Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) is America's most famous architect. He is known internationally as an innovative designer and a founder of the Prairie School of Architecture. Even after his death, the ranch style house was popular in the 1960s and 1970s. He is known for his careful attention to every detail of a building's design and was a perfectionist, hoping that his clients allow him to detail both the exteriors and interiors of their homes.

Wright was born in Wisconsin and spent much of his childhood on the farms of his mother's family, where he grew to love the land. There he came to think of architecture as being governed by the same rules that govern nature, with each part related to the other. He also decided that buildings should be closely tied to the soil and natural site on which they were built.

Educated in Wisconsin, Wright later moved to Chicago and then to Oak Park, Illinois in the 1880s. He worked with Chicago architect Joseph Silsbee and later with Louis Sullivan until he started his own independent career in 1893. Wright's most famous house design was built in the woods of western Pennsylvania in 1936. Named Fallingwater, the Kaufman house is a dramatically cantilevered home built over a waterfall. The structure is built using native reinforced concrete, limestone, and glass. In all, Frank Lloyd Wright is responsible for over 400 buildings in 36 states and in Japan. Wright also founded Taliesin East (near Spring Green, WI) and Taliesin West (Scottsdale, AZ), homes and educational facilities to aspiring architects that combined the practice of architecture with education and a design ethic that permeated the lives of his students. It was at Taliesin West that Wright met and hired Pedro Guerrero, who became his photographer for the next 20 years.

May 17 - 1-3 PM Book signing with author Melinda McDonald
May 26 - Open for Memorial Day
June 22 - 1-3 PM Ice Cream Social
July 4 - Open for Fourth of July
July 26 - Jazz in Bloom
September 1 - Open for Labor Day
September 18 - Foundation Annual Meeting
October 12 - Susan Dana Birthday