Phoenix, AZ, May 2024 —

Taliesin West metaphorically doubles as an treasured national park and an art museum in the dessert northeast of downtown Phoenix. The landscape is beautiful around this home and workshop built by Frank Lloyd Wright between 1938 and 1941 and situated to enjoy the landscape with the imposition of the sea of suburbia that currently surrounds it. Technically, this home and workshop in the McDowell Mountains is a World Heritage Site. The nonprofit Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation runs the site and offers tours daily.

The Arizona desert is hot, and so visitors are offered umbrellas for personal shade while going between buildings, which were residential, communal, entertainment or workspaces. Built before air conditioning was popular, the buildings have shady overhangs and patios. Everyone is given headphones and access to an app that gives one control of their tour of the property.

The first building on the tour is Wright’s personal workshop and office, and inviting and yet professional space. You can imaging discussing a building project with the architect. Following on, you see the living space that Wright and his wife inhabited until his death in 1959.

Seating is built into the living room in smart and simple ways, and you can feel the creativity that went into making a home. Note the stool and the beautiful patio outside the living room.

There is a style that dominates the entire property, and work and living areas do look somewhat the same. These images show that, but the feeling is not boredom but comfort. I felt these spaces I could use. And as we relaxed and walked through the rooms, we noticed details that were pleasant, geometric and interesting.

The last room on the tour was a theater or lounge with a more cosy, intimate and darker space. Wright loved watching movies and this space was used for that and talent show for his workshop apprentices. The details here are recognizable, expected but still interesting.