WRIGHT, FRANK LLOYD. (1869-1959). Architect and chief theorist and practitioner of the Prairie School of design; America’s greatest and most influential architect. Signed architectural plan. (“FLW”). 1p. Large Folio (36½” x 26¼”). N.p., N.d. [ca. 1950s]. Signed and annotated architectural drawing for the John A. Gillin Residence, Wright’s only completed residential commission in Dallas, Texas. Initialed by Wright below an 11-word note in Wright’s hand in the lower right corner and with Wright’s pencil sketches in three sections.

The first of Wright’s pencil drawings, at the lower right, details the geometric pattern planned for the edge of the kitchen countertop with his note in pencil “Stamped on turned over / edge of stainless steel top of / counter / FLW,” beneath a detail of the countertop design, comprised of repeated equilateral triangles. The remaining two drawings, located at the center and upper right, pertain to the unusual triangular skylights designed to illuminate the kitchen or breakfast area. Here, Wright boldly modifies the footprint of his “Existing Skylights” and sketches out the new configurations of skylights, each covering an area of approximately 7” x 6”.

Known for his strikingly original designs, including New York’s iconic Guggenheim Museum and Fallingwater, the memorable weekend retreat in Pennsylvania, Wright remains America’s most influential architect. Minimally trained as an engineer, his determination to create a mid-western inspired form of architecture made him the leading innovator of the Prairie style and, beginning in the 1930s, the Usonian house. “His attempt at bringing designs of beauty and humanity within the range of ordinary people… [Usonia] came to symbolize for Wright an idealized way of living in a landscape, a vision in miniature of what a perfectly designed house could be,” (Frank Lloyd Wright: A Biography, Secrest). Between 1946 and 1959, Wright received 270 residential commissions, including ours, which he began in 1950 and finished sometime between 1958 and his death early the following year, making it one of his last designs.

John A. Gillin was an oilman and geophysicist who founded the National Geophysical Company at the age of 27. In commissioning Wright for the project, he spent $100,000 (modern equivalent of $1 million). The property (Storrer # S. 338) is located at 9400 Rockbrook Drive in the Preston Hollows neighborhood of Dallas and is situated at the center of a 7-acre property overlooking a creek. A sprawling one-story residence, extending outward in three radiating wings with cantilevered roofs and copious windows, it was meant to be appropriate to the climate in which it was built and was the largest ever built in Wright’s Usonian style. Incorporating unusual angles as well as numerous geometric elements, Gillin contributed to the design himself, including the stainless-steel kitchen and door hardware. The Gillin House was featured in Wes Anderson’s 1996 film Bottle Rocket.

With folds and creases, surface wear, closed tears, and a small hole in the upper right portion. In very good condition. Provenance: From the collection of architect William Kelly Oliver, Wright’s apprentice and a member of the Taliesin Associated Architects who supervised the Gillin House as well as Dallas’ Kalita Humphreys Theater.