FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT’S
MEDIA
KIT
2016
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CONTENTS
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MISSION & VISION
FACT SHEET
TIMELINE
WRIGHT’S OWN WORDS
ARCHITECTURE LEGACY
SISTER ORGANIZATIONS
PRESERVATION PHILOSOPHY
NOTABLE GUESTS OF TALIESIN
CONTACTS
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MISSION
As stewards, Taliesin Preservation’s mission is to preserve the cultural, built and natural environments
that comprise the Taliesin property and to conduct public educational and cultural programming that
provides a greater understanding of Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture and ideas.
VISION
Taliesin is acknowledged as the embodiment of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s commitment to
the creation of exceptional environments that harmonize architecture, art, culture, and the land.
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FACT SHEET
TALIESIN
Taliesin, the home, studio and country estate of Frank Lloyd Wright, is located in the hilly Driftless Region of
southwestern Wisconsin near Spring Green. It is the name of Wright’s house as well as the 800-acre estate that
includes buildings from all decades of Wright’s career. Taliesin has a commanding presence in Jones Valley, the
watershed where Wright’s Lloyd Jones ancestors settled after immigrating from Wales in the 1860s. Taliesin was
named in honor of his Welsh heritage, was the name of a druid bard, and literally means “shining brow.” Its many
wings and terraces reach out around the ridge of the hill, embracing the site and standing as “brow.”
Taliesin was the principal residence of Wright as a mature designer, and the valley was his inspiration and
life-long laboratory for architectural designs and innovation. Taliesin in its three iterations (1911, 1914, 1925)
represents the most complete embodiment of Wright’s philosophy of Organic Architecture. The Taliesin
residence is the heart of a series of buildings that Wright designed for himself and his family members on the
estate. Other buildings include: Romeo & Juliet Windmill (1896), Hillside Home School (1903), Tan-y-Deri
(1908), Hillside Drafting Studio (1932), Midway Barn (1949), Hillside Theater (1952), and the Frank Lloyd Wright
Visitor Center (1967).
TALIESIN PRESERVATION
Taliesin Preservation is a 501(c)(3) founded in 1990 and located near Spring Green,Wisconsin. Its dual mission
is to preserve the cultural, built and natural environments that comprise the Taliesin property and to conduct
public and educational and cultural programming that provides a greater understanding of Frank Lloyd Wright’s
architecture and ideas. Taliesin Preservation employs a year-round core team of 17 staff members as well as 36
seasonal staff members who are dedicated and devoted to Taliesin Preservation’s mission and vision.
WHO VISITS TALIESIN?
Taliesin Preservation offers tours and a diverse array of lectures, publications, symposia and educational
workshops for all ages.
In 2015, more than 25,000 people visited from 25 countries including Albania, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile,
Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, and Switzerland.
• 47 students from 11 states and Canada attended summer architecture camps.
• 220 students came for educational field trips.
• 620 adults came for classes and programing at Hillside Theater.
WHO SUPPORTS TALIESIN PRESERVATION?
Sustaining Taliesin requires a willing community of volunteers, sponsors and donors.Taliesin Preservation’s Board
of Trustees and staff are committed to its mission and vision. Further, generous individuals, foundations and
corporations invest their time and dollars to our organization. Proceeds from visitors and bookstore sales also
support Taliesin Preservation.
HOW CAN I HELP?
You can support Taliesin Preservation in many ways. Volunteer your time, or become a Friend of Taliesin or a
corporate partner. Visit our web site for more ways to give: www.taliesinpreservation.org/support-us
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TIMELINE
1863
1867
1886
1887
1897
1908
1911
1911
1914
1915
1922
1925
1932
1935
1938
1939
1949
1950
1952
1955
1954
1959
1959
1967
1976
1990
1993
1994
1994
1998
2000
2010
2011
2015
2017
2017
Wright’s grandparents Richard & Mallie Lloyd Jones purchase land in Wyoming Valley
Frank Lloyd Wright is born in Richland Center, Wisconsin to Anna Lloyd Jones and
William Carey Wright
Unity Chapel completed by architect Joseph Lyman Silsbee and apprentice Wright
Hillside Home School “Home Building” completed for Wright’s aunts Jane and Nell
Romeo and Juliet Windmill completed for Hillside Home School
Tan-y-Deri residence completed for Andrew Porter and Jane, Wright’s sister
Anna Lloyd Jones purchases 31.65 acres in Wyoming Valley for Wright
Construction starts on Taliesin I
Taliesin I’s living quarters are lost in a fire due to arson and seven lives are lost; immediate construction starts on Taliesin II
Hillside Home School closes
Wright acquires the Hillside Home School property
Taliesin II is lost in an electrical fire, immediate construction starts on Taliesin III
Taliesin Fellowship is established for apprentices; construction on the Hillside Drafting Studio begins (completed in 1939)
Wright designs Fallingwater in the Taliesin Drafting Studio
Wright purchases land in Scottsdale, Arizona, and designs Taliesin West; annual winter migration to Arizona begins
Johnson Wax Administration Building completed
Midway Barns are completed
Wright directs the 1887 Hillside Home School “Home Building” to be demolished
A fire destroys the southern wing of the Hillside Home School; immediate construction starts on the Hillside Theater and Dining Room
Hillside Theater and Dining Room construction completed
Construction starts on the building known now as the Frank Lloyd Wright Visitor Center
Wright dies in Phoenix, Arizona
Guggenheim Museum completed
The Frank Lloyd Wright Visitor Center completed
Taliesin estate is declared a National Historic Landmark
Taliesin Preservation Founded
Taliesin Preservation acquires the Frank Lloyd Wright Visitor Center
Frank Lloyd Wright Visitor Center opens for tours
Taliesin added to the endangered buildings list issued by the National Trust for Historic Preservation
The 229-year-old Tea Circle oak tree falls on the roof of Wright’s Taliesin Drafting Studio
Preservation of Wright’s Taliesin Drafting Studio completed
Olgivanna Lloyd Wright’s bedroom restoration completed and opened to the public
Taliesin celebrates 100-year anniversary
Preservation of the Loggia completed, and opens to the public after nearly 20 years
Frank Lloyd Wright Visitor Center celebrates 50-year anniversary
Frank Lloyd Wright’s 150th birthday
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WRIGHT’S OWN WORDS
“Beauty in all forms is inspirational.”
-1929 Collected Writings
“The deeper truths of being are also the truths of Architecture.”
-1930 Collected Writings
“No house should ever be on the hill or on anything. It should be of
the hill. Belonging to it. Hill and house should live together each the
happier for the other.”
-1932 An Autobiography
“... [A]n entire building might grow up out of conditions as a
plant grows up out of soil, as free to be itself, to ‘live its own life
according to Nature’ as is the tree.”
-1932 An Autobiography
“A civilization is a way of life; a culture is what you do to make that
life beautiful.”
-1952 Interview
“A great architect is not made by way of a brain nearly so much as
he is made by way of a cultivated, enriched heart.”
-1953 letter to the Taliesin Fellowship
“A love of the beautiful is the divine spark in the soul of man never
to be extinguished.”
-1955 letter to the Taliesin Fellowship
“You do not learn by way of your successes. No one does.”
-1952 letter to the Taliesin Fellowship
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ARCHITECTURAL LEGACY
Frank Lloyd Wright is America’s greatest architect. During a career that spanned nearly seven decades,
Wright designed more than 1,100 works: houses, office buildings, churches, schools, libraries, museums,
and bridges. Among his works are some of the most highly regarded designs of the 20th century,
including the Guggenheim Museum in New York City; the Johnson Wax Administration Building in
Racine, Wisconsin; Fallingwater in rural Pennsylvania; Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona; and Taliesin in
Spring Green, Wisconsin.
PRAIRIE ARCHITECTURE
In the 20th century, Wright and others began a revolutionary break with the Victorian architecture of
the day by developing homes with low, horizontal lines, open floor plans, and wide overhanging eaves.
These Prairie homes reflected the low, horizontal prairie on which they sat and were Wright’s first
effort at developing an indigenous American architecture. Wright disliked the use of the word “style”
to refer to Prairie architecture.
ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE
Wright taught the beauty of native materials and insisted that buildings grow naturally from their
surroundings. He designed a building to be of its site rather than imposed onto it, and he believed it
was important to shape the structure specifically for the activities of its inhabitants. He described his
architecture as “organic.” Organic Architecture, he said, was appropriate to time, setting and man. Like
nature, Organic Architecture grew from within. This concept prompted him to develop a integrated
design for his clients from landscape to interior. He designed furniture, fabrics, art glass, lighting,
dinnerware, silverware and linens.
USONIAN ARCHITECTURE
Wright called his ideal of beautiful middle-class housing “Usonian” — a word he said was coined by
Samuel Butler to mean “of the United States of North America.” The majority of Wright’s residential
commissions from 1936 onwards were Usonian homes. Created for the emerging middle-class, postDepression family, Usonian houses produce a feeling of spaciousness despite their small floor plans.
“Turning their backs” on the street, the houses offer floor-to-ceiling bands of glass with doors that
open onto private terraces. Usonian designs combine the kitchen, utility and laundry rooms, putting all
these activities of family life together at the center of the home in the “workspace.”
PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE
Wright’s public buildings include some of the most recognizable architecture in America. His Johnson
Wax Administration Building has, at its center, the “Great Workroom,” a soaring space supported by
dendriform (plant-shaped) columns and flooded by indirect light filtered through innovative glass tubes.
The space provides an open environment colored with warm reds and beiges filled with furniture that
echoes the curves of the building. Late in his life, Wright designed many of his large buildings in circles,
arcs and spirals. The Guggenheim Museum in New York City, the Marin County Civic Center in San
Rafael, California, and the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center in Madison, Wisconsin,
use curvilinear forms and a variety of lighting techniques to create spaces that Wright hoped would do
no less than transform the American experience.
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SISTER ORGANIZATIONS
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT FOUNDATION
Established by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1940, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation is deeply committed
to the preservation of its two National Historic Landmarks: Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona and
Taliesin near Spring Green, Wisconsin. Based in Arizona, The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation owns
and manages the intellectual property for all of Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs, drawings, and other
ephemera from his 70-year career.
FAZENDA BOA TERRA
Fazenda Boa Terra, a Consumer Supported Agriculture operation based at Taliesin, is working hard to
bring you some of the finest organically grown produce in the greater Madison area. They are founded
by an agronomist and an environmental scientist with years of farming experience at the forefront of
sustainable farming practices. This means that their Certified Organic produce is grown in a way that
blends the latest technologies and methods together with the tried and true. They strive to preserve
the integrity of the farmland and its wild places while being efficient enough to make organic produce
affordable to those who thought they could never enjoy organic food because of the price.
TALIESIN,THE FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
Taliesin, the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, builds architects of the future by offering
comprehensive study towards a professional Master of Architecture (M.Arch) degree. The program
is designed for students who thrive in a multifaceted environment focusing on rigorous design,
critical thinking, and hands-on learning. The School’s specialized approach facilitates an individualized
educational experience and fosters a close relationship between students, faculty, and staff.
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PRESERVATION PHILOSOPHY
A 1950’S PERIOD OF RESTORATION
The conception and construction of Taliesin is unique and, as a result, demands a unique approach to
preservation. Taliesin served as a 1:1 scale model for Wright to explore design concepts, structural
assemblies, and materials; it is an amalgamation of work space, living space, farming space, and
classroom space. The preservation effort is a continuation of the work at Taliesin ­— with an emphasis
on preserving the historic core to the decade of 1950-59. Many of the projects that the preservation
team undertakes involve the unraveling of layers of historic fabric, offering a glimpse into the decisions
and thoughts of past workers and providing evidence of earlier iterations of Taliesin. Throughout this
process, drawings and documentation are used to make decisions as well as to record the techniques
and materials used to restore all the buildings and building systems on the Taliesin estate.
Taliesin Preservation employs highly skilled and specialized historic preservationists who are
charged with the maintenance and preservation of 20 buildings in total and 800 acres of natural and
agricultural land. Seven historic complexes comprise the historic core — Taliesin, Hillside, Midway
Barn, Tan-y-Deri, Romeo and Juliet Windmill, two cottages, and the Frank Lloyd Wright Visitor Center.
Ten additional buildings are located on the Thomas Lloyd Jones Farm, adjacent to the Taliesin estate.
In addition to restoration of the buildings, the preservation team also maintains the estate’s natural
areas, with a focus on restoring the historic prairies and gardens, and maintaining the diversity of our
plant and tree species. The agricultural fields are certified organic and are farmed by Fazenda Boa
Terra. They strive to maintain sustainable farming practices and to create a diverse farming landscape.
Preservation at Taliesin is not only about restoring the spaces. While the architecture is timeless,
mechanical, plumbing and electrical systems are not. When feasible, the preservation team works to
upgrade existing systems, which allows for expanded and continued use of the spaces through tours,
the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, and special events. The preservation team deals with
large-scale projects such as the comprehensive restoration of the Guest Wing, and also smaller scale
cyclical building maintenance and repairs such as re-shingling roofs and removal of organic growth.
PRESERVATION TEAM
When Taliesin Preservation was originally founded in 1990, it was decided that it should have its own
on-site preservation team. Having an on-site team is a tremendous advantage for an historic site and
can cost less than contracting with others. Dedicated preservationists become experts on Frank Lloyd
Wright’s experimentation at Taliesin and are available year round without having to research, hire, and
train contractors for each project.
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NOTABLE GUESTS OF TALIESIN
Architects
Buckminster Fuller
Jens Jensen
Philip Johnson
Erich Mendelsohn
Richard Neutra
Auguste Perret
Rudolph Schindler
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Arists, Writers & Performing Artists
Maginel Wright Barney
Anne Baxter
Sophie Braslau
Gutzon Borglum
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Elizabeth Enright
Marcel Grandjany
Ken Hedrich
Charles Laughton
Arch Obeler
Ayn Rand
Paul Robeson
Carl Sandburg
Ezra Stoller
Edmund Teske
Mike Todd
Alexander Woollcott
Other Notables
Wiliam Evjue
G.I. Gurdjieff
George S. Parker
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CONTACTS
Taliesin Preservation
Frank Lloyd Wright Visitor Center
5607 County Road C
Spring Green, WI 53588
(877) 588-7900
www.taliesinpreservation.org
Media Contact:
Aron Meudt-Thering
Development Events & Communications Coordinator
(608) 588-7090 x221
[email protected]
Sarah Milestone
Director of Development & Marketing
(608) 459-0914
[email protected]
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