Frank Lloyd Wright, 1867-1959: The greatest American building designer of the twentieth century

　 

 

One critic said Wright's ideas were 50 years ahead of his time.

VOICE ONE:

I'm Phoebe Zimmerman.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program People in America.  Today we tell about the life and work of the greatest American building designer of the twentieth century, Frank Lloyd Wright.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

		Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright designed buildings for more than seventy years. He did most of his work from nineteen hundred through the nineteen fifties.  He designed houses, schools, churches, public buildings, and office buildings.

Critics say Frank Lloyd Wright was one of America's most creative architects. One critic said his ideas were fifty years ahead of the time in which he lived.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Frank Lloyd Wright was born in eighteen- sixty?seven in the middle western state of Wisconsin. He studied engineering at the University of Wisconsin. In eighteen eighty?seven, he went to the city of Chicago. He got a job in the office of the famous architects, Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler.

Several years later, Wright established his own building design business. He began by designing homes for people living in and near Chicago. These homes were called "prairie houses."

VOICE ONE:

Prairie houses were long and low. They seemed to grow out of the ground. They were built of wood and other natural materials. The indoors expanded to the outdoors by extending the floor. This created what seemed like a room without walls or a roof.

In nineteen-oh-two, Wright designed one prairie house, called the Willits House, in the town of Highland Park. The house was shaped like a cross. It was built around a huge fireplace. The rooms were designed so they seemed to flow into each other.

VOICE TWO: 

Robie House

Visitors to Chicago can see another of Wright's prairie houses.  It is called the Robie House.  It looks like a series of long, low rooms on different levels.  The rooms seem to float over the ground.  Wright designed everything in the house, including the furniture and floor coverings.

Wright's prairie houses had a great influence on home design in America. Even today, one hundred years later, his prairie houses appear very modern.

VOICE ONE:

In the nineteen thirties, Wright developed what he called "Usonian" houses.  Usonia was his name for a perfect, democratic United States of America. Usonian houses were planned to be low cost. Wright designed them for the American middle class. These are the majority of Americans who are neither very rich nor very poor.

Frank Lloyd Wright believed that all middle class families in America should be able to own a house that was designed well. He believed that the United States could not be a true democracy if people did not own their own house on their own piece of land.

VOICE TWO:

Usonian houses were built on a flat base of concrete. The base was level with the ground. Wright believed that was better and less costly than the common method of digging a hole in the ground for the base. Low?cost houses based on the Usonian idea became very popular in America in the nineteen fifties. Visitors can see one of Wright's Usonian homes near Washington, D. C.  It is the Pope-Leighy House in Alexandria, Virginia.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Frank Lloyd Wright believed in spreading his ideas to young building designers. In nineteen thirty?two, he established a school called the Taliesin Fellowship. Architectural students paid to live and work with him.

During the summer, they worked at his home near Spring Green, Wisconsin.  Wright called this house "Taliesin." That is a Welsh name meaning "shining brow." It was built of stone and wood into the top of a hill.

During the winter, they worked at Taliesin West. This was Wright's home and architecture office near Phoenix, Arizona. Wright and his students started building it in nineteen thirty-seven in the Sonoran Desert.

VOICE TWO:

		Taliesin West

Taliesin West is an example of Frank Lloyd Wright's ideas of organic architecture taking root in the desert.  He believed that architecture should have life and spirit.  He said a building should appear to grow naturally and easily from its base into its surroundings.  Selecting the best place to put a building became a most important first step in the design process.

Frank Lloyd Wright had discovered the beauty of the desert in nineteen twenty-seven when he was asked to help with the design of the Arizona Biltmore hotel.  He continued to return to the desert with his students to escape the harsh winters i