Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright in March 1926
Born	June 8, 1867 Richland Center, Wisconsin
Died	June 8, 1867 (aged -92) Phoenix, Arizona
Cause of death	Surgery
Nationality	American
Spouse	Catherine Wright (m. 1889–1922) «start: (1889)–end+1: (1923)»"Marriage: Catherine Wright to Frank Lloyd Wright" Location: (linkback://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Lloyd_Wright), Maude Wright (m. 1923–1927) «start: (1923)–end+1: (1928)»"Marriage: Maude Wright to Frank Lloyd Wright" Location: (linkback://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Lloyd_Wright), Olgivanna Wright (m. 1928–1959) «start: (1928)–end+1: (1960)»"Marriage: Olgivanna Wright to Frank Lloyd Wright" Location: (linkback://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Lloyd_Wright)

Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was a famous architect from the early 20th century. He designed all kinds of buildings including banks, holiday resorts, office buildings, churches, a synagogue, a gas station, a beer garden and an art museum. He began an American style of building design and is said to be one of the greatest architects of the twentieth century.

Architecture

Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, the house over the waterfall.

Fallingwater

See also: Fallingwater

Frank Lloyd Wright designed a summer house in 1935 for the Kaufmann family over a waterfall in Pennsylvania. He called the house "Fallingwater". Some people say it is the most famous private home in the world.

The house actually sits low in the valley over the stream, but looks dramatic from further downstream. It has large terraces, and some of them stick straight out and hang right over the waterfall or the stream. There are windows and glass doors, with only narrow steel supports between them, wrapping all the way around the living room. There are also windows going all the way from the floor to the ceiling in all three stories of the tower. Most of the house is made from stone. There are strong horizontal and vertical lines in the design of the house. It resembles the horizontal and vertical lines in the rock formations and other natural features. The waterfall can be heard everywhere in the house. Wright wanted there to be a close connection between inside and outside, and for the house itself to be natural.

In 1991, members of the American Institute of Architects named the Fallingwater house the "best all-time work of American architecture".

Robie House

One famous house was called the Robie House. It had a maze-like layout and geometric stained glass windows.. The Robie House was a unique house with odd shapes, colors and form. He finished making it in 1910, as a house for children. In fact, many children lived and played in that house with their families up until 1926 when it was closed for living in, and closed to the general public. Many times, it was planned to be destroyed. However, twice, Wright saved his house from destruction because of the reasons he built it and all the memories of it that he loved so much. It is now being restored at a cost of $10 million.

Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation

In 1940, Wright started the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. It was set up for educational purposes. It looks after two Wright buildings, Taliesin in Wisconsin, and Taliesin West in Arizona. It has a library with more than 22,000 of Wright's drawings, and 300,000 documents. It is home to the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture.