Frank lloyd wright

1. Frank lloyd wright • The Latter years (1932-1959)

2. After the Prairie House • Timeline • 1909Due to the scandal of leaving his wife and children for • the wife of one of his clients, Frank Lloyd Wright has • Difficulties in securing new clients and closes his • Firm in Oak Park. • 1910- 1912 Wright travels Europe with Mrs. Cheney while • working on having his portfolio and writings published. • 1916 - 1921 After the murder of Mrs. Cheney and her • children by a Farmhand at his house, Taliesin, in Spring • Green, Wisconsin, Frank Lloyd Wright moves to Japan. • while there he has several commissions. The most • notable is The Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. • 1922 Returns to the USA. Designs four houses in California, • and several apartment complexes and resorts. The • latter are never built because of the 1929 Crash. • 1932 With his second wife, Oliganna Hinzenberg, Wright • starts the Taliesin Fellowship with 23 apprentices. • Publishing • Ausgefuhrte Bauten und Enturfe (1910) His portfolio and • writings on architecture. • Ausgefuhrte Bauten (1911) A more extensive photograph • collection of his work. • In 1925 his portfolio, ausgefuhrte Bauten, was republished in • Holland, including an English translation. • An Autobiography (1932) • The Disappearing City (1932)

3. Taliesin School of Architecture • In 1932, Frank Lloyd Wright and his wife started the Taliesin Fellowship, which then became the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. Twenty-three apprentices came to live and work on wrights farm in Spring Green. • The farm was a self-sustaining entity, with the apprentices growing and harvesting their own food, building their own living quarters and other buildings needed on the farm. They also learned drafting, construction methods, and other crafts, as well as overseeing the construction of Wright’s projects. • "The fine arts, so called," they asserted, "should stand at the center as inspiration grouped about architecture . . . . (of which landscape and the decorative arts would be a division)." Education at Taliesin would emphasize painting, sculpture, music, drama, and dance "in their places as divisions of architecture." Frank Lloyd Wright (1931). • Each Fall after harvest ,the apprentices would then load up trucks and station wagons with food, drawings, and other necessities and caravan across the plains to scottsdale arizona, the site of Taliesin West. The school continued Throughout his life, having upward to 100 students at a time. Apprentices worked on their own designs as well as projects assigned to them by Frank lloyd Wright. TALIESIN, FARM AND OUTBUILDINGS RENDERED BY FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT (1933) TALIESIN WEST - LIVING ROOM SCOTTSDALE ARIZONA

4. Organic Architecture • After his return from Japan, Frank lloyd Wright gave many lectures and interviews on architecture. In these discussion he began describing what he called, “Organic Architecture.” This became the theme for the rest of his career. How he defined Organic Architecture changed often, as he refined it, and also as the situation demanded. • “one that is integral to site; integral to environment; • integral to the life of the inhabitants. A house integral • with the nature of materials --- wherein glass is used as • glass, stone as stone, wood as wood --- and all the • elements of environment go into and throughout the house. • Into this new integrity, once there, those who live in it • will take root and grow. And most of all belonging to the • nature of its being.” Frank Lloyd Wright • Integral to Site - houses designed to rise up out of the site as it belonging. • Integral to environment - built appropriately to climate. • Integral to Individual - Each building built to accommodate the lifestyle • of the inhabitants way of life and needs. • Integral to Materials - details of the building were the materials • themselves HOUSE RISING OUT OF THE HILL NATURALLY OLFELFT HOUSE (1958) HOUSE SITS ON ROCK “CLIFF” RISING FROM THE SEA AND COVERED WITH GREEN CANOPY ROOF WALKER HOUSE (1948) ROUGH ROCK AND CONCRETE BLEND WITH HARSH DESERT ENVIRONMENTS, SLATTED WINDOWS PROTECT FROM HARSH SUN. TALIESIN WEST TALIESIN, FARM AND OUTBUILDINGS RENDERED BY FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT (1933) TALIESIN, FARM AND OUTBUILDINGS RENDERED BY FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT (1933)

5. Usonian houses • With the stock-market crash of 1929, Frank Lloyd Wright turned his interest to low cost housing for the masses. He called these houses, Usonian, being of the USA. The first of these was the Jacob’s house (1936). • The entire project cost $5,500, this included Wrights fee of $450. In the next 30 years over 50 houses were built, and a hundred more designed, on the precepts of the Jacob’s home. These homes were innovated and ahead of their time, as Wright created homes to fulfill the needs of a changing American society. Following the demands of Organic Architecture, each of the houses were individual and unique. However, they did have common elements that united them. • *Designed on a Module system - Originally a 2’ x 4’ grid and a vertical grid of 1’-1”. these were the size of 1/2 sheet plywood, and the dimintions of the slat and battens that made up the wall. Later other modules would be used based on the site and the materials used. • * Deep Eaves - Cantilevered roofs that overhung and sheltered the walls, shading the house and Clearstory windows from the afternoon sun • *Open Plan - Pioneered the connecting of the kitchen, dining room, and Living room. This Reflected the need for the Lady of the house to be connected to the activity of the house, not hidden away. • * Connection to Nature - Shielded house from Public, but opened up the private side to the gardens and Light, blending indoors and outdoors, continuing the design of the house to the exterior. • * Efficient design of Bedrooms and Bathrooms - Bedrooms were modest in size, but contained spacious closets. Bathroom plumbing was stacked and located adjacent to kitchen to economize on material cost. • * Passive Heating - Use of concrete floors as thermal mass and large windows help regulate heating and cooling. In-bedded Plumbing pipes under foundations to provide radiant heating. • * Economical Materials - Used materials that were inexpensive. Early models with concrete, brick, and plywood, later with local stones and CMU blocks. Avoided ornamentation, instead let the natural properties of the materials provide the details of the house STANDARD USONIAN WALL SECTION BATTEN BOARD WALLS, CLEARSTORY WINDOWS AND OVERHANGING, FLAT EAVES DEFINED THE USONIAN HOUSES SCHWARTZ HOUSE (1939)

6. DIAGONAL DESIGN SIMILAR TO POLLIWOG LAYOUT BUT BASED ON A PARALLELOGRAM AND WALLS ANGLES RATHER THAN 90 DEGREES. Right: Snowflake House (1941) Usonian Housing Plans POLLIWOG DESIGN 2’X 4’ LAYOUT WITH 90 DEGREE “TAIL” EXTENDING INTO GARDEN SEPARATING PUBLIC AND PRIVATE AREAS OF THE HOUSE ABOVE AND TOP: JACOB’S HOUSE (1936) In-Line Design house designed for narrower lots, square layout without tail. ABOVE : GOETSCH-WINKLER HOUSE (1939) • As time passed, Frank Lloyd Wright adapted the usonian concepts from the original 2’x’4’ design to six general styles.

7. Usonian Housing Plans SOLAR HEMI-CIRCLE DESIGN FIRST BUILT FOR JACOB’S FAMILY WHEN THEY OUTGREW THE ORIGINAL USONIAN DESIGN, BUILT AROUND A CIRCLE COURTYARD. Above right: Jacob’s House II (1940) Lower Right: David Wright House (1950) RAISED DESIGN TWO-STORY DESIGN MADE TO ACCOMMODATE SLOPED PROPERTY LOTS Above: Lloyd Lewis house (1940) HEXAGONAL DESIGN Above: Hanna house (1936)

8. Broadacre City • In 1935, Frank Lloyd Wright took his concepts of organic design and Usonian Architecture and applied them to the design of the new american city, one that abandoned the crowded, unhealthy conditions of the metropolitan life. The plan centralized itself on the idea of habitants living with nature. each residence was located on a one acre lot, giving them lots of space to have a personal garden and privacy. The lots were accessed by arterial roads that connected to a main highway, which had a monorail for public transportation and freight traffic. Public venues such as government, entertainment, and recreation were located in one central location. Wright imagined these cities expanding across the whole nation and, as current cities were abandoned for this preferred lifestyle, replacing existing cities. Though these designs never came to complete fruition, however, various townships were designed and built based on his ideas. Above: Broadacre City Plot Design (1935) Frank LLoyd Wright ONE-ACRE PLOT PER HOUSE Above: Broadacre City Rendering(1935) Frank LLoyd Wright

9. Popular Successes • During these latter years of Frank Lloyd Wright life he had become a household name. His plans were published in home and garden magazines, he was interviewed on radio and television, gave lectures, built hundreds of homes and buildings, and preached constantly the values of Usonian design and Organic Architecture. Two buildings however Stood above the rest in the minds of the general public that made him the great American architect. • Falling Waters (1935) - Designed and under construction the same time the Jacob's house was built there is a remarkable contrast and similarities to Wrights Usonian Plan. It was ornate, opulent and costly rather than simple and inexpensive. Both did have open plans and Falling Water was integral to its site as a building could be, truly organic. (Seen on Left) • The Guggenheim Museum of Modern Arts - At first glance appears very different in style, but examination shows a very Organic Architecture and commonalities to Usonian houses. It was based on the Module of the circle similar the the Hemi-circle House. This can be seen in plan, fencing, dome ceiling, flooring pattern, and with curving ramps for circulation around Central,rather than exterior courtyard exterior. • (seen on right)

10. Bibliography Above: Tracy House (1954) • Alan and Alan Hess. Frank Lloyd Wright - Mid- • Century Modern. New York: Rizzoli International • Publications, 2007. • Drexler, Arthur. The Drawings of Frank Lloyd Wright. New • York: Horizon Press for the Museum of Modern Art, • 1962. • Meehan, Patrick J. The Master Architect: Conversations • With Frank Lloyd Wright. New York: John Wiley & • Sons, 1984. • Pfeiffer, Bruce Brooks. Frank Lloyd Wright Selected • houses, vol. 6. Tokyo: A.D.A. edita, 1991. • Weintraub,Sergeant, John. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian • Houses. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, • 1976. • Wright, Frank Lloyd. Modern Architecture: Being the Kahn • Lectures for 1930. Southern Illinois University • Press, 1931. • Wright, John Lloyd. My Father Who Is on Earth. Southern • illinios University Press, 1994. Above: Pearce House (1950)