Gallery Conversation: The Idea of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonia

Frank Lloyd Wright is an icon of American architecture—but why? What vision makes his work so extraordinary?

Join Tyson Scholar Joseph Watson for a discussion about Frank Lloyd Wright’s Bachman-Wilson House. Originally built in 1956, the house was one of the last of a collection of mid-size, affordable homes the architect called “Usonian.” This term was, in the simplest sense, an abbreviation of the “United States of America,” but it also encapsulated the broader social vision with which Wright imbued his work. What was this larger social vision? And what can it tell us about the relationship between architecture and society, during Wright’s time and today? Wright’s career began outside Chicago in the 1880s and ended with his death in 1959—a period of massive social change. Linking Wright’s “Usonia” to the larger currents in American history can help us see his well-known work anew.

Free, no registration required.