Taliesin West By Wright Essays - Frank Lloyd Wright,

Taliesin West By Wright Do you have a living room in your house? A carport? Does your house have an "open" floor plan? If so, then the way you live is being directly influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright's innovations in residential architecture (Copplestone 1). Frank Lloyd Wright was born in 1867 in southwestern Wisconsin of talented and dynamic parents; his father a preacher and musician, his mother a teacher. From his father, Wright learned how the order and structure of music had influenced his perception of architectural form. From his mother, he acquired a strong respect for learning (Copplestone 8). Wright spent his boyhood summers on the farms of his Welsh uncles where he learned to appreciate the values of nature and disciplined hard work. He left his formal schooling at the University of Wisconsin to go to Chicago and in 1887 became an apprentice to the greatest American architect of that time, Louis Sullivan (Nash 4). In 1893 Wright opened his own practice in Oak Park, Illinois. A distinctive new architecture, which he called ?Organic?, emerged and by 1910 his accomplishments had gained worldwide recognition. There are six chief points to organic architecture. Some of the points include the spiritual integrity of the building, expression the builder's individuality, incorporation in the design elements and the colors of the site are drawn from nature. Taliesin West is an example of all those characteristics (Nash 34-37). In 1911 Wright left Oak Park and began the construction of the first Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin. The original Taliesin was built for himself, his family, his architectural practice and later the Taliesin Fellowship (Wright 6). I learned that about a decade after the original Taliesin was bulit, Wright's doctor instructed him that he should escape the cold and damp Wisconsin winters due to his health. Wright first visited Arizona in 1927 when he was asked to consult on designs for the Arizona Biltmore. In the years following that visit, Wright and some of his apprentices spent time at temporary sites in Arizona including a desert camp they constructed near Chandler in 1929, which Wright named ?Ocatilla.? (Boulton 6) Finally, by 1937, Wright decided he wanted a more permanent winter residence and acquired several hundred acres of raw, rugged desert at the foothills of the McDowell Mountains near Scottsdale, Arizona. Wright literally created Taliesin West "out of the desert." He and his apprentices gathered rocks from the desert floor and sand from the washes to build this great desert masterpiece (Smith 23). In my research, almost everything was in chronological order and very accurate. There were no disagreements and I trusted all the information that I read and was given. There is only one speculation that I found to be different and it was the date of the completion of Taliesin West. In several books I read that Wright completed Taliesin in 1938 and other sources led me to believe that I was completed in 1940. I do not think that authors have a reason to misinform people of the date. I do not think it changes anything. When I asked why Wright chose that exact location in Scottsdale for Taliesin West, Beverly Hart, the public access manager told me that ?selecting a good site was one of Wright's priorities for architecture.? She told me that ?when he set out to design and build the institution, his goal was to integrate the structures with the ?Nature? of the desert, its soul, and its physical characteristics.? (Hart 3) In a way, choosing the site for Taliesin West is very contrary to what ordinarily happens in most situations. Most architects want to build in populated areas, so the city builds outward. Wright enjoyed open space; he liked to go where there was no one around. He didn't want anything to spoil his view by modern conveniences. He created his home, studio and working enviornment in the middle of the desert. With nothing but the most basic materials ? desert stone, redwood, and canvas, Wright was able to create a small community of buildings. It is entered by crossing a graveled courtyard with views of a vine-covered pergola and colorful sculptures. Shallow steps lead to the sunset terrace with a 240-degree panoramic vista of distant mountains and the surrounding desert landscape ( Smith 67 ). Taliesin is not a museum; but rather a living, working, educational facility as well as the national headquarters for the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation ( Lind 45). It is also based on the life of Taliesin Fellowship. It is the name of