Special places archive

Unified vision: the architecture and design of the Prairie School

This website is an online showcase for the Prairie School collection at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. There are tours of buildings (surviving and demolished) and of the many associated objects in the institute’s collection.

In the late 19th century, Louis Sullivan conceived the idea of an authentic American architecture suited to the needs of people living in the modern age.

Employing his principles of unified design, Sullivan’s followers, including Frank Lloyd Wright, William Gray Purcell, and George Grant Elmslie, developed what is now known as the Prairie School.