Robie House facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Frederick C. Robie House |
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| Location | 5757 South Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago, Illinois |
| Area | 0.3 acres (0.12 ha) |
| Built | 1909 |
| Architect | Frank Lloyd Wright |
| Architectural style(s) | Prairie style |
| Governing body | The University of Chicago |
| Criteria | Cultural: (ii) |
| Designated | 2019 (43rd session) |
| Part of | The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright |
| Reference no. | 1496-002 |
| Region | Europe and North America |
| Designated | October 15, 1966 |
| Reference no. | 66000316 |
| Designated | November 27, 1963 |
| Designated | September 15, 1971 |
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The Frederick C. Robie House is a famous house located in Chicago, Illinois. It sits on the campus of the University of Chicago in the Hyde Park area. Built between 1909 and 1910, this unique home was designed by the well-known architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Many people consider it one of the best examples of the Prairie School style, which was the first architectural style truly developed in America.
The Robie House was named a National Historic Landmark in 1963. It was also added to the first list of the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. In 2019, the house and seven other buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright were added to the World Heritage List. This means they are considered important to the whole world.
Contents
History of the Robie House
Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Robie House in his studio in Oak Park, Illinois. He worked on the plans between 1908 and 1909. Frederick C. Robie, who was only 28 years old, bought the land in May 1908. He and his wife, Lora, wanted to live close to the University of Chicago.
Construction of the house began on April 15, 1909. Wright did not oversee the building process for long. He left for Europe in the fall of 1909. Other designers from his office, like Marion Mahony and George Mann Niedecken, helped finish the project. Niedecken designed some of the furniture and carpets for the house.
The Robie family moved into their new home in May 1910. However, the final touches, like rugs and furniture, were not completed until January 1911. The house cost about $58,500 in total. This included the land, building, and furnishings.
Robie Family's Short Stay
The Robie family did not live in the house for very long. Due to financial problems after his father's death, Frederick Robie had to sell the house. He lived there for only 14 months. David Lee Taylor bought the house in December 1911. After Taylor died, his widow sold it to Marshall D. Wilber in November 1912. The Wilbers were the last family to live in the house, staying for 14 years.
Saving the Robie House
In June 1926, the Wilbers sold the house to the Chicago Theological Seminary. The Seminary used the house as a dormitory and dining hall. They were mainly interested in the land for future expansion. Because of this, the house suffered damage inside. Many of its special wall lights were destroyed.
In 1941, a student found out that the Seminary planned to tear down the house. This news caused a big protest. The plans were put on hold, partly because World War II began.
The house faced another serious threat in 1957. The Seminary announced plans to demolish it on September 15. This time, people from all over the world protested. Frank Lloyd Wright himself, who was almost 90, came to the house on March 18 to protest. He joked that it showed "the danger of entrusting anything spiritual to the clergy."
Two student groups at the University of Chicago helped save the house. They offered to move out of their own houses next door. This gave the Seminary enough land for their new building without tearing down the Robie House.
In 1958, William Zeckendorf, a friend of Wright's, bought the Robie House from the Seminary. He later donated it to the University of Chicago in 1963. The University used it for different offices. In 1971, the house was declared a Chicago landmark.
Restoration Efforts
In 1997, the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust took over the house. They started a big restoration project in 2002. Their goal was to make the house look exactly as it did in 1910. This project cost over $11 million and was finished in 2019. The restoration fixed the building's structure, brickwork, and added modern systems. They also carefully restored the inside, including the woodwork, glass, and furniture.
The Robie House is still very popular today. It has even inspired new houses to be built with similar designs.
Architecture of the Robie House
The Robie House is a prime example of Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie School style. This style got its name because the buildings looked like the flat, wide landscapes of the American prairie. Wright designed not only the house but also all the inside parts. This included the windows, lights, rugs, and furniture. He believed that the building and its furnishings were all part of one complete design.
Outside Features
The house has long, flat roofs that stick out far, called cantilevered eaves. It also has long rows of special art-glass windows. The use of Roman brick makes the house look very horizontal. Wright liked horizontal lines because they reminded him of the prairie. They also made the house feel calm and like a safe shelter.
The outside walls are made of red-orange Roman brick. The horizontal lines of the bricks are made even stronger by using light-colored mortar between them. The small vertical gaps use brick-colored mortar. This makes the house look like it has continuous lines of color.
The art-glass windows have abstract patterns with angles. Wright used similar designs in rugs and gates around the house. The house has a strong steel frame, which allowed for the long, sticking-out roofs. The roof is made of special tiles, and other parts are made of limestone.
Inside Features
The house's layout looks like two large rectangles that slide past each other. The main living areas are in one rectangle. On the first floor, there's a billiards room and a playroom. These rooms open to a small passage and a garden.
On the second floor, you find the entry hall, living room, and dining room. The living and dining rooms flow into each other. They have many French doors with art-glass panels that open to a balcony. This balcony runs along the south side of the house and overlooks the garden. Wright wanted people to move easily between the inside and outside spaces.
The other rectangle holds the more practical rooms. On the first floor, there's the main entrance, a stairway, and rooms like the laundry and a three-car garage. On the second floor, there's a guest bedroom, kitchen, and servants' rooms.
The third floor is in the middle of the house. Wright called it the "belvedere," meaning a place with beautiful views. This floor has the master bedroom and two other bedrooms. All the windows on this floor also have art-glass panels.
A large chimney, with four fireplaces, goes up through the center of the house. The main stairway also rises from the entrance hall. The rest of the house spreads out from this central chimney.
The front door is partly hidden under a balcony. This creates a feeling of privacy. The entrance hall is dark and has a low ceiling. But as you go up the stairs, the living and dining rooms on the second floor are bright and open. This contrast makes them feel even more special. These rooms are connected, creating an open space that Wright liked.
Steel beams in the ceilings and floors support most of the house's weight. This means the outer walls don't need to hold much weight. So, they are filled with many doors and windows. There are 174 art-glass panels with 29 different designs. Instead of nature designs, which Wright often used, these windows feature geometric patterns. All this glass and the lack of inside support columns make the space feel very open and larger than it is.
Wright also designed the lighting fixtures, carpets, and some furniture. Some of the furniture, like a sofa with long armrests that look like the house's roof, is very famous. Most of the original furniture is now in the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago.
Architectural Importance
The Robie House was one of the last houses Wright designed in his Oak Park studio. It is considered a perfect example of his Prairie School style. Experts say its design, with its horizontal planes and unique windows, created a new way to design homes. It is often used as a standard to compare other Prairie School buildings.
The house became even more famous through a book published in 1910 called The Wasmuth Portfolio. This book showed many of Wright's designs and influenced architects in Europe. Famous architects like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe said Wright greatly influenced their work.
In 1957, House and Home magazine called the Robie House "the House of the Century." They said it was a "magnificent work of art" that introduced many new ideas in building design. They even suggested that much of modern architecture might not exist without it.
In 1956, Architectural Record named the Robie House one of the "seven most notable residences ever built in America." In 1991, the American Institute of Architects listed it among the Top All-Time Work of American Architects.
In 2008, the U.S. National Park Service suggested the Robie House and nine other Wright properties for World Heritage Status. In 2019, these properties were officially added to the World Heritage List.
In 2011, Lego released a model set of the Robie House. It was part of their Lego Architecture series. The house was also featured in a 2013 PBS documentary called "10 Buildings that Changed America."
Neighborhood Around the House
When the Robie House was built in 1908, the land around it was mostly empty. There were some large homes to the north. To the east, a house for Nobel Prize winner Albert A. Michelson was built later. The land to the south was empty, offering clear views of the Midway Plaisance park.
To the west, a large empty area separated the house from the growing University of Chicago campus. But by 1930, buildings like Rockefeller Chapel and the Oriental Institute were built there.
Today, directly south of the Robie House is the Charles M. Harper Center. This building, designed by Rafael Viñoly, respects the size of the Robie House. It also includes design elements that remind people of Wright's style.
Gallery
See also
In Spanish: Casa Robie para niños
- List of Frank Lloyd Wright works
- Storrer, William Allin. The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion. University Of Chicago Press, 2006, ISBN: 0-226-77621-2 (S.127)
