By Billie Cohen for AFAR Magazine
Frank Lloyd Wright’s great contribution to American architecture was basically . . . defining an American architecture. Active throughout his life (1867–1959), he created the iconic Prairie style of homes with their flat, horizontal external lines and open interiors; he championed organic architecture (his philosophy of melding human-made construction with the nature that surrounds it); and he even had a thing or two to say about urban planning via his Usonian theory for post-Depression affordable housing. He was exceptionally prolific and designed more than 1,000 projects in his lifetime (though only about half made it into the real world).
