Taliesin West

Frank Lloyd Wright s home and desert laboratory has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This book, the first of its kind in decades, celebrates that recognition and offers a new look at this world treasure.

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An extraordinary house and compound of buildings that complements the cactus-studded environs and rolling hills of the Scottsdale desert in Arizona, Taliesin West is Wright s ode to desert living and one of his greatest and most visited venues. Here, amidst mesquite trees and scorpions, the visitor finds an oasis of sparkling pools and low-slung modernistic buildings that are uniquely suited to the site indeed a veritable paradise that seems to have emerged from the wilderness. The expression of profound vision and the product of determination, artistry, and imagination, here Wright brought forth a masterpiece from the elements of the earth. Begun in 1937, the house served as a place of exploration, a place of work, a place of camaraderie and culture, and a place of living for Wright, for his family, and for the apprentices of the Taliesin Fellowship, who had joined the architect to learn and to work with him side-by-side. A most unusual place and community, Wright s legacy lives on even today. The book explores the structures that make up Wright s desert masterpiece, from Garden Room to to Cabaret Theatre, and delves into the many stories that have made the place at once a crucible for creation and a home.