Frank Lloyd Wright's Mile High ILLINOIS


A rapier, with handle the breadth of the hand, set firmly into the ground, blade upright, as a simile, indicating the general idea of the ILLINOIS five times the height of the highest structure in the world. -- FLW
By new products of technology and increased inventive ingenuity in applying them to building-construction many superlative new space-forms have already come alive: and because of them, more continually in sight... But more importantly, modern building becomes the solid creative art which the poetic principle can release and develop. Noble, vital, exuberant forms are already here. Democracy awakes to a more spiritual expression. Indigenous culture will now awaken. -- FLW
I loved the prairie by instinct, as, itself, a great simplicity; the trees, the flowers and sky were thrilling by contrast. And I saw that the little of height on the prairie was enough to look like more. Notice how every detail as to height becomes intensely more significant and how breadths fall short. -- FLW
Wright's Mile High Illinois was, of course, never constructed. As we convene on the Illinois prairie to ponder our own architectural ideas, Wright's Mile High Illinois might serve as a reminder that we must temper grandeur with practicality. -- BF
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From Frank Lloyd Wright: In the Realm of Ideas, The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, 1988

Brian Foote foote@cs.uiuc.edu
Last Modified: 2 July 1996