THE FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT TOUR

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!

These words are quoted from Frank Lloyd Wright's An Autobiography, describing his first view of the land that is now occupied by Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West. 

Magnificent -beyond words to describe! Splendid mystic desert vegetation...

Anybody that knows anything about Frank Lloyd Wright knows that nature was the inspiration behind his architecture. In fact, Wright said the his religion was Nature with a capital "N". Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright's whimsical winter camp, was built according to the landscape of the desert. Frank Lloyd Wright was quite familiar with Arizona by the time he built Taliesin West in 1937, having first journeyed there in 1928 to consult on the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, and lived there temporarily in 1929 in his Ocatillo Desert Camp in Chandler, Arizona, while developing the unbuilt San-Marcos-in-the-Desert compound for Dr. Alexander Chandler.

The 1930's were a time of revival for Frank Lloyd Wright on both a personal and professional level. The 1920's had been tumultuous years for Wright; he finally received a divorce from his first wife Catherine "Kitty" Tobin, with whom he'd been estranged from since he built Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin in 1911, and he finally married Miriam Noel, whom he met shortly after the Taliesin Tragedy in 1914. The marriage with Miriam Noel was short-lived, and by the time their divorce was in order, Wright had met his third and final wife, Olgivanna Hinzenburg. From a professional standpoint, few of Wright's projects came to fruition in the 1920's, among them were the concrete textile block houses and the Hollyhock House in Los Angeles, the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Japan, and a home for his cousin, Richard Lloyd-Jones in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The early 1930's weren't so great for Wright, either. He nearly lost Taliesin to the bank, and subsequently formed the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation with investors to get himself out of debt. 

In 1932, the Taliesin Fellowship was formed as Frank Lloyd Wright's school of architecture. With unusually disciplined methods, the Taliesin Fellowship learned by doing, which included building their own shelters. The mid 1930's brought about two of Frank Lloyd Wright's greatest executed projects: Fallingwater and the SC Johnson Administration Building. In 1937, Frank Lloyd Wright's commission for Fallingwater was $7,800, and he took that $7,800 and poured it into the development of his third and final home and studio complex, Taliesin West. 

After a serious bout of pneumonia that nearly took Wright's life, it was suggested by both Wright's doctor and his wife Olgivanna to spend his winters outside of Wisconsin's harsh climate. And from 1937 onward, summers with the Wright's were spent at Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin, and winters were spent in Scottsdale, Arizona at Taliesin West. The annual caravan down to Taliesin West included not only Frank Lloyd Wright and Olgivanna Wright, but also their children and the entire Taliesin Fellowship. 

As with Wright's previous homes that he built for himself -the Oak Park Home & Studio, and Taliesin- Taliesin West was an ongoing project, one which he altered and refined until his death. When Taliesin West was first built, it was truly a desert camp. The roofs and openings were covered in canvas to allow for protection, and a beautiful, warm glow in the interiors. Windows weren't installed at Taliesin West until the later 1940's through the early 1950's, at the demand of Olgivanna. Wright later said it was one of the best ideas he'd had. The final rendition of Taliesin West stood and stands as a series of buildings, including offices, studios, living quarters, theaters, and recreational space, interconnected by concrete terraces and low walls of what Wright termed "desert stone".

Today, Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West is owned and maintained by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and functions as their headquarters and site of the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives.

View of pool between the living quarters and Kiva at Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West

Foreground: Frank Lloyd Wright's Office at Taliesin West      Background: Theater at Taliesin West

Passing the studio and workshop at Taliesin West, leading to a wading pool and living quarters

Studio and workshop at left, connected to the dining hall at right, Taliesin West

Dining Hall at Taliesin West

Entrance to the Cabaret at Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West

Cabaret at Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West, built 1949

Cabaret at Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West, built 1949

Outside of the "Great Room" at Taliesin West

Entering the Taliesin West complex in Scottsdale, Arizona

Music Pavilion at Taliesin West, the last building constructed at Taliesin West, 1956

Taliesin West in the desert of Arizona

Benjamin Adelman House

Frank Lloyd Wright

Phoenix, Arizona

1951

The Benjamin Adelman House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is located next door to the Jorgine Boomer House, another Frank Lloyd Wright design built in 1953. Interestingly, the houses do no resemble each other despite being built relatively close together in proximity and time by Wright. 

Frank Lloyd Wright's Benjamin Adelman House is built with walls of concrete blocks, however not in the same method as his concrete block system of the 1920's. The house has been lovingly restored by its owners to fit into the landscape, the entry was at one point covered with unsightly asphalt. The corner windows, especially with their red trim, recall Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater. 

The Adelmans owned a successful laundry business in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This house was Benjamin Adelman's winter retreat.  In 1948, Frank Lloyd Wright designed a house for Benjamin Adelman's son, the Albert Adelman House, just outside of Milwaukee. 

Marin County Civic Center

Frank Lloyd Wright was selected to be the architect of the Marin County Civic Center in 1957 after Marin County Supervisor Vera Schultz read a House Beautiful magazine dedicated entirely to Wright. It was a lengthy project, and one that Wright would not live to see completed. 

In July of 1957, Frank Lloyd Wright spoke at a public meeting at San Rafael High School. The following day Wright visited the future site of the Marin County Civic Center for the first time, and in typical Wright fashion, announced that he already had a plan for the building. Preliminary plans for the civic center were presented to and approved by the Board of Supervisors in the following year, and a model of the campus was displayed. 

Model of Marin County Civic Center

In 1959, Wright was selected to design the United States Post Office -the only federal building executed by Wright. Frank Lloyd Wright died the following month on April 9, but the board voted to continue on with Wright's plans, which were then handled by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, specifically Wesley Peters and Aaron Greene. Construction of the multi-million dollar civic center began in 1960, and the Administration Building was dedicated in 1962. Construction of the second phase of the civic center was approved in 1963, with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation commissioned for the Hall of Justice. The Marin County Civic Center was completed near the end of 1969. 

United States Post Office designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

The Marin County Civic Center is an example of Frank Lloyd Wright's organic architecture -it considers not only the client, but the site as well, the civic center is integrated with its hilly landscape. The Administration Building is 580 feet long, and intersects with 880 foot long Hall of Justice at a 120 degree angle. The Marin County Civic Center was not only Frank Lloyd Wright's last commission, but his largest completed project. 

Exterior view of the Marin County Civic Center

Rooftop of the Marin County Civic Center Hall of Justice

 Interior view of the Marin County Civic Center Hall of Justice

The George Sturges House was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1939 -more than a decade after his concrete textile block houses of the 1920's. The George Sturges House is indicative of America's then fascination with speed and various modes of transportation. It looks to be in motion, and has been compared to a fast moving ship. It is dramatically situated on its site, with a massive, cantilevered balcony soaring over the hillside.

Frank Lloyd Wright designed the George Sturges House shortly after he designed what is perhaps his most well known house, Fallingwater, in 1937. Though Fallingwater certainly has a more dramatic landscape, the cantilevering concept is one that Wright mastered in many of his projects, the Sturges House included. The wooden balcony extends from a firmly rooted base of brick, with brick also seen rising in masses, accenting the top of the house. The horizontal wooden siding, sometimes board and batten, expresses a horizontal nature reminiscent of Wright's Prairie period of the early 20th Century. A wooden trellis hanging over the balcony accentuates the horizontality. The interior of the Sturges House is characterized with redwood walls and exposed redwood beams in the ceiling that give it somewhat of a Crafstman feel. After Sturges moved into the house, it was plagued with leaks from the wooden roof and he later installed rain funnels.

Frank Lloyd Wright hired John Lautner to supervise the construction of the George Sturges House. Lautner was just beginning to establish a name for himself in Los Angeles as a serious architect, and he built his own home there the same year. Lautner was an apprentice of Wright's and studied under him at the Taliesin Fellowship, Frank Lloyd Wright's school of architecture at Taliesin in Wisconsin and Taliesin West in Arizona, from 1933 through the end of the decade. Lautner and Wright continued a professional relationship into the 1940's, with Lautner assisting Wright with a remodel of the Ennis House, and Wright's residential project for Arch Oboler in 1941. Frank Lloyd Wright and John Lautner's association ended by the mid 1940's when Lautner had fully established himself, though he continued to have much praise and admiration for Wright and carried on Wright's concept of organic architecture in his own work.