At the time of his death in 1959, Frank Lloyd Wright was working on around a hundred and twenty projects that were in various stages of development. Members of the Taliesin Fellowship, a group of apprentices and their families who lived, worked and studied with Wright at Taliesin in Wisconsin and Taliesin West in Arizona, formed Taliesin Associated Architects as an Arizona corporation in 1959 to facilitate completion of these projects and continue Wright’s architectural practice and legacy. The firm name was changed to Taliesin Architects, Ltd. (TA) in 1991, as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, and headquartered at Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona.
From 1959 through 2003, when it disbanded, the firm received an estimated 1200 commissions for projects, almost half of which were completed. The first managing principal was Wright's protégé and son-in-law, William Wesley Peters. Other architects and designers who worked for the firm include Charles Montooth, John Rattenbury, Vernon Swaback, Kamal Amin, John Aubrey Banks, John deKoven Hill, Cornelia Brierly, Alan Christensen and David Dodge. By 1996 TA had about fifty employees and four studios, two in Arizona (Taliesin West and Phoenix) and two in Wisconsin (Taliesin and Madison).
In 2021, Arizona State University Library acquired records of Taliesin Associated Architects related to projects at Arizona State University, as well as the United States Border Facility at Lukeville, Arizona. The collection (which includes architectural drawings, sketches, photographs, job files, specifications, scrapbooks and newspaper clippings) is now part of the Library’s Design and the Arts Special Collections.
The collection features records related to one of Arizona State University’s best-known buildings, Gammage Memorial Auditorium. This building was the last major non-residential project designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The design for Gammage Memorial Auditorium was adapted from plans for the Baghdad (Iraq) Opera House, which Wright had been commissioned to design in 1957. The following year a military coup in Iraq resulted in a change in government, so the project was not completed.
At the same time, events in Arizona occurred that would eventually bring a version of this project to fruition in a different location. Arizona State College became Arizona State University in 1958. Grady Gammage, President of the University, wanted to build an auditorium that would support the University while serving as a regional center for the performing arts, and enlisted the services of Frank Lloyd Wright. When plans to build the Baghdad Opera House were not realized, Wright modified the design for Arizona State University.
Both Grady Gammage and Frank Lloyd Wright died in 1959 but planning for the project continued under the supervision of Taliesin Associated Architects’ William Wesley Peters and John Rattenbury. The following year, the state of Arizona approved funding for what became Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium, honoring the University’s first President.
In the Taliesin Associated Architects Collection, Gammage Memorial Auditorium is documented in photographs taken during its construction (1962-1964).
Gammage Memorial Auditorium is also documented in drawings and blueprints.
In addition to records describing Gammage Memorial Auditorium, the collection also documents other ASU buildings and projects, including Phi Delta Theta Fraternity House, Music Building, College of Law interiors and the proposed Oasis Natural History Museum, as well as the United States Border Facility at Lukeville, Arizona.
For more information on this collection see the complete finding aid here. All images are from the Taliesin Associated Architects Collection (MSS-436), Arizona State University Library.
By Harold Housley, Archivist, Design and the Arts Special Collections