Hanna House was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1936 for Stanford Professor Paul Hanna and his wife, Jean, specialists in childhood education. Wright had become interested in designing elegant and affordable homes for the American middle class to create a more harmonious, enlightened society.
The long-term collaboration between the Hannas and Wright resulted in an unprecedented design: a house based on hexagonal geometry, with no right angles in the floor plan. This radical experimentation allowed Wright to explore open spatial planning. Hanna House was a turning point in his career, leading to ideas later evidenced in the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
The Hannas lived in the house until giving it to Stanford in 1975. It housed four university provosts until suffering severe damage in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. It underwent complex restoration, made complicated by its unique design, and reopened to the public in 1999.
