Ephemera: 1920s-1990s
9 boxes, 4.0 ln. ft.
During a career which lasted over half a century, Frank Lloyd Wright designed approximately 1,000 structures. His "organic architecture" dictated a close relationship between man-made buildings and the surrounding landscape. Wright's work evolved through several stylistic periods including Prairie Style, Usonian and Romanza.
Born in Wisconsin, Wright attended the University of Wisconsin School of Engineering between 1885 and 1887, and began architectural training as a draftsman in 1887. Wright worked for Adler and Sullivan in Chicago 1888-93, traveled in Europe 1909-11, and constructed his first Taliesin house, in Spring Green, Wisconsin in 1911. During the 1920s, Wright worked in both California and Arizona, eventually spending winter months in Arizona. Taliesin West was constructed as Wright's winter headquarters in Paradise Valley, Arizona in 1938. Wright remains widely known for the beauty and durability of his designs, including the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Japan, which withstood the earthquake of 1923. His insistence on harmony between a building and its surroundings has proven especially influential.