PHOTOS: The 2010 Wright Plus Home Tour
By Benjy Lipsman in Arts & Entertainment on May 18, 2010 4:00PM
This past Saturday, we ventured west to Oak Park for the 36th annual Wright Plus Home Tour -- the signature event of the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust. This year's event included tours of eight private homes designed by Wright and his contemporaries in Oak Park and River Forest as well as the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, Unity Temple in Oak Park, and the Robie House in Hyde Park.
Kicking off right at 9:00 a.m., we managed to tour six homes and the Unity Temple. Having four of the homes in River Forest made for more travel time between locations and made squeezing in all of the homes more difficult than in previous years where we did manage to see all of the private homes on tour. We found the collection of homes this year to be quite unique compared to what we've seen in the past. Previous years included almost exclusively fully-renovated family homes. The 2010 Wright Plus included the tour of the still very much in-progress renovation of Wright's E. Arthur Davenport House, a rare peek inside the Frank W. Thomas House (first time in 21 years) and the amazing Park Forest Women's Club, a communal building that made the 2005 Landmarks Illinois Most Endangered list before being lovingly converted into a stunning private home. We also finally toured the breathtaking interior of the Unity Temple in downtown Oak Park. Because it's open for tours throughout the year, we'd skipped it in past years in favor of the private homes open especially for Wright Plus. And yet we'd never made it back to Oak Park to tour the temple until this weekend.
We're already looking forward to the 2011 Wright Plus tour, which will be held on May 21, 2011. Tickets go on sale in October at GoWright.org.