Between 1900 and 1917, Frank Lloyd Wright spent most of his time in Oak Park, Illinois and Buffalo, NY.  It was here that he created what has come to be known as the Prairie Style design, which launched his career.  “My first feeling had been a yearning for simplicity... Organic simplicity might be seen producing significant character in the harmonious order we call nature.”  These lines of his autobiography sum up the guiding principles behind his architecture and lead to the creation of the Prairie style, which he considered a good fit for the land around Chicago.  He wrote, “I saw the house primarily as livable interior space under simple shelter.” 

    Prairie style homes had many horizontal planes, which, as he said were, “... parallel to earth, identify themselves with the ground - make the building belong to the ground.”  He saw this type of architecture as a way to “bring the outside world into the house and let the inside of the house go outside.” These houses were low to the ground with shallow roofs, clean sky lines, suppressed chimneys, overhangs, and terraces, composed of unfinished materials.