On April 9, 1959, in Phoenix, Arizona, “the greatest American architect of all time” (as coined by the American Institute of Architects in 1991) passed away. While originally buried in Spring Green, Wisconsin, Frank’s body was eventually brought to, cremated and buried with his third wife Olgivanna in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Frank Lloyd Wright (born Frank Lincoln Wright) was born in the farming town of Richland Center, Wisconsin, in 1867. His father and mother were both somewhat strong-willed individuals with idiosyncratic interests. This greatly influenced him and his eventual career. In his biography it is written that his mother decorated his nursery with engravings of English cathedrals torn from a periodical to encourage the infant’s ambition.
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As a child, Frank was introduced to a special exhibit of educational blocks created by Friedrich Wilhelm August Frobel and his desire and love for architecture was born. In 1886, he joined the Phi Delta Theta fraternity at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a special student. He never did graduate, but instead began his architecture career in earnest as an apprentice to Louis Sullivan in 1871. |
By 1901, Frank had completed about 50 projects and had begun to develop a strong following. It was about this time that Frank exercised his “cowboy” spirit. Frank, for the next 20 years or so, innovated a radical new residential design known as “Prairie Houses.” These houses featured extended low buildings with shallow, sloping roofs, clean sky lines, suppressed chimneys, overhangs and terraces, using unfinished materials. The houses are credited with being the first examples of the “open plan.” He promoted organic architecture – building that evolves naturally out of its location.
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Here in Scottsdale, Arizona, he built a house called the Taliesin West (in the mid 1930’s). Frank, along with some architectural apprentices, gathered desert rocks and sand to build his showcase home that is both in the desert and of the desert.
This house is now headquarters for the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. ASU’s Gammage Theater is Frank’s final design. It is an amazing 3,000-seat performance hall that has hosted many national and international dance companies, Broadway plays as well as hundreds of well-known celebrities, politicians, musicians and performers.
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While it may not initially seem that Frank Lloyd Wright was a part of ‘our’ conception of the West, he actually was a very large part. He was born, raised and lived as a part of the West. While most of his work didn’t necessary come until the 20s and 30s, he always kept the rawness of western ideology in his designs and as a part of his life. Frank Lloyd Wright would have made a wonderful cowboy . . . designing beautiful and colorful bars of the Old West. |
