Last week marked what would have been Frank Lloyd Wright’s 150th birthday. Celebrating the occasion, Zach Rawling and his family donated his Wright-designed home in Phoenix to a foundation under the auspices of the Arizona Community Foundation to benefit the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. 

The house, designed for the architect’s son, was saved from demolition by Rawling and, with its distinctive spiraling ramp, is seen as a precursor to the Guggenheim Museum in New York, according to Aaron Betsky, dean of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture.

The donation “will allow us to use that great legacy to be a living laboratory in which we will figure out how to use what Frank Lloyd Wright taught us about living in the desert Southwest, to make the life in this desert and in this community even better in the future,” said Betsky.

Rawling bought the property back in 2012 for $2.4M in order to save it from demolition. While he wanted to restore the building and turn it into a museum, fear of increased traffic from his neighbors hindered the plans. Now, it will serve as a place for architecture students to do hands-on restoration and renovation projects. 

The school plans to have one or two faculty and perhaps students living there in the fall, as well as a design studio involving seven students working there. Visitors will be allowed when the school holds tours and lectures.

H/T AP