Rollin Furbeck House

Rollin Furbeck House is a Frank Lloyd Wright designed house in Oak Park, Illinois that was built in 1897. It is part of the Frank Lloyd Wright-Prairie School of Architecture Historic District.

Architecture

The house is considered a major transitional work for Wright as his previous designs were either square or rectangular, unlike this one, which holds (see the porches extruding toward the east and west) one of the first cruciform-pinwheel layout made by Wright.

Exterior

Characteristics yet unseen in previous Frank Lloyd Wright designs, this house points to it being one of the first he constructed experimenting with vertical elements (such as the considerably large three-story center tower and vertical octagon-shaped columns). Other recurrent Wright features consist of the continuation of the surface used on a story to the next story; the path to a front entrance purposefully obscured by the architect; the use of geometric shapes simple in design; and the implementation of visually-protective colonnettes in front of textured diamond-paned windows, typical Wright characteristics which can be found in many other of his works.

Interior

Wright used an abundant source of natural light to allow a free flow of space; woodwork was also used to create an ambient effect of warmth and coziness. Picture windows were uncommon at the time, but are now common in suburban residential homes. Many characteristics of Wright's early works can also be found in this residence, including the large massive concrete fireplace woven into a wall and diamond-paned windows.