We traveled to Taliesin West in Northeast Scottsdale today and did the first two of our four scheduled tours.
Taliesen West (pronounced Tal-ee-s-an) is the western home and architecture school of Frank Lloyd Wright, the noted architect.
Taliesin West was Wright's winter home and school in the desert from 1937 until his death in 1959 at the age of 91. Today it is the main campus of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture and houses the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. The site drew its name from Wright's summer home, Taliesin, in Spring Green, Wisconsin. The origin of the name is Welsh, meaning “Shining Brow”, a reference to the campus being set in the brow of the adjoining McDowell Mountains. Here is some additional information about the site:
We arrived at the site around 3:00 pm for our first tour, the "Insights" tour, at 4:00 pm. This "Insights Tour" was the basic overview tour; we visited most of the buildings in the main campus. We did not go into some of the buildings that are being used by the active students and associated faculty and staff such as the drafting workshop and dining area. There are presently 16 architectural students enrolled here, in the country's smallest accredited university which offers undergraduate and masters degrees in architectural design. Last year the school had 350 applicants and accepted only a very few who were able to meet the high qualifications. It has a full 12-month-a-year program with time split between the main campus at Taliesin in Wisconsin in the Summer and at Taliesin West in the Winter. First year students mostly live in "shepherd's tents" on 8' x 8' concrete pads in the desert area surrounding the campus. Some also live in shelters either designed or modified by themselves as part of their self-paced curriculum.
After the first tour, we had a short break before the "Night Lights Tour" which gave a different perspective to our earlier tour. Both tours were excellent and are well worth the visit. We are coming back tomorrow for two more tours. The first tour is a 90 minute "Desert Walk" which is a guided tour of the trails surrounding the campus. The second tour is a 2-hour tour of the desert "shelters" built and lived-in by the students. This tour is led by some of the students and should be very interesting.
Day 11 Pictures
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