Taliesien east by f.

l wright
· Architects
Frank Lloyd Wright
· Location
Scottsdale, Arizona
· Architect
Frank Lloyd Wright
· References
GreatBuildings
· Project Year
1959
From the architect. Situated in the Sonoran
desert outside of Scottsdale, Arizona stands
a living memorial and testament to the life
and work of Frank Lloyd Wright. Completed
between 1937 - 1959, Taliesin West was the
winter home to Wright and his wife’s summer
home, Taliesin, in Spring Green, Wisconsin in
addition to being Wright’s workshop and
school for his apprentices.
“Arizona needs its own architecture…
Arizona’s long, low, sweeping lines, uptilting
planes. Surface patterned after such
abstraction in line and color as find
“realism” in the patterns of the rattlesnake,
the Gila monster, the chameleon, and the
saguaro, cholla or staghorn – or is it the
other way around—are inspiration enough.”
After four years of bringing his apprentices to Arizona
during the harsh Wisconsin winters, Wright and his wife
finally made the trek to Arizona to take up residence in
the expansive landscape on the southern end of McDowell
Range that overlooked Scottsdale’s Paradise Valley in
1937. At the time, Wright paid $3.50 an acre for what
would become the Taliesin Fellowship and the Frank Lloyd
Wright School of Architecture main campus.

Taliesin West is not only a symbol of Wright’s versatility

and influential expansion throughout the United States,
but it marks a moment in his career where context and
vernacular begin to integrate into Wright’s formulated
Prairie Style.
Similar to his other projects, Wright takes special
interest in locally available materials and applies
them in similar fashion to his other Prairie Style
projects, employing low level, horizontal planes
that keep the house and studio low to the ground
to insure effective natural ventilation and
protection and shade from the intense desert sun.
During the construction of Taliesin West, the house
and studio were merely a series of “sleeping
boxes” that were clustered around a central
terrace for Wright and his apprentices. When the
main portion of the house and studio were
completed by the apprentices, the different
spaces of the house for Wright and his wife, the
apprentices, and the gathering spaces were all
organized to maintain a certain sense of privacy
within, but a formal compositional balance with
the landscape. Taliesin West is less of a singular
building as it is a series of spaces that are
connected through terraces, gardens, and pools.
Similar to all of Wrights projects, every aspect of
design and detail of the project was given particular
attention by Wright. Beside the close attention to
the arid desert climate, Wright implemented local
and site provided materials for the construction of
the house and foundation.

ne of the most significant uses of material and

details of the house is Wright’s employment of the
desert stone found on the site. Through the use of
redwood formwork, the flat faces of the stones were
faced outwards and the space in between the stones
were combined with a concrete mix that make up
the larger stone walls and structural elements of the
house. Wright also used a natural redwood timber for
the roofing structure and parts of the house and
studio’s facade.