Rodney Wright

1931 - 2016

RODNEY WRIGHT, FAIA, 85, passed away at home in Athens, Ohio on June 24, 2016. Mr. Wright was born June 2, 1931, on a farm, in Valparaiso, Indiana. He was the youngest of 19 children. Shortly after Wright completed highschool, he enlisted in the U.S. Army for the Korean War. While in Germany, he met Ingeborg Haley and settled in Oak Park, Illinois. Rodney apprenticed with Harry Weese and Ed Burch. In 1957, Wright became a licensed architect and father. He moved to Libertyville in 1959, had a second child and built his first house. Years later, he divorced, married Sydney Goelitz, a city planner, and moved their office to downtown Chicago. The tumultuous drape of 1968 in Chicago exacerbated disenfranchisement, especially in Chicago's Uptown district. Wright, though unbuilt, responded by creating a more benevolent versus narcissistic approach to Chicago's urban renewal challenges with his Hank Williams Village design. By 1969, Inland Architect dubbed Mr. Wright the "POOR PEOPLE'S ARCHITECT". And in 1970, Wright was one of four architects on Inland Architect's cover issue "THE NEW-BREED ARCHITECTS". Wright, considered a pioneer in the design of passive solar buildings, won a design fellowship in 1974 from the National Endowment for the Arts to study solar buildings throughout the U.S. In 1976, Wright keynoted the First Solar Symposium, Sao Paulo, Brasil. In 1979, Wright received a most prestigious commission, the design of a new solar town in Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin; known today as "America's First Solar Village". The following year, Wright co-founded the Hawkweed Group, moved to Osseo, WI., and released, the Hawkweed Passive Solar House Book. Wright was elected to the College of Fellows in 1981. In 1983, Wright appeared on the Jane Pauley Show for Soldiers Grove; it was also featured in U.S. News & World Report. Wright produced around 90 private residences and designed numerous children's centers. In 2013, the American Planning Association published: Planning Chicago, a book which included Wright's work in Uptown. Rodney, widowed in 2012, met Carole, and built his seventh house. He is survived by four siblings: Alice, Reginald, Juanita, and Burton, son, Weston, (wife Janice) Wright, daughter, Julie-An Wright, two grandchildren, Joshua, (wife Keri) Lintz, and Ian Wright, two great-granddaughters, Aspen and Jules Lintz, step-children Louise, Ann & Tom Goelitz, step-grandchildren Sarah and David Goelitz, and partner Carole Alder.