Guide to Frank Lloyd Wright

According to the foundation named after the man (see below), the architect Frank Lloyd Wright devoted over 70 years of his life designing some of the most recognizable buildings and residences in the world: the Guggenheim Museum, Fallingwater in Pennsylvania, and many others. Of those that were actually constructed, over 400 still stand today. Wright was also an industrious writer, educator, and designer, and changed how people think in nearly every field he participated in. His structures are best known for their sensitivity to the environment in which they were constructed, taking advantage of natural contours and taking on an appearance that can only be described as organic.

The following is a summary of Wright’s life, major contributions, and influences. Although this page will only scratch the surface of all there is to know about the man, numerous links to societies, university websites, and other sources are provided regularly so that students and researchers can gain a true appreciation of the architect’s effect on the world. Although the number of resources about Frank Lloyd Wright that are available are too many to count, those gathered below have been selected for their depth and for the credibility of their sources.

Profile of Frank Lloyd Wright

Born in 1867, Frank Lloyd Wright grew up in Wisconsin, attending high school in Madison. Although he began his college education as an engineering student at the University of Wisconsin, he later moved to Chicago and became the apprentice of architect Joseph Lyman Silsbee. Under his tutelage, and while later working for Louis Sullivan, Wright designed his first major works. He also married Catherine Tobin and opened his first architectural business. Shortly thereafter, he moved to Oak Park where he lived for 18 years until eloping to Germany (with another woman), and then moved back to Wisconsin in 1911 where he built his estate, Taliesin.

Although he had designed some noteworthy houses and buildings before 1911, including the Larkin Company Administration Building, his fame surged over the next few decades. Some of his best known works from this time are the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo in 1923 and Fallingwater in Pennsylvania in 1936. He started a makeshift apprenticeship program and fellowship for architectural students at Taliesin in 1932, built Taliesin West in Phoenix, Arizona in 1937, and designed the Guggenheim in New York in 1943. Frank Lloyd Wright was in his early 90s when he died in Phoenix in 1959.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust provides an interactive and animated biography with numerous images, organized as a timeline. However, more information about Wright’s views on a variety of topics, from religion to politics, can be found in the 1957 Mike Wallace Interview, available from the University of Texas at Austin. Finally, straightforward, text profiles of the man are provided by CMG Worldwide (the shortest), Biography.com, and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. Much of Meryle Secrest’s Frank Lloyd Wright: A Biography is available for free from Google Books as well.

Major Architectural Feats

In his lifetime, Wright designed over 1,100 structures, about half of which were actually built. Each is famous, but the following are some of the best-known works to bear his name:

  • Fallingwater is a house built over a waterfall for the Kaufman family of Pennsylvania, and was constructed between 1936 and 1939. The house juts out from the waterfall’s cliff face, creating the illusion of having no foundation. This information comes from Fallingwater’s official website.
  • The Larkin Building was designed in 1904 and constructed in 1906, serving as the headquarters for the Larkin company. Made of brick, the structure was five stories high and featured a price tage of $4,000,000. A 1978 article by Jerome Puma about the building’s demise in 1950 delves into more detail about its construction as well.
  • The Guggenheim, although designed in 1943, was not built until 1959 due to financial obstacles. The museum is an “inverted ziggurat,” or upside down pyramid, and its curvature is meant to evoke nature despite its location in Manhattan. More information is available in a long article about the subject from the Guggenheim’s official website.
  • Taliesin, a large mansion in Wisconsin, went through three different iterations due to its burning down in 1914 (as a result of arson committed by a mentally unstable servant) and 1925 (possibly due to an electrical problem). The FAQs section of Taliesin Preservation, Inc. explains more.
  • The Imperial Hotel was one of six structures that Wright designed in Japan. The hotel was finished in 1923 and survived both the Great Kanto Earthquake and World War II, but was demolished in 1968. These details come from the Old Tokyo website.

An exhaustive record of his major works can be found on the Library of Congress’s site, Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings Recorded by the Historic American Buildings Survey, while a great many documents associated with Wright are available at Sullivan, Wright, Prairie School, & Organic Architecture.

Influences

Wright was usually reticent to admit to having influences, although there were two notable exceptions. The first was Joseph Lyman Silsbee, under whose tutelage Wright made his first designs in Chicago. Silsbee was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1848 and was himself influenced by H. H. Richardson, who was famous for his Romanesque style. Silsbee studied at the first architectural school in the U.S., MIT, and went on to design the Syracuse Savings Bank and the White Memorial Building in Syracuse. Later in his life, after he moved to Chicago, he gained a reputation as a teacher of residential architects, among whose students Wright was only one of several to gain renown. Silsbee died in 1913. This information comes from the Syracuse: Then and Now historical website.

The other major influence of Wright was Louis Sullivan, known as an early developer of skyscrapers by designing buildings with steel frames and lighter materials. Sullivan was born in 1856 and is often mentioned in the same breath as H. H. Richardson in any discussion of early American architects. Some of his most notable works include the Carson Pirie Scott Store of Chicago (1899), one of the earliest skyscrapers, and Chicago’s Transportation Building in 1893. Sullivan’s buildings are some of the most famous examples of the Chicago School of architecture, which emphasizes functionality and verticality. More can be read at the MIT bio about the man.

Additional Resources

The most detailed information about Frank Lloyd Wright from the Internet is usually to be found in general websites that address both his life and work. CMG Worldwide’s Frank Lloyd Wright page, for example, provides a short bio and image gallery, a summary of major accomplishments, and quotes. Both the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation go into far more detail, providing thorough descriptions of each of his major works and providing information about educational opportunities, products, and associated writings. The Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture that Wright founded in the early 1930s still provides degrees in architecture today and gives detailed information about the Taliesin estate itself. Finally, PBS provides supplementary information to the Ken Burns documentary, Frank Lloyd Wright, for anyone seeking a quick introduction.

Image is by Al Ravenna, but is here provided by the Library of Congress via Wikimedia.