Historic Preservation in Practice: Keeping Wright’s Edward Irving House

3 units

The Edward Irving House is a Midwest Prairie-style house in Decatur, Illinois. Frank Lloyd Wright drafted preliminary sketches for the house in the fall of 1909, right before he departed for Europe, to work on the Wasmuth Portfolio. Marion Mahony, Wright's draughtsman at the time and later one of the first licensed female architects in the world, completed the designs for the house with the engagement of George M. Niedecken, who designed a floor-to-ceiling mural depicting sumac and other prairie flowers for around the house's fireplace. The first component of this course will trace the preservation impulse in the Midwest Prairie from the Dana-Thomas House, the Robie House, to the Edward Irving House. The students will explore its origin, aesthetic, furnishing, fabrication, and historical backgrounds. They will also explore the house's current conditions, potential hazards, and possible restoration strategies onsite by visual observation and manual measurement, with the support of cutting-edge digital preservation devices and techniques, such as LiDAR, photogrammetry, etc. The course will conclude with survey documents qualifying for the Charles E. Peterson Prize 2026.