Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Richland Center , Wisconsin on June 8, 1867 and died in 1959.  He was indisputably one of the greatest and most influential architects of the 20^th century.

1. What is architecture?  (the art and science of designing and erecting buildings)
2. What do architects do?  (design and supervise the construction of buildings)
3. Have you thought of the place where you live as a work of art that someone designed?

Frank Lloyd Wright briefly studied engineering at the University of Wisconsin , and then moved to Chicago where he worked as an assistant at an architecture firm.  He started his own architecture business even though he had no formal training.  Wright broke away from traditional architecture and developed his own style he called “organic”. 

4. What do you think “organic” means?  (Wright said a building was organic if it was entirely appropriate to its place, to its time and to its user.)

5. How can a building be organic? ( blends in with its surroundings)

Wright led a controversial life.  In 1909 he left his wife of 20 years, Catherine and their six children, and moved to Europe with the wife of a client.  Still married to Catherine, he returned to Wisconsin with his girlfriend and built a house he named Taliesin.  In 1914 a servant at Taliesin murdered his girlfriend, her two children and four other people and set the house on fire.  Catherine granted him a divorce and he remarried, divorced and then remarried again.

Wright experimented with many different types of structures.  The first type of house he designed was known as a PRAIRIE HOUSE.  They were long, low structures that hugged the Midwest prairie.

This is considered to be the culmination of all of Wright’s prairie ideas.  (show the Robie House on pages 10 -15)

6. What’s the first thing you notice about this house?  (horizontal lines)

This house is known as the Robie House because Wright built it for Frederick Robie.

It’s in Chicago , IL and was built in 1909. 

7. What makes it “organic”?  (Wright brought the outside into the house by having doors and windows open out onto terraces and by having platers at each level.)

Wright also liked to maintain total control over the entire environment of his buildings.  He designed the fittings (door knobs, sinks, doors etc.), and furniture for the houses he built and occasionally went so far as to design dresses for the woman of the house!

8. Do you know if there are any Wright houses in Cincinnati ?  (there are four – show newspaper articles.)  One of these was just built in 2003.  The plans for it were purchased from Wright’s company.

These houses are known as USONIAN HOUSES.  Wright wanted to build houses that middle class families could afford.  These houses have simple designs with L-shaped floor plans. 

This is the next type of house Frank Lloyd Wright designed.  (show Ennis House on pages 16 - 21) 

9. How do you think this house was made?

This house is called the Ennis House, named for the original owners.  It is a TEXTILE BLOCK HOUSE.  It’s constructed of sixteen-inch square concrete blocks joined by metal rods.  Wright was long interested in the potential of concrete, generally considered to be a dull and unimaginative building material.

10. Do you think this house is dull and unimaginative?  Does it look like a house?

FALLINGWATER is the next Frank Lloyd Wright house we are going to look at.  (show poster and pages 22 - 27)   It is one of the best known private homes built for someone not of royal blood.  It was built in 1935 in western Pennsylvania .

11. Why is it named Fallingwater?  (built over a waterfall)
12. How else is the house “organic”  ( the horizontal concrete “trays” echo the rocks below; the natural stonework blends in with the rocks; it blends in with the surrounding trees)

Wright constructed Fallingwater directly over the stream.  He told his clients that he wanted them to “live with the waterfall” as an “integral part” of their lives.  Notice on page 26 how a staircase leads directly from the living room to the stream below.  In 1963 this house was given to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, who maintains it and conducts tours for the public.

Wright also designed buildings for businesses.  This (pages 28 - 31) is the SC JOHNSON ADMINISTRATION BUILDING AND RESEARCH TOWER.   They were built in 1939 and 1943.

13. What makes this building (pages 28 and 29) so unusual?  (rounded corners and sleek lines.

This building (page 34 -39) is the one Wright is most remembered for and one of his most controversial.

14. What do you think this building is used for?

This is the GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM in New York City .  It was built to house the works of art owned by millionaire Solomon Guggenheim.  Wright was 76 years old when he designed it in 1943.  It was completed in 1959, six months after Wright’s death. 

15. What makes it controversial?  Is it a good design for a museum?

There were many obstacles that had to be overcome before the Guggenheim Museum was built.  But, the main problem was that the NYC park commissioner thought that a museum should look like a museum, meaning all the museums he had seen in the past.  Construction finally began in 1956; thirteen years after Wright designed it.

The main gallery is composed of a quarter-mile-long ramp which curves continuously as it rises seventy five feet to the glass domed skylight of the roof.  The artwork is displayed in bays lining the walls of the ramp.  

This building (page 40 – 45) is nicknamed “the flying saucer”

16. What is its purpose? (it’s a church)

This is ANNUNCIATION GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH in Milwaukee , Wisconsin .  It was completed after Wright’s death in 1959.  The structure of the church is a concrete shell and the dome floats on thousands of steel balls that allow it to expand and contract in extreme temperature changes without cracking.

17. How does the design of this building promote worship?  (there are no

interior supports to obstruct the view and no parishioner sits more than

sixty feet away from the sacristy.)

Frank Lloyd Wright is best known for creative use of materials, especially concrete and cement blocks and for his originality of design and sensitivity to a building’s surroundings.  Many of his buildings are considered national landmarks.

ACTIVITY:  see attached pages

The students should work in small groups of boys and girls together.  Encourage everyone to participate in the design and construction. There may or may not be time for both activities, depending on how fast the students work.  You may want to have the supplies for both activities on hand.  For the book tower, have extra index cards so the students can try different methods.  They should not be given more than twelve at a time, though.  Be sure all construction is done on the floor, not on desk tops.