After we left Uncle Dillon, we were on our way to Oak Park to spend time with our friend Sarah.
We were meeting her at the Frank Lloyd Wright house to go on a walking tour.
"It's her! It's Sarah! It's Sarah!"
"The Boulder" statue outside of the FLW studio
On our walking tour, all of us got headsets and started walking around the neighborhood. One of the first houses we came to was described as having an exterior resembling "hot, tight skin." The FLW curator was feeling creative when they designed the tour.
Our favorite FLW house on the walking tour
Many of the lawns in the neighborhood were participating in a public art event.
It was a scorching hot day to be walking around outside at a midday, so we stopped halfway through to get lunch in Oak Park.
After lunch, we walked back to FLW's house, and Sarah and I did an interior tour. His house was primarily used as a test site for different styles and wasn't a good example of his Prairie style. For that, we may need to visit the Robie House on our next trip to Chicago.
FLW's concept of blending into nature was very different from a modern sense of "bringing the outside in." Most of the rooms in his house were incredibly dark and heavy.
The windows and screens were definitely one the highlights in the house
The dining room was designed to only have focus on the diners, so only the table was lit, the walls were bare, the chairs were meant to block your view of anything else, and he covered most of the windows in the room.
He built a partial wall between the rooms of his children, leaving the hugely vaulted ceiling open. We imagined this led to a lot of games of throwing things back and forth over the wall.
The master bedroom was the lightest in the house by far.
The children's playroom
His studio was much more impressive than his residence, as it was used as a true example of his work to his potential clients.
All smiles with Sarah
By the end of the day, with the heat, everyone was a little cranky, but we had a great day with Sarah.
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