Frank Lloyd Wright: Architect of Landscape Joan Smith, Washington, D.C
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FRANK LLOYD WRI ARCHITECT OF LAND CONTI;; T5 ~RAH( LLOYD WRIGIH QUARHRLY ••• ••• ••• • • ••• •• •••• • •• • ••• •••• •• ••• •• •••• •• • ••• • • •• • •• • •• • • •• •• Iumme< 2000 P"""hed by The Frank Lloyd Wright F",ndatiotl T,aliesin \'('l~[. Xott~:Ile. AZ 85"261 Editor: Suzette Lucas Assislanl Editor: Dan Bitenc CopycdilOr: Alice Urban Designer: Roberl Miller Board of Trustees 1I,Imilr0l1 .\IcRJ.c Ill. Chairman. ParaJi!le Valle}', AZ Dr.11. :'\ichom .\Iul1M' III. (H) and Pre.ident EHi \laria C'-asey. 5.;ott~al('. AZ E. Thomas Case}", Scon~.iJle, A7 David E. Dodge, xon.,Jale, AZ Ga~ K. Herbc~er. Paradise \·all~-. AZ Jeanne Lind Herberger. PdT"dj..e \'all~-. AZ Da\"id O. Justi..:e. Oak Park. IL Ch.ule'S \ lontooth. Spring GrCl.'n. \\1 \lmen-a Houslon ~Ionroorh. xon'>d.tle. AZ George A. '-:el5Oo, \ ladi~n. \'('1 Stephen ~cllliin. )con,Jalc, AZ Introduction ......................•.... 3 Scon William 1\'Tcr<.cn. Chicago. IL Hlrold Price, I.aguna Iku:h. CA Arnold Roy, ScOTbd,llc, AZ Frank Lloyd Wright: Architect of Landscape Joan Smith, Washington, D.C. Elke Vormfeldc, Scomdale, A7 Eric Lloyd Wright, i\lalihu. CA by Anne \Vhislol1 Spirn 4 Taliesin (OUIK~ 1braId Priet". (hailTJl;]n, LlgUIlJ Beach. CA Aaron G. Grttn. San Franl"i!ol:o, CA fJ",b<1h \\"cighr l'Wo'hom. CnIo<ado Springs. CO Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation News 26 Hamilmn \kRae. Paradi~ Valle". AZ Thomas .\lonaghan. Ann Arbor, .\11 .\Iichael Riddle, xon~le, AZ Books ...............•.•.•.................................. 27 Donald Schaberg, Ol..emCh, \1I Vernon Swabad.:, Ph(lCnix. AZ Edg;H Tafd. K'ew Yorl... 'Y .\Iae Sue Taltey, \'('a~hinglOn. D.C. Taliesin Architects 28 Virginia Ullm,m, Phot:nix, AZ Suzette Lucas, Dircrtor of blernal Affairs Wright Sites/Evenrs Information 30 The Frank I,loyd \VngIJI QUi/rlcrly i~ published fOllr times a yeJr in J.muary, April, July and O..:roOcr. COVER PHOTO: Taliesin, Spring Green, Wisconsin, 1993. The Birdwalk-a long, The QU.1rter/y is a member benefit for the group~, narrow protruding balcony added to the living room porch in 1953-provides foundation\ suppan The Frank lloyd \,("right A~wciJtion dramatic views of the Toties;" estate. Photo © Paul Rocheleau. Photo, opposite The Frank Lloyd Wriv,ht niet)" page, © Roger Straus Ill, from the soon-to-he-released book, \'(fright on \'Qright. To find OUI more about rnem~ip mot.tCl; The Fronk Lloyd Wright Foundatiotl h"Tema[ AffJi"" Ottir.:e Talit~in Wc~t Sr.:onsdate. AZ 8-'2.61-4430 (480, 860-1700 www.frJnklloydwright.org 02000 The Frank [.lord Wright hlllndJtion • A K L L o Altbol/gh tlJe /tallle Taliesill is most often associated with Ibe personal resi dence of I-rank Lloyd Wright. the Ie"" also aPIJlies to the entire 600-acre /JYo/Jerty located in tlJe Jones Valley "car prmg Green, Wlisco1lsm. Other bmld",gs located Oil the estate dre IIl"side Home School. MIdway J~arm. Tau-y-dcrI, and the Romeo and }lIltet \Vi"d",iII. In addtimu to the mam resi dence (pIctured abol't! III a 1998 photo) the other bllildiugs, landsClIpcd grounds, roads, dm1l, tl1td I)oud are all pari 0/ Wright's OlIL.."dlll1rdnlC'clumJ composf/ioll. Photo <D Ro!Wr StrtlliS 1/1. (Inset) Frank Lloyd \'(Iright and his IVlfe, OlgivlIfl1lo, at Taliesin dlfring the 19)"05. Pho/v cOllrtcsy Frank J./oyd \VriMht Archives. II D w I G T • 8)/ Anne Whiston Spim cured in :l few pencil strokes, plans mcnt, and few seminal works, with covered with derailed nores on planr the result that his landscape compo rirings, dr~l\vings, and ing and grading, sections showing sitions are frequentl)' misunderstood. builr work all resrify ro deft modifications to terrain. Like What accounts for the puzzling void Frank Lloyd Wrighr's the Japanese landscapes he admired, and the persistent misreadings in rn lifelong passion for some of Wright's greatest works studies of such a great architect? nature and l:111dscapc. He wrOte were large cOlnpositions of buildings The nnswer lies in the complexity of dozens of essays on rhe subject, morc and gardens, roads and waterways, the subjects-in the nrlture of land than any other architect, living or fields and groves. scape, in the nature of Wright. dead. lie was a keen observer of Despite the centrality of nature Landscapes are both given and llatur:t1 form and :Ill experienced and landscape ro Wrighr's life and built; they arc phenomena of nature architect of lal1dsc<lpe. Hundreds of work, rhere is lirrk written on his and products of cultlll'c. Landscapes drawings display his inreresr and landscape composirions, cenainly no comprise rivers, hills, trees, build insight: rhododendron and pine cap- comprehensive OJ' definitive treat- ings, and rands. Scales and bound- II Wright's ancestors settled the Jones Valley where he would later establish aries are fluid; a small garden is a object or even "'an expanse of Taliesill. By the time this photo was landscape; so is a valley. The hill scenery seen by the eye in one view," taken ;11 1902, Wright had designed the garden at Taliesin, with its grassy a typical dictionary definition. Romeo and Juliet \Vindmill, cenler, on mound, trees, walls, and steps, is a Landscapes are dynamic and evolv top of hill, and the second hui/din·" foreground, for the Hillside Home landscape; so is the complex of ing, nOt static, their surface the sum School, founded by his aunts. house, terraces, courtyards, and gar of processes-water flow, plant dens all built into and around rhe growth, human dwelling. Landscape hill, as is the larger Jones Valley, is the material contexr within which with its buildings, roads, fields, we live: the habitats we humans groves, streams, ponds, and hills. share with other organisms, the Jones Valley, in (urn, is but a small places we shape to express our ideas parr of the even larger landscape of and values. the Wisconsin River Valley, with irs In modern usc, the words "land rivers, forests, towns, and highways. scape" and "nature" are often In 1948 Wright supervises apprentices Seen thus, landscapes and buildings employed interchangeably. But workj"g the farmland at Taliesin All are continuous, not contiguous. A nature is an idea, nOt a place; an photos courtesy Frank Lloyd Wn}!,ht landscape resists perception as an idea, moreover, for which many cul Archives, except where noted. tures have no single name or notion. Many critics have interpreted \X'right's statements about nature in light of the word's modern use, and this has led them to mistake his rever ence for nature as deference to land scape. \Vright consistently capitalized ... ature," bur never "'Iandscape." \X'right's understanding of nature was grounded in his family's Emersonian philosophYj he was steeped from early childhood in countless quotations, discussions, and sermons drawn from Emerson's writings. \Xlright's knowledge of landscape came from experiencej observing and shaping landscapes were part of everyday life from the time he plowed, planted, hoed, and harvested fields as a boy, to when as a man he terraced hillsides, planted gardens and groves, dammed streams to generate power and make lakes and waterfalls, laid out contours for plowing that traced curving land~ and sometimes seem contradictory. forms, and selected sites for Sunday Without a clear-eyed comparison to 1.1 picnics. Such philosophy and experi the built, his texts have served mostly ences were a central part of the life to confuse. \'(fere one dealing with he designed for and shared with another architect, one might attribute Taliesin's apprentices from 1932 his apparent inconsistencies to a Hillside Home School with the Hillside until his death in 1959. superficial appreciation of nature Studio additioN appears i" the left fore \Xlhat \'(fright said and wrote and landscape. This was certainly grouNd iN this 1955 aerial photo of the about nature and landscape and nOt the case with Wright. Given his Talies;N estate. The \ViscoNsin River what he actually did were complex background, one must see \'(fright's can be seen in the distance, across County Highway C. II landscapes as deliberate constructions. Apparent contradictions between II texts and works are clues to \'Vright's priorities and inrenrions, to the evo lution of his ideas, or to ways that our own assumptions and pcrceptions may differ from his. \'Vright wrore many texts over half a century (1894-1959) for differelll purposes (self-expre> sian, self-promotion, self-justification, reaching). \Vhile numerous rhemes remained conStant throughout his career, certain importanr ideas and their applictltion to landscape design developed over ti me. The key to understanding \X!right's approach to landscape design (includ ing his grand, unrealized projects of rhe 1920sl lies in rhe landscapes where he made his home and exerred views today, onc is struck by the (Opposite page) Water (eatures are an continuou!i. inOuence for decades: the cOntrast between rough and smooth, mtegral part o(the landsCdpe at Taliesl1l including this small/Jond outside o(the Jones Valley of southern \'Visconsin by how profiles of landforms have garden room o(the house. Photo ID jim and the deserr of centrnl Arizona. He been rounded nnd ordered. The Wildemoll. (Abo,'e) The soarillg Birdwalk. was born to the firsr and chose the landscape nppcars sculpted, and added to Taliesi/l il1 J95.3, prot/ides a second; the twO must be seen togeth indeed it is. A grove of trees rounds dramatic view o( the valley and, look er, as he experienced them, the one off the angular top of Midway Ilill; ing back. a rare perspective on the in contraSt to and clarifying rhe rows of curving crops accemuate the house itself Photo lD Paul Rocheleau.