Frank Lloyd Wright literally created Taliesin West "out of
the desert." He and his apprentices gathered rocks from the
desert floor and sand from the washes to build this great desert
masterpiece.
From the beginning, this remarkable
set of buildings astounded architectural critics with its beauty
and unusual form.
Situated on 600 acres of rugged Sonoran desert at the foothills
of the McDowell Mountains in Scottsdale, Arizona, Taliesin West
is now a National Historic Landmark.
Visitors to Taliesin West will not see a museum, but rather a
remarkably vital and active community of students and architects
working together to maintain Wright's vision. Today 70 people
live, work and study at Taliesin West.
Taliesin (pronounced TALLY EHSSEN)
literally means "shining brow" in Welsh, the nationality
of Wright's ancestors. Taliesin in Wisconsin sits on the "brow"
of a hill overlooking the valley below while Taliesin West is
located on a broad mesa. Taliesin West was selected by the American
Institute of Architects (AIA) as one of 17 buildings nation-wide
that exemplify Wright's contribution to American architecture.
In 1987, at Taliesin West's 50th anniversary, the U.S. House of
Representatives recognized the complex as "the highest achievement
in American artistic and architectural expression."
Wright was drawn to Arizona as
early as 1927 when he was asked to collaborate on designs for
the Arizona Biltmore. In 1937, Wright bought several hundred acres
of raw, rugged desert at the foothills of the McDowell Mountains
and, with his architectural apprentices, began construction of
Taliesin West.
At age 70, when most men would have given strong consideration
to retirement, Wright went on to stage one of the most remarkable
professional comebacks of the century. In his seven decade career,
he designed more than 1,100 works; nearly one-third of his entire
output of work occurred during the last decade of his life, much
of which was spent in Arizona.
Taliesin West as conceived by
Wright was a bold new architectural concept for desert living
- "a look over the rim of the world," in the architect's
own words. It served as Wright's winter home until his death in
1959.
Taliesin West is notable because of its unusual forms, its rough
rocky surface and its innovative uses of material such as textiles
and plastics. Taliesin West was literally built of the desert.
Wright scooped up rocks from the desert floor and sand from the
washes to build a great desert sculpture.
"We devised a light canvas-covered redwood framework resting
upon massive stone masonry that belonged to the mountain slopes
all around," Wright said about Taliesin West. Hundreds of
cords of stone, carloads of cement, carloads of redwood and acres
of stout white canvas went into the construction of the complex.
"Our new desert camp belonged to the Arizona desert as though
it had stood there during creation," Wright said.
Taliesin West is entered by crossing a graveled courtyard with views of a vine-covered pergola and colorful sculptures. Shallow steps lead to the sunset terrace with a 240 degree panoramic vista of distant mountains and the surrounding desert landscape.
Turning from this view, the dominant theme of Taliesin West comes to view with stone and concrete walls, white translucent roofs and connecting horizontal parapets, all as a backdrop to lawn, pool and gardens in the foreground.
Taliesin West includes the Cabaret
Theater for films, the Pavilion theater for performing arts, a
drafting studio, Wright's former architectural office and living
quarters, dining room and kitchen, the little Kiva theater, pools,
terraces, gardens, a workshop and residences for the apprentices
and staff of the school of architecture. The Garden Room, or living
room, with its dramatic canted roof is the central showpiece of
Taliesin West. Experimental desert residences, built by apprentices,
dot the 600 acre desert landscape surrounding the complex.
Taliesin West is the international headquarters for The Frank
Lloyd Wright Foundation.