1.
Frank Lloyd Wright
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Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer, and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures,532 of which were completed. Wright believed in designing structures that were in harmony with humanity and its environment and this philosophy was best exemplified by Fallingwater, which has been called the best all-time work of American architecture. Wright was a leader of the Prairie School movement of architecture and developed the concept of the Usonian home and his creative period spanned more than 70 years. In addition to his houses, Wright designed original and innovative offices, churches, schools, skyscrapers, hotels, museums and he often designed interior elements for these buildings as well, including furniture and stained glass. Wright wrote 20 books and many articles and was a lecturer in the United States. His colorful personal life made headlines, most notably for the 1914 fire. Wright was recognized in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects as the greatest American architect of all time, Frank Lloyd Wright was born Frank Lincoln Wright in the farming town of Richland Center, Wisconsin, United States, in 1867. His father, William Carey Wright, was an orator, music teacher, occasional lawyer, William Wright met and married Anna Lloyd Jones, a county school teacher, the previous year when he was employed as the superintendent of schools for Richland County. Originally from Massachusetts, William Wright had been a Baptist minister, Anna was a member of the large, prosperous and well-known Lloyd Jones family of Unitarians, who had emigrated from Wales to Spring Green, Wisconsin. One of Annas brothers was Jenkin Lloyd Jones, who would become an important figure in the spread of the Unitarian faith in the Western United States, both of Wrights parents were strong-willed individuals with idiosyncratic interests that they passed on to him. According to his biography, his mother declared when she was expecting that her first child would grow up to build beautiful buildings and she decorated his nursery with engravings of English cathedrals torn from a periodical to encourage the infants ambition. In 1870 the family moved to Weymouth, Massachusetts, where William ministered to a small congregation, in 1876, Anna visited the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia where she saw an exhibit of educational blocks created by Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel. The blocks, known as Froebel Gifts, were the foundation of his innovative kindergarten curriculum, Anna, a trained teacher, was excited by the program and bought a set with which young Wright spent much time playing. The blocks in the set were geometrically shaped and could be assembled in various combinations to form three-dimensional compositions, the Wright family struggled financially in Weymouth and returned to Spring Green, Wisconsin, where the supportive Lloyd Jones clan could help William find employment. They settled in Madison, where William taught music lessons and served as the secretary to the newly formed Unitarian society, although William was a distant parent, he shared his love of music, especially the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, with his children. Soon after Wright turned 14, his parents separated, Anna had been unhappy for some time with Williams inability to provide for his family and asked him to leave. The divorce was finalized in 1885 after William sued Anna for lack of physical affection, William left Wisconsin after the divorce and Wright claimed he never saw his father again. At this time he changed his name from Lincoln to Lloyd in honor of his mothers family
2.
Taliesin West
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Taliesin West was architect Frank Lloyd Wrights winter home and school in the desert from 1937 until his death in 1959 at the age of 91. Today it is the campus of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. Open to the public for tours, Taliesin West is located on Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard in Scottsdale, Arizona, the complex drew its name from Wrights summer home, Taliesin, in Spring Green, Wisconsin. Wright and the Taliesin Fellowship began to trek to Arizona each winter in 1933, in 1937 Wright purchased the plot of desert land that would soon become Taliesin West. He paid “$3.50 an acre on a slope of the McDowell Range overlooking Paradise Valley outside Scottsdale. ”Wright believed this to be the perfect spot for such a building, a place of residence, a place of business. Wright described it like this, “Finally I learned of a site twenty-six miles from Phoenix, on up to a great mesa in the mountains. On the mesa just below McDowell Peak we stopped, turned, an investment of over $10,000 was needed, to dig a well deep enough to provide sufficient water for the campus. When Wright and his family arrived they found Native American petroglyphs among the rocks, one, seen today at the beginning of the guided tour, shows what may be hands clasping. Wright stylized the figures into interconnected lines, which became the symbol of Taliesin West, Wright felt very strongly about the connection to the desert. He said, “Arizona needs its own architecture… Arizona’s long, low, sweeping lines, uptilting planes. ”The structures walls are made of local rocks, stacked within wood forms. Wright always favored using the readily available rather than those that must be transported to the site. In Wright’s own words, “There were simple silhouettes to go by, tremendous drifts. We got it all together with the landscape…” The flat surfaces of the rocks were placed outward facing, natural light also played a major part in the design. In the drafting room, Wright used translucent canvas to act as a roof, Wright believed natural light aided the work environment he had his apprentices in, keeping the inside of his building in touch with the natural surroundings. Every part of Taliesin West bears Frank Lloyd Wright’s personal touch, upon every return after a summer in Wisconsin Wright would grab a hammer and immediately make his way through the complex. He would walk through each making changes or shouting orders to apprentices closely following with wheelbarrows. He constantly changed and improved on his design fixing arising problems, throughout the years he added an addition to the dining room, the cabaret theatre, music pavilion and numerous other rooms. All of the furniture and decorations were designed by Wright and the majority built by apprentices, a brilliant aspect of Wrights design is the cabaret theatre
3.
Mission 66
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When the National Park Service was created in 1916, long-distance travel in North America was typically accomplished by train. There was no road system, and airline travel was in its infancy. With the development of the US highway system as a works project during the Great Depression, many previously remote parks became accessible via good roads. The explosion in prosperity following World War II brought a tide of automobile-borne tourists that the parks were ill-equipped to receive, by the mid-1950s it was apparent that massive investment in park infrastructure was required. Mission 66 was conceived as the means to accommodate increased visitor numbers, while Mission 66 involved a variety of infrastructure projects such as roads, utilities and employee housing, the most visible components were the interpretational facilities, or visitor center. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, the Park Service came under increasing criticism for neglect of the park system, an essay by Bernard DeVoto in Harpers Magazine proposed that the national parks should be closed until they were funded appropriately. While this had little effect, it highlighted an increasing level of concern about the state. In 1955, Park Service Director Conrad Wirth proposed a program of capital improvement. The expressed aim was to complete the upgrades in time for the Park Services 50th anniversary in 1966, in early parks, visitor orientation facilities were built on a relatively small scale, often in the form of trailside museums for visitor edification. As a new feature, visitor centers had to be built quickly, managers such as Thomas Chalmers Vint, the Park Service director of design and construction, made a conscious decision to employ a more streamlined modern style of design for Mission 66 facilities. The simpler, cleaner design philosophy was faster and less expensive to implement, Mission 66 also involved substantial re-planning of entire park infrastructures, with entirely new developments reaching the proportions of new towns. The similar Wuksachi Village in Sequoia National Park was planned to replace the Giant Forest, colter Bay Village in Grand Teton National Park included the relocation of cabins from guest ranches displaced by the expansion of the park into Jackson Hole. While a large portion of the funding for Mission 66 was devoted to visitor facilities, much of the existing housing was built by the CCC and amounted to little more than cabins. Using the model of military housing, a series of standard designs was developed. The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial on the St. Louis, Missouri riverfront entailed the demolition of forty blocks of the city to create a new park at the feet of Gateway Arch. The old warehouse district had been targeted for demolition by the city to eradicate urban blight, and the arch and its park were seen as a means to this end, ironically, much of the exploration and expansion the new project commemorated had originated from the demolished riverfront district. In Philadelphia, the development of Independence National Historical Park involved the creation of Independence Mall, the mall was designed to provide a vista of Independence Hall, necessitating the demolition of numerous 19th-century buildings. While Mission 66 is most frequently associated with improvements, it also funded a number of continuing programs
4.
National Park Service
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It was created on August 25,1916, by Congress through the National Park Service Organic Act and is an agency of the United States Department of the Interior. As of 2014, the NPS employs 21,651 employees who oversee 417 units, the National Park Service celebrated its centennial in 2016. National parks and national monuments in the United States were originally individually managed under the auspices of the Department of the Interior, the movement for an independent agency to oversee these federal lands was spearheaded by business magnate and conservationist Stephen Mather, as well as J. Horace McFarland. With the help of journalist Robert Sterling Yard, Mather ran a publicity campaign for the Department of the Interior and they wrote numerous articles that praised the scenic and historic qualities of the parks and their possibilities for educational, inspirational, and recreational benefits. This campaign resulted in the creation of a National Park Service, Mather became the first director of the newly formed NPS. On March 3,1933, President Herbert Hoover signed the Reorganization Act of 1933, the act would allow the President to reorganize the executive branch of the United States government. It wasnt until later that summer when the new President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Roosevelt agreed and issued two Executive orders to make it happen. In 1951, Conrad Wirth became director of the National Park Service, the demand for parks after the end of the World War II had left the parks overburdened with demands that could not be met. In 1952, with the support of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, he began Mission 66, New parks were added to preserve unique resources and existing park facilities were upgraded and expanded. In 1966, as the Park Service turned 50 years old, emphasis began to turn from just saving great and wonderful scenery, Director George Hartzog began the process with the creation of the National Lakeshores and then National Recreation Areas. Since its inception in 1916, the National Park Service has managed each of the United States national parks, Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the United States. In 1872, there was no government to manage it. Yosemite National Park began as a park, the land for the park was donated by the federal government to the state of California in 1864 for perpetual conservation. Yosemite was later returned to federal ownership, at first, each national park was managed independently, with varying degrees of success. In Yellowstone, the staff was replaced by the U. S. Army in 1886. Due to the irregularities in managing these national treasures, Stephen Mather petitioned the government to improve the situation. In response, Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane challenged him to lobby for creating a new agency, Mather was successful with the ratification of the National Park Service Organic Act in 1916. Later, the agency was given authority over other protected areas, the National Park System includes all properties managed by the National Park Service
5.
Kaden Tower
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KadenTower is a 15-story office building at 6100 Dutchmans Lane in suburban Louisville, Kentucky. The building opened in 1966 as the headquarters for Lincoln Income Life Insurance Company and was originally named Lincoln Tower, designed by a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, the building is notable for its cantilevered structure and its suspended lacework facade. A single-story building on the site and in the same architectural style adjoins the tower. This smaller building which housed a branch office of Liberty National Bank. Both buildings designs are attributed to Frank Lloyd Wright, but they were actually designed by Wrights protégé. Wrights widow, Olgivanna Lloyd Wright, is cited as an influence. Peters became the head of Wrights architectural firm Taliesin Associates after Wrights death in 1959, though Peters had his own style, he collaborated with Wright for more than twenty years. He based the design of the Louisville complex largely on three of Wrights projects, only one of which was actually built and this feature served the dual role of reducing interior solar heat gain while preserving views from interior to exterior. Peters design is evocative of another unbuilt Wright plan, the 40-story Rogers Lacy Hotel. This striking, innovative skyscraper had been commissioned also in 1946 for downtown Dallas, Texas, undoubtedly, the one Wright blueprint that Peters incorporated as his biggest source of inspiration was the H. C. Price Company Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, the Price Tower, commissioned in 1952 by another oil businessman, Harold C. Price, opened in 1956 and is one of two completed tall buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Both buildings sit on large, landscaped sites, adjacent to similarly-styled smaller buildings, are decorated in pastel earthtones, and have somewhat obscured windows. Like the Calico Mills design, the Kaden Tower, when occupied at night, is reminiscent of a Japanese lantern with inside lighting illuminating the grillwork with a soft, yellow glow. During the month of December in the 1970s and early 1980s, Kaden Companies Partnership acquired the building in 1986 and changed its name from the Lincoln Income Life Insurance Tower to the Kaden Tower. The Kaden name is a combination of the names, Jim Karp, Bert Blieden. The company owns several commercial properties in the Louisville area, notably the Holiday Manor. After purchasing the tower, Kaden contracted Louisvilles Grossman Chapman Klarer Architects, completed in 1987, the renovation included updating the office spaces, upgrading the onsite auditorium, and repainting the exterior
6.
Arizona Biltmore Hotel
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The Arizona Biltmore Hotel is a resort located in Phoenix near 24th Street and Camelback Road. It is part of Hilton Hotels Waldorf Astoria Hotels and Resorts and was featured on the Travel Channel show Great Hotels. The Arizona Biltmore has been designated as a Phoenix Point of Pride, warren McArthur, Jr. and brother Charles McArthur along with John McEntee Bowman, the entrepreneur behind the Biltmore Hotel chain, opened the Arizona Biltmore on February 23,1929. The two architects are a study in contrast with the famous and outspoken Wright being self-taught and never licensed as an architect in Arizona, the more soft-spoken McArthur was Harvard trained in architecture, mathematics, engineering, and music. McArthur obtained a license in Arizona, number 338, in 1925. Reproductions of the geometric sprite statues originally designed by sculptor Alfonso Iannelli for Wrights 1915 Midway Gardens project in Chicago are placed around the property, also, the original hotel solarium of 1929 was converted to a restaurant in 1973 and since the mid-1990s has been named Wrights. Further, three on site restaurants bear Wrights name, Wrights at the Biltmore, The Wright Bar, authorship of the hotels design is not a new dispute. Wright has variously condemned McArthurs use of the system and publicly claimed credit for the buildings design. The nearby Wrigley Mansion was built in 1931 and now operates as a club with memberships starting at $15/year. In 1940, the Catalina pool and the Cowboy Bunkhouse areas opened, marilyn Monroe was seen around the pool area, and Martha Raye was photographed playing chess on a large chessboard around the Cowboy house. In 1962, the hotels first air conditioners were put into service, in 1970, the Wrigley family sold the hotel to the Talley family. 1973 almost spelled doom for the hotel, a fire erupted on June 21, destroying interiors of large parts of the 3rd and 4th floors. It was announced immediately by the new owners that this hotel would be rebuilt in 90 days. Three separate crews were employed around the clock, in 1979, the hotel was taken over by the Rostland Corporation. In 1983, it became a Leper DBL Biltmore Association property, a spa was opened in 1998. In July 1999, Florida Panther Holdings, Inc. acquired the property from Grossman Company Properties for $228. 5M, also, in 1999 Florida Panther Holdings, Inc. changed its name to Boca Resorts, Inc. At the time, Florida Panthers Holdings, Inc, the Company also owned the Florida Panthers Hockey Club and had interests in the operations of the National Car Rental Center located in Sunrise, Florida and the Miami Arena. In December 2000, Boca Resorts, Inc. sold the hotel for $335 Million to KSL Recreation, Inc
7.
Edward E. Boynton House
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The Edward E. Boynton House was built in Rochester, New York in 1908. This two-story house is built in the elongated T plan, Frank Lloyd Wright won agreement from Boynton to not only design the house but also design the landscape and furnishings as well. Its the furthest east of Wrights Prairie houses, Edward Boynton was a successful lantern salesman and partner in the C. T. Boynton learned of Frank Lloyd Wright through a partner, Warren McArthur. Wright had built the Warren McArthur House in the Kenwood District of Chicago in 1892, in 1907, Wright came to Rochester to help Edward and his daughter Beulah select a site for their home. Boynton bought four city lots on East Blvd, the plans also called for 28 American elm trees on the property. Boyntons daughter helped him work with Wright on the design of the house as his wife had died years earlier, Wright and Beulah Boynton established a great architect-client relationship - not always the case for Wright with his clients. Wright incorporated many of her suggestions into the structure and design, Wright would frequently and unexpectedly show up at the site during construction and once there, never leave the house for 2 to 3 days - often sleeping in makeshift sheds set up by the workmen. The home is oriented sideways on the lot, the living room is extended west by a veranda which aims towards the street. The dining room is large and includes rows of leaded art glass windows on each floor, with separate designs for casements and clerestory windows. The veranda was enclosed and the same art glass added to it. The cost of the house and site was $55,000.00, the Boyntons lived in the house until 1918. I thought it was sited on a hilltop surrounded by an expanse of space. This home is still a private residence, the elms are gone, a casualty of Dutch elm disease in the 1960s. As a result of weather conditions in Rochester and problems with the original design, its upkeep has been a continual problem. An extensive restoration project was completed in 2012, the two and a half year restoration project was undertaken by the present owners of the house, Francis J. Cosentino and his wife Jane E. Parker, who purchased the house in 2009 for $830,000. The progress of the work was documented in a Rochester. Public Broadcasting Station channel WXXI program entitled, Frank Lloyd Wrights Boynton House, the Rochester, N. Y. based architecture firm, Bero Architecture PLLC, was the lead firm in the restoration of the house
8.
Walter V. Davidson House
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The Walter V. Davidson House, located at 57 Tillinghast Place in Buffalo, New York, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1908. It is an example of Wrights Prairie School architectural style, the house is a contributing property to the Parkside East Historic District, a neighborhood laid out by renowned American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted in 1876. Wrights patron, Walter V. Davidson, had joined the Larkin Company in Buffalo as the manager in 1906. Davidson was introduced to Wright by fellow Larkin executive Darwin D. Martin, consequently, Wright was commissioned to build a house by Davidson, and in turn another Larkin employee William R. Heath. Davidson left both the house and the Larkin Company in 1913 to establish the Davidson Shoe Company, in a house built on a relatively modest budget, Wright emphasized space and light rather than ornament. This helped make the Davidson House notable in several respects, primarily as a Tall Living Room house, the living room is two stories high featuring a 2-story bay window on the east wall and 1 1⁄2-story-high clerestory windows on the north and south walls. These panes are oriented horizontally, rather than vertically, uncommon to the style of the day, each pane is offset a number of degrees, rather than laid flat on an even plane, increasing privacy due to light reflecting off the glass at different angles. The basic floor plan is cruciform, on the ground floor is the dining room, and at the opposite end a porch, with the Tall Living Room and the second story centered in the middle. The floor plan is almost identical to the Isabel Roberts House, built that year in River Forest, Illinois. This resulted in the room being oriented to the side of the house rather than the street front. This view was quickly lost, however, when the next door was built. Like the William R. Heath House the Davidson House has a basement containing the utilities, a laundry, pantry. Nearby are the kitchen and side entry on the ground floor, there are three bedrooms and bathroom on the second floor. In the 1930s the residence was remodeled, updating the kitchen, one of the original bedrooms was reduced in size and a closet eliminated to make way for a hallway leading to the new suite, which consisted of a dressing chamber, bathroom, and sleeping chamber. The addition incorporated the same casement windows of diamond-shaped leaded glass prevalent in the rest of the house
9.
Fallingwater
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Fallingwater or the Kaufmann Residence is a house designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 in rural southwestern Pennsylvania,43 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. The home was built partly over a waterfall on Bear Run in the Mill Run section of Stewart Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, in the Laurel Highlands of the Allegheny Mountains. The house was designed as a home for the family of Liliane Kaufmann and her husband, Edgar J. Kaufmann. Time cited it after its completion as Wrights most beautiful job and it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966. At age 67, Frank Lloyd Wright was given the opportunity to design, Edgar Kaufmann, Sr. was a Pittsburgh businessman and president of Kaufmanns Department Store. His son, Edgar Kaufmann, jr. studied architecture briefly under Wright, Edgar Sr. had been prevailed upon by his son and Wright to subsidize the cost of a 12-foot-square model of Wrights Broadacre City. The model was displayed at an Industrial Arts Exposition in the Forum at the Rockefeller Center starting on April 15,1935. After the New York exposition, Kaufmann Sr. arranged to have the model displayed in Pittsburgh at an exposition titled New Homes for Old, the exposition opened on June 18 on the 11th floor of Kaufmanns store. The Kaufmanns lived in “La Tourelle”, a French Norman estate designed by Pittsburgh architect Benno Janssen in the Fox Chapel suburb in 1923 for Edgar J. Kaufmann, the Kaufmanns owned property outside Pittsburgh with a waterfall and cabins they used as a rural retreat. When these cabins deteriorated, Mr. Kaufmann contacted Wright, on December 18,1934, Wright visited Bear Run and asked for a survey of the area around the waterfall. One was prepared by Fayette Engineering Company of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, including all the boulders, trees, and topography. As reported by Wrights apprentices at Taliesin, Kaufmann Sr and he could not wait to see Wrights plans. Wright had told Kaufmann in earlier communication that he had working on the plans. After breakfast that morning, amid a group of very nervous apprentices, Wright intended to build the home above the falls, rather than below them to afford a view of the cascades as he had expected. It is said that Kaufmann was initially upset that Wright had designed the house to sit atop the falls. He had wanted the house located on the bank of Bear Run. He had told Wright that was his favorite aspect of the Bear Run property, one problem of building was that the location of the north bank of Bear Run was not large enough to provide a foundation for a typically built Wright house. The Kaufmanns planned to entertain large groups of people, so the house would need to be larger than the plot allowed, also, Mr. and Mrs. Kaufmann requested separate bedrooms, as well as a bedroom for their adult son and an additional guest room
10.
Gordon House (Silverton, Oregon)
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The Gordon House is a residence designed by influential architect Frank Lloyd Wright, now located within the Oregon Garden, in Silverton, Oregon. It is an example of Wrights Usonian vision for America and it is one of the last of the Usonian series designed for American working class consumers, which—in 1939—was considered $5, 000–6,000 per year. The house is based on a design for a home commissioned by Life magazine in 1938. The house was designed in 1957 for Evelyn and Conrad Gordon and it was originally located adjacent to the Willamette River, near Wilsonville, Oregon. Dismantling began on March 9,2001, the upper floor, containing two bedrooms and one bath, was moved as a single unit. Overall neglect required refurbishing of the siding and roofing which was arranged by grants from the Architectural Foundation of Oregon. A new foundation replicating the original was constructed, the house opened one year later as the only publicly accessible Frank Lloyd Wright home in the Pacific Northwest. The second story features two bedrooms, each with its own private balcony, the house is constructed of cedar and painted cinder block and continues Wrights tradition of custom patterned wood cutout window lattice known as fretwork. The Gordon House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 22,2004 and it is cared for by the Gordon House Conservancy and available for small catered gatherings. When not reserved, the house is available for tours as a historic house museum. Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy List of Frank Lloyd Wright works List of Registered Historic Places in Marion County, Oregon Gordon House Conservancy
11.
Peter A. Beachy House
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The Peter A. Beachy House is a home in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois that was entirely remodeled by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1906. The house that today is almost entirely different from the sites original home. The home is listed as a property to the Frank Lloyd Wright-Prairie School of Architecture Historic District. The original home, a Gothic cottage, was almost entirely replaced when banker Peter A. Beachy commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to remodel the home. The house is set at angles to the street to utilize part of the cottages original foundation. Wright built this house after returning from a trip to Japan, though the Beachy House incorporates an earlier structure, the original building is completely obliterated on the interior. The only points that the house, known as the Fargo House. The house has seven gables and sits on the largest residential lot in Oak Park, much of the furniture in the house was also Wright designed but the windows contained only wooden muntins, no leaded or colored glass. However, Wright designed leaded-glass light fixtures which are used throughout the house, the Peter A. Beachy House is an example of Wrights prairie design work. It is listed as a property to the Frank Lloyd Wright-Prairie School of Architecture Historic District. The historic district joined the U. S. National Register of Historic Places in 1973, the Peter A. Beachy House is one of three homes in Oak Park that Wright was commissioned to remodel. The other two are the 1906 Hills-DeCaro House, which was under renovation when the Hills House was built, and the William H. Copeland House, also on Forest Avenue
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