http://www.franklloydwright.org/
One of the most recognizable names in history, Frank Lloyd Wright was voted in 1991 as "the greatest American architect of all time" by the American Institute of Architects.
Born in Richland Center, Wisconsin, June 8, 1867 to William Carey Wright and Anna Lloyd Jones Wright.
After two semesters studying engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Wright moves to Chicago 1887 and is briefly employed by the architect Joseph Lyman Silsbee. From 1887-1892 he works for the firm of Adler and Sullivan until he is let go after Sullivan discovers he is doing freelance work on the side. , where he incorporated Sullivan's ideas that ‘form follows function’ into his own philosophy that buildings should be "organic" and harmonious with the environment surrounding them.
1889 he marries catherine Lee Tobin He designs and builds a design studio adjacent to his home built in 1889 in Oak Park, Illinois and sets up his own practice in Chicago in 1893. It is here between 1900 and 1917 that he develops the Prairie style of architecture, with its horizontal lines and long, low-perched roofs, so-called because the design is considered to complement the land around Chicago. The Prairie style house, for which he is best known, is a reaction against the historical revivalism prevalant in American architecture at the time and opposed to the attitude of dominating nature that characterized the industrial age, seeking instead to achieve harmony with nature. These houses are credited with being the first examples of the "open plan."
1905 first trip to japan with wife
The Robie House 1908, a Chicago Architectural Landmark, is one of the best known examples of the Prairie House syle.- organized around the great hearth Its living and dining areas form virtually one uninterrupted space, under wide sweeping roofs, opens to the outdoors. This building had a profound influence on young European architects after World War I and is sometimes called the "cornerstone of modernism." Wright's work, however, was not known to European architects until the publication of the Wasmuth Portfolio.
He leaves his practice and family in the fall of 1909 and travels to Europe with his lover, Mamah Cheney and publishes the Wasmuth Portfolio which gives him exposure in Europe. Upon his return to the US he moves to Spring Green, Wi and builds Taliesin. Fire and murder of M Cheney, her children, and others by a servant.
After his wife, Catherine Tobin Wright grants him a divorce in 1922 he is briefly married to Maude Miriam Noel from 1923 to 1927. He marries Olgivanna Lazovich Milanoff in 1928.
Frank Lloyd Wright is commissioned to design the Guggenheim Museum in 1943. Over the next fifteen years, Wright will makes over 700 sketches, and numurous sets of working drawings, for the building. Construction does not begin until 1956, shortly before he moves back to Chicago, and is opened to an enthusiastic public October 21, 1959, six months after Wrights death at 91 years.
Three formal experiences of Wright’s youth that were major influences of his later architecture:
1. the study of nature- particularly shapes/forms and colors/patterns of plant life. as a young child worked on his uncles farm. Influenced by the American transcendentalist writings of Melville, Whitman, Thoreau, and Emerson
2. the Froebel training-Froebel most important- geometric forms and patterns structured every object in nature. Set of wood blocks and paper for construction. Wright credited these blocks as fundamental influence on his work, saying that they shaped his perception of rhythmic structure in nature.
3. the study of geometric ornament during his apprenticeship to Sullivan. Sullivan’s theory of ornament- to create truly organic architecture ornament must be of the surface and substance rather than on it first and only real mentor, Louis Sullivan whom he considered to be his 'Lieber Meister' (dear master
These 3 principles underlying each of Wright’s designs are the qualities that unify his body of work:
1. the occupents’ movement was critical to the spatial order. The floor plan was most important because it gave form to the building. Architecture came from ‘the space within’
2. he employed different types of structure and construction materials that would reinforce and make possible his spatial design
3. he designed buildings that had a relationship to the landscape. Landscape, interior space,construction materials are woven together
Recipient of numerous awards and honors, most noteably The Royal Gold Medal for Architecture from the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1941, and the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects in 1949. He received honorary degrees form Princeton, Yale and others.
Wright continually reimagined how people could best use the space they worked and lived in. He designed over 1100 projects resulting in 532 completed works. His revolutionary ideas, open plan, the atrium, the carport, the picture window, fabric roofs and walls, were communicated through books, articles, furniture and most importantly the buildings themselves, including houses, offices, churches, schools, libraries, and museums and continue to be influential today.
FLW The Interactive Portfolio, Margo Stipe, Running Press Publishers, Philadelphia, PA, 2004
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ehh6Arv5lc&eurl=http://www.nou-sera.com/architect/wright.html
