John Lloyd Wright (December 12, 1892 – December 20, 1972) was an American architect and toy inventor. Born in Oak Park, Illinois, Wright was the second-oldest son of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. John Lloyd Wright became estranged from his father in 1909 and subsequently left his home to join his brother on the West Coast. After unsuccessfully working a series of jobs, he decided to take up the profession of his father in 1912. Shortly afterward, he was able to reconnect with his father, who took John under his wing. Differences in opinion regarding the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo caused the pair to again become disaffected. John Lloyd Wright took a break from architecture after this falling-out and focused on designing toys. The most successful of these inventions was Lincoln Logs in 1916, which would later be one of the original inductees into the National Toy Hall of Fame. In 1923, Wright moved to Long Beach, Indiana and designed several buildings. His style was characterized by the Prairie School of architecture with International Style influences. After marrying a third time in 1946, Wright left Indiana for Del Mar, California, where he spent the rest of his life designing houses.
Biography
Early life John Lloyd Wright was born on December 12, 1892, while his father, Frank Lloyd Wright, was practicing in Chicago with Adler & Sullivan. He was the second-oldest of the six children of Frank Lloyd and Catherine Wright. They lived in Oak Park, Illinois, in what is now known as the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio. John became estranged from his father in 1909, when Frank abandoned his family to be with Mamah Borthwick Cheney. John was accepted to the University of Wisconsin-Madison shortly after, but soon dropped out. He moved to Portland, Oregon, to get away from his family. He traveled with his elder brother, Lloyd Wright, to San Diego, California, where they worked with the Olmsted Brothers as they prepared for the Panama–Pacific International Exposition. He also sold posters designed by his brother and briefly worked a job pressing pants. Destitute and without direction, he decided to take up the profession of his father and become an architect.
Early architecture While walking in San Diego, he saw a sign calling for a draftsman for the Pacific Building Company. Wright was hired and drew architectural details for bungalows. He soon realized that he had a talent for the profession and sought out a professional architectural firm. He found a position in the firm of Harrison Albright, one of the preeminent architects in Los Angeles. Originally acting as a clerk, Wright received his first design commission for a house in Escondido in 1912. The design was heavily borrowed from his father's Sherman M. Booth House in Glencoe, Illinois. Pleased with the results, Albright gave Wright the opportunity to design the Workingman's Hotel, a three-story building. During the project, Wright worked closely with sculptor Alfonso Iannelli, whom he would befriend. After the hotel was completed, Wright determined that he should receive formal architectural training. He intended to apprentice with Vienna Secession architect Otto Wagner in exchange for room and board in Vienna, Austria.
After John wrote a letter to his father, asking him for money for a ticket to Vienna, Frank wrote back that John was welcome to train with him. He accepted the opportunity, but struggled under the dominating personality of his father. In 1913, upon completion of Taliesin I, Frank left Chicago for Wisconsin and placed John in charge of his Chicago office. John oversaw the construction of Midway Gardens, utilizing sculpture from his friend Iannelli. John accompanied his father to Japan to oversee the design of the Imperial Hotel. However, an argument over John's salary resulted in his firing and the two again became estranged. In 1913, John married Jeanette Winters, whom he had met in Los Angeles. He designed a home for them in Chicago they called the Bird Center. Now without an architectural practice, John focused on some of his hobbies, including toys. It was at this time that he perfected the design for his Lincoln Logs, an idea he had conceived while in Japan. Construction of the Imperial Hotel required beams to be designed in an interlocking method to make it safe for earthquakes, and John realized that this design could be adapted into a toy version. He used his own funds to bring the idea to market in 1918 as the Red Square Toy Company (so named after his father's famous symbol). The toys were notched miniature logs about 1.5 centimetres (0.59 in) in diameter that could be arranged to build miniature log cabins. Wright received a patent on August 31, 1920, and had the name registered on August 28, 1923. Wright later sold the patent which became one of the most popular toys ever designed.
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