December 31, 2010
Frank Lloyd Wright loved Arizona. After making multiple visits in the late 1920s as a consultant or architect on various projects, in 1938 he purchased 600 acres of rural desert in the foothills of what is now Scottsdale. In those days, however, it was wilderness, with no roads, electricity, or water. Amazingly, Wright was already in his 70s when he undertook the building of Taliesin West, which started as a camp and became his winter home, studio, and fellowship site for his students. Those students were used as free labor to build roads and bring supplies up to the building site. The students also went into the hills to collect the rocks that were used to form the walls. They found native American rock paintings, such as the one shown in the lowest photo, in the hills. These were excavated and placed in prominent sites by Wright himself. The second image to the left, which almost looks like a Greek key design, was used as the symbol of Taliesin, and is seen in metalwork in the top photo. We had a guided tour of the buildings as well as Wright's private living quarters. It was a real thrill to see where he slept (in a very unusual divided bed) and his 1950s "state-of-the art" aluminum bathroom, as well as his integration of the building into the Arizona landscape. He was constantly modifying the buildings, adding a performance space for concerts and movies realtively late in life. We also learned (who knew?) that Wright designed a home for Marilyn Monroe, which was never built for her, but was later used as a design for a country club in Hawaii.
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