Tag Archives: Frank Lloyd Wright

A Visit to Taliesin West

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Taliesin West

The day after Christmas, I took my daughter to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Arizona home and work place called Taliesin West. This was my third visit to the magical place.

The photo above was on a bright sunny day when I visited Taliesin West with my son and daughter-in-law two years ago. Unfortunately, they had to leave early this Christmas vacation because we had unhealthy air quality alerts and my son couldn’t breathe. I was so sad to have them leave us, but the bright spot was spending one-on-one time with my daughter.

“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.”

– Frank Lloyd Wright, 1957

Each visit to Taliesin West, I feel like I am in the presence of genius — which of course I am. I love the use of space, materials, and the different feel from one building, room to outdoor spaces. This visit, I noticed so many more details than I had before.


“Taliesin West is a look over the rim of the world.”

– FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, 1943

https://franklloydwright.org/taliesin-west/

We did an hour-long self-guided tour with our own phones and earbuds. I appreciated the detail of information including snippets of Frank Lloyd Wright speaking. I could picture the people living and working there.

The tour took us from outside to inside Frank Lloyd Wright’s office, around the property to various pools and patios to inside a gathering room, dining room, cabaret where they watched movies, inside the drafting room and inside a Kiva. The Kiva is a round dark room, that feels like it’s underground with phenomenal lighting in the ceiling and floor. They watched movies there and used it for storage when they returned to Wisconsin for the summer.

Here are some photos I took with my iphone during my trip with my daughter:

A view of Bougainvillea through the window in Wright’s office.

An outdoor space between buildings.

Wright was a collector of Asian Art. This eight-paneled screen featured ceramic faces.

The two mosaics, inspired by the moon and sun, were a gift from Clare Boothe Luce. She turned to mosaics as therapy in her grief of losing her daughter in a car accident. The Luces were friends with the Wrights. The mosaics are in the beautiful Garden Room.

Below: A Chinese statue which is one of around a dozen markers placed throughout Taliesin West. They are located when a theme or concept changes.

From the Taliesin website:

Wright’s beloved winter home and desert laboratory was established in 1937 and diligently handcrafted over many years into a world unto itself. Deeply connected to the desert from which it was forged, Taliesin West possesses an almost prehistoric grandeur. It was built and maintained almost entirely by Wright and his apprentices, making it among the most personal of the architect’s creations.

https://franklloydwright.org/taliesin-west/

Where have you visited that the experience was greater than your expectations?

looking through the door of Frank Lloyd Wright's office.

Looking out from Frank Lloyd Wright’s office.

A special time of year

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The past week, cacti bloomed. The beauty is fleeting, because the flowers only last a day or two.

This beauty is next to our driveway. Leaving for a walk, my husband and I stopped to admire it. He said, “I feel so much pride in this cactus, which is funny, because I had nothing to do with it.” I felt the same way, proud of our blooming plant.

This was our cactus two days after the photo taken above.

I believe in God, only I spell it Nature. —Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright made his home in our desert. He appreciated the beauty surrounding us. I’ve visited Frank Lloyd Wright’s desert home and school called Taliesin West. I wrote about my visit HERE.

From Wikipedia:

Wright believed Scottsdale 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.”

More photos of cacti blooms from our neighborhood:

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”

—Albert Einstein

I feel like a kid in a candy store. I see everything around me with fresh eyes although this is my fourth Spring here. I’m in awe and surprised by the prickly cacti producing such eye catching flowers.

If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.

—Laura Ingalls Wilder

What are your favorite sights this time of year?

It wasn’t what I expected

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Taliesin West

Outside the Drafting Room of Taliesin West overlooking the triangular pool.

I loved Taliesin West. We all did. Our visit was Friday with our son and his fiancée.

It wasn’t what I expected. It was so much more. I felt like I was in the presence of genius — which I was. I loved the use of space, materials, and the different feel from one building or room to another.


“Taliesin West is a look over the rim of the world.”

– FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, 1943

https://franklloydwright.org/taliesin-west/

We did an hour-long self-guided tour with an app called Smartify with our own phones and earbuds. I appreciated the detail of the information. I could picture the people living and working there.

The tour took us from outside to inside Frank LLoyd Wright’s office, around the property to various pools and patios to inside a gathering room, dining room, cabaret where they watched movies, inside the drafting room and inside a Kiva. The Kiva is a round dark room, that feels like it’s underground with phenomenal lighting. They watched movies there and used it for storage when they returned to Wisconsin for the summer.

From the Taliesin website:

Wright’s beloved winter home and desert laboratory was established in 1937 and diligently handcrafted over many years into a world unto itself. Deeply connected to the desert from which it was forged, Taliesin West possesses an almost prehistoric grandeur. It was built and maintained almost entirely by Wright and his apprentices, making it among the most personal of the architect’s creations.

https://franklloydwright.org/taliesin-west/

Where have you visited that the experience outdid your expectations?

looking through the door of Frank Lloyd Wright's office.

Looking out from Frank Lloyd Wright’s office.

A whirlwind week

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Olive the cat getting out of my way as I clean house.

It’s a busy week or two. We returned from a trip to Mexico. I wrote about that HERE.

My son and his girlfriend are visiting from the Bay Area. We are gong to visit Taliesin West later today. It will be a first for all of us. That’s the winter home of Frank Lloyd Wright. We’ll be going on a self-guided tour. A coincidence is that a friend of mine from playgroup days in Palm Springs is a director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. What a small world! I found out from a friend in Palm Springs that our mutual friend had moved to Arizona a month or two before us. I wrote about coincidences recently HERE.

Next week, I fly to Seattle to visit my 90-year-old mom. I meant to visit for her birthday last March, but we were in the throws of Omicron. Both my daughter and husband got it. What weird days those were. I was taking care of my daughter — without being near her. We would wave at each other through her apartment window. I’d go to the laundromat and grocery store for her and leave things on her front steps.

When my husband had COVID, I moved into our Casita. It has a kitchen, so I cooked him chicken soup with lots of garlic and onions. I’d leave it outside the front door and text him. I was close if he needed me, but I wasn’t in physical contact.

I now have an aversion to flying. We have taken trips by car, which I’m comfortable with, but I haven’t wanted to get on an airplane. I can’t stand the wait at the airport, the crowds, being on the plane. COVID ruined flying for me.

Did COVID change your feelings about flying, too? Or did it affect you in other ways? Did you or your family get it?