Taliesin West at Sunset in Spring
Frank Lloyd Wright, called the greatest architect in American history by the American Institute of Architects, was always looking to the future, to what could and should be done not how things were being done. His career covered 70 years of his life with more than 1,000 projects being designed from homes and skyscrapers to theaters and museums. He built a large government complex demonstrating his ideas of design for democracy and he masterfully built a country home as part of its forested surroundings. Of all of those projects hundreds were built, nearly all in the United States with only a handful in Japan. Before it was popular, he designed in connection to the site and to nature using what he called organic architecture.
Today, twenty four of his buildings are designated as National Historic Landmarks, the highest designation for historic places in the United States, and ten of them have been nominated for inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage list, the highest distinction for historical, cultural and natural wonders around the world. I had the great privilege of sharing one of these masterpieces for one and a half years as a tour guide at his desert home and studio, Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona. It is a magnificent melding of desert and architecture. As you’ll see on my bucket list, just as visiting all of the LDS temples in the world, is to visit all of Wright’s buildings. These pictures are some of the beautiful works of art I’ve had the opportunity to visit or the outstanding homes I’ve driven by. See which Wright sites I’ve visited on my places page.
What the mission of an architect should be according to Wright:
“The mission of an architect is to help people understand how to make life more beautiful, the world a better one for living in, and to give reason, rhyme, and meaning to life.”
I feel like he strove for this and in many instances achieved it.
As an employee of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, I had the great opportunity to visit some Wright Sites that are normally not open to the public. The majority of his buildings are private. Please respect the owners of these buildings by not trespassing or harassing them. For a complete list of Wright sites that are open for public visitation go here: http://franklloydwright.org/work/index.html.
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