oak park – TAYONTHEMOVE

Open House Chicago 2016 Series – Part 4

Architecture November 14, 2016

This is my last post about Open House Chicago which I attended a few weekends ago. If you’ve been following along, you know that this one is going to be about the home and studio of the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. I was the most excited about visiting this space because I studied a little bit about him in my interior design classes. He was a modern architect who wanted to steer away from European style architecture and build a distinct style for America. This style was known as the Prairie style. His home and studio in Oak Park is considered to be his first architectural masterpiece. This style emphasized homes with low, pitched roofs and long rows of casement windows which were made with local materials. The wood was always unstained and unpainted to focus attention on natural beauty. Unfortunately, on this tour, we were not allowed to take photographs of the inside but I did manage to take…

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Open House Chicago 2016 Series – Part 3

Architecture October 31, 2016

The next stop on the Open House Chicago was the Nineteenth Century Club House and Oak Park Art League. Nineteenth Century Club House in Oak Park, IL This clubhouse was established by a group of women who believed that education, charitable activities, and civic involvement were an important elements to a prosperous community. (Girl power!) This neoclassical structure was built in 1928 and designed by James L. Fyfe who had ties to the club through his wife and mother-in-law. The clubhouse is still used to support educational and cultural endeavors. At the time of my visit there was a dance class going on, which was fun to watch! Oak Park Art League in Oak Park, IL The Oak Park Art League was founded after World War I and this structure was designed in 1902 by Eben Ezra Roberts. (I like how colorful and fun this building’s exterior is) It was a place for artist collaboration…

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Open House Chicago 2016 Series – Part 2

Architecture October 28, 2016

Saint Edmund Catholic Parish in Oak Park, Chicago Another site on the Open House Chicago 2016 was the Saint Edmund Catholic Parish. It is the first Catholic Parish in Oak Park, IL and was founded by Archbishop James Quigley in 1907. It is a 14th Century English Gothic style church which was designed by Henry Schlacks and dedicated in 1910. For a more detailed history, you can click here. It is one of those places which one has to see in person because the photographs do not do justice. The details of the ceiling is impeccable. It all looks like tiles, but if you got closer to it, you would see that it’s actually little squares of paint that are made to imitate tiles, so brilliant! I could not get enough of it but we had to move on if we wanted to see more sites on the tour!

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