While in Phoenix we got to see Taliesin West, which was Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter home – as well as his architecture school and laboratory. Its 600 acres are located on the outskirts of Scottsdale, a Phoenix suburb. It’s open to the public, but you have to buy tickets in advance and go on a tour – you can’t just show up and wander around.
It was far more remote when Frank Lloyd Wright first came here with his students in 1937. They had to live in tents and dig a well for water. Every year they would come for about 6 months and construct buildings by hand from local materials. Stones were collected from the surrounding desert.
The original Taliesin, Wright’s summer home, is in Wisconsin.
Some of the stones they found bore pictographs left by indigenous people.
Our tour was led by a docent who was both knowledgeable and enthusiastic. She was mostly interested in the buildings, though, while I was concentrating on the grounds.
I thought this fountain courtyard was quite beautiful. I like that enormous decorative stone. Those are groves of orange trees in the background.
Both the buildings and grounds feature geometric shapes inspired by the surrounding desert, hills, and buttes. Buildings are low, the walls and stairs angled like the nearby hills.
This pool was built for practical as well as aesthetic reasons, to serve as a water reservoir available for putting out fires. In the early years this place was far too remote to be served effectively by the nearest fire department.
The woodwork and stairs above are painted a particular shade of red that imitates the red sandstone of nearby buttes.
I believe the docent said that the roof was made from canvas. Windows are designed to let in horizontal light but stop the harsh direct desert sunlight.
I did wonder why there was so much lawn. Did they try to keep it green during the summer, or let it go dormant? I should have asked, but didn’t think of it. Incidentally, those are Lantanas (yellow and orange) and Bougainvillea (red) blooming above.
There is something significant about these 2 statues but I can’t remember what it is. Short-term memory is not what it used to be.
This courtyard features a moon gate.
Nice water feature along one side of this building. Above is a bridge that unites 2 structures.
Judy says I shouldn’t neglect the inside bits. This is the room they built for entertaining. Apparently Taliesin West was visited by many celebrities from the worlds of entertainment, politics, business, etc. Many of them were personal friends of Frank Lloyd Wright. The furniture was designed by the students, that chair that looks like it has wings was inspired by origami.
This building was initially used to watch movies, I think. Frank Lloyd Wright was a big fan of westerns.
He was also fascinated by East Asian art. He accumulated a vast collection, some of which adorns the campus.
Taliesin West still serves as a school of architecture, as well as headquarters for the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
Even if you are not an architect or architecture enthusiast, it is definitely worth a visit. It demonstrates Wright’s inspiration for design powerfully and movingly.
gardeninacity 
Not something I’d want to live in but very interesting nonetheless.
I wonder where all the water comes from.
From the local aquifer – FLW bought the water rights when he bought the land.
How interesting. I’ve seen FLW documentaries that featured Taliesin West but your photos added to that experience. I too, wonder about the expanse of green lawn in the desert SW. I have a cousin who built a quite unsuitable “English-style” house and garden in Santa Fe, NM. They now live in an adobe house surrounded by cactus!
That sounds more sustainable. Apparently the lawn is there because FLW built it that way, and the conservation imperative is that they try to preserve it as he created it.
A beautiful place. Not my style except for all the rocks in the garden. tee hee….
The rocks are pretty cool, and they fit well into their surroundings.
Thank you for the virtual tour, Jason! There is a Frank Lloyd house here in Oregon too, and Rick and I have been to that one.
There are quite a few around Chicago but to be honest I haven’t visited any of them!
Went there for the first time last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. Very interesting as a follow up to the FLW Oak Park tour.
Still haven’t seen any of the FLW houses in Oak Park!
Thanks for the tour… I’m unlikely to ever get there. I like some parts of the house, and I’ll bet it’s cool inside .. ahead of his time with the thick stone walls. I also wonder where the water for the garden comes from?
There was an aquifer. FLW bought the water rights along with the land, something you must purchase separately in much of the American West.
Hi all—the water is drawn from an aquifer on the property, as it was in Wright’s time. He acquired the water because he recognized that the property sat within the alluvial fan of runoff from the nearby mountains, and had the well drilled in 1938. The lawns are mostly original to Wright’s time (research suggests that they’ve expanded, but we’re still looking into that), so from a preservation perspective we need to maintain them, along with some of the tropical, non-native planting—a good opportunity to speak to how our understanding of sustainability has changed!
Thank you so much for the added information, Stuart! What a small world – how funny that we both know Anne.
Great that you got to see this iconic place. I’ve always wanted to see a Falling Water but now I have a better appreciation for Taliesin West. Beautiful photos.
This is the only FLW site I’ve visited – I suppose now I should really visit his many buildings in Chicago.
I loved visiting there several years ago and have been a member of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation for many years. Thanks for the photos. I’ve added many of them to my Pinterest board on Taliesin West.
Glad you liked the photos. To be honest, I enjoyed the visit much more than I expected.
Fascinating tour, thank you! I found it so interesting that one purpose of the pool was for putting out fires! I think my daughter and her boyfriend may have gone here not long ago – I’ll see if she remembers hearing anything about why there is so much lawn – good question!
So apparently all the lawn was part of FLW’s design and because the Foundation is supposed to conserve Taliesin West as originally designed, the lawn stays.
Thanks for sharing this!
Nice tour, thanks! I think the mid-century modern is back in fashion again. I love how everything comes back if you just give it enough time. I love all the stone. Sure didn’t know you could grow orange trees in the desert. That moon gate is pretty cool, too.
I also love the stone. I imagine the orange trees need lots of water. Didn’t even know there was such a thing as mid-century modern, but now that I know, I will try to work it into my conversations.
You got some great photos! It’s been years since I toured and I really need to visit again. Thanks for the push.
Judy found this a great place for taking pictures. Do you visit Phoenix often? Looks like we will be going out there at least every other year.
I don’t remember it looking so well as your photos illustrate when I visited over ten years ago. Of all the FLW homes and buildings I have visited, it was the least interesting architecturally. It seems, from his biographers, that FLW was an pretty unlikable fellow. I still like his sense of design. I’ve been to Falling Waters several times over the 60 years and will go again.
It does sound like FLW was a real narcissist, like a lot of very creative people. Still, he had some neat ideas.
I am guessing that that is Wright’s signature color it is called “Cherokee red.” Many of FLW’s Japanese prints are here in Madison at the Chazen Museum. There is a book on Wright’s landscape design.
That book would be interesting. Apparently he spent a lot of money he didn’t really have on Asian art.
I toured one of his houses designed for middle class Americans when I visited the Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas. One was moved there, and restored. I wasn’t at all impressed with that house, but this is more appealing. Paul’s remark about RLW being a bit of an unlikeable fellow made me smile. The docent at Crystal Bridges mentioned that he didn’t add garages, basements, or attics to the houses, because he didn’t want people collecting so much “stuff” it covered the lines of the architecture. That’s all well and good; he did provide carports. But I still don’t know where you’d put the bicycles, the tools, and the Christmas tree.
Not five minutes ago, I learned something else about Frank Lloyd Wright from another blogger. His son invented Lincoln Logs. The article is fascinating. Everyone in the world may have known that, but I certainly didn’t.
Me neither! And I wonder how many people have heard of Lincoln Logs as opposed to Frank Lloyd Wright.
He was very egotistical, apparently, but charming when he wanted to be
Striking, but I, too, was wondering about the lawn.
Apparently that’s how FLW designed it, and that’s how the foundation is supposed to preserve it.
Such an interesting tour. Loved so many of the features, especially that moon door.xxx
The moon gate is cool. It looks like a hobbit door.
I believe the statues you mentioned are from the Midway Gardens.
https://franklloydwright.org/revisiting-midway-gardens/
I see! Thanks for the link!
Gorgeous! If you ever make it to the Gulf Coast of Florida, be sure to check out Florida Southern College in Lakeland, just outside of Tampa. It boasts the largest collection of Frank Lloyd Wright designed buildings in one place.
That sounds good – thanks for the tip!
Very cool. I swung by House on the Rock this past summer and realized that the original Taliesin is just a few minutes down the road. That’s kind of a power punch.
Those seem to be Yucca schottii. There are several species that I would not recognize in that region. (There are some here, but the look different.)