Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust announces new downtown Chicago location
(Oak Park, IL) – The Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust will establish a new facility with the lease of space in the ground-floor lobby of The Rookery—a National Historic Landmark located at 209 South LaSalle Street, in downtown Chicago. Slated to open in early December 2010, the Preservation Trust’s newest location will feature a public information center, as well as administrative offices for the not-for-profit’s development, membership, events, communications, and guest relations divisions. In early 2011, the Trust will offer free tours of The Rookery and open a “ShopWright” gift store.
The Rookery is an icon of architecture set in the heart of the Midwest’s central financial district. The structure is both quintessentially Chicago, and contains one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most dramatic and significant interior compositions. In 1905 Wright remodeled The Rookery—creating a stunning balance between Burnham and Root’s ironwork and ornamentation with his own Prairie style concepts.
“Expanding into this new facility is the fulfillment of a long-standing dream of our organization to increase regional visibility and leverage Chicago audience participation,” said Preservation Trust Board Chair, Jim Schiefelbein. “We’ve explored many possibilities for a strategic downtown presence over the past several years and when an opportunity at The Rookery opened up late this past spring, our Board voted unanimously to move forward. It’s a perfect fit for us.”
The Preservation Trust currently operates two historic house museums in the Chicago area—Wright’s Oak Park Home and Studio, and the Robie House on the campus of the University of Chicago in Hyde Park. The Rookery’s central location between these two sites will enable the Trust to better unify its organization and enhance operational effectiveness and efficiency, while alleviating severe staff overcrowding in Oak Park. In addition, the expansion will set the stage for improving the Trust’s guest relations, tours and amenities at both its Oak Park and Hyde Park facilities.
The Rookery location itself also has an added benefit, as it will give the Trust the opportunity to present a third Wright site in Chicagoland, emphasizing an entirely different aspect of Wright’s legacy: his work on behalf of a business client.
Sponsors of the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust downtown location include Wege Foundation, Steelcase Inc., Sidley Foundation, and the Board of Directors of the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust. The Rookery ownership has graciously provided a unique opportunity for the Trust to occupy a space adjacent to Frank Lloyd Wright’s lobby in a Chicago landmark building.
About The Rookery
The Rookery, designed by Daniel Burnham and John Root, was completed in 1888 and is regarded as one of the partnership’s finest masterpieces. The building is one of the greatest surviving examples of the early commercial skyscrapers and is considered the oldest standing high-rise in Chicago.
In 1898, when Frank Lloyd Wright opened his new studio adjacent to his home in the suburb of Oak Park, he realized that he also needed a downtown presence to cultivate relationships and be accessible to more clients. Wright chose his friend and client Ed Waller’s Rookery building as the site of his Chicago office — and occupied space there in 1898 and 1899.
In 1905, Frank Lloyd Wright was commissioned to update the Rookery’s light court and lobbies. Wright refaced much of the lobby in broad planes of white Carrara marble incised with gold leaf, evoking in exquisite materials many of Root’s original ornamental metalwork designs. Wright’s graceful design honored Burnham and Root and served to modernize the interior, uniting the LaSalle Street lobby and the Adams Street lobby with a luminous and brilliantly articulated central light court. The Rookery’s architectural uniqueness combined with its timeless functionality and state of the art Class A office and retail space makes it one of the most sought after locations in Chicago.
About the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust
The mission of the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust is to engage, educate and inspire the public through the architecture, design and legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright, and to preserve its historic collections. Established in 1974 as a grass roots volunteer effort to save and restore Wight’s Oak Park Home and Studio—the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust significantly expanded its mission in 1997 by undertaking the multi-million-dollar restoration of the Robie House to Wright’s original artistic vision. These two sites are operated by the Preservation Trust as historic house museums open to the public. Annually, on the third weekend in May, the Trust also presents Wright Plus, an internationally renowned house-walk that attracts more than 5,000 visitors from around the globe to the Chicago region. More information on the many restoration, preservation and education programs of the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust may be found at GoWright.org.
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Contact: Adam Ross
708-725-3852
aross@gowright.org
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