Oscar B. Balch House
- Architect
- Frank Lloyd Wright
- Style
- Prairie School
- City
- Chicago, IL
- Collection
- wright’s chicago
The Oscar B. Balch House at 611 N. Kenilworth Avenue is a 1911 Prairie School home by Frank Lloyd Wright, notable as one of his first designs to use a flat roof, giving the house a strong horizontal line. It was also the first house Wright designed after returning from Europe amid a scandal that cost him many of his Oak Park clients — client Oscar Balch, an interior decorator, was one of the few who stood by him.
the building
One of the first flat roofs. The Balch House was among the earliest Wright designs to employ a flat roof, a device that stretches the house's lines horizontally and anticipates the low-slung massing of his mature Prairie houses.
the style
Historian Thomas O'Gorman has suggested the design may offer a glimpse into Wright's state of mind at the time, arriving as it did in the immediate aftermath of the Europe trip that unsettled his life and career.
More on Prairie Schoolthe architect
Wright designed the Balch House in 1911 just after returning from an extended trip to Europe with Mamah Borthwick, the wife of a client — a trip that scandalized Oak Park and cost him friends, clients, and his own family. Oscar Balch was among the small number who continued to support him afterward.
More on Frank Lloyd Wrightsignificance
The house is listed as a contributing property to the federally registered Frank Lloyd Wright-Prairie School of Architecture Historic District.
more by Frank Lloyd Wright
nearby
- Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio
- Robert P. Parker House
- William H. Copeland House
- Thomas H. Gale House
- Walter Gale House
- Arthur Heurtley House