Prairie House Plans

Ask the average person on the street to describe a Prairie House Plan and they are likely to conjure up visions of the rustic shanty that was the home to Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert in the Little House series. In reality, the Prairie House Plan was first designed by Frank Lloyd Wright around 1900 because he believed the rooms in Victorian homes were too boxy and compartmentalized. Some of the features that distinguish a Prairie style house plan are:

Low lying to blend with the landscape
Large, open, interior spaces
Low pitched roofs
Broad, overhanging eaves
Horizontal lines
Central hearth personifying family strength
Long bands of windows
Low terraces & outreaching walls

Prairie house plans were built around a central chimney and consisted of broad open spaces instead of strictly defined rooms, and deliberately hazed the distinction between interior space and the surrounding terrain. Wright acclaimed "the new reality that is space instead of matter" and, about architectural interiors, said that the "reality of a building is not the container but the space within." Furnishings are not secondary elements, but integral to the design, and hence often consist of built-ins. Construction materials and finishes are natural, and ornamentation is often restricted to art glass windows that function as "light screens". Wright considered glass and light to be synonymous with beauty.

The Frederick C. Robie House in Chicago was Wright's most notable masonry Prairie house plan. It was completed in 1910 at a cost of sixty thousand dollars and dubbed the 'House of the Century' by House and Home magazine in 1958. It is considered a masterpiece of American Architecture and is currently owned by the University of Chicago.

Early Prairie House plans were usually plaster with wood trim or horizontal lap siding with vertical board and batten. Later Prairie home plans used concrete block. The Prairie House Plan continues to evolve, but the visual elements of the low pitched roof and deep, overhanging eaves are a must.

Monster House Plans can help you find a Prairie House Plan to suit your needs. We offer a helpful Price to Build tool that can assist you with ball-parking the cost to build a Prairie home plan. Although Monster House Plans Price to Build tool can be a smart start to identifying the cost to build your house plan, there is no substitute for a professional builder reviewing your Prairie house plan drawings to fine-tune the costs specific to your location.

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