Famed American Architect's Desert Home Brings Crowds

Every year as southern Arizona cooled, architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his students would travel there to escape the cold of winter in Wisconsin.

Wright’s students built shelters at a place he called Taliesin West, northeast of the state capital, Phoenix 1. They stayed there during the winter term of his School of Architecture. The buildings were wide open to nature. They had no electricity, running water, doors or windows.

The shelters are still used as housing today.

From 1937 until 1959, when Wright died, Taliesin West was the winter home of America’s most famous architect. The original Taliesin was Wright’s home in southwestern Wisconsin, a central state.

Taliesin is the name of a sixth-century writer. It means “shining brow.”

The buildings of Taliesin West are made of redwood beams and large rocks. They were covered early on in almost-transparent 2 canvas to let in light. The canvas was later replaced with plastic, which is stronger against the desert sun. Windows were large openings without glass.

The 198-hectare site in Scottsdale, near the McDowell Mountains, is still the winter home of the graduate school. Students can earn a Master of Architecture degree there. It is also the headquarters of The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, which governs many of the architect’s buildings.

More than 100,000 people visit Taliesin West each year. It has been named a National Historic Landmark 3. Wright Foundation officials say the number of visitors has increased sharply because this year marks the 150th anniversary of Wright’s birth. Visitors can see the room where Wright designed some of his most famous buildings, including the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Wright lived to see more than 500 of his designs built. They include homes, offices and schools. Another very famous Wright work is Fallingwater, a private home built over a waterfall in a Pennsylvania forest. Wright also designed the 19-story Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma; Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida; and the Ennis House, a home in Los Angeles designed like a Mayan temple.

Experts say Taliesin West is among the best buildings Wright designed. At the home, visitors can see the same desert landscape that Wright and his students looked at from the room where they created. It is a view that Wright once called “a look over the rim 4 of the world.”

I’m Caty Weaver 5.

Words in This Story

architect -n. a person who designs buildings?

beam -n. a long and heavy piece of wood or metal that is used as a support in a building or ship?

transparent -adj. able to be seen throug?

canvas -n. a strong, rough cloth that is used to make bags, tents, sails, etc.?

landscape -n. an area of land that has a particular quality or appearance?

rim -n. the outer edge of a usually round object