This weekend, I took a trip to Scottsdale, Arizona to visit some friends, and was lucky enough to find that this was were Frank Lloyd Wright built his winter home, Taliesin West, as a warm retreat from his summer home, Taliesin, which is in Spring Green, Wisconsin. I am very interested in architecture and love the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, which is hugely influenced by the minimal clean lines of the Far East. This post will be the first of a four-part series about Taliesin, which will focus on the lush grounds of the beautiful, flowing estate, made possible by Wright's insistence on drilling for water underground, which he eventually found.
Beautiful red flowers were all over the place, which survive on deceptively little water, as well as some very frightening cacti, and light, dry grasses.
Frank Lloyd Wright used very low stairs in many of his projects and our tour guide, Tom, told us that he thought that they were "easy to ascend and graceful to walk down."
Beautiful fountains created a serene environment, this one situated in a triangular space (Taliesin West focused on the triangles, to mimic the nearby mountains, circles, and hexagons).
A beautiful garden off of his and hers bedrooms, with a round red door leading to an enclosed patio space.
The views from the pool were so inspiring, but Wright nearly had a fit when ugly power-lines were erected, obscuring his view, which still stand today.
The discovery of the aforementioned underground water supply made a swimming pool possible, which was really built because of Wright's fear of a fire, as his summer home in Wisconsin burned twice to the ground.
Beautiful walkways abound on Wright's fabulous property, I particularly like this one, framed by trees and seemingly neverending.
Lastly, a gorgeous stone fountain.
Wow - what a good trip! I love how Wright incorporated his architecture with nature - you can hardly tell where one stops and the other begins.
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