Frank Lloyd Wright (born Frank Lincoln Wright; June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was a famous American architect from the early 20th century. He designed all kinds of buildings including banks, holiday resorts, office buildings, churches, a synagogue, a gas station, a beer garden and an art museum.
Wright designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 532 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in peace with humanity and its environment. He called his belief organic architecture. He used this technique for his design for Fallingwater (1935), which has been called "the best all-time work of American architecture". Wright was a leader of the Prairie School movement of architecture and developed the image of the Usonian home, his one-of-a-kind vision for urban planning in the United States.
He began an American style of building design and is said to be one of the greatest architects of the twentieth century.
Wright was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin on June 8, 1867 to a farming family.
His work includes original and creative examples of many building types. Wright also designed many of the interior elements of his buildings, such as the furniture and stained glass. Wright authored 20 books and many articles and was a popular lecturer in the United States and in Europe.
His colorful personal life often made headlines, most notably for the 1914 fire and murders at his Taliesin studio. Already well known during his lifetime, Wright was recognized in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects as "the greatest American architect of all time."
Wright died on April 9, 1959 in Phoenix, Arizona from surgical complications. He was 91 years old.
Early life
Frank Lloyd Wright was born in the farming town of Richland Center, Wisconsin, United States, on June 8, 1867. He was born Frank Lincoln Wright. His father, William Carey Wright (1825–1904), was a locally admired speaker, music teacher, sometimes a lawyer, and minister. William Wright had met and married Anna Lloyd Jones (1838/39 – 1923), a county school teacher of Welsh descent, the previous year when he was employed as the superintendent of schools for Richland County.
The Wright family moved from Richland Center to Weymouth, Massachusetts. Afterwards, The Wright Family struggled financially in Weymouth and returned to Spring Green, Wisconsin. They settled in Madison. Although William was a distant parent, he shared his love of music, especially the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, with his children.
Wright attended a Madison High School, but there is no evidence he ever graduated. He was admitted to the University of Wisconsin–Madison as a special student in 1886. There he joined Phi Delta Theta fraternity, took classes part-time for two semesters, and worked with a professor of civil engineering, Allan D. Conover. He moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1887.
Early career
Wright did not get along well with other draftsmen. He wrote that several violent events happened between them during the first years of his apprenticeship. Afterwards many other draftsmen showed very little respect for his employees as well. In spite of this, "Sullivan took [Wright] under his wing and gave him great design responsibility." As an act of respect, Wright would later refer to Sullivan as Lieber Meister (German for "Dear Master"). Wright also formed a bond with office foreman Paul Mueller. Wright would later engage Mueller to build several of his public and commercial buildings between 1903 and 1923.
As Wright began to work on residential projects for Adler & Sullivan. Wright designed his houses on his own time. Sullivan knew nothing of Wright's works until 1893, when he recognized that one of the houses was a Frank Lloyd Wright design. This particular house, built for Allison Harlan, was only blocks away from Sullivan's townhouse in the Chicago community of Kenwood.
Many examples of his work are in Buffalo, New York as a result of friendship between Wright and Darwin D. Martin. In 1902, the Larkin Company decided to build a new building. Wright came to Buffalo and designed not only the Larkin Administration Building (completed in 1904, demolished in 1950), but also homes for three of the company's executives including the Darwin D. Martin House in 1904. Wright later built their summer home. He also designed the Graycliff Estate, also designed for Darwin D. Martin and his wife, Isabelle.