Frank Lloyd Wright building preservationists are already feeling the effects of sweeping personnel and funding changes from the federal government.
And Barbara Gordon, an Oak Parker who leads the Chicago-based Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, is sounding the alarm.
Some of the funding opportunities and staffing support from key government agencies that historic Wright sites across the country have come to rely on for help have disappeared. As President Donald Trump’s administration has drastically reshaped federal departments with layoffs, building closures and program cuts, the future of historic preservation efforts supported by agencies like the National Park Service, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute for Museum and Library Services is uncertain.
The administration has cut more than $1 billion from the park service’s budget alone, according to the National Parks Preservation Association.
Wright, whose design career lasted more than seven decades before his death,
is considered one of the world’s most influential architects as he pioneered the prairie style of architecture. He designed more than 1,100 buildings, many of which are open to the public as museums today.
His legacy is felt stronger nowhere more than Oak Park, where his home and studio sits near the intersection of Chicago Avenue and Forest Avenue and functions as one of the village’s most popular attractions alongside the Wright-designed Unity Temple on Lake Street. There are nearly 30 Wright-designed structures in Oak Park, according to the Explore Oak Park and Beyond tourism bureau.
Gordon is executive director of the Wright Conservancy, an organization dedicated to supporting the preservation of Wright-designed buildings around the world. Gordon said many of the recent improvements made to iconic Wright buildings that are open to the public have been made possible by federal support.
“Nearly $200 million has been cut from the historic preservation fund, that really slashes core funding,” Gordon said. “That jeopardizes programs like the Save America’s Treasure grants, which has really supported a lot of buildings.”
“Those kind of things support that structural, stabilization work.”
Eight Wright buildings in the United States, including Oak Park’s Unity Temple, are designated UNESCO heritage sites. Gordon said federal support for landmarks with that status looks to be dwindling alongside staffing for the program at the National Park Service.
“We’ve seen that the National Park Service is a bureau that’s getting decimated,” she said. “There’s like two people left in the office of international affairs. It’s going to get consolidated into other parts of the National Park Service. So what happens with new nominations, what happens with our reporting relationships with our broader international cultural community? These are big things that we don’t have answers to.”
Federal cuts are also anticipated to have ripple effects to preservation efforts done by statewide and local agencies, impacting privately owned Wright structures as well as the buildings kept open to the public, Gordon said.
“Those funding cuts are going to weaken those offices in every state,” she said. “Those are really important to keep, so then that’s really scary.”
Budget cuts in Los Angeles’ city government announced earlier this month threaten to shutter the Wright-designed Hollyhock House museum.
Closer to home, the JJ Walser House in neighboring Austin is considered one of the most “endangered” historic landmarks in Illinois. Since its longtime owner died in 2019, the West Side home has gone into foreclosure and is the subject of a City of Chicago complaint over the buildings poor condition, brought on by years of deferred maintenance.
Helping preserve Wright’s structures and other architectural landmarks should remain a federal priority, Gordon said.
“It’s about telling the full American story,” she said.