Frank Lloyd Wright (d. 1959)

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Biography

Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements of the twentieth century, influencing architects worldwide through his works and mentoring hundreds of apprentices in his Taliesin Fellowship. Wright believed in designing in harmony with humanity and the environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture. This philosophy was exemplified in Fallingwater (1935), which has been called "the best all-time work of American architecture".

Timeline

The story of Frank Lloyd Wright, told in moments.

Legacy

The AIA named him "the greatest American architect of all time" in 1991. Eight of his buildings are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. He married three times, survived scandal, fire, and murder, and never stopped drawing.

Eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Would that matter to you? Three marriages, scandal, fire, murder. Was the architecture worth all of it?

1893 Event

Opens his own practice in Chicago after apprenticing under Louis Sullivan, whom he calls "Lieber Meister." Over the next two decades, he designs over 200 Prairie-style homes defined by horizontal lines, open plans, and deep connection to the landscape.

Calling Louis Sullivan 'Lieber Meister.' What did he teach you that stuck? Horizontal lines, open plans. Were you rejecting everything that came before?

1914 Event

A servant at Taliesin, his Wisconsin home, bolts the dining room doors shut, sets fire to the building, and murders seven people with a hatchet as they try to escape. Among the dead: his companion Mamah Borthwick and her two children. Wright rebuilds Taliesin twice.

Seven people murdered at Taliesin. How do you rebuild after that? Mamah and her children killed. Did grief alter your work?

1935 Event

Designs Fallingwater, a house cantilevered over a waterfall in rural Pennsylvania. The client, Edgar Kaufmann, wants a view of the falls. Wright puts him on top of them. It's later called "the best all-time work of American architecture."

Putting the client on top of the waterfall, not in front. Was that obvious? Did Kaufmann trust you, or just surrender?

1943 Life

Begins designing the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. The building is a continuous spiral ramp. The art world hates the concept. Construction doesn't begin until 1956. Wright doesn't live to see the opening.

The art world hating the Guggenheim spiral. Did opposition energize you? Not living to see it open. Does unfinished work haunt?

1959 Death

Dies in Phoenix at 91. The Guggenheim opens six months later. He designed more than 1,000 structures. 532 were built. He is 91 and still had projects on the drafting table.

Projects still on the drafting table at ninety-one. Did you ever consider retiring? 1,000 structures designed, 532 built. Which unbuilt one do you mourn?

In Their Own Words (20)

All fine architectural values are human values, else not valuable.

“Recapitulation”, 1958

To look at the cross-section of any plan of a big city is to look at something like the section of a fibrous tumor.

“Social and Economic Disease”, 1958

The present is the ever moving shadow that divides yesterday from tomorrow. In that lies hope.

Closing words, “Night is but a Shadow Cast by the Sun”, 1958

I find it hard to believe that the machine would go into the creative artist's hand even were that magic hand in true place. It has been too far exploited by industrialism and science at expense to art and true religion.

“Night Is but a Shadow Cast by the Sun”, 1958

The screech and mechanical uproar of the big city turns the citified head, fills citified ears — as the song of birds, wind in the trees, animal cries, or as the voices and songs of his loved ones once filled his heart. He is sidewalk-happy.

“Earth”, 1958