The Frederick C. Robie House, or Robie House for short, is a National Historic Landmark in Chicago, Illinois, located on the University of Chicago campus in Hyde Park. The building was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright between 1909 and 1910 and is considered the best representation of the Prairie School Style, the first exclusively American architectural style. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Between 1908 and 1909, Wright designed the Robie House with its precedent as the Ferdinand F. Tomek House in Riverside, Illinois, also designed by Wright in 1907 through 1908. The property measured 60 feet by 180 feet . The contractor, H. B. Barnard Co. of Chicago, began construction on April 15, 1909, and Wright was only able to supervise the early stages of construction while he left for Europe to work on the Wasmuth portfolio. To continue construction of the house, he entrusted the job to Hermann von Holst and George Mann Niedecken, a Milwaukee interior designer who had previously worked with Wright on several projects such as the Susan Lawrence Dana House, the Avery Coonley House, and the Meyer May House. The final cost of the house was $58,500 and today would amount to approximately $1.5 million. However, Robie lived in his house very briefly, only fourteen months, because he was forced to sell it due to financial problems caused by his father's death in July 1908 and the failure of his marriage. In December 1911, David Lee Taylor, president of the Taylor-Critchfield Company, an advertising agency, purchased the house and all of its Wright-designed contents. Then a year later Taylor died so his widow, Ellen Taylor, sold the house to Marshall D. Wilber, treasurer of the Wilber Mercantile Agency, in November 1912. The Wilbers family were the last people to live in Robie House, living there for fourteen years. years. In June 1926, the Wilbers sold the house to the Chicago Theological Seminary, which used the house as a dormitory and dining hall although it was primarily interested in the site for future expansion. In 1941, a graduate student at the Illinois Institute of Technology accidentally discovered that the seminary was planning to demolish the Robie House, so he informed his instructors, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The threat of demolition sparked a series of protests. And although the seminary projects were postponed, it was more because of World War II than because of the protests. The most serious threat to the Robie House's existence came some sixteen years later. On March 1, 1957, the Seminary announced plans to demolish the Robie House on September 15 to build a new dormitory for its students. This time the entire nation shouted against its demolition, including Wright himself who, then 90 years old, returned to the Robie House on March 18, accompanied by the media, students and neighborhood organizers to protest. Fortunately, just a few weeks earlier, the Chicago City Council, led by Hyde Park City Councilman Leon Despres, had enacted an ordinance to form the Chicago Landmarks Commission. On September 15, 1971, the newly created Commission, with the support of Mayor Richard J. Daley, declared the Robie House a Chicago landmark. Additionally, two University of Chicago fraternities provided the Seminary with an alternative to its demolition plans. While Wright was a student at the University of Wisconsin, he had been a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. The Phi Delt chapter house of the University of Chicago was two doors north of the Robie house, and the Seminary already owned the lot between the two properties. The Phi Delts offered to leave their home together with the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity, which yes.