Taliesin West
Encyclopedia
Taliesin West was architect Frank Lloyd Wright
's winter home and school in the desert from 1937 until his death in 1959 at the age of 91. Today it is the main campus of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture and houses the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
Open to the public for tours, Taliesin West is located on Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard in Scottsdale
, Arizona
, USA. The complex drew its name from Wright's summer home, Taliesin
, in Spring Green
, Wisconsin
.
overlooking Paradise Valley
outside Scottsdale.”
Wright believed this to be the perfect spot for such a building, a place of residence, a place of business and a place to learn. Wright described it like this, “Finally I learned of a site twenty-six miles from Phoenix, across the desert of the vast Paradise Valley. On up to a great mesa in the mountains. On the mesa just below McDowell Peak
we stopped, turned, and looked around. The top of the world.”
Being in the desert water could scarcely be found. This resulted in an investment of over ten thousand dollars to dig a well deep enough to provide sufficient water for the campus.
, the Gila monster
, the chameleon
, and the saguaro
, cholla
or staghorn – or is it the other way around—are inspiration enough.”
The structure's walls are made of local desert rocks, stacked within wood forms, filled with concrete
. Wright always believed using the materials readily available opposed to those that must be transported to the site. In Wright’s own words, “There were simple characteristic silhouettes to go by, tremendous drifts and heaps of sunburned desert rocks were nearby to be used. We got it all together with the landscape…” The flat surfaces of the rocks were placed outward facing and large boulders filled the interior space so concrete could be conserved.
Natural light also played a major part in the design. In the drafting room, Wright used translucent canvas to act as a roof (later replaced by plastic because of the intense wear from the Arizona sun). In the south-facing dining room, Wright did not take the masonry
walls from floor to ceiling, and designed the roof to hangover passed the walls preventing unwanted sun rays from penetrating but allowing for horizontal light to pass through the room. Wright believed natural light aided the work environment he had his apprentices in keeping the inside of his building in touch with the natural surroundings.
Every part of Taliesin West bears Frank Lloyd Wright’s personal touch. Upon every return after a summer in Wisconsin Wright would grab a hammer and immediately make his way through the complex. He would walk through each room making changes or shouting orders to apprentices closely following with wheelbarrows and tools. He constantly changed and improved on his design fixing arising problems and addressing new situations. Throughout the years he added an addition to the dining room, the cabaret theatre, music pavilion and numerous other rooms. All of the furniture and decorations were designed by Wright and the majority built by apprentices. One of the most brilliant aspects of Wrights design is the cabaret theatre. Built with six sides, out of the standard rock, concrete mixture, in an irregularly hexagonal shape, the theatre provides its occupants with 95% acoustic perfection. One sitting in the back row can hear the lightest whisper from a speaker on stage.
Many of Wright's most famous buildings were designed in the drafting room at Taliesin West, including the Guggenheim Museum
in New York City
and Grady Gammage Auditorium
at Arizona State University
in Tempe
.
Taliesin West continues as the headquarters of The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and as the winter home for the School of Architecture. Restoration work to the private quarters of Mr. and Mrs. Wright was completed in 2004, and tours of the home and school are conducted on a regular basis.
The structure was designated a National Historic Landmark
in 1982.
In 2008, the U.S. National Park Service submitted Taliesin West along with nine other Frank Lloyd Wright properties to a tentative list for World Heritage Status. The 10 sites have been submitted as one, total, site. The January 22, 2008 press release from the National Park Service website announcing the nominations states that, "The preparation of a Tentative List is a necessary first step in the process of nominating a site to the World Heritage List."
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
's winter home and school in the desert from 1937 until his death in 1959 at the age of 91. Today it is the main campus of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture and houses the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
Open to the public for tours, Taliesin West is located on Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard in Scottsdale
Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2010 the population of the city was 217,385...
, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, USA. The complex drew its name from Wright's summer home, Taliesin
Taliesin (studio)
Taliesin , near Spring Green, Wisconsin, was the summer home of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright began the building in 1911 after leaving his first wife, Catherine Tobin, and his Oak Park, Illinois, home and studio in 1909. The impetus behind Wright's departure was his affair with...
, in Spring Green
Spring Green, Wisconsin
Spring Green is a village in Sauk County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,444 at the 2000 census. The village is located within the Town of Spring Green.-Geography:Spring Green is located at ....
, Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
.
History
Wright and the Taliesin Fellowship began to "trek" to Arizona each winter in 1933. In 1937 Wright purchased the plot of desert land that would soon become Taliesin West. He paid “$3.50 an acre on a southern slope of the McDowell RangeMcDowell Mountains
The McDowell Mountain Range is located about twenty miles north-east of Phoenix, Arizona, and may be seen from most places throughout the city. The range is composed of miocene deposits left nearly five million years ago. The McDowells share borders with the cities of Fountain Hills, Scottsdale,...
overlooking Paradise Valley
Paradise Valley, Arizona
Paradise Valley is a small, affluent town in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. According to the 2005 Census Bureau, the population of the town was 14,558. Despite the town's relatively small area and population compared to other municipalities in the Phoenix metropolitan area, Paradise...
outside Scottsdale.”
Wright believed this to be the perfect spot for such a building, a place of residence, a place of business and a place to learn. Wright described it like this, “Finally I learned of a site twenty-six miles from Phoenix, across the desert of the vast Paradise Valley. On up to a great mesa in the mountains. On the mesa just below McDowell Peak
McDowell Peak
McDowell Peak is located in the McDowell Mountains, to the northeast of Phoenix, Arizona. Its height is almost 4000 feet. McDowell Peak is located approximately half a mile north of the easily recognizable Thompson Peak , and shares a ridge with the newly named Drinkwater Peak. It is bordered on...
we stopped, turned, and looked around. The top of the world.”
Being in the desert water could scarcely be found. This resulted in an investment of over ten thousand dollars to dig a well deep enough to provide sufficient water for the campus.
Design
Wright felt very strongly about the connection to the desert. He said: “Arizona needs its own architecture… Arizona’s long, low, sweeping lines, uptilting planes. Surface patterned after such abstraction in line and color as find “realism” in the patterns of the rattlesnakeRattlesnake
Rattlesnakes are a group of venomous snakes of the genera Crotalus and Sistrurus of the subfamily Crotalinae . There are 32 known species of rattlesnake, with between 65-70 subspecies, all native to the Americas, ranging from southern Alberta and southern British Columbia in Canada to Central...
, the Gila monster
Gila monster
The Gila monster is a species of venomous lizard native to the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexican state of Sonora...
, the chameleon
Chameleon
Chameleons are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of lizards. They are distinguished by their parrot-like zygodactylous feet, their separately mobile and stereoscopic eyes, their very long, highly modified, and rapidly extrudable tongues, their swaying gait, the possession by many of a...
, and the saguaro
Saguaro
The saguaro is a large, tree-sized cactus species in the monotypic genus Carnegiea. It is native to the Sonoran Desert in the U.S. state of Arizona, the Mexican state of Sonora, a small part of Baja California in the San Felipe Desert and an extremely small area of California, U.S...
, cholla
Cylindropuntia
Cylindropuntia is a genus of cacti , containing the chollas. They were formerly treated as a subgenus of Opuntia but have now been separated based on their cylindrical stems and the presence of papery epidermal sheaths on the spines...
or staghorn – or is it the other way around—are inspiration enough.”
The structure's walls are made of local desert rocks, stacked within wood forms, filled with concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
. Wright always believed using the materials readily available opposed to those that must be transported to the site. In Wright’s own words, “There were simple characteristic silhouettes to go by, tremendous drifts and heaps of sunburned desert rocks were nearby to be used. We got it all together with the landscape…” The flat surfaces of the rocks were placed outward facing and large boulders filled the interior space so concrete could be conserved.
Natural light also played a major part in the design. In the drafting room, Wright used translucent canvas to act as a roof (later replaced by plastic because of the intense wear from the Arizona sun). In the south-facing dining room, Wright did not take the masonry
Masonry
Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are brick, stone, marble, granite, travertine, limestone; concrete block, glass block, stucco, and...
walls from floor to ceiling, and designed the roof to hangover passed the walls preventing unwanted sun rays from penetrating but allowing for horizontal light to pass through the room. Wright believed natural light aided the work environment he had his apprentices in keeping the inside of his building in touch with the natural surroundings.
Every part of Taliesin West bears Frank Lloyd Wright’s personal touch. Upon every return after a summer in Wisconsin Wright would grab a hammer and immediately make his way through the complex. He would walk through each room making changes or shouting orders to apprentices closely following with wheelbarrows and tools. He constantly changed and improved on his design fixing arising problems and addressing new situations. Throughout the years he added an addition to the dining room, the cabaret theatre, music pavilion and numerous other rooms. All of the furniture and decorations were designed by Wright and the majority built by apprentices. One of the most brilliant aspects of Wrights design is the cabaret theatre. Built with six sides, out of the standard rock, concrete mixture, in an irregularly hexagonal shape, the theatre provides its occupants with 95% acoustic perfection. One sitting in the back row can hear the lightest whisper from a speaker on stage.
Legacy
During his lifetime, Wright continually altered and added to the complex of buildings, all of which were constructed by students.Many of Wright's most famous buildings were designed in the drafting room at Taliesin West, including the Guggenheim Museum
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a well-known museum located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Grady Gammage Auditorium
Gammage Auditorium
Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium is considered to be the last public commission of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Groundbreaking took place and construction on the building began on May 23, 1962. It took 25 months to complete. The built-on-time, under-budget building opened in 1964 with the...
at Arizona State University
Arizona State University
Arizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona...
in Tempe
Tempe, Arizona
Tempe is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, USA, with the Census Bureau reporting a 2010 population of 161,719. The city is named after the Vale of Tempe in Greece. Tempe is located in the East Valley section of metropolitan Phoenix; it is bordered by Phoenix and Guadalupe on the west, Scottsdale...
.
Taliesin West continues as the headquarters of The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and as the winter home for the School of Architecture. Restoration work to the private quarters of Mr. and Mrs. Wright was completed in 2004, and tours of the home and school are conducted on a regular basis.
The structure was designated a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
in 1982.
In 2008, the U.S. National Park Service submitted Taliesin West along with nine other Frank Lloyd Wright properties to a tentative list for World Heritage Status. The 10 sites have been submitted as one, total, site. The January 22, 2008 press release from the National Park Service website announcing the nominations states that, "The preparation of a Tentative List is a necessary first step in the process of nominating a site to the World Heritage List."
Gallery
External links
- Taliesin West Official Site
- Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation established at Taliesin West
- The Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, the official website of the school
- National Historic Landmarks Program - Taliesin West
- National Parks Service record, has a wonderful description of the site
- website with pictures of architecture.
- Taliesin West review by a+t architecture publishers