Frank Lloyd Wright was an influential American architect known for his pioneering organic style. He designed many notable structures including Fallingwater and the Guggenheim Museum. Wright had an unconventional personal life with three marriages and was known for his strong personality and visionary designs that integrated with nature. He developed new approaches to architecture like Usonian houses that set trends for affordable suburban design.

1. John Garn

2. Life of Frank Lloyd Wright
 Charismatic, opinionated, arrogant,
genius
 Architect, interior designer, art
dealer, fashion designer
 He would design everything about the
interior of the house
 Furniture, artistic glass, accessories
 Would often include artwork he
procured as an art dealer
 Even fashioned garments for the lady
of the house to match the theme of
the house

3.  Married three times
 First wife “Kitty” while at Adler and Sullivan in 1889
 Lasted for over 20 years
 Had six children
 Ran away with a client’s wife – Mamah Cheney
 Spent a year in Europe before returning to Chicago
 Studied classical architecture
 Lived in Italy
 Built Taliesin in Wisconsin
 Mamah was murdered
 Second wife was “Miriam” in 1923
 Lasted only a year
 Morphine addict
 Third wife was Olgivanna in 1928
 Married to her until his death

4.  Important works
 Edgar J. Kaufman house at Bear
Run, Pennsylvania
 Known as Fallingwater
 Incorporated Wright’s organic
style with the trending
“international style” that was
emerging from Europe
 May have been created due to a
slight by the Museum of
Modern Art
 Also said that Wright had over
nine months to design the
house, but no plans had been
drawn up until four hours
before the client was to arrive
and check the progress

6.  Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Japan
 Wright’s first international commission
 Designed to blend traditional Japanese architecture with modern,
style designs
 Underwent many changes during the decade long building process
 Final plans mimic Mount Fujiyama
 Built on a drained marsh
 Wright was worried about earthquakes
 Developed avant‐garde engineering techniques to protect the structure
from damage
 Likened to a ship riding on the ocean
 Rooms were small and economical instead of grand and spacious

8.  Taliesin and Taliesin West
 Taliesin was built in Hillside, Wisconsin
 Initially was supposed to be a house for his mother
 Built as an investigation into meditation on nature through
architectural design
 Had to be rebuilt three times because of fire
 Almost a sketchbook of Wright’s ever‐changing style
 Many redesigns, additions, elaborations, and alterations
 The beginning location of the Taliesin Fellowship
 Taliesin was foreclosed on several times

9.  Taliesin West was built in the Arizona
foothills outside of Phoenix, Arizona
 Built late in Wright’s life
 Combined many of the styles and
experience Wright had developed
 Very similar to Fallingwater
 Both deal in permanence and
impermanence
 Both are designed in reaction to the
international style
 Both use contrast of materials as a
basis of expression
 Whereas Taliesin was founded on unity
and singularity, Taliesin West was based
on diversity and complementarity
 Angular, rough, composed of
primitive rubble walls
 Seems strange and enigmatic
 Provides an aura of mysticism and
leaves guests with a feeling of
visiting the “extraordinary”

11.  Usonian Houses
 Wright was approached and asked to design an affordable, practical
home for the average middle class family
 Should cost no more than $5,000
 Built on a concrete slab, eliminate both basement and attic
 Open, flowing design of the interior taken from prairie style
 Bedrooms were small to make people gather in the living areas
 Furnishings were largely built in
 In line with Arts and Crafts movement from early in Wright’s career
 Featured new approaches to construction
 Experimented with rectangles, triangles, hexagons and circles
 Used “sandwich” walls made of layers of wood siding and building paper
with plywood cores
 Most of the furnishings were built of plywood with cushions
 Shelves were built in to reduce clutter
 Everything was easy to disassemble and move if the client’s needs changed
 Set a new style for suburban design
 The new model for independent suburban living
 Open plans, slab foundations, simplified construction techniques
 Copied by countless developers

13.  Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 5th Avenue,
New York City
 Started in 1943 and took over 16 years to finish
 Last great work of Wright’s life and most
recognized masterpiece
 Completed six months after his death in 1959
 Created to be a home for Guggenheim’s
collection of contemporary abstract art
 Wright worked closely with Hilla Rebay,
Guggenheim’s curator and director of the
Guggenheim foundation
 Based on nature
 Uses the circle and spiral
 Inside resembles a seashell
 Gently sloping spiral ramp
 Open interior
 Completely unexpected
 Wright said to Guggenheim and Rebay “the whole
thing will either throw you off your guard entirely or
be just about what you have been dreaming about”

15. Works Cited
 Thornton, By Rosemary. "Prairie Style House, 1900‐1920." Home Remodeling, Repair and Improvement ‐
Products, Ideas and How‐To Tips. Web. 20 Nov. 2010.
 Adams, Laurie. Art across Time. New York: McGraw‐Hill, 2011. Print.
 "Architect Studio 3D, from the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust." Architect's Studio 3D. Frank Lloyd
Wright Preservation Trust. Web. 20 Nov. 2010. <http://www.architectstudio3d.org/AS3d/home.html>.
 Delmar, J. H. "Wright on the Web: A Virtual Look at the Works of Frank Lloyd Wright." Delmars.com. Web. 20
Nov. 2010. <http://www.delmars.com/wright/index.html>.
 Frank Lloyd Wright: A Film By Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. Dir. Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. Perf. Philip Bosco,
Edward Herrmann, Sab Shimono, Julie Harris. PBS Paramount, 2004. DVD.
 Levine, Neil. The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1996. Print.
 1901, By. "Frank Lloyd Wright." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 20 Nov. 2010.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Lloyd_Wright>.
 http://www.franklloydwright.com/index.htm
 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,758888‐4,00.html
 http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1483&ResourceType=Building