Frank Lloyd Wright, Vertical Space, and the Chicago School's Quest for Light

Abstract

Throughout his career, top-lit vertical spaces played a prominent role in Wright's work, in his domestic as well as civic and commercial buildings. Their source lies in late-19th-century tall office buildings, where the need for natural light was crucial. The quest for light as a major motivating factor in the development of Chicago School architecture, the solution of the glazed light court and Wright's familiarity with it, and the paramount importance of these impressive light-filled spaces in his work well after they had outlived their original function, are all factors long overlooked by historians.