An architect and an arthitect

We awoke quite excited to go see our next Frank Lloyd Wright building, the Kraus House in Kirkwood MO. We drove a couple of minutes from the church parking lot and were the first ones there. We met our tour guide, Larry, and were pleased to find out he is a huge FLW fan too.

The tour was great. Larry was able to tell us a lot about the history of the house. This house features angles not typically found in any building, with the same geometric shape repeated over and over again in every aspect of construction. FLW exaggerated this point by using the same angles even in the construction of the beds. www.ebsworthpark.org

There we met an architect and her husband. We gave them the address to our blog and they gave us the address to their blog. They have built the house of their dreams and invited us to visit them in NC. www.cassilhaus.typepad.com

Then we drove north about two hours to Springfield IL where we were able to catch the last tour of the Dana Thomas House. www.dana-thomas.org

This one was done early in FLW’s career and it is quite different from his other houses we’ve seen so far. The house has 35 rooms, it is 12,000 square feet, and has three main levels. The windows are all stained glass that FLW designed.

It is a beautiful house and quite impressive. But his later projects are much more characteristic of how FLW designed organic buildings. This makes for an interesting comparison and helps to understand the development of his vision.







Next we found a Staples to make some copies and then went to Barnes & Noble to get out of the heat. We spent the night in their parking lot.