The Frank Lloyd Wright Road Trip That Midcentury Modern Lovers Need to Take
The official Frank Lloyd Wright Trail guides travelers to nine of the renowned architect’s most significant buildings in his home state of Wisconsin.
The official Frank Lloyd Wright Trail guides travelers to nine of the renowned architect’s most significant buildings in his home state of Wisconsin.
Frank Lloyd Wright once famously said, "Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you." A self-guided motor trail honoring the visionary architect incorporates this sentiment by piecing together his architectural masterpieces with lovely landscapes in his birthplace and home state. The Frank Lloyd Wright Trail winds and weaves through southern Wisconsin, featuring stops at nine of the architect’s most impressive buildings along the way. Take this architectural road trip to learn more about Wright’s philosophy on nature and design and admire some of the most beautiful midcentury-modern structures in the world.
SC Johnson Administration Building—Racine, Wisconsin
The Administration Building’s one-half acre Great Workroom is known for its tree-shaped columns, which Wright referred to as "dendriform." The Wisconsin Industrial Commission refused to approve the columns until Wright conducted an experiment that showed they could withstand sixty tons of weight—or ten times the required amount. In 1937, the construction was approved.
Courtesy of Travel Wisconsin
Start your journey in Racine, Wisconsin, with a free tour of the SC Johnson Administration Building—the only Wright-designed corporate headquarters that is still operating. In 1936, owner Herbert Fisk Johnson Jr. reached out to Wright to build the "best office building in the world" for the the household cleaning product manufacturer. In addition to designing "bird cage" circular elevators and more than 40 pieces of furniture for the Great Workroom—including rolling file carts that could be moved easily around the open-plan office space—Wright crafted nearly 200 special shapes of brick for the building’s curved exterior and interior walls. Still, the crowning design achievement of the Administration Building is its tree-shaped (or "dendriform") columns, which are nine inches in diameter at the base and expand to 18.5 feet in diameter at the ceiling.
SC Johnson Research Tower—Racine, Wisconsin
The Research Tower’s windows are comprised of 7,000 Pyrex tubes, and at certain times of the day, you can see the silhouette of the floor plan.
Courtesy of Travel Wisconsin
Don’t leave the SC Johnson campus without visiting the Research Tower, which opened in 1950 and is still one of world’s the tallest cantilevered buildings. Like the dendriform columns in the Administration Building, the Research Tower is smaller along the base than it is at the top: In fact, the more than 150-foot-tall building stands on a base that measures only 13 feet wide at its narrowest point, which creates the illusion that the structure is suspended in the air. To support the tower’s 15 floors, Wright created a "taproot" core that extends 54 feet into the ground, offering stability like the roots of a tree. Guests can marvel over this architectural feat, as well as the alternating square and round mezzanine levels throughout the interior.
Wingspread—Windpoint, Wisconsin
In 1939, Wright built the Wingspread estate on a wooded 30-acre lot with ponds and lagoons. The 14,000-square-foot Wisconsin home was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1989.
Courtesy of Travel Wisconsin
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