Robie House and Oak Park

Wright spent twenty years in Oak Park, working out of a studio attached to his own house, and the suburb ended up with the largest concentration of his early buildings anywhere: a walk of a few streets passes a dozen of them and shows the Prairie style being invented in real time, roofs flattening, eaves stretching, houses gripping the ground. Unity Temple of 1908, a church built in exposed concrete because the congregation had little money, is one of the boldest buildings of its century. Across the city in Hyde Park stands the Robie House of 1910, the style's final statement, a long horizontal composition of brick and cantilevered roof. Unity Temple and Robie House are both World Heritage.

What you actually see

• Robie House - the culmination of the Prairie style, in Hyde Park.
• Unity Temple - the 1908 exposed-concrete church in Oak Park.
• Wright's Home and Studio - where he lived and worked for twenty years.
• The Oak Park walk - a dozen early houses within a few streets.

When to go

April to October for the walking, though all the interiors are open year-round on tours. Oak Park and Hyde Park are on opposite sides of the city, roughly an hour apart by transit, so treat them as a full day or split them. Book interior tours ahead, as they sell out.

Honest expectations

The two halves are far apart and the connection is a long transit ride through the city, which surprises people planning a quick morning. Almost every house on the Oak Park walk is a private home you can only see from the pavement. Tour tickets for each building are separate and add up quickly.

Nearby

Downtown Chicago is between the two; the Art Institute is in the Loop.