In the wake of the prairie houses, Wright designed the so-called ‘American system-built houses ’, which constituted a method of building with prefabricated wooden components, whereas the ‘monolith homes ’ utilized concrete pieces that were later to evolve into the famous ‘textile block’. This, in turn, was used extensively in one of his most romantic designs: the Doheny Ranch. He applied the Imperial Hotel’s successful cantilevered concrete structure to his projects for National Life Insurance and St. Mark’s Tower, but this time with the exterior walls woven in glass and copper. The structure of the steel cathedral is innovative in its use of metalic frames in suspension… [+]