My Little Batch of Sky: A Quaint Desert Retreat

If, ya know, you were the most famous American architect to have ever lived.

The kids and I tagged along with some friends who were visiting Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home and architecture and design school. Matthew's class is doing a living wax museum of famous Arizonans--never mind Wright is from Wisconsin--and his friend Miye chose Frank Lloyd Wright. (Matthew chose Joe Garagiola, who is from St. Louis. Clearly Arizona likes to claim famous people as their own.) Her mom asked if we would be interested in exploring the home and campus, so we joined them on a nice drive up to Scottsdale and the foothills of the McDowell Mountains.

We took a 90-minute tour, and it was extremely interesting. He was an eccentric fellow for sure, but they didn't share many of the negatives. The worst they told us was that he was a horrible driver; they didn't mention how he abandoned his first wife and family so I didn't either. Mostly what they told us was how resourceful he was with materials and how thoughtful he was to create structures that organically connected with the landscape. Taliesin West is out in the middle of the desert, and he really draws the best of the outside indoors. If you sit at the piano, you can see three mountains in a row through the window. The seats in the cabaret theater are so low and the windows so high that you can watch the moon rise above the mountains from your seat. He was also very energy efficient. The compound was originally a camp, so most of the ceilings are canvas. That lets a lot of natural light in during the day. In some areas, light bounces off structures to light a room all day. He also thought about where to place windows so that the sun would heat the stones and concrete during the day and stay warm in the night. As if lighting and heating weren't enough, he also considered how sound affects residents and visitors. The bedrooms are thirty feet from a noisy fountain, but a short, serpentine hallway separates the areas so you can't hear anything if you're trying to sleep. The theater is spectacular with stadium seating and impressive acoustics. Even better was the cabaret theater. The sound bounces off the six walls which are offset from each other. No parallel walls means no echo. You can hear conversations from across the room as if they are right next to you. I was amazed. Matthew and his friend demonstrated how there is no need for microphones at performances. It was really something!

Here are a few photos I took on our visit. I didn't know what to expect, but it was far more interesting than I thought it would be. I'm glad we went.

Matthew and Miye were called upon by the docent to demonstrate concepts to our group. Here they are deciphering some petroglyphs.

These oriental figures were throughout the campus. FLW bought them from the backroom of a shop in San Francisco's Chinatown. They were broken from being shipped from China, but he had his apprentices glue them back together and insert them in walls.

Here the kids are measuring out four feet.

his office

Everywhere you look are geometric shapes. Triangles were very prominent in this area.

Matthew and Miye showing off the fireplace

dining room

my friend Candace sitting in an ergonomic origami chair in the garden room

more shapes

Miye with Frank

ceiling in the garden room's entrance

the third Mrs. Wright's bedroom

the mysterious hallway

noisy but pretty fountain

Another interesting fact I learned today is that the apprentices are currently working on projects to revitalize the Globe and Miami areas. These two cities were bustling mining towns, but the mines are no longer in operation so the towns are dying. The Wright Foundation is working with the locals to draw visitors and residents to their area. They don't want to be like the quirky town of Jerome. They don't want to do mine tours like in Bisbee. What do they want? They're figuring it out.