of final repose is, for the architect, a betrayal of trust for buildings are the background or framework for the human life within their walls and a foil for the nature efflorescence without."

Wright includes in his first installation of In the Cause of Architecture an urgent message for American architects to stop "reproducing with murderous ubiquity forms born of other times and other conditions". Wright calls for the establishment of a new, modern American (Democratic) architecture, sympathetic to and in collaboration with the machine,  through the respectful representation of the nature of materials, particularly the new, industrial materials. "...steel and concrete and terra-cotta in particular, are prophesying a more plastic art wherein as the flesh is to our bones so will the covering be to the structure, but more truly and beautifully expressive than ever".

Wright  also touches on the apprentices in his office, calling it a "little university", then comprised of Marion Mahony, William Drummond, Francis Byrne, Isabel Roberts, George Willis, Walter Burley Griffin, Andrew Willatzen, Harry Robinson, Charles E White, Jr, Erwin Barglebaugh, Robert Hardin, and Albert McArthur. He notes how some stay for years to develop a necessary, sympathetic grasp of detail, and some stay only long enough "to acquire a smattering of form, then departing to sell a superficial proficiency elsewhere."

Frank Lloyd Wright was still living and working out of Oak Park when he wrote In the Cause of Architecture, and was beginning to see other houses similar in concept to his own emerging through out his neighborhood. To this day, Oak Park boasts one of the largest concentrations of Prairie School Architecture in the world. Visitors often query Wright's reaction to houses of similar "style" to his own, and the answer is revealed in the final paragraphs of In the Cause of Architecture. If an architect creates a structure based merely on the replication of a "style", then it is what it is - a building with no soul or individuality. Wright stresses the importance of the individuality of architects. There should be no large architectural firms, for the artistic vision is lost in translation from the architect to the draftsman, no matter the competency of the draftsman,  in a way that a painter would never "entrust the painting in or the details to a pupil". 

Wright concludes In the Cause of Architecture with a prediction for the future, that "the work shall grow more truly simple; more expressive with fewer lines; fewer forms; more articulate with less labor; more plastic; more fluent, although more coherent; more organic."