Frank Lloyd Wright, an American Architect, Writer, Designer and Educator and most prominently the driving force behind ORGANIC architecture. His career spans over 70 years which is embellished with buildings, books, articles etc. He was active till his last moment on earth. He designed over 1100 buildings, authored 20 books and numerous articles and was a very popular lecturer in United States of America and Europe.
Early life
Frank Lloyd Wright was born on 8thJune 1867 in Richland center, Wisconsin. He was introduced to design and creativity at a tender age when he witnessed his mother decorating the walls of his nursery with pictures of European cathedrals.
He grew up in rural Wisconsin which deeply impacted on his architectural style later on. He used to spend days on a plot of land which was surrounded by natural landscape. A patchwork of open fields, lush green valleys and rock-edged streams fed by the Wisconsin River paved way for his organic design philosophy.
In his youth, he used to spend many hours purposefully observing the subtle behavior of sunlight, the shifting shadows of dusk and the way seasons transit into one another.
Wright studied Civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin and further apprenticed in Chicago; first with Joseph Lyman Silsbee and later on with Louis Sullivan.
Career
After his short apprentices, Wright established his own studio at his home in Oak Park, Illinois as an architect. He started with a little experience he has gained during his apprentice time. He started soliciting his own commissions and later on added a drafting studio and a visitor reception room in 1895.
He perfected his signature style during these early years. His signature style is known as “Prairie Style”; which emphasizes on open spaces and shallow, sloping rooflines. The prairie styled houses were extremely influential in Midwest and were considered a great milestone in the history of modern architecture.
Wright’s career saw many ups and downs thanks to his personal life which sensationalize his career as an architect.
He completed four houses during the period of 1900 to 1901 which were later on known as the “Prairie Style”. This style caught the eye of public and he was called upon all over the country to design the famous prairie style houses.
The prairie style houses had a combination of one or two stories with a projection, open floor plan, low pitched roofs and strong horizontal lines decorating the ribbons of the windows, accentuated with a prominent central chimney.
Public was fascinated with his personal life. He had a high-profile affair with a client which resulted in a well-publicized separation from his wife, and a yearlong sojourn to Europe. When he returned to USA in 1911, he bought a plot of his ancestral land in Wisconsin which would later on become his renown retreat and studio: Taliesin.
Taliesin later witnessed chilling murder of seven people including Wright’s mistress by arson in 1914. His second marriage collapsed in 1920s and another fire event at Taliesin in 1925; along with the Great Depression; made Wright go out of work for a very long time.
The tough time passed by as Wright’s career saw a loss of commission. In those trying times, he designed a refuge from public scrutiny which later on flourished into an experimental architectural apprenticeship program; which later on was named as the Taliesin fellowship. The owner of the fellowship was Wright with his third wife Olgivanna in year 1932.
Fellowship paved ways for Wright to explore and enact organic architecture. Taliesin was the core place where genesis of “fallingwater” shaped; the work that rose him to unmeasurable fame.
Famous Work
A visionary architect; whose work continues to inspire generation. Here are some of the most articulate work of Frank Lloyd Wright.
- Fallingwater (1939)
- Graycliff (1926)
- Kentuck Knob (1956)
- Darwin D. Martin House (1905)
- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (1959)
- Congregation Beth Sholom (1954)
- Child of the Sun (1958)
In 1934, EdgarKaufmann Jr had an interaction with the unique concepts of frank Lloyd wright. He started following wright and his ideology religiously. He visited Wright for the first time in September 1934 and by October he had started working as an apprentice.
Kauffman and Wright had so many similarities and they grew fond of each other rather quickly because of the same passion for organic architecture. The exact passion which led to design Fallingwater, Wright’s most famous work till date
Fallingwater
Fallingwater is truly a masterpiece. It was designed and constructed for Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Kaufmann Sr, at Mill Run, Pennsylvania. It is constructed over a 30-foot waterfall. The design imitated Wright’s idea of organic architecture in correct means.
Accolades and Awards
Throughout his life and even after his death, he was immensely honored by different countries and architectural institutions.
Some of the notable ones are:
- Gold medal by Royal Institute of British Architects (1941)
- AIA Gold medal by the American Institute of Architects (1949)
- Franklin Institute’s Frank P. Brown Medal (1953)
In year 2000, Falllingwater was named as “the Building of the 20th Century”
Frank Lloyd Wright breathes his last on 9th April 1959. He left behind a huge legacy and a never ending mark on this world with his existence and design. After his death, his archives are stored at the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation in Taliesin, Wisconsin. These include more than 23000 architectural drawings.
