Being a fan of architecture and therefore naturally a fan of Frank Lloyd Wright I have on occasion gone out of my way to see one of his buildings. I've traveled the short trip when living in Chicago to see the home he built in Oak Park Illinois to the farther trip of going to Falling Water in Pennsylvania. When the occasion arrived to visit a friend who recently moved to Elgin Illinois I caught wind that there was a nice golf course in the area attached to a resort that was designed by Wright. It was a quick drive over there from my friend's new residence so I stayed at the resort. I asked the staff some questions like who designed the golf course and if the resort was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, most of the staff was either clueless (not one knew who designed the golf course) or they told me that Wright was the architect. From the form of the building I thought I saw traces of Wright's work but the resort was pretty much the strangest thing that I have seen of his work. Walking around the resort I found a small plaque on a wall that attributed the building to the actual architect, Don Erickson. Even on the plaque commemorating his own design of the building Don Erickson's connection to Wright was mentioned, he was his apprentice. Erickson was a swedish descended architect who was so in Wright's shadow that I never heard of him even after reading several things about Wright and seemingly any mention of him ever made connects him to Wright. I had almost been positive that when I booked the room on the website it had made reference to Frank Lloyd Wright being the architect of the build so I was going back to the resort's website to see what was said. The resort's website mentions Frank Lloyd Wright "inspired" architecture. Poor Don, here was a guy who designed something over 20 years after an apprenticeship that he never even truly completed and his work is still "inspired" by someone else. I guess it is fair after seeing the resort he built, it was just like seeing a stranger and less nicely designed version of a Wright piece. Attached is a picture of a skylight in the building that I thought had Wright influences and the wording on the Indian Lakes Resort website that tries its best to legally make a connection to a famous architect that had no part in actually making the building.
