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Biography of Frank Lloyd Wright Essay

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Biography of Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright was arguably one of the best architects of the 19th and 20th centuries. His works ranged from traditional buildings typical to the late 1800’s to ultramodern designs (Official Site 1). He had a great knowledge of the land and his buildings were practical in terms of their surroundings. Wright’s appreciation and love for nature was a key characteristic, and a strong influence in his architecture. Frank Lloyd Wright was born in 1867 in Richland Center, Wisconsin (Hunt 180). He was brought up by his mother, Anna, and his aunts and uncles on farmland near Spring Green, Wisconsin. His father had abandoned the family in 1885 (Encarta 1). He studied engineering briefly at the …show more content…

He advised his apprentices: “study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you (Frank Lloyd 2).” He said once, “You spell it with a ‘G’ don’t you? I spell nature with an ‘N’…I put a capital ‘N’ on nature and call it my church (Williams Students 1).” One of the works that he is most recognized for is a house built for Edgar J. Kaufmann, called Fallingwater. Built in 1936, it is notable for it’s relationship with the environment and for bringing the outdoors inside. The structure appears to emerge from the rocks above, and the waterfall below (Encarta 3). Wright insisted that buildings grow naturally from their surroundings. The house dramatically hangs over a waterfall, and a staircase from the living room leads down to it - bringing the outdoors inside.
For his own home, Taliesin, in Oak Park, Illinois, Wright made a home that would become famous for it’s relationship between the man, the structure, and the land (Wieshan 27).
He recognized every aspect of the land, and worked around the natural surroundings. On most of his sketches for his buildings he would show gradient lines to show the incline of the site. In Fallingwater, a beam is made to go around a tree, for the purpose of leaving the tree stand rather than to cut it down. Wright preached the beauty of nature, and was also very respectful of it with the use of his materials. The materials that he used were natural, such as stone, brick, and wood. In Frank Lloyd

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