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 out from Frank Lloyd Wright’s office.
