Frank Lloyd Wright

By: Brian Liao

Table of Contents

•Childhood

•Adulthood

•Robie House

•Hollyhock House

•Taliesin

•Taliesin I

•Taliesin II

•Taliesin III

•Taliesin West

•Falling water

•Guggenheim Museum

Childhood

• Frank was born on June 8, 1867 in Wisconsin, United States. He lived on a farming town of Richard Centre. Frank got a gift from her mom, Anna. It is a set a Froebel blocks. Froebel blocks are shaped blocks that young Wright spent lots of time playing with. The Wright family struggled financially though, so they had to move to Spring Green, Wisconsin where they could find employment. By the time Frank turned 14, Frank’s parents divorced because Frank’s dad couldn’t provide money to the family.

• He then went to a Madison university and worked part time with the professor Allan D. Conover. At the end, he left without a degree and moved to Chicago for an employment. He was disappointed by the poor architecture and went on to find a job. After a few interviews, he was instantly hired as a draftsman. He soon turned 20 and quit his job because he was underpaid. He was only getting $8 per week.

Young Frank

Adulthood

• When Frank left the job, he went on as a designer. But before long, he decided that he wasn’t ready to design buildings himself so he went back to his old job but with a raise. In less than a year, he was interviewed and got a position as Sullivan’s apprentice. He didn’t get along with other draftsmen though. He even had a violent quarrel with one of the draftsman. Sullivan also showed very little respect for the draftsman. Soon Frank got a place on 17th floor on the auditorium building.

Adult Frank• On June 1, 1889, Wright married his first wife, Catherine Lee.

Frank had 3 wives in total, the second wife is called Maude, and the third is Olga. He had a son called John Lloyd Wright. Frank as a draftsman is a success and he was granted a five year employment contract. Sullivan was even kind enough to give him a $5,000 loan to buy a house at the corner of Chicago and Forest Avenues in the suburb of Oak Park. But Frank secretly designed his own buildings and the contract forbids it. So Frank left Sullivan.

Adulthood

• By 1901, Wright had completed about 50 projects, including many houses in Oak Park. Wright moved out of the Schiller Building and into the nearby and newly completed Steinway Building. By 1895, Frank made his own draftsman crew and the first female architect in United States helped Frank Lloyd Wright make windows, furniture, and light fixtures. Between 1894 and 1910, several other architects and many of Wright's employees launched their careers in the offices of Steinway Hall.

• Sadly, Frank died on April 9, 1959 in Phoenix, Arizona, United States.

Robie House

• 1908-1909 Robie was only 28 years old and the assistant manager of the Excelsior Supply Company, a company on the South Side of Chicago owned and by his father. The construction of Robie house started on April 15, 1909. The Robie family moved in before the construction was finished which was January 1911. The Robie family also struggled financially that caused the death of his father. The Robie family had to move out after 1 year and 2 months.

Robie House• The exterior of the house was made with roman bricks. The glass was made with abstract colours with Franks favourite angles which is 30 and 60 degrees. The trim work was made with bedford limestone. It looks like 2 rectangles. The entire building is approximately 9,062 square feet.

History

Materials

Robie House

• The interior of the Robie house has four fireplaces, one in the billiards room, playroom, living room and master bedroom. The entrance of the house is hidden under the balcony at the northwest side. The house has 174 different glass windows and door panels in 29 different designs. There are steel beams on the ceiling to hold up the weight of the house.

Robie House

Robie House model

Architecture

Hollyhock House

• The hollyhock house was originally meant to be part arts and movie theatre. This is Frank’s second building built in California. The hollyhock house was built between 1919–1921. The Barnsdall, owner of the building donated this structure to the city of Los Angeles in 1927.

Hollyhock house

History

Architecture• Some feature to the hollyhock house has very

small windows and the exterior is tilted 85 degrees. Because hollyhock is a kind of flower, the house is decorated with them. The interior of the house has a grand fireplace and a bas relief which is a image with depths. Under the bas, there’s a moat. The water flows from a pool in the courtyard through an underground tunnel to the moat, and out again to a fountain just like a cycle.

The Taliesin Buildings

• The Taliesin is located 4km south of the village of Spring Green, Wisconsin, close to where Frank used to live. The Taliesin’s property is 600 acre. The house was completed in 1911, but in 1914, an employee murdered Borthwick and several other people then set fire to the house. After recovering from the emotional fright, Frank rebuilt the Taliesin calling it the Taliesin ||. In 1924, it was once again set on fire. The Taliesin ||| was then built on the same property. This structure was Frank’s house for the rest of his life. Frank spent his winter in a building called the Taliesin West.

Taliesin

History

Taliesin I

•The Taliesin | had three sections: two Sections on either end and a narrow connecting them together. As usual, Frank Lloyd Wright designed his own furniture. One of the sections of the side is for Frank’s studio and workroom. The other section was originally meant for Frank’s mother but then was used for his head draftsman. The Taliesin | was contracted with yellow limestone and plastered with a mix of sienna which is a yellowish brown material naturally found near the Taliesin | in a quarry.

Architecture

Taliesin II

• After the Taliesin I was burnt to the ground by a crazy employee, Frank started another project to rebuild the Taliesin II. The Taliesin II was inspired to be built like a Japanese temple. This time Frank lived close to the Taliesin II, but the tragedy doesn’t end here. When Frank returned to the Taliesin II one day, a blanket of smoke rose to the sky from the house. Frank reacted quickly to stop the fire but due to the wind, the fire spread quickly. The Taliesin II also burnt down but Frank’s workroom was spared.

History

• The Taliesin II is almost identical to the First Taliesin. Frank decided to add an additional wing to the house.

Architecture

Taliesin III

• After the Taliesin II was burnt once again, Frank did not give up. He made a third construction called the Taliesin III. Luckily, the person that burnt down the 2 pervious buildings gave up and stopped destroying Frank’s constructions. The Taliesin III was built on a 593 acres of land. Frank now lives in Taliesin the rest of his life but he had another project in mind. It was to build the Taliesin West in Arizona and use it as a winter house.

History

Architecture• The Taliesin III is fairly similar to the

first two Taliesins. Surprisingly, the building is only just below two aces. Today, you can visit this structure on Thursday, from 9 am to 6 pm.

Taliesin West

• The Taliesin West is built with local materials found and made in Arizona such as desert rocks, wood forms and concrete. Also the Frank used translucent canvas to act as a roof, but it was replaced because of the intense sun light. There is a dining room facing the south that has a part of the roof hanging past the wall. This allows the horizontal light to come in the room but not the intense sun ray in the middle of the day.

Architecture

Falling Water

• Falling water was the building that bought back Frank’s fame. One day when he and the Kaufmann visited the Bear Run, he convinced Kaufmann to let him build a house on Bear Run. Wright lied to Kaufmann about already drawing and planning the structure. In reality Wright only took 2 hours doing the planning and drawing. The Kaufmann weren’t satisfied that the building was location on top of the waterfall but still agreed to build it there in the end.

Floor Plan of

History

Falling Water

• 1935 in rural Southern Pennsylvania 69 km southeast of Pittsburgh. The house was built partly over a waterfall on Bear Run. Falling water has a Japanese style to it. There were some issues building on that location. Frank’s client requested separate bedrooms and two other additional bedrooms. By using the cantilever strategy where a beam is built to support the weight of overhanging structures, Frank was able to fulfill the client’s request. In my opinion, falling water is my favourite structure that is built by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Falling WaterInterior of Falling Water

Architecture

Guggenheim Museum

• The guggenheim is actually a museum. The construction started in 1937. It opened in 1959. The guggenheim museum is located at the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Frank had the idea of establishing this museum because of the collections that he had. The grand opening of this museum is after six months of Frank Lloyd Wright’s death. Sadly, Frank did not get to see his own finished project.

Guggenheim MuseumView from fifth avenue

History

Architecture• The architecture to this museum is very unique. The view from the fifth avenue is

spectacular. The top of the building is wider than the bottom, and it is shaped like a cylinder that spirals down.

Bibliography

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Lloyd_Wright

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallingwater

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robie_House

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollyhock_House

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_R._Guggenheim_Museum

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliesin_(studio)

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliesin_West

Thanks For Watching Approved!

Self Reflection

• In my opinion, I think that I deserve an exceeds expectation because I kept each slide organized with different categories and I also inserted each slide according to the timeline.

• Another reason I believe that I should get an exceeds on this passion project is because everything I wrote is in detail. The history, architecture, and the time spent building.

• I don’t use the same word over and over again. I also don’t think that I have lots of grammar mistakes in my writing.

• My interests has grown since I started the presentation because I have always wanted to be an architect and Frank Lloyd Wright is a great model that I look upon to.