If I had a magic wand I would change only one thing about my life, and that’s to have become an architect.
Well, maybe a couple of things, like buying Microsoft stocks in 1986 and collecting CHANEL ten, twenty years earlier…but I digress. Today I’m taking you to Taliesin West, a Scottsdale property on 550 acres in the Sonoran desert that showcases Frank LLoyd Wright’s (FLW) residences, workspace, and archives. It is also from here that his foundation operates its international headquarters.
I’m literally a kid in the candy store when I pull up at the gate…
It’s probably not quite as visually stimulating as going to his most famous and more dramatic home, Fallingwater, but I’ve been wanting to make this pilgrimage to Taliesin West for quite some time now…don’t ask me why I never went when I used to live here. Anyhow, the drive up the hillside is much like the drive anywhere around here. Lots of sun, sky, and cacti…
but keep driving…
and you’ll see the low-profile buildings dot the side of the mountains.
To know FLW is to appreciate his love of the land. His architecture is a mere extension of the landscape…unobtrusive, subtle, yet timelessly bold. You might say FLW’s works champion organic architecture. It is organic to the land in its use of materials, in its engineering, and definitely in its aesthetics.
All of this from someone who was never formally trained as an architect. He had studied many things and mostly learned by doing (a methodology applied at his accredited school of architecture), but it was his intuitive understanding of the land that separated him from other architects before and after him. Below are photos I’ve taken of the grounds during my 90-minutes tour. The interiors of his private office, home, cabaret theater, music pavilion, and dining hall are off-limits to photography so most of my shots are of the exterior.
I should also note that Taliesin West is a living, working, and educational facility.
FLW was a fully flawed man. Arrogant (he often proclaimed himself to be the world’s greatest architect) and reckless (he left his wife and 6 kids for another woman and often spent more money than he could make) as a man, as an architect he had a vision that was nothing short of genius. If you stood in any of his buildings today, including the ultra modern Guggenheim Museum in NYC, you would be surprised to find out that it was designed by a man born in the late 1800s!
FLW was quite taken with Asian art, and you can see the Chinese ceramics and Japanese scrolls throughout the compound:
One of my favorite spots on this campus is the breezeway, the best refuge on a hot summer day…
and from here you can peek into the dining area…
where all the students have to take turns with kitchen duty. Remember the part about learning by doing? FLW felt that if the students had to serve food to the rest of the associates, who may add up to 100 people at a time, they would learn to design kitchens, both commercial and private, better. For a dreamer, he was quite a practical teacher.
My other favorite place is probably at the far corner in this picture,
because from this vantage point you can see the campus as well as desert:
There’s another tour here that I’d like to take the next time I’m here on a Saturday, and that’s of the shelters built by the FLW associates. They take down the shelters built previously by other students and rebuild over them with their own designs. They then get to live there; it’s truly a living laboratory for these students.
For now, I can’t wait to figure out how to get to that little remote place in Pennsylvania where Fallingwater awaits me.
Oh right, so what was I wearing? Theory pants, cc camellia flip flops, 09P jacket, jcrew tank, and ostrich flap! I thought the bag camouflaged into the desert quite nicely. FLW would have approved 
.
Tags: Add new tag, Arizona, Chanel, Frank Lloyd Wright, Scottsdale, Taliesin West
I lived in Phoenix for a very short time right after grad school. It was a somewhat confusing time in my life, but the aesthetics of the desertscape left a huge impact on my mind’s eye and it was clear that regardless of my internal chaos, I would always find the calm in the center of any storm by heading to the desert. When I left the city I didn’t know if I’d ever come back, and on this long overdue return I hardly recognize the town. Gentrification has come to this once sleepy haven for the snowbirds (retirees) escaping their winters. Yes, of course you can still see them in their golf attire walking around town today–and perhaps that’s why this city always feels like it’s on holiday to me–but now next to the endless array of golf resorts there are bars and restaurants full of swinging singles benefitting from the construction that must have mushroomed after my departure over a decade ago. Why couldn’t it have been this fun when I was there?
It’s a straight shot across the 10 freeway to get from LA to Phoenix, and along the way you cut through Palm Springs where you can see this wind farm. The mills are like stars…the longer you look, the more they appear across the horizon:
And as it’s on the way anyhow, I stop by one of my favorite outlet malls where I pick up this cardigan–Gucci is having an additional 50% off all RTW so I couldn’t resist:
After this quick shopping break, the rest of the drive is all desert. If you’re not the designated driver you’d probably snooze through most of the way, but I love looking at mountains and cacti and weeds and the way nature finds survival in such desolation. But let’s face it, after the 1000th cactus I do wish it were possible to teleport myself.
It’s just before sunset that I make it to downtown Phoenix then into Scottsdale. The golden sun glares over the red mountains but I have to remove my sunglasses to take it all in. The effect is incredible; the entire landscape glistens before me like a silky mirage.
Other than the orange-red shimmer over this entire city, the first thing I notice is how beautifully the adobe houses blend into the desert landscape. The camouflage effect is so sublime yet powerful that I have the urge to race back to LA, pack up all my books (and shoes…and bags), and move to the mountains here. Could any of this be the sanctuary I seek?
Tomorrow I’ll take you into town.
Tags: Arizona, Gucci, Palm Springs, Phoenix, Scottsdale, wind farm
