[6]: 149  Wright advocated an "organic architecture," where the building complemented its surroundings, rather than plopping a little knob of European antiquity on the Midwest prairie.

He felt the design should highlight the natural beauty of the materials and the site, and the interior should flow into the outdoors.

Not much was done with passive solar heating in modern buildings in the U.S. until Fred Keck noticed in 1933 that his demonstration glass House of Tomorrow was warming inside on a winter day in Chicago before the furnace was installed.

Wright accepted that challenge and stripped down his full-on Prairie Style into a small, one-story L-shaped house with limited windows on the street side, but extensive windows facing the garden space inside the L. The design achieved all the ideals above within the $5000 budget.

"They had decided to become part-time farmers and thus help the war effort while introducing their children to the joys and hardships of farming, which they hoped would build character and proper sense of values."

In July 1943 Wright inspected the farm and chose a site with an oak woods behind and a view of rolling hills and valleys to the south.

In fact, it is suitable for almost any spot in the country where there is good drainage, for the house creates its own site and its own view.

In summer the wide eave above aims to shade the glass wall from the heat of the higher-angled sun.

[13] The glass side echoes the first Jacobs house, facing a private green backyard – in this case a sunken garden surrounded by a stone terrace.

From the tunnel, the visitor emerges onto the terrace at the end of the wall of windows, then enters the house via a glass door.

The pool repeats the circle motif and embodies Wright's ideal of having the indoor space flow smoothly to the outside.

The circle is also repeated in the shape of the fireplace and the round stone tower at the back wall which contains a staircase to the second story.

The roof was flat, sealed with tar and gravel, and sloped to direct water to the berm side.

Then in October 1946 Wright's apprentices arrived with a bulldozer to scrape out the sunken garden and the space for the house.

The Jacobs took the opportunity to deviate from Wright's design a bit, converting the outside of the fish pond to a plunge pool, shortening the glass doors so their children could operate them, and adding a "root cellar" – a square room hidden between the house and the berm.

He offered a mirror image of the Jacobs II design (with a room added in place of the Jacobses' "root cellar") to E.L. Marting in 1947 and to Donald Grover in 1950, but these houses were not built.

Son Bill Taylor bought the house in 1983 and renovated it, addressing some of the issues that had emerged in the 35 years since construction.