This is 99% Invisible. I'm Roman Mars.

The future of architecture is the future of the human race.

The two are one. If humanity has a future, it is architecture.

That is architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who never shied away from making grand statements about architecture.

Or himself.

I have been accused of saying I was the greatest architect in the world and if I had said so, I don't think it would be very arrogant.

Wright believed that the buildings we live in affect the kinds of people we become, the tastes we have, and the comforts we seek.

And he said that he could rebuild the entire culture of the United States.

He claimed that he could change the nation by changing its architecture.

I did say that, and it's true. It's amazing what I could do for this country.

And a big part of his plan, his philosophy, his proposed building system, was called Eustonia.

That's reporter Avery Truffleman. If you're like Eustonia, what's that?

Well listen to part one of this story, that's the last episode of this show.

This is part two and it'll make a lot more sense after part one.

But to summarize, Eustonian homes were simple but beautiful, custom homes designed to exist in harmony with the natural landscape around them.

Wright had hoped to make these homes inexpensive enough to be affordable for middle and working class Americans.

The first Eustonian home cost $5,500, about 85 grand today.

Wright built it for journalist Herbert Jacobson's wife Catherine in Madison, Wisconsin in 1937.

And many would come after it, though none managed to be as inexpensive as the first one.

But there are Eustonian houses in Alabama, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and beyond.

The house that Herbert Jacobs built was the first of the Eustonian houses.

Eustonian, a right word meaning the United States is it ought to be at its democratic zenith.

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