Having finally visited Frank Lloyd Wright’s Oak Park, Illinois houses last winter, the Hollyhock and Ennis houses in Los Angeles and Taliesin in Wisconsin last year, I recently took one more fresh tour, the Insights tour, through his ingenious Taliesin West. Wright’s winter camp is located in Scottsdale, Arizona, though the docent pointed out that he probably wouldn’t have put it there today had he known what the local government would do.
What they did was mar the landscape he had worked so diligently to study, examine, research, consider, develop and integrate into his unique vision for the art of living he called modern architecture.
Where Wright and his fellowship of apprentices had built a home, lab and place in sloping stone walls, redwood beams and sand to align with the foothills of the McDowell Mountains in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert, the government has since made several changes including above-ground utility poles and other decisions he would have considered transgressions against art, nature and man. But then the docent on my recent tour, a student whose father is an architect who studied with Wright, pointed out that Wright thought traffic lights were also against man’s nature, too.
Wright created great American treasures from the Johnson Wax Building in Racine, Wisconsin, and an iconic Rodeo Drive building in Beverly Hills to New York’s Guggenheim Museum and Fallingwater in western Pennsylvania. He had discovered Arizona in 1927, when he was contracted to design the Arizona Biltmore. Wright moved to the Grand Canyon State, staying each winter season, until he died in 1959.
He wrote about his design for Taliesin West:
I was struck by the beauty of the desert, by the dry, clear sun-drenched, air, by the stark geometry of the mountains, the entire region was an inspiration in strong contrast to the lush, pastoral landscape of my native Wisconsin. And out of that experience, a revelation is what I guess you might call it, came the design for these buildings. The design sprang out of itself, with no precedent and nothing following it.”
Pools, terraces, icicles, dragons, towers, gardens, theaters and living quarters – where I spotted his copy of Animal Farm by George Orwell – are masterfully forged into an angled camp that adheres to his philosophy that buildings be bathed in warm, natural light. Refusing to make it on a strict north-south axis, he once explained to an archivist that tilting the design off the direct compass points sunlight and shade throughout Taliesin West’s rooms and views all year long. Looking toward the Camelback Mountains and over Paradise Valley, he found in this land the wonders of what was once an ocean floor, accentuating unusual Cholla and Staghorn cactus for their resemblance to strange corals.
As Wright wrote in 1937:
We must believe architecture to be the living spirit
that made these buildings what they were.
It is a spirit by and for man,
a spirit of time and place.
And we must perceive architecture,
if we are to understand it at all,
to be a spirit of the spirit of man
that will live as long as man lives…
These buildings were wrested
by his tireless energy from the earth
and erected in the eye of the sun.
It was originally the conscious creation,
out of man himself, of a higher self.
His building, in order to be architecture,
was the true spirit of himself made manifest…
Each place at Taliesin West, from the sculpture garden to the cabaret, dining room – even the parking lot – bears the mark of Frank Lloyd Wright and must be seen to be fully experienced and appreciated. My pictures are just that. Some photography is forbidden due to copyright issues. There is much to enjoy and explore at Taliesin West. This was my second visit. Each time, I gain something of value. I plan to visit again. Like almost everything in the desert and the American West, it offers strange beauty, grand vistas of earth and sky and it brings out the best in man.
Tours currently range in time from 90 minutes to three hours, and from $24 to $75, with some requiring reservations in advance and most available for booking on site. Tour availability, hours, seasonal and adult/child/handicapped access issues are all addressed on the Web site: FrankLloydWright.org
Accredited architectural undergraduate and master’s degrees are also available through studies at Taliesin West. Tuition is $30,000 for each program. Competition for admission is strong, though applicants with advanced critical thinking and graphic arts skills are encouraged to apply for admission. The Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, divided into two season sessions at Taliesin West (October through May) and Taliesin (May through October), is a 12-month calendared, year-round program which requires residency on the campus. For more information, call the director of admissions at (480) 627-5345 or visit Taliesin.edu.
Mine was another southwestern Christmas at The Boulders in Arizona. As one of two of the nation’s best Phoenix metropolitan area resorts (the other is the Arizona Biltmore), The Boulders offers a unique resort experience which is what I wanted. With tennis, golf, trails, swimming and fitness programs on a sprawling property that straddles Scottsdale and a small Western town called Carefree, The Boulders, owned and operated by the Hilton-owned Waldorf-Astoria brand, is best for healthy restoration and athletic activity.
Spread over acres of desert with the resort lodge, individual casitas, walking trails, three heated pools and hot tubs, golf course and clubhouse, tennis courts and adjacent shopping village – not to mention the privately owned Boulders houses on the property – the main attraction are the big boulders scattered across the land where they’ve been for millions and millions of years. As if there’s not enough to do on site, and life is slow in Arizona, nearby horseback riding, hiking, shopping and tours are also available. But I recommend staying and walking around, which I did as often as possible. Early morning and sundown are blissful times of day. Late nights under the stars are also inviting. Casita and villa rates range between $200 and $1,200 per night.
For all the luxury, there’s a do it yourself quality to the resort, which takes getting used to. I’ve stayed here before – including a stay during Christmastime – and I’ve been back several times since. It is easy to get lost, especially at night. The place is understated in every way, designed to blend in with the harsh desert landscape. Lighting is minimal at best. There are no streetlights. This is why the stars come out at nightfall. Don’t get caught on the paved paths at night or you’ll risk getting lost. The Boulders is physically huge and service is relatively laissez-faire, which is part of the relaxed, Western ranch style approach to hospitality.
Casitas are individually configured and appointed. Mine was priced on the low end and equipped with a wood-burning fireplace, bench seating, two chairs, a reading lamp, balcony, Keurig coffee maker, iHome alarm clock and docking station, vanity, walk-in closet, wet bar, bathrobes and TV. Besides walking as the primary mode of transportation, everyone including staff uses golf carts to get around, even local Boulders residents, and I stayed on the property at a private home for most of the visit. From the residences, there’s a 5-minute drive over to the lodge if a walk’s not on the agenda. The lodge has two dining facilities with vaunted ceilings, a gift shop with essentials and proprietary merchandise, a bar and a lobby lounge with wood-burning fireplaces. Fires burn indoors and outdoors at the resort’s discretion unless the government’s dictating air quality. An evening performance by a folk singer with a cowboy hat served as Christmas entertainment. Light snacks and sandwiches are available in the lobby bar. There’s no front desk as such. Two desks serve as check-in centers. A concierge and a couple of computers for guest use are a few steps up behind the fireplace.
Step outside the lobby for a heated pool and poolside, fire pits, hot tub, poolhouse and a short trail up to the vista point where most of the property and surrounding environs can be seen. A spa operates separately, so does a golf clubhouse restaurant and pro shop and everyone on staff constantly reminds resident guests and visitors that the resort is separate, too. The a la carte feel is mildly disruptive when trying to relax, read and have a drink or meet for business in the lounge as I did. But once settled in and welcomed, the staff generally adjusts and serves good food, drink and hospitality. There are exceptions, of course. No one seems acquainted with Hilton’s rewards program and how it works. Some are consumed by stating rules of the club, lodge or resort at the expense of a warm welcome. Meals vary in quality but most were excellent.
Besides branding conflicts, figuring out how to navigate the resort and one nasty episode in the lobby with a drunken guest, the Christmas visit was perfectly charming. I swam, hiked, strolled, dined, read, wrote and conducted business in person, by phone and Internet without problems. Besides The Boulders, a small, largely vacant commercial property called El Pedregal is located down the path. El Pedregal is also Hilton-owned. The plaza contains a couple of decent places, too. The Spotted Donkey cantina at El Pedregal has a bar with sports on TV, where I had a hamburger and glass of wine while watching the game, and there’s a Ben & Jerry’s for ice cream cones. I also discovered a delightful family-owned restaurant called Brugo’s Pizza Company at happy hour. The place has delicious desserts, pizza and wine and the owner and staff are the best in town. The views from Brugo’s are amazing.
Again, being among the boulders at The Boulders is the real treat. So, a manic, cram-it-in vacation approach won’t do the resort or your visit justice. If you go, plan ahead and have recharge and backup for GPS and cell phones because you’ll probably get lost on foot, by cart and by car. If you golf, golf. Walk around. Enjoy the desert sights, sounds and smells. Breathe it in and feel good. Roll with whatever crosses your path – woodpeckers, roadrunners, coyotes, deer, snakes, spiders, jackrabbits, lizards, mountain lions – I’ve seen them all at The Boulders, which was first recommended to me decades ago by my friend Sharlee. She was right and it gets better as few places do. It’s not immune from cultural contamination and there’s always room to go up or down in quality – Hilton’s recently had the biggest hotel initial public offering in history – but for stillness, sunshine and moonshine and reenergizing amid desert surroundings with attentive staff and exquisite accommodations, head for The Boulders.
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Where Wright and his fellowship of apprentices had built a home, lab and place in sloping stone walls, redwood beams and sand to align with the foothills of the McDowell Mountains in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert, the government has since made several changes including above-ground utility poles and other decisions he would have considered transgressions against art, nature and man. But then the docent on my recent tour, a student whose father is an architect who studied with Wright, pointed out that Wright thought traffic lights were also against man’s nature, too.
Pools, terraces, icicles, dragons, towers, gardens, theaters and living quarters – where I spotted his copy of Animal Farm by George Orwell – are masterfully forged into an angled camp that adheres to his philosophy that buildings be bathed in warm, natural light. Refusing to make it on a strict north-south axis, he once explained to an archivist that tilting the design off the direct compass points sunlight and shade throughout Taliesin West’s rooms and views all year long. Looking toward the Camelback Mountains and over Paradise Valley, he found in this land the wonders of what was once an ocean floor, accentuating unusual Cholla and Staghorn cactus for their resemblance to strange corals.
Each place at Taliesin West, from the sculpture garden to the cabaret, dining room – even the parking lot – bears the mark of Frank Lloyd Wright and must be seen to be fully experienced and appreciated. My pictures are just that. Some photography is forbidden due to copyright issues. There is much to enjoy and explore at Taliesin West. This was my second visit. Each time, I gain something of value. I plan to visit again. Like almost everything in the desert and the American West, it offers strange beauty, grand vistas of earth and sky and it brings out the best in man.
