We’ve spent the last couple of months celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of iconic American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. From top designers explaining just how Frank Lloyd’s Wright’s design philosophy impacted them to a tour of some of our favorite Frank Lloyd Wright sites worthy of a road trip, we’ve hit some of the high points of what make Wright so integral to modern design and architecture.
However, there’s no better way to get at who Wright truly was as a designer and architect than to look at the spaces he designed for himself. Taliesin, in Spring Green, Wisconsin and Taliesin West, in Scottsdale, Arizona both provide that insight. At the request of an aunt, Wright built a windmill on the Taliesin estate in 1896 when he was 29 years old. He continued to experiment with designs at Taliesin West until his death at age 91?that’s 62 years of work represented in two buildings. Together, Taliesin and Taliesin West are often considered to be Frank Lloyd Wright?s autobiography in wood and stone. These two pivotal structures continue to be relevant today. Frank Wright Foundation CEO Stuart Graff points out that the Foundation?s goal is to examine the values associated with each home and not only take care of the physical buildings themselves, but ?to preserve the spirit of the buildings as well, continuing to use them as Wright used them in his own time.” He notes that some of the innovations in these homes are so ...