Archinect - Features

From Bauhaus to Wright’s House: Can Taliesin Learn From the Past?

2020-05-07T17:28:00-04:00

In 1933, with mounting pressure from the Nazi Party to end the making and teaching of “degenerate art,” the allied art institution known as the Bauhaus was forced to close. During its 14 years in operation, the Bauhaus faced constant opposition by German conservative politics of the time that accused the faculty and students of being radicals and viewed the school’s pedagogy of uniting art, craft, and industry as an attack on national cultural traditions. Yet, despite such hostility, the school managed to survive two forced relocations, the leadership of three different directors, and still set off the most important and ubiquitous artistic movement of the past century. As a kindred American institution, the School of Architecture at Taliesin (SOAT), currently faces a similar fate of closure, one must wonder what the shuttering of the Bauhaus can teach us today.

SoAT Cannot Close Part II: How Students and Faculty Were Silenced

2020-03-25T13:57:00-04:00

Continuing Archinect’s ongoing coverage of the closing of the School of Architecture at Taliesin (SoAT), Archinect spoke with a current first-year SoAT student, Alex Martinec. This interview comes in light of the recent letter from Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation’s CEO Stuart Graff outlining their decision to let the Foundation’s agreement of SoAT expire at the end of July 2020. The move by the Foundation cements the planned closure of the school. In an effort to bring additional student perspectives to the events surrounding the school’s closure, Alex shares with us what it was like inside Taliesin as news of the planned closure broke in January and sheds light on efforts by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation to muzzle outcry from students and staff to the closure.

This article is the second in a series titled The School of Architecture at Taliesin Cannot Close. The first installment, which collects reflections from recently graduated students and highlights their final thesis project...

The School of Architecture at Taliesin Cannot Close: Testimonies From Recent Graduates

2020-03-12T13:46:00-04:00

Archinect has collected responses from several School of Architecture at Taliesin (SoAT) students in light of recent events at the schools. The responses highlight the self-built pavilions SoAT students are expected to complete as part of their final thesis project.

Can the School of Architecture at Taliesin Still Be Saved?

2020-02-06T12:05:00-05:00

It has been one week since the School of Architecture at Taliesin (SoAT) made the public announcement that, at the end of this academic season, it would officially close after 88 years of training architects. In the days since, we’ve seen dueling editorials from members of the School Board and the President of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, opinions by former students and instructors, a beautifully written and heartfelt letter from the current student body, and an enormous outpouring of support for the unique and often mythic institution. Even with so much attention, the question still remains: Can the School of Architecture at Taliesin still be saved?

Extra Extra: Desert Dispatch

2019-05-03T12:46:00-04:00

Soon I will finish my appointment as the Visiting Teaching Fellow at the School of Architecture at Taliesin. I thought it would be fun to share a bit of what is happening here. We are wrestling back the legacy of American modernist Frank Lloyd Wright’s radical dedication to progressive experimental architecture from Froebel® Blocks, LEGO® sets, and stained glass tchotchkes from the desert enclave of Taliesin West. It feels like every architect I talk to has a small pom-pom in their pocket they are secretly waving, and to those cheers I offer the following work.

A Fib Built of Stones, Light & Aluminum, kind of; A Conversation with Richard Quittenton

2019-01-11T11:11:00-05:00

Thesis Review is a collection of conversations, statements and inquiries into the current state of thesis in academia. Thesis projects give a glimpse into the current state of the academic arena while painting a picture for the future of practice.

Each feature will present a contemporary thesis project through the voice of those that constructed it. This week, we talk to Richard Quittenton, and his thesis produced at The School of Architecture at Taliesin.

Rethinking Frank Lloyd Wright: Thoughts from a trip through the Rustbelt

2017-09-07T12:00:00-04:00

While in New York this July I visited MoMA’s retrospective of Frank Lloyd Wright, ‘Unpacking the Archive’, an extensive collection of Wright’s production to celebrate his 150 year anniversary. Despite his revered position as America’s protégé architect and seminal figure—and having studied his work in the past—a number of surprising and unexpected thoughts from the show stuck with me during my subsequent month-long journey through the American Midwest. Both a pioneer of radical experimentation and a deep-rooted member of the status quo, Wright’s projects draw from many cultural histories and are, at times, divisive. But is it time the architecture press retires from reinventing Frank Lloyd Wright, the tireless self-publicist, and instead focuses the spotlight elsewhere? I discuss my thoughts with architect, cultural historian and Wright scholar Mabel O. Wilson, who currently teaches architectural history and theory at Columbia GSAAP.

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Working Life: Does Taliesin’s collaborative and pedagogical domesticity suit the 21st century?

2016-08-10T12:45:00-04:00

Founded at a time when Frank Lloyd Wright was floundering financially, Taliesin’s blend of education and site-bound intimacy has created a custom domesticity. As the site for the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, Taliesin combines both passion and white-knuckled acumen, teaching its student inhabitants to thrive with scarce resources and a generous community.

Aaron Betsky, dean of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, lays out Taliesin's legacy in architecture education

2016-07-06T12:08:00-04:00

When Aaron Betsky started his deanship at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, the historic school was in a difficult spot. Under new requirements by the Higher Learning Commission, if it didn’t raise $2 million to become a separate institution from its funding organization, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, it would lose accreditation and have to shut down. By late December of 2015, less than a year into his deanship and just under the fundraising deadline, Betsky helped the school reach its goal.