Ask most people to name one famous architect, and chances are the first name they utter will be that of Frank Lloyd Wright. For architecture buffs and the architecturally curious, no city in the world can match Chicago for the depth of Wright-designed treasures.

Born in Wisconsin in 1867, Wright moved to Chicago at age 20 to study architecture with the prestigious firm of Adler & Sullivan, particularly its leading light, Louis Sullivan. His timing was impeccable, because Chicago was in the midst of a building boom as it recovered from the famous fire 15 years earlier.

Impressed with his young protégé’s promise, Sullivan assigned Wright to work exclusively on residential projects. Once the word of his innovative designs got around the Chicago area, Wright began to take on private contracts, and when Sullivan found out, he and Wright had a major dispute that led to Wright’s striking out on his own. In the next 10 years, he designed an incredible 135 buildings, many of them overseas.

With 25 Wright-designed homes, the close-in Chicago suburb of Oak Park, where Wright lived, has the largest collection of his residential work, almost all in the Prairie Style he created. Recognizable by its use of strong horizontal elements, particularly its affinity for cube and rectangular shapes, the Prairie Style is carefully designed to blend with, rather than stand out from, the flat expanses so common in the American Midwest. Roofs are frequently flat with wide overhanging eaves extending from them.

The homes’ interiors also broke with architectural tradition. They are not divided by the expected array of walls and corridors that clearly define each space’s purpose and separate it from all the other rooms in the house. Instead, Wright’s homes emphasized openness with their use of large unified spaces.

Wright left little to chance and the owner’s whims in the homes he designed. Windows were carefully and strategically placed to highlight a view or maximize light to the interior. Moreover, he often designed the homes’ furnishings, including rugs, lamps, furniture, and fireplace screens.

Probably the most famous of the Prairie houses is the Robie House on the grounds of the University of Chicago in the Hyde Park area of the city. Built between 1908 and 1910, the dramatic structure boasts what were then cutting-edge innovations including a three-car garage, self-watering planters, air conditioning, and a central vacuum system. Nearby homeowners were so nonplused by the house that they were convinced it was a joke and that Robie was crazy to have approved such a monstrosity.

The Robie House is open for tours every day beginning at 11 a.m. Tours are $8 for adults and $6 for seniors and children. Additional information is available by calling (708) 848-1976. Other Wright-designed homes in the Hyde Park neighborhood include the Heller House, 5132 South Woodlawn; the Blossom House, 1332 East 49th Street; and the McArthur House, 4852 South Kenwood Avenue.

The best place from which to begin a tour of the Oak Park homes is at the Oak Park Visitors Center at 158 Forest Avenue, where maps, guidebooks, and tour information are available. The homes are all in private hands, so only the exteriors can be seen. However, annual meeting goers who can extend their Chicago visit by a few days can take advantage of a rare opportunity. Each year on the third Saturday in May, several of the homes are open to the public. Information on tickets, which went on sale on March 1, is available through the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio at (708) 848-1976.

Wright’s home and studio are also in Oak Park, and guided tours are offered several times a day. More information is available by calling the telephone number above or checking the Web site <www.wrightplus.org>.

In a testament to Wright’s creative vision, the homes he designed would still be considered extremely modern nearly a century after he created them.

Wright’s career was not, of course, limited to residential designs. The Unity Temple in Oak Park, which is open for tours, was the product of a commission by a community of Unitarian/Universalists who contracted with Wright to build a church reminiscent of the simple New England churches common in the states from which they emigrated.

Information about the Unity Temple tours is available by calling (708) 383-8873.

Wright also designed the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, which was maligned until it was one of the only buildings to survive a devastating 1923 earthquake. Today only the hotel’s lobby remains. One of New York’s most readily identifiable landmarks, the Guggenheim Museum, is also a product of Wright’s vision, as are the Johnson Wax Building in Racine, Wis., and the Marin Civic Center in San Rafael, Calif.