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Previous Issues > June 2007 > All About Art > Architecture As Art
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 All About Art
Architecture As Art
published: June 2007
By Tamar Burris, Contributing Writer
Email Author
Frank Lloyd Wright believed that a beautiful building could change a person's life. A talented artist and designer, Wright is known as one of the most important American architects of the 20th century.
 Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin, on June 8, 1867. His father was a minister, and his mother, Anna, was a teacher. As a child, Wright spent hours playing with a set of wooden building blocks that Anna had given him. After becoming a famous architect, Wright told people that playing with these blocks had taught him to understand patterns in nature and design.
Wright and his family moved around a lot when he was a boy. However, he spent most summers in Wisconsin on Anna's family farm. The beauty of the farm inspired Wright in his art, and he decided to attend college in Wisconsin. In 1887, he left college after just two years and moved to Chicago. There he took a drawing job in an architectural office. A year later, Wright moved to Adler & Sullivan, where he studied under Louis Sullivan. Wright called Sullivan his beloved master because Sullivan taught him so much about architecture. In 1893, Wright started his own firm so that he could explore exciting, new approaches to architecture. Wrights work was based on nature because he felt that all man-made structures should be a part of the environment where they are built. A home in the woods, for example, should be made of wood.
Throughout his 70-year career, Wright designed more than 1,100 original structures. Of his completed works, more than 300 are still standing including the Fallingwater house, a home he built in the 1930s that has a stream and waterfall running beneath it!
While Wright is remembered for his geometric structures and use of interesting building materials, he did not just design buildings. He also created furniture and glass art and wrote numerous books about organic architecture.
Wright died on April 9, 1959, at the age of 91.
Written by Tamar Burris, a former elementary school teacher who now works as a freelance writer and curriculum developer for PBS, the Discovery Channel and other education-related companies. Sources: Exploring Frank Lloyd Wright: A Film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, www.pbs.rg/flw; Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust, www.wrightplus.org; Prairie Styles: Frank Lloyd Wright, www.prairiestyles.com/wright.htm; The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, www.franklloydwright.org.
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