Isabel Roberts House, Prairie School residence in River Forest, US.
The Isabel Roberts House is a single-family home in River Forest, Illinois, built in the Prairie School style. It has a low-pitched roof with wide overhanging eaves, long bands of windows running across the facade, and a form that sits close to the ground.
Frank Lloyd Wright designed the house around 1908, when the Prairie School was taking shape as a new approach to American residential architecture. The building was later remodeled by another architect, which altered some of its original features.
River Forest is home to several Prairie School buildings, and this house fits naturally into that neighborhood fabric. Visitors walking past can take in the low roofline and the long rows of windows from the street, which is how most people experience it today.
The house is a private residence, so the interior is not open to visitors, but the exterior can be seen clearly from the street. Going in the morning or late afternoon, when the light is low, helps bring out the horizontal lines of the facade.
Isabel Roberts was herself an architect who worked in Wright's studio, which meant she approached the commission as a professional peer rather than an ordinary client. This made the exchange between designer and client unusually direct and technical.
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