The Frederick C. Robie House, or Robie House for short, is a National Historic Landmark in Chicago, Illinois, located on the campus of the University of Chicago at 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 uniquely American architectural style. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on "Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned"?Get the original essay Between 1908 and 1909, Wright designed the Robie House with its precedent as the Ferdinand F. Tomek House in Riverside, . Illinois, which was also designed by Wright from 1907 to 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 when he left for Europe to work on the Wasmuth portfolio. To continue construction of the house, he commissioned 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 that would be around $1.5 million. However, Robie lived in his house for a very short time, only fourteen months, as he was forced to sell it due to financial problems caused by the death of his father in July 1908 and the breakdown 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 and 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 at Robie House, there living for fourteen years. In June 1926, the Wilbers sold the house to the Chicago Theological Seminary, which used it 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. He therefore informed his instructors, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The threat of demolition sparked widespread protests. And although the Seminary's plans were postponed, it was more because of World War II than the protests. The most significant threat to Robie House's existence came about sixteen years later. On March 1, 1957, the Seminary announced its intention to demolish Robie House on September 15 in order to build a new dormitory for its students. This time, the entire nation protested its demolition, including Wright himself, who, then 90 years old, returned to Robie House on March 18, accompanied by media, students, and neighborhood organizers to protest. Fortunately, a few weeks earlier, the Chicago City Council, led by Hyde Park Alderman Léon Despres, had enacted an ordinance creating 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 was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity. The University of Chicago's Phi Delt chapter house was two doors north of the Robie House, and the seminary already owned the land between the two properties..