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?