Frederick C Robie House

Great house and another great tour by the FLW Trust. Pretty similar to the tour of the Home & Studio in that they are run by the same people and have the same gift shops, but the houses are of course very unique. Great neighborhood to spend some time in and this is a can’t miss. Terry was an excellent guide.

The Robie House was the first Frank Lloyd Wright home that my wife and I toured. Our 45 minute tour led by Chris was great. She clearly articulated the prairie style design that made Wright’s famous and helped us picture what it would be like to live in Chicago during the early 1900’s. The home featured numerous «horizontal lines» on wood panels and beautiful windows. We learned that in the living and dining area, Wright purposely designed the roof, elevation of windows to allow the right or less amount of sunlight in a given season to allow rooms to be warmed in the winter and cooled in the summer.
Adult tickets are $ 17 but we purchased a Groupon deal via Goldstar events that lowered the price to $ 12. Some guests purchased a «photo pass» that allowed you to take pictures inside. We didn’t have a pass but still snapped a few pics. :) If you’re a fan of Wright, architecture or Chicago history, make your way to Hyde Park and visit the Robie House.

Came here on a cold, snowy, Sunday in February and basically got a private tour. I wont repeat what has already been said but this place is a must visit for FLW fans and old house lovers alike. This house and the Gamble House in Pasadena, CA are like an Arts & Crafts period architectural mecca for me. If you find yourself in Chicago, take the Metra down to Hyde Park and spend the afternoon at the University of Chicago campus and the Robie House, you wont regret it.

Wow. Frank Lloyd Wright and his horizontal lines. If you are a fan of his work, you must come here. It’s about a half hour train ride from the heart of Chicago, and it is located on University of Chicago’s beautiful campus (you should walk around the campus too).
The tour is about 50mins-​1hr. You can buy a photo pass for $ 5 (otherwise you can only take exterior photos). With the photo pass and fees, it cost $ 22 per person. Our tour guide was great. I wish I remembered his name! My bf is the architectural expert, but when I left, I felt like I really «got» the house, design, and layout. We equally enjoyed the tour. It’s very cultural, not sure how much I would’ve gotten out of it as a kid, but as an adult it was a great experience. FLW loved this house. Out of all of the homes and places he built, this is one of the only ones he actively protested getting knocked down. Twice! He clearly felt an intimate connection with this design.

Historic and architecturally significant house on the campus of University of Chicago. Group tour began on time, led by friendly, fairly knowledgable guides. Restoration inside still in progress. Very short video intro. We arrived quite early and were able to exchange our pre purchased tix for earlier tour time with no hassle or extra fee. Took a few minutes to find parking along nearby boulevard but it was free and we enjoyed the short 3 – 4 block walk. Had a light lunch at Pleine Air coffee shop next to Robie House — sandwich made to order and delish! Browsed the RH gift shop, which had a nice selection of books, jewelry, reproductions, totes and table linens but tended to be pricey. We chose not to pay extra $ 5 to take interior photos so I was a bit disappointed that none of the RH books had good interior photos of the restoration to date, just historic B&W photos, rather grainy.

If you like architecture, it’s a must visit in Chicago. Pretty far south if you don’t have car, but absolutely worth figuring out how to get there. Also the University of Chicago campus is astonishingly beautiful and full of good examples of international and local architecture.

The Robie House is another Frank Lloyd Wright gem surrounded by the University of Chicago. I’ve been to Oak Park and Falling Water, so since I had the time, I had to do it. Like most Wright houses, I can’t imagine living in it. Wright had his ideas and I think you were supposed to adapt. But they are always a pleasure to see. This is a fairly large specimen built for a fairly rich man. There was no single feature that knocked me out but the overall effect is impressive. Wright is arguably more a sculptor than an architect. It’s aesthetics and philosophy which dominate the structure. Engineering and comfort are secondary.

if you are a fan of frank lloyd wright or his prairie style architecture, this is a must-​stop if you are visiting chicago. unfortunately it isnt really convenient to get to if you are staying downtown, maybe a $ 15 – 20 cab or you can take public transportation and walk a ways but it is worth it if you are into this sort of thing. if you are a big fan you should try to be in town for the all wright weekend where a lot of the privately owned houses that wright designed are opened to the public (with some pretty long lines to get in)

Came here for a tour on Easter Sunday. If you’re a fan of architecture (especially Frank Lloyd Wright), you have to check out the Robie House. Found in the middle of the campus of Uni of Chicago, you’re surrounded by beautiful architecture. The Robie House, however, sticks out due to its unique Japanese inspired design. There are 45 minute tours every hour for a reasonable price (all proceeds go into maintaining the house along with restoration). Our tour guide (a volunteer) was a little boring, but he most definitely knew his stuff.
If you’re in Chicago, spend an afternoon in Hyde Park with a visit to the Robie House.
Good for: Sightseeing

Nice tour, but very brief. Would have liked to see the whole house! The movie that starts off the tour was very informative and helpful.
My son and I HAD to come here as we had built the Robie house in LEGO and it was fun to see the actual building!

I loved this house!
We bought a Groupon because we were interested, and now I can’t wait to see them all!
It was a fair price for an hour tour. There were a lot of areas of the house we could mot go in to, so that was a bummer. It would have been nice to feel the spiraling movement.
We were told the smaller Saturday tours get to see more of tge house, so go on a Saturday 10-​person tour!
Our tour guide was extremely informative. He clearly loves the job and loves the house, which made the tour that much better.
The gift shop is a little pricey, but packed full of goodies.

We just happened to be in the neighborhood and decided to stop by to visit Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House! Lucky for us, we were able to purchase tickets for the very next tour, giving us about 15 minutes to mull around the gift shop.
The house is revered as the greatest example of the Prairie School style, the first architectural style that was uniquely American Midwestern. It’s fascinating to learn the story of the house and it’s history. For being a great American family home, it’s sad to learn that it didn’t really have much of a family life.
Frank Lloyd Wright designed not only the house, but all of the interiors, lighting, rugs, and furniture as well as the beautiful art-​glass windows.
Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and open to questions. She pointed out the horizontal lines of the home as well and the hidden front door and cantilevered roof eaves. It’s so amazing that a structure of this age still remains. The tour is short, about one hour, but that’s long enough to view the genius of Mr. Wright.

How could you give less than five stars for this icon? You can’t. He’s the guy other guys who wanna be the guy look at if they design houses. FLW only cared about the rooms people see, the public space, that was my take away from this experience…
The home is perfectly located and funded by the U… inspiring for students there immersed in math and angles.

This tour turned out to be quite worth it! For $ 15, you get a 45 min — 1 hr tour of the house. I expected it to cover the architecture of the building itself but I didn’t realize the tour would be so detailed so I was pleasantly surprised. The tour started off with a brief video in the basement and then the tour guide brought us from room to room and explained Frank Llyod Wright’s design concept and how he achieved it. The details that he planned — from to the designs of the light fixtures and the carpets to the custom-​designed furniture — was amazing.
The Robie house is currently under renovation to restore it to how it originally looked. I think the tour will be even more worth it (and be a 5 star tour) when the furniture pieces are returned to the house and the repainting is completed. The top floor (with the bedrooms) was not shown — perhaps because they are still completing the remodeling — but that would also be very interesting I’m sure.
I was trying to be very selective with the tours I went on during my trip to Chicago since the admission prices are quite high and can really add up. This is one tour that I felt really was worth it — it was entertaining and I learned a lot!

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT! If you’re a FLW fan, the Robie House is usually in your «Top 5» of must see-​s. I bought my ticket online and drove down from Milwaukee on a Sunday morning for my tour. Parking was easy to find and free. I arrived early so I spent an hour walking around the exterior taking photos. My tour was the «Guided Interior» for $ 15, so no interior photos were allowed. The $ 45 «Private Spaces» tour, photos are allowed for personal use of the inside. The original three car garage is now the gift shop/​info center. There are also restrooms.
I’ve found on my many Frank Lloyd Wright tours that the guide and fellow tour takers can make the experience different. Some tour guides are better than others, but most are volunteers so can’t be too critical. Some tours you have people asking dipshit questions the entire time, like read a Wikipedia entry before coming on a tour. On the other extreme is the asshole that takes up the tour guides’ time by «Out Wrighting» everyone — he’s watched the Ken Burn’s doc, read a few books and thinks he know everything about FLW and talks as much as the guide.
FIB: Frank Lloyd Wright spent his early years in Wisconsin, left for Chicago and was actually a FIB for a decade before returning to Wisconsin to be with Mamah at Taliesin.

As a Chicagoan there are many places that are must sees… and with Frank Lloyd Wright with his «prairie style» architecture, it is both very modern and shows his vision even over 100 years ago.
My aunt and her companion wanted to go so we went today and had a great tour with Chris and five other people.
Yes the house is undergoing renovations but they have done a fantastic job so far.
The tour itself is a good look at FLW’s style and his idea of «bringing the outside in» and for just about an hour its very in-​depth.
Parking was easy, found a spot right by the house. As this is at the University of Chicago, driving and finding a spot during the week might be challenge… in addition they only run tours Thursdays — Mondays.
I will be back here one day and may try and take the more in-​depth tour.

FLW is a genius (at least my gf thinks so). We visited his home in Oak Park and had to stop here as well.
Price: $ 15 for a guided tour.
Location: Parking didn’t seem to be a problem. The area was safe as well.
Tour: Informative and less than an hour. You do learn a bit during the tour.

The Robie house is an excellent example of Frank Lloyd Wright prairie-​style architecture and hopefully it will be fully restored at some point in the future. As it stands, Robie house is just an OK tour since most of the house is still rather shabby.
I’ve been to other FLW designed histories that are magnificent, I can transport myself to another time by walking the hallways. Alas, Robie house is not yet been transformed to its original glory.
That said, the price of admission is utilized to help fund the renovation so I have high hopes for the future of the house.
Parking is in very short supply and very high demand as the Robie house is located on U of Chicago campus. Take a taxi and save yourself the trouble of looking for parking.

I’ll be honest, I know jack about architecture. Let’s continue with the honesty: the only reason I wanted to go to the Robie House was because I saw it in the LEGO Architecture Series. And I thought it was going to be a huge mansion or something.
Instead, it is a small (but deceptively large, according to our guide) house, with interesting little facts, and interesting little details. I think the tour guide did a good job explaining things, and the tour itself was pretty well organized, though a little short.
Even so, I would still recommend people to go because it’s pretty cheap– I think around 10 – 12 bucks or something, it’s moderately short — maybe a 35 minute tour, and it has some pretty good history. And it’s built by that… famous architecture guy, I think he did some museum in New York too.

Compared to the other FLW properties I’ve been to there is simply something lacking at the Robie House — the tour is too short, the experience not at all immersive, and the tourguide not nearly as knowledgable of the property or the architect himself.
Combine the above with a tour that spends ~20 minutes outside and ~25 minutes inside for $ 15 because half the place is being rennovated (of course, if you choose the more expensive tour you can see those areas too) and I just can’t say it was worth the hype — not when the home and studio is so close and the Rookery is free.