Yesterday was the 140th anniversary of Frank Lloyd Wright's birthday -- so I'm a day late in this tribute to a man whose imprint on modern American architecture was larger than life. Born in the Midwest, he left a significant body of work in that region, particularly in Oak Park, IL, which boasts the largest number of Wright buildings still extant (25 built between 1889 and 1913).
Wright built Taliesin East in verdant Spring Green, WI, in 1911, where he developed his signature, low-slung Prairie Style homes, with particular attention to lighting, heating, climate control and simple, built-in furniture. But my Frank Lloyd Wright pilgrimages don't take me eastward. They take me to the Arizona -- specifically, to Taliesin West, which served as his home, his studio and an architecture school that survives to this day.
In 1937, Wright began Taliesin West as a “desert camp” for himself, his family and his apprentices. That makes 2007 its 70th anniversary year. Seventy years ago Wright 70, so visiting Taliesen West this year has an elegant symmetry. Remarkably, Wright;s creativity and productivity never flagged, with one-third of his 1,100 works during the last decade of his life, the years of Taliesin West.
Rewind to 1937. It was the middle of the Depression, when what is now the sprawling Phoenix area was then an agricultural backwater, and Taliesin West was definitely off the grid. During the first four years of Taliesin West’s construction, life on 600 arid acres was beyond rustic. It was primitive. There was no electricity or heating. Water was hauled in from a nearby ranch.
As it was being built by apprentices from materials found on site and scavenged from the small city of Phoenix and even smaller Scottsdale in the valley below, Taliesin West had a camp feel. The roofs were made of white canvas, filtering in natural light by day. There was no glass on the windows, just canvas coverings that were pulled down to protect the interior and its occupants from wind or occasional downpours.
Like migrating birds, Wright and his entourage moved between the two Taliesins at the change of seasons. One of the apprentices’ tasks each spring was to lock all the furniture into secure, roofed storage rooms, to be taken out again in fall.
Apprentices also were, and still are, required to design and hand-build their own small abodes. Cabin, lean-to, tent and other structural forms dot the property, and at the end of the year, apprentices demolish their handwork, so that their successors can do the same thing.
Even while it seemed to be on the edge of the wilderness, Taliesin West was a cultural oasis, with such diversions as music, drama, dance and even dress-up dinners. Wright believed that architects needed social graces if they wanted to win commissions.
You don’t have to be an architect to admire Wright’s genius and make a pilgrimage to Taliesin West too. I visit it every time I'm in the area, and I sort of wish I had been there for this birthday that marks another decade since his birth. Wright’s home and studio are open for tours (daily though June and from September, daily except Tuesday and Wednesday in July and August. For information, go to www.franklloydwright.org, or call 480-860-1700.
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