Located in the McDowell Mountains outside of Scottsdale, Arizona, Taliesin West is the home of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture.
BG was our guide, she has been there for 20 years and made both Wrights come alive for us, conveying him as a true visionary.
Mrs. Wright said of her husband that he observed everything, which caused him to incorporate everything into his designs and structures.
Isn’t that an incredible approach to living an expansive life?
We enjoyed the description of Taliesin evenings – formal dinners every week where the Wrights and the students made the food, served it and dined with visitors—from politicians to Hollywood stars to other celebrities. Wright felt that you couldn’t be an architect in a vacuum, that you had to learn social skills in order to be successful. Mrs. Wright and their daughter taught music and dancing.
They were very self-sufficient.
The Wrights had separate bedrooms because he would get up at random hours and work. The rooms were adjacent to each other with doors that fully opened to let the outside in. Wouldn’t that be a great way to end each evening and start each morning?
Mrs. Wright got up at 6:00 in order to delegate the daily duties to the students.
Wright’s Welsh heritage inspired him to use the name Taliesin because in that language it means brow (tal) and shining (iesin), he felt shining brow described the area—on the edge.
Tour prices range from $19 to $75. We took the Insights Tour, which was 1.5 hours, included the living room, garden room, bedrooms, music pavilion and cabaret theatre, as well as the landscaped areas. Pre-buying tickets is a good idea, tour sizes are limited and sometimes there is a price reduction.
This quote is inspiring: “The mission of the architect is to help people understand how to make life more beautiful, the world a better one for living in, and to give reason, rhyme, and meaning to life.” Frank Lloyd Wright, 1957
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- Welcome to Taliesin
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- BG, docent & entryway
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- Taliesin West
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- Art collection
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- Dragon
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- FLW bedroom
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- FLW room & office
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- Mrs Wright’s room
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- Cabaret
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- theatre
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- Taliesin West grounds
#TaliesinWest - astounding as it blends into the deep, rich colors of the #Phoenix desert. Click To Tweet
Wright insisted that his buildings compliment the part of Nature they would be built in and I always respected him for that.
Absolutely, GP. He was eccentric, but it sure paid off for him with his legacy.
What great architecture. I was captured by the first photograph of what looks like a swimming pool. So much outside space!
Interesting to read about Mr and Mrs Wright’s sleeping arrangements – I guess if it worked for them……….
It does look like a swimming pool, but it wasn’t very deep. Enough to dangle your feet in. Totally logical way to solve the problem of an erractic sleeper!
His work is incredible isn’t it? I am originally from Lakeland, Florida where some of his work stands on the campus of Florida Southern College. I think I will be putting this Arizona gem on my must-see list!
Hi Libby & welcome to my blog (I’ll pop over to yours!). Seems that Frank Lloyd Wright has something all over our country–isn’t that incredible? I love it! Don’t forget about Falling Water if you make it to Pennsylvania.
That sounds like a great tour to see first-hand. The only architect that I studied was Gaudi and I really loved his innovative designs, and was lucky enough to see some of them when I was in Spain.
Emily, I’ll have to look up Gaudi–that’s another new name for me. I’ve only been to Madrid, but found the architecture there astounding and grand.
I’d love to visit Taliesin West. I made it out to the suburbs of Chicago to tour his home and studio and found it to be a great tour. On the Oak Park tour I learned how he had an affair with the wife of a couple he was hired to design a house for in the area.
I’ve heard that the Oak Park tour is also fantastic, so it’s on the schedule the next time I get to go to Chicago.
This looks like a wonderful complex! Did you know that Frank Lloyd Wright also designed a house for Marilyn Monroe–and that it is on Maui? It’s now The Kamehameha Golf Club in Waikapu. It features stunning views of Haleakala and central Maui and the golf course is first rate, I’ve played it many times! Good excuse to return to Maui. 🙂
I did not know this, Marquita. Oh boy another thing to do when I get back to Maui.
Thx for this tour, Rose. I love the work of architect Frank Gehry. His work is wild and wacky. Less disciplined that Wright’s. I find the minds of the famous architects to be quite fascinating.
I’ll have to look up that Frank, Doreen, the name is new to me. As you might guess, wacky is appealing to me!
He must’ve been an interesting character. I loved touring Falling Water. Very, very different and out of the ordinary.
I agree on Falling Water, Jackie. I’d like to go back again. I love the uniqueness.
I was fascinated about the social events for the students–that FLW felt it was imperative that they learn as much about people as about architecture, Donna. And they made the dinners, put on the shows. What a great idea.
I’ve taken this tour and enjoyed it. Not only is the architecture interesting, the stories about the man are fascinating. Very creative, but perhaps not the easiest to live with. I do like his emphasis on social skills for students.