NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Well-designed buildings make a big difference in people's lives, or so Frank Lloyd Wright believed. Many residents of homes designed by the famous architect agree.
The cost to get into a Wright house can be surprisingly low. His big Prairie-style houses from early in the 1900s can sell for well into seven figures, but many of his later designs from the 1940s and 1950s tended to be smaller, simpler structures. Many of these come on the market at very reasonable prices; a three-bedroom, two-bath may go for $300,000, or less.
Even the fancier houses from that era were, though never cheap, not unreasonably priced. Robin Ablin is a Bakersfield, Calif., realtor who grew up in one. He says his parents paid perhaps $85,000 for their house in the late 1950s. That's a sizable sum, but not bad compared to many of the larger, but otherwise undistinguished, homes being built at the time.
Living in a Wright house, "was so timeless and inspiring," says Ablin. "The light was always different. There was always something new to appreciate."
Earlier in his career, Wright developed his Prairie style, which incorporated Asian themes, such as steeply pitched roofs and flared eaves. Later, he moved away from neo-classicism and historic revivalism of any kind.
He called his ideal Usonian -- a distinctive American style free from previous architectural conventions -- that incorporated open floor plans, custom designed furniture, and numerous built-ins.
Ron Scherubel of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy in Chicago says Wright's work can be distinguished by three main themes: use of natural materials like rock and wood; the open floor plans and glass walls that served to draw the outdoors into the house; and an intentional lack of clutter in which "the house itself is the decoration," says Scherubel.
