Johnson Foundation
at WIngspread
Racine, WI
Wingspread is the residence Frank Lloyd Wright designed and built in 1938-39 for the Herbert Fisk Johnson Jr. family. Set on a 36-acre property with a wooded ravine and pond, Wingspread sits elegantly across its gently rolling site, a site that Wright found “not at all stimulating until the house went up.”
Wingspread is the epitome of his ‘organic’ architecture. Its four wings spread out to embrace the prairie. Its primary materials of limestone, brick, stucco, and wood tie the house to the earth. From the center of the living room is a horizontal rise of a 30-foot chimney, with four fireplaces surrounding the first level and a vertical fireplace on the second story (the mezzanine). The chimney of warm red brick is complemented by expanses of oak veneer and is bathed in the changing light from the overhead clerestory windows that surround the Great Hall. At night the living room glows like a fire-filled lantern. The most unique features of the design are the spiral staircase leading to the crow’s nest and the Juliet balcony. Both of these features were design requests of the children who would later live in the home.
The Johnson family lived at Wingspread for 20 years. The home is the last and largest Prairie-style home Frank Lloyd Wright designed. The family then donated Wingspread to the Johnson Foundation in 1959 as an educational conference center.
