Nancy M. Bruce Center for Design and Material Culture

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Bogk House: A Bold Experiment in Milwaukee

Elvehjem L140
@ 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

Lecture by Richard L. Cleary, Professor Emeritus, School of Architecture, University of Texas at Austin
Wednesday, April 22, 2026
6:00 p.m.
Elvehjem L140

Register here

This lecture explores the house that Frank Lloyd Wright designed for Frederick C. and Katherine G. Bogk in Milwaukee in 1916 at a pivotal moment in his architectural practice. Restless with the themes he had perfected in the previous decade, he pursued new challenges devising ornament informed by and meant to resonate profoundly with non-western sources. The Bogks provided him with a platform for this experiment. They were second-generation German Americans from modest family origins who had achieved a measure of wealth and status in turn-of-the-century Milwaukee. In selecting Wright as their architect, they departed from prevailing social expectations. This talk, sharing the findings of the recently published book by Anthony Alofsin and Richard L. Cleary, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Bogk House: A Bold Experiment, draws on new archival research and unpublished drawings to situate this unusual house in the context of Wright’s networks in Milwaukee, in the Midwest, and across the globe. It offers fresh insights into a perplexing phase of Wright’s career.

This lecture is supported by the University Lectures Committee. It is sponsored by the Department of Art History, and co-sponsored by the Department of Design Studies, the Nancy M. Bruce Center for Design and Material Culture, and the Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture.

A poster in brown and gold tones advertising a lecture. Along the top, all caps letters read: “Frank Lloyd Wright’s Bogk House: A bold experiment in Milwaukee.” Under the title, text reads: Lecture by Richard L. Cleary, Professor Emeritus Richard L. Cleary of the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin. To the right, text reads: Wednesday, April 22, 2026, Elvehjem L140, from 6:00 pm. Below is a large photo of the Bogk House. The building is square and primarily made of tan brick, with square-rectangular windows in two rows of three, warm light shining through. Each window is bordered with thin windows with squared stained-glass patterns. Under the top row, there are lighter-colored planters holding pink flowers. On either side of these rows are two long and thin windows with squared stained-glass patterns. Four brick square columns separate the windows into three columns. The roof is flat, with deep green tile on top. There is a green tree on the right that covers a small portion of the building. There are square planters on the ground in front of the windows, which hold green plants. Above a QR code, text reads "Free & open to the public - scan to register." A brown band works as a background for text reading “This lecture is supported by the University Lectures Committee. It is sponsored by the Department of Art History, and co-sponsored by the Department of Design Studies, the Nancy M. Bruce Center for Design and Material Culture, and the Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture.” To the right of this text, the logo of the University of Wisconsin - Madison is placed with the title “University Lectures, University of Wisconsin - Madison.”