Frank Lloyd Wright

EARLY LIFE 

Frank Lloyd Wright was born Frank Lincoln Wright in the farming town of Richland Center, Wisconsin, United States, on June 8, 1867.

His education included attending Madison High School. Wright turned to architecture on seeing their newly erected wing of the Wisconsin state capitol collapse.

Wright briefly studied civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin, but left before obtaining a degree.

CAREER 

One of the outstanding architects of the 20th century, Wright influenced design over the world by his freedom from convention and rule. Among his buildings are his Wisconsin home (1925), Falling Water, Pittsburgh (1936) and the Guggenheim Museum, New York (1959). Wright designed in total more than 1,000 structures and completed 532 works.

Wright moved to Chicago in 1887 following his time at college. The city was still reeling from the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and needed developers. He quickly found a job as a draftsman for the architectural firm of the famed Joseph Lyman Silsbee.

When Wright learned that the Chicago firm of Adler & Sullivan needed draughtsmen he demonstrated in an interview that he was a competent impressionist of Louis Sullivan's ornamental designs and was taken on as an official apprentice in the firm.

Sullivan took Wright under his wing and gave him large design responsibility. Wright would later refer to Sullivan as Lieber Meister (German for "Dear Master").

Frank Lloyd Wright built his home and studio in Oak Park, Illinois in 1889 with a $5,000 loan from Louis Sullivan. The home was extensively remodeled in 1895 and 1898.

Wright's home in Oak Park. By John Delano of Hammond, Indiana, 

While working on residential projects for Adler & Sullivan, Wright also designed houses on his own time. In 1893 he left Louis Sullivan's firm and established his own practice on the top floor of the Sullivan-designed Schiller Building on Randolph Street in Chicago.

Wright's early work spearheaded the Prairie School; he designed houses influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement and characterized by horizontal lines, overhanging roofs, asymmetrical composition, and use of regional materials (Ward Willits House, Highland Park, Illinois. (1902); Taliesin, Spring Green, Wisconsin (1911)).

Two Berlin publications of his work in 1910-11 spread Wright's influence to Europe.

The second phase of Wright's career (1918-36) saw only one major building, the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo (1916-22). Finding little work during the Great Depression, Wright designed experimental projects, published An Autobiography (1932), and established the Taliesin Fellowship, a program under which he was to train numerous young architects at his winter home in Phoenix, Arizona, Taliesin West.

Wright in 1926

Wright also lectured widely. When the actor Anthony Quinn (1915-2001) studied architecture under Wright, the architect advised him communication was an important part of the job — so Quinn joined an acting group, and ended up preferring that.

In his prolific third phase (1936-59), Wright designed many of his most famous buildings including his most famous work, Fallingwater (1935). Fallingwater was a summer-house designed for the Kaufmann family over a waterfall in Mill Run, Pennsylvania. In 1991, members of the American Institute of Architects named the Fallingwater house the "best all-time work of American architecture".

He also designed the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on Fifth Avenue in New York City with its interior similar to that of the inside of a seashell. It took Wright 700 draft sketches until the final design was created.Wright worked on this project for 16 years before the building opened on October 21, 1959.  It is probably his most recognized masterpiece.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City (1959) Wikipedia

During his prolific final period Wright also pioneered urban planning in the United States through the compact "Usonian" house. A group of approximately sixty middle-income family homes, they began in 1934 with the Malcolm Willey House located in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium in Tempe, Arizona (1967) is considered to be the last public building he designed.

PERSONAL STYLE AND CONCEPTS 

A gifted designer - he designed most of the interior details and even the furniture of many of his projects - Wright was uniquely influential through his love of natural textures (he favoured unplaned wood and rough-quarried stone) and conception of architectural space and open planning.

Wright believed in designing structures which were in peace with humanity and its environment. He called his belief organic architecture, which he said, "develops from within outward." He used this technique for his design for Fallingwater.

Fallingwater. By Sxenko,

Ondol, which means "warm stone," involves the use of stones and underground ducts to help transport warm air from the kitchen to the rooms in the house. Wright discovered ondol in the early 1900s and used it in many of his building designs.

Wright's earliest style was called "prairie architecture." His homes had low-lying roofs which seemed to hover over the house and give it added protection. Windows no longer were mere glass holes in walls. They formed bands which extended the full length of the wall.

His floor plans were informal, based upon the needs of the individual family. Rooms extended out from a central area. This design let light into each room from three different directions.

In 1979, The New York Times printed Frank Lloyd Wright's views on air conditioning from his 1954 book The Natural House. He was not a fan, calling it a "dangerous circumstance."

Autocratic, opinionated, often infuriating, Wright never saw some of his more grandiose visions - such as a mile-high building - beyond the drawing board; but even his drawings came to be treasured as works of art.

PERSONAL LIFE 

Wright was married three times, first to Catherine Wright, then to Miriam Wright, then finally to Olgivanna Wright.

Wright fathered seven children, four sons and three daughters. One of his daughters, Catherine, was the mother of the Oscar-winning actress Anne Baxter.

His second son, John Lloyd Wight, invented Lincoln Logs, a children's toy consisting of square-notched miniature logs used to build small forts and buildings.

On August 15, 1914, while Wright was working in Chicago, a disgruntled Barbadian servant, Julian Carlton, set fire to the living quarters of the architect's Wisconsin home. Seven people, including Wright's mistress, were trapped inside the dining room and Carlton took an ax to victims who tried to escape. All seven were killed.

Phoenix was Frank Lloyd Wright's home and architectural canvas from the late 1920s until his death. Projects of his in Phoenix include his winter home, Taliesin West and the David and Gladys Wright House (built for Wright’s son and his wife).

Wright was a fan of Japanese Art and collected them throughout his career. He used Japanese art prints to help him pay for loans.

DEATH AND LEGACY 

Wright died on April 9, 1959, while undergoing surgery in Phoenix to remove an intestinal obstruction.

His third wife, Olgivanna, ran the Fellowship after Wright's death, until her own death in Scottsdale, Arizona, in 1985.

Paul Simon wrote the song "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright" for Simon and Garfunkel. Art Garfunkel had majored in architecture at Columbia University. Simon, knowing that his musical partner was a big fan of Wright, used his name in the title.

Wright was recognized in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects as "the greatest American architect of all time."

Sources Europress Family Encyclopedia 1999, Compton's Encyclopedia