A native of Wisconsin, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison from 1885 to 1886. Restless with the formal education process, Wright left school in 1887 and moved to Chicago, where he found work as a draftsman for the architectural firm of Joseph Lyman Silsbee. Later that year, Wright joined the Adler & Sullivan firm and worked as a draftsman on the firm's largest project to date, the massive Auditorium Building (1886–1889).
Over the next few years, Wright became the principal draftsman at Adler & Sullivan and indirectly had a hand in the design of projects including the James Charnley House (1891–1892). Although Wright was fired from the firm in 1893 for taking independent commissions, the six years he spent in the Adler & Sullivan office were the most influential years of his training. Sullivan's philosophy that the form of a building should derive from the function of its space would be incorporated into Wright's own work. Also like Sullivan, Wright had a reverence for nature expressed in his preference for organic architecture the materials and shapes of which could be adapted to specific sites and uses. Wright's independent career, which lasted from 1893 until his death in 1959, is one of the longest and most distinguished of any architect in America.
Over the next few years, Wright became the principal draftsman at Adler & Sullivan and indirectly had a hand in the design of projects including the James Charnley House (1891–1892). Although Wright was fired from the firm in 1893 for taking independent commissions, the six years he spent in the Adler & Sullivan office were the most influential years of his training. Sullivan's philosophy that the form of a building should derive from the function of its space would be incorporated into Wright's own work. Also like Sullivan, Wright had a reverence for nature expressed in his preference for organic architecture the materials and shapes of which could be adapted to specific sites and uses. Wright's independent career, which lasted from 1893 until his death in 1959, is one of the longest and most distinguished of any architect in America.