Taliesin West by Frank Lloyd Wright

Taliesin West by Frank Lloyd Wright

Introduction

In northeast of Scottsdale, Arizona there is a living memorial to a great American architect. Nestled in the foothills of the McDowell Mountains and surrounded by the spectacular Sonoran Desert lays a sprawling 600-acre complex called Taliesin West. It was designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright. The buildings and the landscape at Taliesin West complement each other. They coexist in harmony -- form and color, beauty and grace, nature and science are all blended. Taliesin West (pronounced: tal-ee-ess-in) is a National Historic Landmark.

Frank Lloyd Wright was born in 1867. Wright grew up in rural Wisconsin, was taught the virtue of hard work, and acquired a love of the landscape. At the age of eighteen he entered university to study civil engineering and shortly thereafter began his career in architecture. He became a revolutionary and a nonconformist. He despised what he called the stale, backward looking ideas of his peers who were designing architecture based on the Greek, Roman, Gothic, and Tudor models instead of creating a new, vibrant American landscape. He longed to be freed from the limits of existing material and designs. In his various writings, he described "organic architecture" with site-specific construction where "form and function were one." He set forth the principles of the Prairie House with open expanses and limited subdivisions, which he referred to as "boxes." While his architectural principles gained him fame overseas, Frank Lloyd Wright was not always appreciated at home, where he was often ridiculed. Eventually the number of his followers grew.

Discussion

Perhaps the most revealing of all of Wright's desert architecture was his home and studio for the later part of his life, Taliesin West. Wright had already been part of many projects in the southern Arizona area, and the idea of moving to the desert area surfaced in the winter of 1933-34 for the next year. Economic conditions in the early '30s led Wright to Arizona because Taliesin was becoming more expensive to operate in the cold winter months. Wright scoured over the Arizona desert for a site suitable for his winter camp for almost three years.

Taliesin I was built in 1911 in Wisconsin. The word Taliesin means "a shining brow" perhaps alluding to the scenic location and vista. It was built to be a home, a work place, a school and a cultural center for his students. Wright designed it all, to the last piece of furniture. In 1914 it suffered severe fire damage. Taliesin II was soon built on the same spot but was also damaged by fire, and again rebuilt as Taliesin III.

In 1927 architect Albert Chase McArthur (a former student of Wright's) asked Wright to help him with the projected construction of the Arizona Biltmore Hotel. Wright accepted, came to Phoenix and presented plans based on his unusual architectural principles. There was opposition to the unique design and some compromises were made. Known today as The Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa, the award winning ...