From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

F. B. Henderson House, an example of Prairie School architecture

Harold C. Bradley House, Madison, WI, by Louis Sullivan and George Grant Elmslie

Woodbury County Courthouse, Iowa, by William L. Steele and Purcell and Elmslie (associate architects)

Prairie School was a late 19th and early 20th century architectural style, most common to the Midwestern United States.

The works of these architects are usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands, integration with the landscape, solid construction, craftsmanship, and discipline in the use of ornament. Horizontal lines were thought to evoke and relate to the native prairie landscape.

The term "Prairie School" was not actually used by these architects to describe themselves; the term was coined by H. Allen Brooks, one of the first architectural historians to write extensively about these architects and their work.

It is most associated with residences around Chicago built by a generation of architects trained, employed or influenced by Louis Sullivan, but does not include Sullivan himself. These names include:

• Barry Byrne
• Alfred Caldwell
• Marion Mahony Griffin
• Walter Burley Griffin
• George Grant Elmslie
• George Washington Maher
• Philip Maher
• Dwight Heald Perkins
• William Gray Purcell
• E. E. Roberts
• Claude and Starck
• William LaBarthe Steele
• John S. Van Bergen
• Frank Lloyd Wright
• Francis Sullivan
• Andrew Willatsen

Frank Lloyd Wright originated the Prairie Style (open plans, horizontality, natural materials) which was part of the American Arts and Crafts movement (hand craftsmanship, simplicity, function) an alternative to the then-dominant Classical Revival Style (Greek forms with occasional Roman influences). He was also heavily influenced by the Idealistic Romantics (better homes would create better people) and the Modernist Movement. Particularly the Minimalists (less is more) and Bauhaus (form follows function), which was a mixture of De Stijl (grid-based design) and Constructivism (which emphasized the structure itself and the building materials), would be influenced by the Prairie School

The Darwin D. Martin House, in Buffalo, NY, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is a famous prairie style house.

• St. John's African Methodist Episcopal Church
• The Villa District, Chicago
• Oak Park, Illinois

• Brooks, H. Allen, Frank Lloyd Wright and the Prairie School, Braziller (in association with the Cooper-Hewitt Museum), New York 1984; ISBN 0807610844
• Brooks, H. Allen, The Prairie School, W.W. Norton, New York 2006; ISBN 039373191X
• Brooks, H. Allen (editor), Prairie School Architecture: Studies from "The Western Architect", University of Toronto Press, Toronto, Buffalo 1975; ISBN 0802021387
• Brooks, H. Allen, The Prairie School: Frank Lloyd Wright and his Midwest Contemporaries, University of Toronto Press, Toronto 1972; ISBN 0802052517
• Brooks, H. Allen (editor), Writings on Wright: Selected Comment on Frank Lloyd Wright, MIT Press, Cambridge MA and London 1981; ISBN 0262021617
• Visser, Kristin, Frank Lloyd Wright & the Prairie School in Wisconsin: An Architectural Touring Guide, Trails Media Group; 2nd Rev edition (June, 1998). ISBN 1-879483-51-3.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Prairie School

• Minneapolis Institute of Arts - Prairie School collection
• The Prairie School Traveler
• Prairie Styles--An Online Museum of Prairie Style Architecture
• The Richard Nickel Committee and Photographic Archive
• Organica.Org