Chicago - Saturday, 20 July 2019

Great night’s sleep last night. I guess we were both tired from the drive and traffic. Nice breakfast buffet this morning in the restaurant.

Despite having been to Chicago numerous times, one of the things that I have never done and have always wanted to do was to see some of the highlights of Frank Lloyd Wright’s presence in the city. And so today was our Frank Lloyd Wright day. 

After talking with the manager of the hotel last night, we opted to brave the roads and drive to the venues rather than public transport and Uber. Looking back it was a good decision. It was a fairly easy drive to Oak Park where our first stop was the Unity Temple, a Unitarian Universalist Church, one of Wright’s earliest designs that is considered one of his most important designs. It was serendipitous that Wright had the opportunity to design the church. The congregation had been considering building a new church and their hand was forced when the church in which they were worshipping was struck by lightning and burned in 1905. Wright was living in Oak Park at the time and a Unitarian offered to design the new place of worship. 

Our tour was at 10 and led by a very informed guide, Gary. He stressed the idea of compression and expansion of the church. Wright traveled to Japan in 1905 and Unity Temple reflects that influence. Gary explained how the Temple is modeled, whether intentionally or unintentionally after a Shinto temple. The actual sanctuary of the church is entered through cloisters on either side. As is typical of all of Wright’s works the influence of nature and surrounding are of utmost importance. 

The carvings are suggestive of hollyhocks

It was just a short drive, really walkable but not in 100 degree weather, to our next stop - Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio. Here we had a wonderful guide, Pat Cannon, who has written a number of books on Wright and his architecture. The home is located on a lot that was purchased by Wright when he was working for the architectural firm of Adler and Sullivan. The actually gave him $5000 to be able to help with the purchase. He designed and built the home in 1889 for his familyOn the outside the house is more reminiscent of the shingle style of New England, Inside, however, it is early Wright that combines his love of wood and light with some classical details. The sleek lines and open floor plan foreshadow the Prairie School. As his family grew to 6 children he redesigned the home and added a studio for his work. 

The original dining room later turned into an office

Studio with drafting tables

It was about a 50 minute drive into Chicago for the last stop in our Wright Day. The Robie House is located on the University of Chicago campus. This house was just named a UNESCO World Heritage site after having undergone a $4 million restoration. The house was designed for Frederick Robie, a supply manager for a company owned by his father. Wright did the initial designs for the house in 1908 after Robie purchased the lot. His wife wanted to be close the social life of Hyde Park and the University of Chicago. After Wright left for Europe in 1909 he turned the reigns over to Marion Mahony of his firm. The Robies only lived in the house for 14 months before financial ruin and marital problems forced them to sell. Two other families, the Taylors and Wilbers, lived in the before it was sold to the Chicago Theological Seminary for use as housing. A number of times demolition of the residence was threatened, but in 1971 it was declared a Chicago City Landmark and its preservation for the ages was insured. The house again carried the same themes through with light and motifs. It is constructed of organic materials only - brick, plaster, and wood. As with many of his other home designs, Wright included many built in pieces of furniture and other pieces that would stay with the house. He didn’t trust the residents to pick out their own furniture.

One of the pluses of visiting the Robie House was to venture on to the campus of the University of Chicago. It is a beautiful campus with lots of green space and impressive buildings. If I were looking at urban schools, this would be high on my list.

It was definitely a fun way to spend a Saturday in Chicago. It took us about 50 minutes to get back to the hotel with a couple of traffic bottlenecks thrown in due to major road construction. 

After a pretty strong thunderstorm we headed about a mile down the road to Maharaja, an Indian restaurant. It was an early dinner, but we had to be back at the hotel for a meeting with the tour escorts. Dinner was samosas, Chicken Tika Masala for Earle and Lamb Vindaloo for me, accompanied by some garlic naan. 

We were able to catch a few innings of the game before we went to the tour meeting and then after the meeting we watched the last 4 innings, mainly because there was a rain delay. Great pitching by Big Joe and, finally, a decent bullpen outing. RTJR!