FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT 1869-1959

              One of the great creative geniuses of the 20^th century, Frank Lloyd Wright was first and foremost a working architect, dreaming countless architectural dreams and turning them into reality. He was a nonconformist* who found the background for his architec­ture in nature and in man’s Romanticism as expressed in poetry, music and dance.

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*nonconformist — a person who does not follow generally ac­cepted way(s) of living, thinking, etc.

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            Frank Lloyd Wright was born on June 8, 1869, in the midwestern town of Richland Center, Wisconsin. From the very beginning, his mother wanted him to become an architect; and from his earliest memories he wanted to be one. He intended “to be the greatest architect of all time”.

             When he was 15 years old, Wright enrolled in a civil engineering course at the Univer­sity of Wisconsin, for at that time the uni­versity did not offer courses in architec­ture. While studying at the University, he worked as a part-time apprentice for a Mad­ison Wisconsin, building contractor. Be­cause of his great interest and talent in building design, Wisconsin soon became a supervisor of construction jobs: but this was not what young Wright wanted to do. He wanted to design buildings, not super­vise their construction.

              With very little money and no formal train­ing in architecture, Wright left the Univer­sity and went to Chicago, Illinois, in 1887, to look for the kind of work he wanted. There he found a job at $8 a week as a draftsman in the office of Adler and Sullivan*.

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* Adler, Dankmar (1844-1900) — American architect. Drafts­man and architect in Detroit and Chicago (from 1857).

Sul­livan, LouisHenry (1856-1924) — American architect. De­signed with Adler over 100 buildings (1881-1895). Sullivan is regarded as thefather of modern functionalism in archi­tecture, especially as adapting architecture to modern needs by his design of the skyscraper.

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             Following the leadership of its brilliant designer, Louis Sullivan, this firm was attempting to break with European tradition and establish an American form of architecture. Under Sul­livan’s influence, Wright specialized in resi­dential design, and a productive teacher-student relationship developed. Though Wright left the firm in 1893 to work independently he acknowledged the influence which Sulli­van had had upon him and continued to refer to him as beloved master.

            With the rapid industrial development tak­ing place on the prairies outside Chicago, the time was ripe for challenges. Many new houses were being built, and in keeping with, the honoured traditions of the day, the typ­ical home was a box like affair or brick or wood often elaborately decorated, it usual­ly stood out in ugly contrast to the simple beauty of the prairie landscape.

            Young Wright wondered why men built their homes this way. Logic offered no an­swers, so he began to devise answers of his own, designing buildings that would be both functional and beautiful.

            His answers have long since become famil­iar terms: “space within as reality”, the “organic growth of a house from the inside out”, and the “blending of a house with its natural surroundings”.

            He soon became internationally famous for his designs; and by the time he was 32, he was exerting a powerful influence on new forms of architecture.

            A favourite term, which Wright employed to describe his work was “organic architecture”. By this, he was referring to the human re­quirements of a building — with its location and material determining its final form.

            Wright’s “prairie houses” were his first dra­matic example of “organic architecture”. In issues of the popular magazine, Ladies Home Journal, 1901, Wright published plans for “A Home in a Prairie Town” and “Small House with Lots of Room in It,” in which he attempted to link the indoors to the out­side and to create an impression of living areas in harmony with their surroundings. His smooth flowing homes of abstract de­sign created a sensation.

            The Robie House, in Chicago, Illinois, is the best known of Wright’s prairie houses. It has flat roofs with a broad overhang, hori­zontal bands of brick, and rows of long win­dows. The inside is not divided into tiny rooms but instead has open living space. It has no attic or basement, and the exterior has the appearance of different geometric shapes grouped together in a unified design.

            In 1904 Wright designed his first commer­cial building the Larkin Company office building in Buffalo, New York. Since this building was to be located in an industrial area surrounded by factory and railroad buildings, Wright focused upon the inte­rior, creating a court five stories high, lighted naturally by a skylight, with offic­es located on balconies overlooking the cen­tral court. Wright directed that a pipe or­gan be installed on the ground floor for half-hour concerts by an employee each morning and afternoon, a precursor to the lunch-hour concerts given in building cor­ridors or courtyards, for office workers today. The top floor has a restaurant and a roof-top garden for employee use. Wright also designed the metal office furniture and the first metal vertical letter files to be used anywhere. The Larkin Building was the world’s first air-conditioned office building and a pace setter for industrial and office design.

             In 1915, Wright began one of his most fa­mous projects, the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Japan. What to face serious engineering problems in the construction of the hotel because of the poor subsoil and high water table of the building site and the frequency of earthquakes in the region. He solved these problems through the use of floating foun­dations, which would support sections of the hotel while being able to respond to the wave­like motions of an earthquake. Wright’s suc­cess in using engineering to master the prob­lems of nature was dramatically emphasized when, one year after its opening in 1922, the Imperial Hotel survived a devastating earthquake which left thousands dead and much of Tokyo leveled.

             Personal and financial problems, arriving after Wright’s long period of residency in Japan to supervise the construction of the Imperial Hotel, forced him into inactivity. When finally he was able to undertake new projects, the American stock market crashed (1929), and years of economic depressions removed to financial backing, which Wright required to see his projects built.

             During these years, he remained at Talies­in, his Wisconsin farm, and earned some money through writing and lecturing. In 1932, Wright established the Taliesin Fel­lowship, an unusual experiment in archi­tectural education; and he invited appren­tice architects to his studio to work and study alongside of him. Eventually, hun­dreds of promising young architects were to work with Wright in Wisconsin and at Taliesin West, his winter studio in Arizo­na, which he built in 1938.

              By 1936, Wright was able to renew his pro­duction. That year one of his most famous, structures was built — Falling Water, in Bear Run, Pennsylvania. Projecting out over a waterfall, the house rests on a rocking ledge. A massive boulder that is allowed to penetrate the floor of the living area forms the fireplace in the centre of the house; the waterfall is below. Great sweeping support­ing beams extend from the core of fire, rock, and water to carry the eye to the landscape beyond. The box-like rooms, which Wright so disliked cannot be seen anywhere. All interior corners dissolve in glass. All inte­rior spaces extend across broad balconies into the landscape. In this masterpiece, we see the respect, which Wright had for the landscape, his love for materials and their appropriate expression and his desire for harmony of expression.

              Falling Water and countless other buildings, which Wright designed bear witness to his innovative genius. His design for the John­son Was Company in Racine, Wisconsin, has served as an inspiration for industrial and office design in the second half of the 20^th century as the Larkin Building had done in the first. His plan for the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, designed dur­ing World War II when Wright was already in his seventies, so confounded the City building department and challenged its codes that it was not completed until 1959, the year of Wright’s death. With consistency, he was able to challenge the architectural world and all society by his vision.

             His interpretation of the architect’s role in society is well summarized in his advice to, young men entering the field: “To the young man in architecture, the world “radical” should be a beautiful word. “Radical” means “of the root” or “to the root” — begins at the beginning. Any architect should be rad­ical by nature because it is not enough for him to begin where others have left off.” This was proved by Wright himself through­out the 89 years of his life.