About The Robie House:

Wright designed the Robie House in his studio in Oak Park, Illinois between 1908 and 1909.
The design precedent for the Robie House was the Ferdinand F. Tomek House in Riverside,
Illinois, designed by Wright in 1907-08.  At the time that he commissioned Wright to design
his home, Robie was only 28 years old and the assistant manager of the Exclesior Supply
Company, a company on the South Side of Chicago owned and managed by his father.

Although later drawings of the Robie House show a date of 1906, Wright could not have started
the design for the building earlier than the spring of 1908 because Robie had actually purchased
the property only in May of that year. He and his wife, Lora Hieronymus Robie, a 1900 graduate
of the University of Chicago, had selected the property at 5757 South Woodlawn Avenue in order
to remain close to the campus and the social life of the University.  The property was a typical
urban lot in Hyde Park, measuring 60 feet (18 m) by 180 feet (55 m).

The contractor for the project, H.B. Barnard Co. of Chicago, began construction on April 15, 1909.
 Wright did not supervise the construction of the house except in the earliest stages. He closed his
Oak Park studio in the fall of 1909 and left for Europe to undertake the work which led to the publication
of the Wasmuth Portfolio. He turned over his existing commissions to Hermann von Holst, who retained 
Marion Mahony, an architect in Wright's office, and George Mann Niedecken, an interior designer from
Milwaukee, Wisconsin who had worked with Wright on the Susan Lawrence Dana House in Springfield,
Illinois, the Avery Coonley House in Riverside, Illinois, and the Meyer May House in Grand Rapids, Michigan,
to continue their work on the project. Niedecken's influence can be seen in the design of some of the
furnishings for the house as well as the carpets in the entrance hall, the living room, and the dining room.

The Robie family—Frederick, Laura, and their two children, Frederick Jr. and Lorraine—
moved into the home in May 1910

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robie_House