Robie House

The Robie House is located at 5757 South Woodlawn Avenue, on the northeast corner of Woodlawn Avenue and 58th Street in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago in Illinois, United States. The lot measures wide and long, the larger dimension extending west–east parallel to 58th Street. The house itself measures across. Due to an existing covenant on the site, the Robie House and neighboring residences are set back from Woodlawn Avenue. At the time of the Robie House's construction, the block immediately to the south was vacant; the nearest building in that direction was away, across the Midway Plaisance park. Due to the flat topography of Chicago's South Side, the site was also not particularly prominent. The houses to the north, along Woodlawn Avenue, were set back from the street and were above the sidewalk. These houses were largely made of brick. Although the Robie House's architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, characterized the house as a "city dwelling", it was more akin to a suburban house in a streetcar suburb full of single-family homes. To the west are the Rockefeller Chapel and the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures. To the south is the University of Chicago Booth School of Business building designed by Rafael Viñoly. == History ==

The house was commissioned for Frederick Carlton Robie, a manufacturing executive who, in the 1900s, worked at his father's Excelsior Supply Company. Robie married Lora Hieronymus in 1902. They moved to Hyde Park, Chicago, in 1904, relocating again within the same neighborhood in 1907. At the end of 1906, Robie and Wright discussed the house for the first time. As a condition of his purchase, he was required to spend at least $20,000 on a house there. He also wanted several bedrooms, a nursery, and an enclosed yard for his children, and he wanted to be able to see outward without having passersby look in. Robie eschewed older architectural styles such as the Cape Cod style, and he also did not want a monumental building or dark closets. while the historian Donald Hoffmann wrote that Robie came to adopt many aspects of Wright's design philosophy as his own. According to Hoffmann, the house was to be "radical and masculine", as Wright had designed the structure mainly around Robie's needs, not those of his wife. Robie's original budget had been $60,000, up to ten times the cost of a typical house at the time. since he was preoccupied with several other projects, the design of Robie's residence was not a particularly urgent matter. Wright first devised the plans for the Robie House mentally; unlike his contemporaries, Wright would focus on the building's symmetry and proportions rather than on its exact dimensions. One night, he sat down with a blank sheet of paper and sketched three diagrams for the house. Wright paid so much attention to the house's architectural details, he drew up blueprints just for the carpets. The original plans for the house may have been discarded or destroyed, but blueprints and renderings of the house remain extant. Robie signed the working drawings for his house in late March 1909, Robie recalled that the house did not need to use deep foundations and that the structural core—the chimney—was built rapidly. Robie's son Frederick Jr. recalled playing with piles of sand (a material used in the mortar on the facade) and walking on the catwalks that contractors had set up. Interior work continued through late 1909, and Wright left for Europe around that time. Niedecken oversaw the interior decoration and the color scheme. The Robie family—Frederick, Lora, and their two children, Frederick Jr. and Lorraine—moved into the home in May 1910, although interior decorations were not completed for several more months. This was far more than Wright's studio in Oak Park, which cost $4,700 in 1889; the Winslow House, which cost $20,000 in 1892; or the Willits House, which cost $20,000 in 1903. Lora Robie, who claimed that her husband had been unfaithful, Frederick Robie moved to New York City, while Lora and their children moved to Springfield. When the elder Frederick declared bankruptcy in 1913, he reported having $25,672 in assets, nearly all of which consisted of a $25,000 mortgage loan that the Union Trust Company had placed on the house. Despite Robie's personal issues, Wright later called the residence "a good house for a good man". to David Lee Taylor, president of the advertising agency Taylor-Critchfield Company. David Taylor died in the house on October 22, 1912, less than a year after he bought the house. Taylor's widow, Ellen Taylor, sold the house and most of its contents to Marshall Dodge Wilber, treasurer of the Wilber Mercantile Agency, that November. Marshall reportedly paid $45,000 for the house; The house sometimes hosted events, such as meetings of the Chicago Dramatic Society and the Quadranglers of the University of Chicago. Marshall also constructed a machine shop near the garage, while Isadora hired three men to restore the facade . The original coal-fired boiler was ineffective at warming the house during winter, so the Wilbers added an oil-fired furnace in 1919, replacing it in 1921. The Wilbers' surviving daughter, Jeannette, recalled that Wright often visited their house on short notice. By 1926, Jeannette had moved out. Marshall was in his sixties and in poor health, and he wished to sell the house. whose campus was just to the south. The seminary used the house as a dormitory, meeting space, and classrooms, Seminary officials placed some of the furniture in storage. By 1941, the seminary was considering demolishing the house, which was then being used as a women's dormitory. In 1952, the seminary applied for a zoning variance to convert the first story into a dormitory. By that decade, the Robie House was being used for conferences, and much of its original decorations had been destroyed. Redevelopment plans The University of Chicago's president Lawrence A. Kimpton planned to redevelop the surrounding neighborhood in the 1950s. In response to a request from a local teacher, Leon Despres, the city alderman representing the neighborhood, introduced a resolution in the Chicago City Council to create a landmark commission. which would have also involved demolishing the Goodman House and the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity house immediately to the north. The seminary planned to begin demolishing the house that September, saying it would have cost up to $100,000 to modernize the building. The seminary's president Arthur Cushman McGiffert said that two institutions had declined an offer to take over the house and relocate it. The University of Fine Arts of Hamburg, the American Institute of Architects, and fellows at Wright's Taliesin studio also opposed the demolition. saying, "It all goes to show the danger of entrusting anything spiritual to the clergy." Wright claimed that the building was in relatively good condition, "considering the abuse it has suffered", He also claimed that he could repair the house for $15,000. but Wright dismissed the idea as inappropriate. Among other things, it would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to relocate the house. Wright offered to design a dormitory for the seminary if the Robie House remained in place, but the seminary declined his offer. Meanwhile, the University of Chicago chapter of Phi Delta Theta, Wright's old fraternity, offered to swap ownership of the Robie House and its own fraternity house at 5737 South Woodlawn Avenue, three houses north. To facilitate the house's sale, in February 1958, the seminary applied for permission to rezone the lots immediately to the north. A City Council subcommittee recommended that August that the rezoning be approved. Aline B. Saarinen, architecture writer for The New York Times, wrote that the houser's preservation "was an uphill fight the whole way". Zeckendorf and University of Chicago ownership Acquisition and resale Zeckendorf formally acquired the house in August 1958, paying $102,000 in exchange for allowing the seminary to approve any subsequent sales. He planned to occupy it for four years. Immediately after buying the house, Zeckendorf announced that he would instead donate it to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. or into an artists' studio. Zeckendorf's firm vacated the house in February 1962 after their Hyde Park developments were completed, and he wanted to donate the house to a "responsible organization" that could preserve it. The University of Chicago agreed to take over the house in June 1962, in exchange for giving the seminary a nearby plot of land. Two months later, preservationists formed a committee to raise $250,000 for the building's restoration. William Hartmann of the architectural firm SOM said that structural repairs would cost $198,000, while the remaining $52,000 would be spent on furnishings. There were suggestions for the house to be converted into a residence for visiting scholars, for the university's president, or classrooms for a department of the university. Another proposal called for the National Park Service to take over the house and operate it as a monument. Regardless of which option was selected, the university planned to allow visitors to tour the house. The university formally took title to the Robie House on February 4, 1963, and agreed to occupy the building and maintain it. University officials immediately began raising money for the restoration; by then, the basement walls were leaking, the paint was peeling, and the wiring and mechanical systems were out of date. The university wanted to use the lower stories as a conference center, while the third floor bedrooms would be used by visiting scholars. Students from various universities began touring the house in April 1963, and the committee had collected about $31,000 by August. Among the donors to the house's restoration were the Edgar J. Kaufmann Charitable Foundation The Robie House's fundraising committee spent $975 in late 1963 to repair damage caused by winter weather, and it had raised about $40,000 by early 1964. The fundraising committee continued to give tours of the house to raise money. Ira J. Bach, who led the committee, said the house needed additional funds, even as it received donations from around the world. Renovations began in mid-1965, after the University of Chicago had raised approximately $55,000. The house also began opening to the public on Saturdays, charging a $1 admission fee, proceeds from which would be used for the renovation. The first phase included weatherproofing, plumbing, heating, and roof upgrades. The house's original contractor, H. B. Barnard Co., was hired to rebuild the roof, In July 1966, Adlai Stevenson III announced that the newly-formed Adlai E. Stevenson Institute of International Affairs, a think tank devoted to left-wing causes, would be headquartered at the Robie House. The institute intended to convert part of the house into offices and to host meetings and seminars there. The living room was converted to a lounge, the dining room retained its original function, and the second-floor guest rooms became a public relations office. The third-floor bedrooms also became offices. The Stevenson Institute moved into the building in February 1967, and the institute hosted its first party at the house in 1968. Though the house was poorly suited as a workplace for the institute's 25 employees, the University of Chicago allowed the institute to stay there without paying rent. Some of the Robie House's decorations were damaged in a burglary in 1970. The Stevenson Institute formally merged with the University of Chicago in 1975, and the university continued to use the house's meeting rooms. The institute also allowed the public to make appointments to tour the house. Subsequently, the university's office of development used the house, followed by the university's alumni association. By the 1980s, the Robie House was the alumni association's headquarters and was filled with desks and cabinets. though photography was not allowed at the time. In addition, the interior tours covered only two or three rooms. Frank Lloyd Wright Trust use As early as 1992, the University of Chicago was negotiating to have the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio Foundation (later the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust) take over the house's operation. The university would spend $2.5 million on renovations and turn over operations to the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust. The National Trust for Historic Preservation agreed to lease the house in October 1996, and the university moved out during early 1997. 1990s and 2000s After taking over the house, the Wright Trust began hosting more frequent tours, and it opened a bookstore in the garage in August 1997. which was to cost $7 million. The bricks had cracked due to repeated freezing and thawing, and there were stains, termite infestations, and deteriorated porches. In addition, the roof was leaking, and the heating system was ineffective. This prompted the trust to create a master plan for the renovation. In 1999, workers removed asbestos from the site in preparation for the wider ranging renovation. The Illinois government also provided $2 million through the Illinois First program, which covered the remainder of the first phase of the renovation. The conservation–restoration firm Gunny Harboe Architects oversaw the renovation. As part of the first phase, workers documented the art glass, mechanical systems, and climate in the house; added wheelchair-accessible restrooms; and created architectural drawings. The third story remained closed to the public after the renovation, The second phase, which involved renovating the interior, was delayed due to a lack of funds. Visitation, and by extension revenue, had declined after the September 11 attacks; Work on the pantry and dining room began in 2006 or 2007, During its renovation, the house continued to host tours and events. In 2009, the trust began allowing visitors to tour the third floor and servants' rooms, and it began allowing visitors to interact with artifacts from the house. By then, the house hosted 30,000 visitors annually. In 2014, the house received a grant through the Getty Foundation's Keeping It Modern initiative; the $50,000 grant was used to develop a preservation plan. By then, the trust had already raised $2 million of a projected $6 million renovation budget. An interior restoration began in late 2017, The Frank Lloyd Wright Trust borrowed some of the house's original furniture from the Smart Museum of Art. Tours of the house were suspended in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Illinois. though tour groups were initially restricted to eight people. == Architecture ==

The Robie House (also known as the Frederick C. Robie House) is designed in the Prairie style. Wright wanted the architecture, art, and furnishings to have a consistent design; The author Joseph Connors writes that Wright's use of symmetrical details had been inspired by the teachings of Friedrich Fröbel and the École des Beaux-Arts. The design shares elements with Wright's F. F. Tomek House in Riverside, Illinois, and his Larkin Administration Building in Buffalo, New York. Connors cites the Yahara Boat Club in Madison, Wisconsin, and the River Forest Tennis Club in River Forest, Illinois, as additional forerunners to the Robie House. In designing the Robie House, Wright largely avoided the cruciform and pinwheel plans that he had used in previous houses. The house's floor plan consists of two large rectangles, or "vessels", offset from one another and measuring half the site's length. The southern, primary vessel extends west and contains communal spaces, which terminate in prow-shaped bays to the west and east. The northern, secondary vessel extends east and contains service rooms, such as the kitchen and entrance hall. In addition, Wright wanted people to view the house primarily from its southwest corner, where 58th Street and Woodlawn Avenue intersect. In contrast to his contemporaries, who prioritized exterior design over interior design, Wright believed that the facade should be subordinate to the house's interior function. According to Wright, the low-to-the-ground design was intended to give the house a "more intimate relation with outdoor environment and far-reaching vistas". To compensate for the lack of a garden, the house is decorated with urns and planters, which had limited amounts of vegetation by the 21st century. Long planters are placed on the terraces, while smaller Mayan-inspired fixtures decorate other parts of the building. while the facade is made largely of brick. The horizontal joints were infilled with mortar in the mid-20th century. An L-shaped chimney rises from the center of the house; it is topped by a brick closet leading to a rooftop balcony. Wright incorporated horizontal bands of windows into the facade. These windows are made of art glass to blur the distinction between indoor and outdoor spaces and to illuminate the rooms. There are 175 art glass panels throughout the house, arranged in 29 patterns. A staircase leads up to a porch hanging off the western side of the second floor. An ornamental gate was originally installed outside the driveway. The wall originally was about one story high; to provide bricks for the construction of a storage room near the garage. The attached garage was a novelty when the house was built; To visually separate the garage and the rest of the house, Wright added a gap to the roof, and he added posts and lintels beneath the rooftop gap. The garage functions as a bookstore for the museum. The largest such terrace is a balcony on the south side of the second floor, which has a brick parapet. The southern balcony is supported by several metal beams, which are concealed beneath a stone coping and are flanked by brick columns. The roofs have projecting eaves, emphasizing the horizontal orientation of the facade, Above the second floor, a shallow eave allows light to be reflected off the second-story terrace into the living and dining rooms. There is a deeper eave above the third-story bedrooms. The superstructure is made of horizontal steel beams and brick piers. Steel is used extensively, including under the terraces and in the living-room ceiling, The house had a central lighting system, which was operated from three control panels. Radiators for the heating and cooling system are concealed in cabinets, and there are also four fireplaces. Wright designed two types of sconces: oak and brass fixtures for the bedrooms and other private spaces, and frosted-glass fixtures for communal spaces. To provide privacy, some of the windows have roller shades. First story In contrast to the light-filled upper stories, the first story is a dark space with low ceilings. From the main entrance on Woodlawn Avenue, visitors had to follow a circuitous path to access the rest of the house. and has a plaque on its east wall. The billiard room was originally at the west end of the southern vessel, while the playroom occupied the east end. The windowless western wall of the billiard room, which exists mostly to support the living room above it, could be used as storage space or as a wine cellar. On the southern wall is a small garden and a concrete terrace. The billiard room and playroom both have individual fireplaces. The stairway from the center of the first floor leads to an intermediate hall on the second floor, between the northern and southern vessels. Movable portières, or curtains, hang above the doorways in the stair hall. There is also a chimney flue and ventilation openings near the ceiling, in addition to two steel beams that support the roof. and both rooms have decorative wooden screens as well. and has windows and doors with multicolored glass. The north wall of the living room has five casement windows, while the western section of the south wall has a narrow sidelight and casement window. The carpet is decorated with a rose rectangle and a dozen green squares. and a mantel made of fieldstone. The northern vessel includes servants' quarters, a kitchen, and a guest room. The guest room's bathroom has frosted-glass windows, and a balcony next to the guest bedroom overhangs the entrance court. At the east end of the northern vessel, there are three servants' rooms, the floor plan vaguely resembles a Greek cross with asymmetrical arms. The third story abuts the chimney to its west and visually connects the vessels below it. Another bedroom at the northwest corner overlooks Woodlawn Avenue and has a closet and glass decorations. The smallest bedroom in the house is at the northeast corner, whose windows mostly face eastward. In all three bedrooms, there are small casement windows for flower boxes. which was made of oak. The living room's original furniture included a sofa with extended armrests. The dining chairs had high seatbacks to give the dining table a more intimate feel, There were lampposts at each of the dining table's corners, For the guestroom, Wright designed a dresser, a double bed, and side chairs. Some of Wright's original furniture is in the collection of the University of Chicago's Smart Museum of Art. When the house was being considered for demolition, some of the art glass windows were moved to a police station at the University of Chicago. the lamps, the sconces, and the cantilevered living-room couch have also been sold. A lamp from the house was auctioned off for $704,000 in 1988, making it the most expensive Wright–designed furnishing ever sold at the time. == Management ==

File:Robie House Dining Room 22.jpg|alt=A view of the dining room, looking toward an exterior terrace|thumb|Tours of the house include the dining room. Audio tours of the house are hosted. The third floor is excluded from most of the house's tours but is part of the "Private Spaces" tour. which includes visits to several buildings designed by Wright. Since 2018, the Robie House has been part of the Frank Lloyd Wright Trail, a collection of 13 buildings designed by Wright in Illinois. The trust typically hosts training courses for volunteer tour guides twice annually. Over the years, the trust has trained several grade-school students as tour guides. In addition, the trust rents out the house for events. == Impact ==

Reception When the Robie House was built, local residents disliked how the building stood out. After its demolition was proposed in 1957, The Christian Science Monitor described the house as "one of the most important works of one of the world's most influential architects", calling the proposed demolition a "needless tragedy". Another commentator called the Robie House "for many Americans the finest work of art turned out by any of our architects in our history as a nation." The Swiss architect Werner M. Moser said that Europeans regarded the Robie House "as a monument of historic value". A critic for the Chicago Tribune said in 1984 that "the strength and vitality that turned so many heads in 1909 still shine brightly." The house has been the subject of various comparisons. A writer for The Wall Street Journal described the Robie House as "a sheet cake that wants to be a ziggurat". and it was described as an example of "Dampfer architecture", in reference to the German word for "steamship". The house's continuous windows and protruding roof were also popularized nationwide. Newspapers have cited the house as having introduced other architectural details, such as spare bathrooms, self-watering planters, attached garages, picture windows, and split-level spaces. and Wright's Oak Park studio. The Robie House was one of the most prominent buildings that Wright designed in his Oak Park studio, as well as one of the last structures he designed there. The Commission on Chicago Landmarks said: "The bold interplay of horizontal planes about the chimney mass, and the structurally expressive piers and windows, established a new form of domestic design." A 1957 article in House & Home magazine said that "The house introduced so many concepts in planning and construction that its full influence cannot be measured accurately for many years to come", calling it the most consequential house to be built in the U.S. in a century. Similarly, The Christian Science Monitor said in 1962 that the Robie House was Wright's first residence to "have an effective influence on modern residential architecture", and Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius called the house "a milestone in independent architecture". The Robie House's other architectural features inspired architects in Europe, starting with the Dutch architect J. J. P. Oud, who in 1918 was the first to publish an article about the house. These features influenced the design of European structures such as Mies's Barcelona Pavilion and the Rietveld Schröder House. the Domino's Pizza headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan; and a residence on Navajo Avenue in Edgebrook, Chicago. The Robie House was listed as "one of the seven most notable residences ever built in America" in a 1956 Architectural Record article. A 1976 poll of American-architecture experts ranked the Robie House among the top structures in the U.S., while a 1982 poll of Architecture: the AIA journal readers ranked the Robie House as the country's third-best building. In 1991, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) named the house among the Top All-Time Work of American Architects. In celebration of the 2018 Illinois Bicentennial, the Robie House was selected as one of the Illinois 200 Great Places by AIA's Illinois chapter. Landmark designations Chicago's Commission on Architectural Landmarks designated the Robie House as a landmark in 1957, in an attempt to stave off the building's demolition. The house was also the first 20th-century building that the National Trust for Historic Preservation tried to preserve. After the Commission on Chicago Landmarks replaced the Commission on Architectural Landmarks in 1968, the Robie House was again nominated for city-landmark designation in early 1971. At the landmark commission's recommendation, a Chicago City Council committee approved the designation that August. The Commission on Chicago Landmarks' designation applied only to the exterior and prevented unauthorized alterations. and a plaque affirming this designation was dedicated in April 1964. The house was also added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966, The Robie House is a contributing property to the Hyde Park–Kenwood Historic District, designated in 1979, and the house was further designated as an Illinois Historic Landmark in 1980. the buildings had previously been nominated in 2008. UNESCO added eight properties, including the Robie House, to the World Heritage List in July 2019 under the title "The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright". Media and exhibits The Robie House was detailed in Ernst Wasmuth's 1910 Wasmuth Portfolio. and Donald Hoffmann wrote a book about the house in 1984. In addition, presentations from a 1984 symposium at the house were published in the book The Nature of Frank Lloyd Wright. An animated tour of the house was released on CD-ROM in 1995, and the house was depicted in a stamp issued by the United States Postal Service in 1998. The house has been the subject of several documentary films, including a 1975 BBC documentary, a 2004 episode of HGTV's Restore America: A Salute to Preservation series, and the 2013 PBS documentary and companion book 10 Buildings that Changed America. Several exhibits have featured the Robie House. For example, models of the house were displayed at the Cincinnati Art Museum in 1933 and at the Exhibition of American Art in Paris during 1938. The house was also featured in several exhibits at New York City's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 1941, 1961, and 1994, and a model of the house was displayed at MoMA in 1964. Furniture from the house was displayed at the University of Chicago's Smart Museum of Art in 1979, and at the National Gallery of Art, while chairs from the house were displayed at New York's Cooper Hewitt Museum in 1983 and at the Boston Design Center in 1992. The Chicago Athenaeum organized an exhibit about the Robie House and Wright's other Chicago designs in 1992. The house has been depicted in other creative works as well. For instance, the graphic designer Steven Brower cut a pizza box into the shape of the Robie House. Edmund V. Gillon Jr. released a model of the house in 1998, and a rendering of the house was also included in a 2002 pop-up book about Wright's work. Lego started selling a model of the Robie House in 2011. In addition, Blue Balliett's mystery novel The Wright 3 was set in the house. == See also ==