Petroglyphs at Taliesin West

Frank Lloyd Wright also integrated Native American petroglyphs near the entrance to his desert camp called Taliesin West.

You can see the symbol for the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation is the second petroglyph from the left.

Petroglyphs are rock art made by removing part of the rock's surface by carving or incising the rock to create the art.

Petroglyphs are thousands of years old. We have a lot of petroglyphs in Arizona and the surrounding Southwest.

Check out our travel photos of Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires at Viva la Voyage!

Chinese Figurines at Taliesin West

At Frank Lloyd Wright's desert camp in Scottsdale called "Taliesin West," there are these wonderful Chinese figurines built into the walls.

Frank Lloyd Wright had a shipment of Chines figurines sent to his desert camp in north Scottsdale, but many arrived damaged.

Ever the artist, Wright and his apprentices created wonderful scenes and a sense of place with these figurines integrated throughout the property.

To see more of Taliesin West, just select the Taliesin West label below.

Check out our travel photos of Buenos Aires, Argentina at Viva la Voyage!

Garden Room Seating

This photo shows part of the Garden Room, which opens up to the Garden on the East and the vast horizon on the South.  

The Garden room at Taliesin West is visually interesting, comfortable, and is a place where many guests have been entertained.  

In this photo, you can see many items of furniture that Frank Lloyd Wright designed. The butterfly chairs he designed are quite sophisticated and comfortable. 

The nesting tables he designed are very practical. Note the ceiling with the canvas coverings.    

The second photo shows the garden and gives you an idea of how large the room is and how light and airy it is.

The statue is art sculpted by Cornelia Brierly, who has been involved at Taliesin West since she arrived as an apprentice when it started.

The glass sitting area opens to the private garden and is very nice.  You can see the Native American pottery in the window.  Click Taliesin West under my labels for more photos.  I hope you have enjoyed the tour of Taliesin West, a special Arizona treasure. 

Personal Living Quarters

Frank Lloyd Wright's personal living quarters at Taliesin West were opened to the public in 2008. 

The first photo is of Wright's library. Wright studied Japanese design, as well as many others. You can see and feel Asian influences throughout Taliesin West.  

These living quarters were finished in 1940 and consisted of a living room, dining area, bedrooms, private garden with Moon Gate and workspace area.  

 
The second photo shows Olgivanna Wright's bedroom.  You can see it is very colorful and the view opens up onto the private garden.  The doors could be opened so you were virtually sleeping in the outdoors.

The third photo shows the sitting area of Ms. Wright's bedroom and it is called "Swan Cove."  You can see the beautiful Japanese screen in the room.

Frank Lloyd Wright annually modified and rebuilt the private living spaces, just as he did most other spaces at Taliesin West. He regularly experimented with materials and design.    

Wright would take down walls and structures and try out different methods. He was very intelligent, creative, and restless.  He was always planning the next design.

For more photos and information, select Taliesin West under my labels.  

Theater Dining at Taliesin West

At the back of the theater in the photo I showed in yesterday, there are some dining tables and a big fireplace. It looks so romantic and cozy.

You can see the signature Frank Lloyd Wright wall lighting. These lights are spectacular and look great on the desert masonry wall. 

Even though Frank Lloyd Wright lived in his desert camp, he clearly lived in style. He loved watching movies and was friends with lots of producer and actors. Wright was able to obtain many uncut version of movies and he would provide feedback for the editing process for several Hollywood producers.

As you may know, Frank Lloyd Wright always wore a suit each day, even in his desert camp. He never knew when a prospective client might drive up. About once a week at Taliesin West, all of the apprentices had to dress up in a tuxedo and they had a formal dinner.  To succeed in the business world, the apprentices needed to learn to present themselves professionally even though they are living in home made dwellings in the desert.  This experience must have been quite a magical time.

Cabaret Theater

Frank Lloyd Wright designed a very interesting theater at Taliesin West. You walk along a pathway into the back of the theater and then walk down to a seat. The first photo shows the great design in the wall of the theater.

The seating in the Cabaret Theater is quite clever. Wright designed the seating so you can look and talk to the person next to you without getting a crick in your neck.  He angled the seating ever so slightly so you can actually put your arm around the person next to you and talk to them and still watch the movie with no neck pain!   

In the second photo you can see our tour group sitting in the seats and listening to the architect/docent who is sharing all types of information, including that Wright designed the in-floor lighting system for this theater and it was the first in-floor lighting system ever. 

He failed to patent it, but everyone started using it for airplanes, theaters, and more.  Wright liked to create items, but was not as concerned about patents.  

Bougainvilleas and Frank Lloyd Wright

Bougainvilleas and Architecture by Frank Lloyd Wright.  This big sweeping walkway with the beautiful bougainvilleas lining the path is at Taliesin West.  I love the combination of angles and foliage. 

Across from this pergola and bougainvilleas were the many drafting tables of the architect apprentices who worked at Taliesin West. 

The Taliesin West tour continues for a few more days.  For more information or to schedule a public tour, click Taliesin West.

Taliesin West Fountain

Frank Lloyd Wright had intimate gardens, beautiful landscapes, and water features integrated into Taliesin West.  

This photo shows one of the water features.  You could barely see this water fountain in the lower left corner of yesterday's post. Wright's desert camp is quite unique and has many surprises. 

Frank Lloyd Wright designed many interesting architectural structures in Arizona. For example Wright designed the Gammage auditorium at Arizona State University, which is still actively used for theater and I attend events there regularly.  Gammage Auditorium was initially designed to be built on an island in the middle of the Tigris River in Baghdad, Iraq.

Wright designed many houses, churches, including the First Christian Church. In New York he is well known for designing the Guggenheim Museum using a ciruclar design.      

Art and Desert Beauty at Taliesin West

This photo shows the beauty of the desert juxtaposed with Frank Lloyd Wright's structures at Taliesin West. This photo shows why I love the gorgeous desert and its various blooms, colors, and interesting plants. 

Art is integrated throughout Taliesin West.  In fact, one of the early apprentices and artists, Cornelia Brierly, still lives at Taliesin West.  I believe she is in her late 80s or early 90s.  She has written a very interesting book called Tales of Taliesin: A Memoir of Fellowship.

Axis and Taliesin West

Here is another photo of Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West. You can see the integration of the building into nature.  The lines and angles are quite remarkable.

Wright wanted to live in the desert environment. For many of the years he lived there, Wright had the buildings open with no glass in the windows so that one really lived in an outdoor desert camp. 

Wright did not have a lot of money when they started building this camp, so they relied on inexpensive construction materials on site, such as desert masonry. Desert masonry involved collecting stones, rocks, and sand from the desert washes and placing them in wooden forms with concrete to make walls or foundations.

Wright determined that the site and its relation to the mountain range to the north would be orientation for structures.  The axis is derived from the north mountain range, from the west for the sunset, and looking east to Black Mountain and Granite Reef Mountain.  

Wright never placed a building on a direct north-south axis.  Otherwise, it would have a hot side (south) and a cold side (north).

By tilting the plan off the direct compass points, Wright was able to capture the sun and shade changing regularly throughout all of the rooms and vistas at all times of the year. 

For more information or to schedule a public tour, click Taliesin West. 

Music Pavilion

Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West contains many wonders. These photos are of the Music Pavilion. 

It was built in 1957 as a multi-purpose hall seating 100 people. Even at ninety years old, Wright was still building at Taliesin West. He died in 1959.

There was a grand piano and lots of musical events have been held in the pavilion.  The room is also used for lectures.

Frank Lloyd Wright, his wife Olgivanna and twenty-five apprentices arrived from Wisconsin in 1937 to start building the desert camp on 600 acres.  

Olgivanna describes the experience in her unpublished autobiography:

"But it was beautiful. And when the others followed, we set up a makeshift camp with tents and sleeping bags --I for the first time in my life, saw a sleeping bag and a tent, I had never seen them before, and the coyotes were so lovely, and a little sad, complaining like children.  

From then on, we began, little by little, to build the now famous camp, Taliesin West. We lived in tents, and difficult though it was, we began to enjoy life in the desert in close contact with nature and its winds and the howling coyotes."

For more information or to schedule a public tour, click Taliesin West.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Spire

This is a photo of the Frank Lloyd Wright spire at dusk. I love the colors and design.  I find it captivating.

The spire is 125 feet high!  It is located at the southeast corner of Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard and Scottsdale Road at the Scottsdale Promenade Shopping Center. 

Some of you may remember my dazzling, colorful night shot of this Spire.  It looks completely different at night.  Click Dazzling Spire

to enjoy this photo at night.

I will have more Taliesin West photos over the next few days.

Desert Lookout

This is a photo of the desert look out at Taliesin West, one of Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural masterpieces.  

I love this lookout. I can imagine the beautiful vistas that Frank and Olgivanna Wright must have enjoyed over the years. They would have been able to watch the glorious monsoons roll in and they drank from the colorful red sunsets blazing in the sky. The views from this 600 acre desert camp are awesome and especially starting in 1937.

You can see the Asian art pieces installed at the base of the walkway to the lookout.  The angles and desert masonry are pleasing to the eye.  I am sorry the day that I was photographing Taliesin West, I had an overcast day.  I will try and get back there for a sunset some day.

To schedule a public tour or for more information, click Taliesin West.

Asian Art and Taliesin West

This photo at Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West shows Asian art installed into the desert masonry wall. You also can see the interesting door leading into a room. The entrances and walkways leading to doors to enter various rooms at Taliesin West are quite intriguing.

Frank Lloyd Wright had numerous Asian art pieces integrated into Taliesin West. Some were broken during shipping and he and his architectural students found wonderful ways to use the broken pieces when constructing or reconstructing areas of the desert camp.

Taliesin West is recognized as one of Wright's greatest achievements and one of the world's great architectural masterpieces. In 1956, an Architectural Record survey named Taliesin West as one of the fifty most significant works of architecture designed over the preceding 100 years. 

  

A 1991 Architectural Record survey identified Taliesin West as the 25th of the 100 most significant works of architecture in the world in the preceding 100 years.  Taliesin West is located at 12621 N. Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard.  For more information, click Taliesin West.

Moon Gate

When sitting in the Garden Room shown in yesterday's photo, you look out to Moon Gate and a wonderfully intimate garden. This area was part of Frank Lloyd Wright's private living quarters at Taliesin West.

In selecting this 600 acre desert campsite, Wright's wife, Olgivanna, wrote in her unpublished autobiography that "In 1937, we heard of land to the northeast --beyond the barely existent town of Scottsdale.  Frank and I drove out there to explore the site.  It was very wild, there were no trails, our feet full of cactus, and we were always stopping every few minutes. 

The desert at first appeared to me too bare, too abstract, after coming from Wisconsin.  But then it had a magnetic power that overcomes you, and it overcame Frank.  He said 'we have got to build here, this is pure abstraction wherever you look.'   

At the base of the majestic McDowell Mountains, this site commanded a view of the entire Valley of the Sun --from Four Peaks and the Superstition Mountains in the east to the mountains in the west.  Mesa, Tempe, Scottsdale, Phoenix, Paradise Valley all lay before us, although so remote and little developed at the time that we could see no buildings. Prominent in our view was the distinctive form of Camelback Mountain.

And so we went back to Phoenix and made arrangements to purchase the land.  As soon as the fellowship arrived from Wisconsin, we took our group of some twenty-five apprentices and headed for the site to build our life there.  The first task was to build a road up to the site from the valley below. And when the road was barely laid out, scarcely even discernable, Frank said 'Olgivanna, let's get in the car and drive up to the site, we will be the first to drive on our own road.'

Our young people shook their heads. No one in what is called a 'sane' mind would try to drive over that road which precariously skirted deep washes and was filled with large rocks. But now --used to everything, I was at the wheel. When I approached one especially hazardous washout, I asked, 'Do you think we should do this before more work is finished on the road?' 'Drive on,' he said, irritated by my lack of faith. I drove with my heart leaning all the way to the left when I thought the car would turn over on that side and then my heart jumped all the way to the right as we barely missed another dangerous incline.  

But we came to the site: we were the first.  He, victorious; I, exhausted from my doubts. 'We must strengthen the spiritual muscle, ' he reiterated. "    

Mr. Wright passed away in 1959, and Mrs. Wright lived on the property until she passed away in 1985.  

Seating and Organic Architecture

This photo gives you a feel for Frank Lloyd Wright's style and vision of integrating his furniture into a room he built at Taliesin West.  

He built the seating right into the desert masonry wall of the Garden Room. He liked using vibrant colors.

To keep with his tent-like structure he had initially envisioned for the 600 acre desert camp, he used white canvas stretched over redwood frames, which provides for natural lighting and shade.  It has a very nice effect, but is difficult to maintain in the summer with the hot desert sun. 

Taliesin West has been named one of the "Twenty-five Most Visited Historic House Museums in the United States" on the annual list published in the Almanac of Architecture & Design magazine. For more information or public tours, click Taliesin West. 

 

Taliesin West

Frank Lloyd Wright built a 600 acre desert camp in north Scottsdale in 1937 and he called it Taliesin West. Taliesin West is Welsh and means "shining brow."

Over the next five days I am going to take you on a tour of part of Taliesin West. It is a truly amazing place to visit and a must see for visitors. There are several public tour options.  Just look at the stone work and angles in this photo.  

Today, Taliesin West is the home of The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, which he established in 1940. The Foundation continues to preserve Frank Lloyd Wright's legacy and still has architectural students come and live on the property to experiment with design ideas, the same way Frank Lloyd wright did at this desert camp.  He tested lots of designs and materials at Taliesin West.   For tours and information,  click Taliesin West. 

Frank Lloyd Wright, Cactus, and Light

Scottsdale and Arizona have a lot of wonderful Frank Lloyd Wright buildings and architectural details. This is a photo of the Frank Lloyd Wright spire located at the southeast corner of Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard and Scottsdale Road at the Scottsdale Promenade Shopping Center.   

The colors of the lights with the silhouette of the agaves and the Frank Lloyd Wright angles and perspectives combined for what I thought was a magical photo.  I took many photos but none were as great as this very last one I took.  

The spire was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1950s for a state capitol complex at Papago Park that did not materialize.  The plans sat in a drawer until the spire was built in 2004.  It has teal and blue translucent panels and cost approximately one million dollars to build.  The spire is approximately 125 feet high and weighs about 40 tons.  

I will take you on a tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West during the next couple of weeks. He referred to Taliesin West as his Desert Camp and it is spectacular.