In 1908, Frederick C. Robie, a young and ambitious Chicago businessman,
decided he wanted to build a “sturdy, functional and strikingly modern” home
for his family in Hyde Park, an elegant Chicago neighborhood and home to
the campus of the University of Chicago.
Robie wanted a house with an abundance of light and great views of the
surrounding neighborhood, yet one that also maintained his family’s privacy.
He didn’t like small confining rooms and thought that flowing spaces were
essential in a well designed home. In Frank Lloyd Wright, he found an architect
who not only agreed with these ideals, but who could transform them into a
unique physical expression.
“From the first we had a definite community of thought.” Frederick Robie,
on meeting Frank Lloyd Wright.
The actual site itself helped determine Frank Lloyd Wright’s ideas and plans.
Measuring 18 meters (60 ft.) by 55 meters (180 ft.), the corner lot was three times
as long as it was wide. These dimensions led Wright to think of the home in
terms of long, narrow rectangles. The home therefore consists primarily of two
long and narrow “vessels,” each similar in shape to the hull of a ship, one set
on top and slightly off-center of the other. When viewed from above, the two
vessels are easy to see; however, from the street, each blends into the other,
forming what looks like a single, continuous horizontal structure.
Exterior drawing (FLWFDN ©2011)
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