Blog
“This will be a nice addition…”
Reading Time: 5 minutesA drawing of Taliesin, executed in June 1911. This drawing is accessible from https://library.artstor.org/#/asset/28509365;prevRouteTS=1621879846896 110 years ago, on May 25, 1911, the Weekly Home News (the newspaper of Spring Green, Wisconsin), noted on page 4 that: “Mrs. Hannah Wright is building her home in Hillside valley, adjoining the old homestead, a little north and west […]
“Treat him well and love him as I do”—Frank Lloyd Wright on Mies van der Rohe
Reading Time: 4 minutesTwo pictures of the Midwest in Spring: the top shows the Farnsworth House, by Mies van der Rohe, in Plano, IL in early April. The bottom shows Taliesin, and was taken in early June. Taliesin, in Wisconsin, is 3 hours north of the Farnsworth House. I looked into architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) […]
Why Did You Have to do That, Mr. Wright?!1
Reading Time: 4 minutesTwo views of the same space, 89 years apart. Frank Lloyd Wright began his home, Taliesin (south of Spring Green, Wisconsin), in 1911 and worked on it almost continuously until he died in 1959. As researcher and historian I easily documented over 100 changes he made just to his home (that number doesn’t include the […]
The Worst Mistake We’ve Ever Made as a Species
Reading Time: 5 minutesCaption: “Moreuil, France, 30 July 1916. Nurses Coloimbet, Louis, Egot and Flageollet pose with solders at a French military hospital in Moreuil, in the départment of the Somme. This picture was taken a month after the start of the Battle of the Somme…” A7794. Stéphane Passet. That was my assessment about World War I after […]
Taliesin’s 1925 Fire
Reading Time: 4 minutesLooking north at Taliesin, 1920-24. On the far left is a workman’s apartment. The vertical tower to the right of the apartment is called the “Hill Tower”. On the far right are Wright’s living quarters. The workman’s apartment and Wright’s living quarters are connected under roofs. But, you can’t see it all because the building […]
Mortar Mix
Reading Time: 5 minutesThis post is about figuring out where Wright was standing in the photo at the top of this page. And, several years ago, “Looked at some mortar,” was my answer to the question, “What did you do at work today?” Wait – what? Why? A collection of images in Delaware: Earlier that day someone from […]
Books by apprentices
Reading Time: 4 minutesLast time I wrote on the book Years With Frank Lloyd Wright: Apprentice to Genius by former Wright apprentice, Edgar Tafel. This week I’m writing about more books by Taliesin Fellowship apprentices. If you need to remember what the Taliesin Fellowship is, click here Memoirs by former apprentices: Reflections From the Shining Brow: My years […]
Apprentice to Genius: A Recommended Book
Reading Time: 5 minutesApprentices Edgar Tafel (left) and Jack Howe (right) sitting on Taliesin’s hill crown. Wright’s bedroom is to the right of Howe’s left elbow. “You’ve made it,” I whispered to myself. At the far end of the room, on a raised platform serving as a stage, stood Mr. Wright. It was like coming into a presence. […]
Frank Lloyd Wright buildings are smaller than you think
Reading Time: 5 minutesPhotograph of Fallingwater by Esther Westerveld from Haarlemmermeer, Nederland in 2012. The people standing on the upper terrace in this photograph are not 7 feet tall. They are normal-sized people. It’s the architecture that’s messing with your mind. I’m talking about what everyone—outside of Frank Lloyd Wright homeowners—has experienced: you go to a Wright structure […]
The First Fire
Reading Time: 6 minutesThe photographer was on the Taliesin Hill Crown looking toward the structure after the first fire. The person seen standing on the left in the white shirt may be Frank Lloyd Wright. I’ve mentioned the 1914 fire a few times (and wrote about it snarkily), but I thought it’s time to address Taliesin’s first fire. […]
