John Ronan FAIA is an architect, writer, and educator based in Chicago and Founding Principal of John Ronan Architects (JRA) where he serves as Lead Designer. John holds a Master of Architecture degree with distinction from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Michigan. His work has been exhibited internationally and covered extensively by the international design press. He has lectured widely and there are three publications on his firm’s work. His writings have appeared in books, journals and Poetry magazine. His firm has…
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Date: 1891-1892
Address: 4575 South Lake Park Avenue, Chicago, IL
City: Chicago, IL
Category: Residential
Links: Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, fragment collection
Restoration Status: Demolished in 1970. Fragments of the façade are now housed in the Louis Sullivan architectural fragment collection at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville.
Originally designed for Louis Sullivan’s mother, the building was completed around the time of her death. Sullivan lived at the house from 1892 until his brother,…
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Date: 1895
Address: 334 North Kenilworth Avenue, Oak Park IL
City: Oak Park, IL
Accessibility: Private
Category: Residential
Built in the 1870s, the Harrison P. Young house was designed by William E. Coman. Wright’s modifications, carried out in 1895, entailed moving the structure 16 ½ feet back on its lot, the addition of a wide porch, and a reconfiguration of the house’s interior spaces. The porch’s narrow clapboard siding emphasizes the horizontality of the addition, as does the gentle slope of the cantilevered roof that…
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2022 Annual Report
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2021 Annual Report
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2020 Annual Report
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2019 Annual Report
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2018 Annual Report
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2017 Annual Report
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Date: 1895
Address: 2840-2858 W Walnut Street, Chicago, IL
City: Chicago, IL
Accessibility: private
Category: residential, multi-family residential units
Constructed for Edward C. Waller shortly after the neighboring Francisco Terrace Apartments were built, this suite of five adjoining buildings was designed as low-cost housing. Each building contained four one-bedroom rental properties with interiors similar to those found at the Francisco Terrace Apartments. A horizontal band of vertically oriented brickwork spanned the…
Following is a list of links to national repositories with significant holdings of Frank Lloyd Wright collections, architectural drawings, reference materials, and manuscripts collections. The descriptions of the individual holdings of each of these repositories are not meant to be exhaustive, and for more detailed information of collections and holdings the repository should be contacted directly.
Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library
The Avery Library at Columbia University is the repository of the most comprehensive archival collection of the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, including 23,…
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Date: 1902
Address: 318 Forest Avenue, Oak Park IL
City: Oak Park, Illinois
Accessibility: Private
Category: Residential
Solid and monolithic, the Heurtley house is one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s greatest residential designs. Located a short distance from Wright’s own Home and Studio in Oak Park, the house was commissioned by banker Arthur Heurtley and his wife Grace. While the rectangular form and monumental massing of the building evokes Wright’s earlier Winslow house of 1893, the design reflects the remarkable evolution of Wright…
Date: 1902
City: “Les Cheneaux”, Marquette Island, Michigan
Accessibility: Private
Category: Residential
The renovation of the Arthur and Grace Heurtley Summer Cottage was commissioned concurrently with the client’s residence in Oak Park. Wright expanded the main-floor bedrooms and reconfigured the basement of the cottage to include a dining room, kitchen, storage, and servant’s quarters. The architect also designed a large stone fireplace for the dining room and added structural steel beams to support the main floor.
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Date: 1905
Address: 3459 South Shore Drive, Delavan, Wisconsin 53115
City: Lake Delavan, Delavan, Wisconsin
Accessibility: Private
Category: Residential
Like many of Wright’s lakeside residences, the Arthur P. Johnson house was designed with the scenic Lake Delavan waterfront in mind. Bands of leaded glass windows extend to the corners of the second story bedrooms of the house, while a large plate glass window in the vast first floor living room looks directly onto the water. A porch surrounds the living room on three of its sides and diagonal piers like those found at the…
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Date: 1888
Address: 50 E Congress Pkwy, Chicago, IL 60605
City: Chicago, IL
Accessibility: Public
Category: Theater, office building, hotel
Links: http://www.auditoriumtheatre.org/
In 1888, Wright secured a position with the prestigious architectural firm of Adler and Sullivan. The partnership produced many of Chicago’s earliest tall buildings and large commercial structures. Impressed by Wright’s superior drawing skills, Louis Sullivan hired the young architect to produce ornamental designs for the interior of the Chicago…
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Date: 1907
Address: 290 and 300 Scottswood Rd., 281 Bloomingbank Rd., and 336 Coonley St., Riverside, Illinois
City: Riverside, Illinois
Accessibility: Private
Category: Residential
The Coonley estate, a sprawling complex in Riverside, Illinois, is one of Wright’s most impressive residential achievements. Avery Coonley, a wealthy Chicago industrialist, and his wife, Queene Ferry, granted Wright tremendous creative freedom to design a residence that he ultimately deemed “the most successful of my houses.” The…
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Date: 1911
Address: 281 Bloomingbank Road, Riverside, IL 60546
City: Riverside, Illinois
Accessibility: Private
Category: Utilitarian
Wright designed a vast estate for Avery and Queene Ferry Coonley in 1907 and modified the adjacent stable building four years later. Wright enlarged the building and converted it into a garage that accommodated two cars.
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Date: 1900
Address: 701 S. Harrison Avenue, Kankakee, Illinois 60901
City: Kankakee, Illinois
Category: Residential
Links: https://wright1900.org
Accessibility: Public
Restoration status: From 2005 to 2010, the house was restored to its 1901 appearance. It is now operated by Wright in Kankakee as a public museum
Wright’s design for the B. Harley Bradley house expands upon the architectural vocabulary he had begun to explore in the Husser house, and which eventually came to define his mature Prairie…
Officers of the Board
John M. Rafkin, Chairman of the Board
Jones Day
Patricia Hunt, Vice Chairman and Executive Chair
Frank Lloyd Wright Homeowner
Graham J. Rarity, Secretary
Tiffany & Co. (retired)
Matthew Cotter, Treasurer
Pairsoft
Members of the Board
Latonia Baker
Oak Park Educational Foundation
Peter R. George
Baker & McKenzie LLP
David Hernandez
The Allstate Corporation
Robert Miller
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois
Kurt Neumann
Perkins Coie LLP
Robert Pasin
Radio Flyer Inc.
Anne Petty
Doyenne Wealth Advisors
Don Rosenwinkel
Big Monster Toys (…
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Date: 1908
Address: 410 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60605
City: Chicago, Illinois
Category: Commercial
Restoration status: Store relocated in 1910, space redecorated in 1912
In 1908, Francis Fisher Browne commissioned Wright to renovate a space in Chicago’s Fine Arts Building to accommodate Browne’s Bookstore. Designed by Solon Spencer Beman in 1885, the Fine Arts Building initially housed the Studebaker carriage factory and showroom but was renovated in the 1890s as a commercial center with…
The mission of the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust is to engage, educate, and inspire the public through interpretation of Frank Lloyd Wright’s design legacy and preservation of his sites for future generations. We believe that our mission is most effectively fulfilled through a commitment to inclusiveness as a core value and practice. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer that does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, veteran status or disability. Furthermore, we seek to build awareness and…
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Date: 1905
Address: 2420 Harrison Street, Evanston IL
City: Evanston, Illinois
Accessibility: Private
Category: Residential
The Charles A. Brown house features a simple, square-shaped plan, clapboard siding, and sash windows—some of the last to appear in Wright’s work. A wide veranda at the front of the house displays a vast cantilevered roof that interrupts the box-like structure of the residence and opens the house to its surrounding environment.
Back to The Buildings of Wright's…
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Date: 1896
Address: 321 North Euclid Avenue, Oak Park, IL
City: Oak Park, IL
Accessibility: Private
Category: Residential
The Chicago architectural firm of Burnham and Root designed the Charles E. Roberts house in 1879, and Wright remodeled the residence in 1896. The commission foreshadows Wright’s 1905 renovation of Burnham and Root’s iconic Rookery building in downtown Chicago.
On the interior, Wright added a first floor bedroom, an ornamental fireplace screen in the living room, and new interior trim. He also redesigned the…