# The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright

The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright is a UNESCO World Heritage Site consisting of eight buildings across the United States designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. These sites demonstrate his philosophy of organic architecture, designing structures that were in harmony with humanity and its environment. Wright's work had an international influence on the development of architecture in the 20th century.

## Background

The architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) was raised in rural Wisconsin and studied civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin. He then apprenticed with noted architects in the Chicago school of architecture, particularly Louis Sullivan. Wright opened his own practice in Chicago in 1893, and developed a home and studio in Oak Park, Illinois. In the 20th century, he became a world-renowned architect.
Through efforts led by the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, a nonprofit organization, Taliesin and Taliesin West were jointly nominated as a World Heritage Site in the late 1980s. The U.S. federal government endorsed the nomination, but UNESCO rejected it because the organization wanted to see a larger nomination with more Wright properties. In 2008, the National Park Service submitted ten Frank Lloyd Wright properties to a tentative World Heritage list. It grew to 11 structures across seven U.S. states in July 2011, out of more than 400 buildings reviewed by Wright experts. The nominated buildings included two of Wright's studios; two office buildings; four private residences; and one museum, church, and government building each. The buildings were selected because they were all also designated as U.S. National Historic Landmarks and because there were preservation plans in place for each building.
The S. C. Johnson & Son Inc. Administration Building and Research Tower in Racine, Wisconsin, was removed from the nomination at the request of its owner. In March 2015, the United States Department of the Interior again nominated ten Wright–designed structures for inclusion on the World Heritage List. UNESCO declined to designate Wright's buildings in July 2016, referring the nomination back to the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy for revision. The Conservancy–led Frank Lloyd Wright World Heritage Council collaborated with the National Park Service and UNESCO to modify the nomination. Eight of Wright's buildings were re-nominated to the World Heritage List in December 2018; the Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, California, were excluded from the proposal. The International Council on Monuments and Sites recommended the nomination's approval in June 2019, and the site was inscribed on the World Heritage list on July 7, 2019. It was the 24th World Heritage listing in the United States to be designated, and it was the first time that modern American architecture had been recognized by UNESCO.

## World Heritage listing

The eight Wright buildings in the World Heritage Site are located in six U.S. states and were designed over a 50-year period. The first building included, Unity Temple, was completed in 1908. The last, the Guggenheim Museum, was completed in 1959, although its design began in the 1940s. All eight buildings are also listed as U.S. National Historic Landmarks. These structures were nominated because, out of all of Wright's buildings, they were deemed "his masterpieces with the highest levels of integrity".
| ID | Name | Location | Description | Coordinates | Property Area [Buffer Zone] |
| 1496rev-001 | Unity Temple | Oak Park, Illinois | Completed in 1908, this unprecedented church building used reinforced concrete in novel ways, creating a light-filled space with natural features. Its use of this single material has caused it to be thought of as the first "modern building" in the world. | 41°53′18″N 87°47′48″W﻿ / ﻿41.88833°N 87.79667°W﻿ / 41.88833; -87.79667 | 0.167 ha (0.41 acres) [10.067 ha (24.88 acres)] |
| 1496rev-002 | Frederick C. Robie House | Chicago, Illinois | This 1910 single-family home is considered a masterpiece of the Prairie School of architecture. Its "broad, sweeping horizontal lines; low, cantilevered roofs with overhanging eaves; and an open interior floor plan, . . . epitomizes Wright's aim to design structures in harmony with nature." A significant contributor to the concept of bringing nature indoors is the 175 leaded glass windows and doors, which feature a design of "abstraction of organic shapes". | 41°47′23.4″N 87°35′45.3″W﻿ / ﻿41.789833°N 87.595917°W﻿ / 41.789833; -87.595917 | 0.130 ha (0.32 acres) [1.315 ha (3.25 acres)] |
| 1496rev-003 | Taliesin | Spring Green, Wisconsin | Begun in 1911 and expanded several times over the years, Taliesin (Welsh for 'shining brow') became Wright's home, studio, and school of architecture. He built the large estate on the brow of a ridge, to be "'of the hill' not on it". It may be his most expansive and longest exploration of the organic theory of architecture and the Prairie School. | 43°08′30″N 90°04′15″W﻿ / ﻿43.14153°N 90.07091°W﻿ / 43.14153; -90.07091 | 4.931 ha (12.18 acres) [200.899 ha (496.43 acres)] |
| 1496rev-004 | Hollyhock House | Los Angeles, California | Wright's first commission in Los Angeles, Hollyhock House (built 1918–1921) was intended to be part of an arts colony and live theater complex in East Hollywood, built when the Southern California movie business was taking off. The work of Wright and his young apprentices became a springboard to what became known as California Modernism. The structure's outdoor gardens and interior spaces are integrated. | 34°05′59.85″N 118°17′40.61″W﻿ / ﻿34.0999583°N 118.2946139°W﻿ / 34.0999583; -118.2946139 | 4.608 ha (11.39 acres) [13.986 ha (34.56 acres)] |
| 1496rev-005 | Fallingwater | Stewart Township, Pennsylvania | Built as a summer home in 1935, Fallingwater epitomizes Wright's ideas of organic architecture. Placed over a stream and waterfall, its cantilevered terraces of rock and geometric reinforced concrete spaces blend with the setting's natural rock formations. Wright wanted the couple that commissioned the work to not just look out at the stream on their summer property but "live with the waterfall . . . as an integral part of [their] lives". The American Institute of Architects has called Fallingwater "the best all-time work of American architecture". | 39°54′22″N 79°28′5″W﻿ / ﻿39.90611°N 79.46806°W﻿ / 39.90611; -79.46806 | 11.212 ha (27.71 acres) [282.299 ha (697.58 acres)] |
| 1496rev-006 | Herbert and Katherine Jacobs House | Madison, Wisconsin | Built during the Great Depression, ideas for the Jacobs House (1937) grew out of an urban planning idea of Wright's that would provide a community of well-built, single-family affordable housing. Wright initially called this aesthetic Usonian, a word coined in the early 1900s for "American". Working within a budget of less than $5000, Wright combined his open design plan, functional spaces, and the use of wood, brick, dyed concrete, and large windows, to match a small landscaped neighborhood lot. | 43°3′31″N 89°26′29″W﻿ / ﻿43.05861°N 89.44139°W﻿ / 43.05861; -89.44139 | 0.139 ha (0.34 acres) [1.286 ha (3.18 acres)] |
| 1496rev-007 | Taliesin West | Scottsdale, Arizona | In 1937 Wright began building his winter home, studio, and architectural fellowship center in the foothills of the Arizona's McDowell Mountains. The property was designed by Wright and his students, and built using timber, locally sourced stone, and a mixed sand concrete. Taliesin West was set within the landscape with overlapping indoor and outdoor rooms, a triangular garden of native plants, and triangular pool. | 33°36′22.8″N 111°50′45.5″W﻿ / ﻿33.606333°N 111.845972°W﻿ / 33.606333; -111.845972 | 4.285 ha (10.59 acres) [198.087 ha (489.48 acres)] |
| 1496rev-008 | Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum | New York, New York | Wright's work for the Guggenheim Foundation in the 1940s and 1950s re-conceived the modern museum building as a place in conversation with the art within. Placed across from Central Park, the spiral structure incorporates the sinuous forms of nature. | 40°46′59″N 73°57′32″W﻿ / ﻿40.782975°N 73.958992°W﻿ / 40.782975; -73.958992 | 0.251 ha (0.62 acres) [2.164 ha (5.35 acres)] |