When Wright struck out on his own, he continued monitoring the execution of his buildings to various degrees. His long career included designing over 1,000 buildings while having over 50% of them constructed. He did not oversee all of them personally (which would not be humanly impossible given that volume) but was far more than solely a designer. Being charitable, I would estimate that less than 50% of buildings architects design get built today and of these maybe 1% of these architects are responsible for the building of their designs.

This is the fourth post in a weekly series debunking the myth that Frank Lloyd Wright was only an architect. In fact, based on my research, he was first and foremost a builder. Here is a link to the first article in the series.

Wright wrote to a colleague “I am a builder” when describing himself and what he embodied. His designs certainly had a degree of experimentation, and this expectedly resulted in some imperfections and lessons learned along the way. For those innovating and pushing the boundaries of what is possible a learning curve is inevitable, yet Wright embraced accountability for his creations by coming full circle.

Photos by S C Johnson Company
Wright supervised the structural test on innovative columns he designed for the Johnson Wax office building in Wisconsin.

In 1931, Frank Lloyd Wright stated his intentions for a school to be built on the philosophy of “Learn by Doing”. He started the school on the family farm he’d inherited, which was already his home and studio (named Taliesin) and in 1938 he purchased additional land in Scottsdale, Arizona as a sister location. The school operated in Wisconsin (Taliesin East) in the summers and Scottsdale, Arizona (Taliesin West) in the winters.

Just as he had been taught, at both locations Wright implemented the ethos of “Learn by Doing” by building on the land with his students, whom he referred to as apprentices. His apprentices helped him build the school in exchange for education and valuable experience. In Arizona, as they helped build more permanent residences, apprentices lived in tents and began to design, build, and live in structures they created too. This tradition lives on today as students of the School of Architecture at Taliesin design and build their own structures as part of the curriculum.

Photo by Deb Nystrom
Apprentices clearing land for construction in Scottsdale Arizona for Taliesin West.

Concurrent to having his apprentices learn by doing (building the campus) Wright encouraged clients to use his firm as the general contractor and would assign apprentices to supervise building projects. A bright way to maintain oversight and ensure the product was obtained as intended, despite the high volume.

This document, showing how Wright encouraged clients to have his firm oversee construction was shared with me by Clinton Cole. If you want to see a team carrying the “architect and builder as one” torch forward today, start with them.

No doubt, Frank Lloyd Wright was a builder at heart. From his youth to adolescence to his formal career, he always considered himself as such. This was key at a time when the definition of an architect was in the midst of being downgraded to that of solely a designer.

My company, while striving for 100%, has averaged 80% historically of our designs being built and 100% of them have been built by us. This is because we share Wright’s mindset of architects who build; thinking about the build while one is designing and being fully responsible for the product – not just plans – but a built building.

Next week I discuss Wright’s role as a true architect, one that builds as well as designs.