Tragedy at Taliesin: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Personal Home

FLW was a visionary, but let's not forget that hardly any human architecture from the past millennium still stands. We only have a few priceless specimens. It's art, writing, and tools that have actually chronicled most of human existence thus far.

I love this place, saw it about 5 trs ago. Beautiful architecture everything is just beautiful wonderful

FLW was by most accounts a bad person and the majority of his buildings leak and or cost a fortune to maintain.

Do you know what really sucks, at least for Wisconsinites? Frank Lloyd Wright himself wanted to be buried at Taliesen III, and he was for 26 years until the Taliesen Fellowship took it upon themselves to honor his third wife’s wishes (not his own) and cremate him, and reinter the ashes in Arizona. We can’t even pay our respects for him in the land that he called home for his entire life! Also the FLL Foundation is headquartered in Arizona, while I and likely many others think that it should be in Wisconsin.

OMG!! What drama

My wife and I had the good fortune of spending a day with one of FLW's relatives in the late 90s.
We walked the whole property and went through all of the outbuildings and rooms in the house, which are (almost) never open to the public.
The ceiling in his private bedroom was 6' high with perfect dimensions and a cornerless picture window looking south(ish) over the rolling landscape.
Just incredible. I'm about 6' and a scosh tall and scrapped my head on the ceiling.

Talliesin West was very interesting to tour. I believe I was there in the 1980s.
I was so impressed by his design for the open windows. In fact, to this day I have a paperweight on my office desk that I see everyday. A nice reminder. Carol from California

In Architecture in University we learned Wright never set foot in one .
Sad about the murders .....

In Architecture in University we learned Wright never set foot in one .. 😂

He designed some interesting stuff, not genius, just different.
Ultimately Frank was a self absorbed, professional pain in the ass.

I’m more of a cabin type

My father admired FRANK L WRIGHT’S
ARCHITECTURE SKILLS. MY DAD as a
SKILLED PLASTERER could not spread
Frosting on my daughter’s CAKE

His style never sat well with me. Look at all the ugly buildings going up now, such as Hudson Yards, and you see the result. Asthetically we are going backwards.

I am so tired of the reverence and the he-is-beyond sainthood groveling shown FLW. Yes, he had great designs, but every one of his homes had problems with foundations and roof leakage. Great designer, arrogant architect, self-anointed god of construction.

FLW fans should pull up the old Mike Wallace Interview episode where he interviews FLW. It was 1958 or 59 so young Wallace smokes the whole time, but it was interesting to get a feel for FLW's temperament and humor. He passed shortly after the interview. Priceless!!

Great house Ken! Thank you for sharing

Almost as if the hill didn't want to be taken over.

Listen, his houses were and remain ugly and they are dark and uncomfortable. Its a case of who you know and he knew alot of people who would pay for an ugly house live in it and then spend their lifes telling everyone what a genius he was because they were too embarrassed to admit " i spent a fortune on this ugly cold house and now i feel like a simp

As a mechanical engineer, I’m no expert on architecture, but FLW gets a lot of fanboys (and girls). Some of his stuff is very beautiful. I’m especially impressed by Fallingwater. I know it was falling apart and had to be completely refurbished but that was after 70 yrs. The only reason why it exists today is because the original owners son donated it to PA for use as a museum. They could afford the cost of preservation and restoration.
But what bothers me about FLW is his character. He was a philanderer of the worst kind, many times with ogle eyed young students who were lured by his fame. For me this cannot be overlooked. I think the drama around this house could have been avoided had he stayed faithful to his marriage vows.

Great job, Mr. Ken. The reported murders demonstrate the deep failures within 'Honor Cultures'. It's one more reason we humans can never grow up. Question : is there or has there ever been an accurate listing of this wonderful man's projects, And where would one look to find such?