Frank Lloyd Wright Museum

The AZ libraries have this thing called "culture passes" these are a set of four passes to a handful of different museums and such. You can pick them up on Wed and can check out 1 each week. It is only good for a week but gives you admission for 4 to whatever museum it is you checked out. So last week we went to the Frank Lloyd Wright Museum. The location is called Talison West in Scottsdale. So, this was way cooler than we expected it to be. We learned so much!

One of my favorite facts was that when he started this college it cost over twice what it cost to go to Harvard. He has only accepted 35 students a year...ever. And he makes all his students be all his labor, from working in the kitchen, doing laundry, to building a rode. He felt that through hard work and actually doing things not just thinking about them you would be better able to design what you are looking for.

Ellie just loved having everyone pay attention to her whenever she could.

This was his dinner studio which he had the underground of the stage hollowed out to act as a microphone. He also had this hole dug out to fit the piano which was build with no right corners so that the sound would bounce out acting as if the piano lid was open.

Ellie loves her Matthew. She thought he'd sat that way just to pay attention to her.

Really it was to try out the way the seats were designed so that if you were sitting with your arm around the person next to you and your leg crossed it gave you the perfect view of the stage without neck strain.

He was all about things matching nature and what it looked like before you added the building, his wife however was about things being practical and beautiful adding flowers and grass and other such things.

I love this quote he had in the theater!

Ellie loved to walk up and down the stairs of the stage while the docent talked to us.

I loved the lines of the bell tower. He rang the bell and expected all to come promptly or not eat until the next meal. It was something held strictly to.

He created this dark room as a fire safety. He was obsessed with fire safety.

Ellie hung out watching for every opportunity to get out of her stroller, I looked for every opportunity to put her back in.

This is the kids in front of the main compound building. Since this is a live in school all food was prepared here in the kitchen. The view used to look out from here but he was so disgusted with the above ground power lines he reoriented his buildings to face a different direction to avoid that view.

He hated it when people would linger in doorways, so he would make the doors shapes as uncomfortable as possible so that people would not linger in them. He also hated the feeling of being boxed in a room so he was always looking for ways to change the shape of a room from a box to something else.

He was an artist as a designer always trying the newest stuff, whether it worked well or not, he was famous for his leaking roofs, coming in over budget and way behind schedule. Yet he did things with his designs that people still want to learn from his style because of.

It really was a lot of fun to learn about his as a designer/artist and person.