No snow, no ice, and a welcome breeze- we are definitely not in Carlisle anymore. It would seem as if this trip came just as everyone was questioning whether or not winter would last forever. Winter may still be very present in Carlisle, but the Mosaic has entered the constant summer that is southern Arizona; wearing shorts and sandals we all have been enjoying walking outside without having to brace for a slicing wind, or a face full of frozen rain. After piling into our white van this morning, which we have yet to name, we drove to Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter home, Taliesin West.

The Cherokee Red gates-Wright’s favorite color-and telltale Whispering Arrow signs guided us into the parking lot. We quickly shuffled into the bookstore to get our tickets, also our souvenirs. John G., a local high school student and self-proclaimed “music person,” gathered us for the start of the tour. The tour began next to a rock covered in petroglyphs, a reassembled porcelain sculpture from Japan, and Wright’s rock covered office. After a quick introduction into Wright’s life we entered the office. Upon entering the structure I immediately experienced one of Wright’s favorite architectural elements, Compression and Release. The doorway was six feet tall and the main entranceway seven feet. This quickly opened up into a beautiful presentation room that had a ten-foot hemp-canvas covered ceiling. Here John introduced us to some of the basic elements of the buildings on the property:

• Locally mined boulders.
• Originally the buildings featured redwood timbers, but they all rotted.
• Sand mixed with concrete developed to work with minimal amounts of water.
• Canvas roofs that were disassembled when Wright and his students left for the summer.

The mixture of these elements has created a very unique landscape that is very fitting of Wright’s Organic Architecture. Broken down to their basic geometry, the buildings embody the mountain that they sit beneath. From here we followed John to the grassy lawn and reflecting pool that Taliesin West is so famous for. It was here that I learned of Wright’s tendency to contradict his own Organic Architecture. The manicured imported grass seemed like it should on the front lawn of the White House and the reflecting pool did not at all reflect the desert that surrounds Taliesin.

Our next stop was “the prow,” named so for its symbolic bow-like appearance for the desert ship we stood upon. Here John told us the story of the power lines that went in below Taliesin, and Wright’s reaction. Wright was ready to move when they wouldn’t bury the lines, but his wife convinced him to stay. They had spent too much developing this land to move further south and restart. Wright then decided that he would adjust the views of the rooms, so that no one would have to look at the power lines. This meant walls were built in front of windows, patios became devoid of use, and they even moved the dining room.

Next we stopped on the old sunset patio that is just above the “the prow.” This landing would have hosted one of the most spectacular views I have ever seen were it not for the power lines. Also on the patio was one of the twenty-two Cherokee Red squares that have been made for Wrights projects that have never been altered past what is necessary.

Beside the patio are the Wright’s personal living quarters. We began this stage of the tour in the living room. This room exhibited some particularly comfortable chairs that Wright designed to go with this specific property, as he always did with his projects. This obsession with making sure everything in the structure fit the theme went as far as the cutlery used in the home, and even once a special entertainment gown designed by Wright for the lady of one of his homes. Along with the chairs were a piano, hearth, and wall bench. The whole room was meant to entertain clients, as well as for the students of the school to learn proper entertainment etiquette.

After the living room we stepped out onto the patio that led into the bedrooms, one for Wright’s wife while he worked through the night and one for Wright himself. The rooms were both very different, one being open to the patio with an exterior closet and bathroom, the other closed in with a personal wardrobe and a special aluminum-clad bathroom. This juxtaposition is an amazing example of Wright’s use of Taliesin West as a laboratory for different styles. He was constantly changing areas and adding in new elements to see what worked and didn’t work.

From the isolated bedrooms we walked through a tight and twisting corridor to reach a fountain. This fountain was loud and Wright used his knowledge of acoustics to create a hallway that would allow one to be completely isolated from its noise. Beside this fountain was one of the more utilized rooms on the campus, Wright’s viewing room. In hear he experimented with corner lighting, floor lighting (one of the first to do this), and had his own personal theater where he would watch hours of movies, sent to him by his niece.

Outside of the viewing room is the breezeway that empties onto the sunset patio, as well as the dining room that is still utilized by the chef and students of the Architecture school. As we followed a pathway back to what was nearly the start of the tour, we passed a large dragon sculpture that was originally meant for the fountain, but was later converted into a fire-breathing statue. It supposedly spits a two to three foot flame during night tours.

At the end of this walk we entered the large theater. Plush, Cherokee Red, and versatile, this was where Wright and his students would put on dances, orchestras, and plays in a celebration of all arts. Our last stop on the tour was the smaller cabaret theater. This was one of Wright’s best experiments. It is a irregular hexagon frame of stone and concrete. No wall is parallel to another and is shaped like a megaphone. It features a hollow stage floor that acts like a sounding board and because of this a whisper can be heard from the stage at the top of the room. Wright would typically sit at the top of the theater in order to be able to see all that was happening and still be included in the conversation.

Frank Lloyd Wright was one of the most influential architects in modern history. His work or the work of his students has been experienced by nearly the entire country and Organic Architecture is still widely taught and utilized in some form or another, today. Wright’s work in Arizona was brought on by his contraction of pneumonia and a recommendation by his doctor to leave the harsh Wisconsin weather and find a dry warm climate to rest in. He was 70 when this occurred and the decision led to twenty-plus more years of work, some might say his best work.

Wright’s work certainly fulfilled his philosophy of form meeting function. Everything in Taliesin is obviously sculpted to perform in the harsh conditions, as well as mix well with the natural landscape. Utilizing local materials for the building out of necessity, Wright created architecture meant for Arizona. His knowledge of the natural world even led to the discovery of an underwater aquifer that the campus still uses as its sole water source.

After this trip to Wright’s laboratory and an adventure through his later life I would categorize him as a risk taker. His decision to move out to the desert, twenty miles from civilization, just as the Great Depression was hitting a plateau, and his health was suffering was a risky move. It could have destroyed him, but his determination to succeed can now be seen as a shining example of living and building a legacy in harsh conditions with not much to work with, but his own wit.