Design Style by Robert Green
Architect AIA
Nevertheless,
twenty five years after the death of Mr Wright, the last Mrs Wright died
(I think that she lived to be 84). I understand that in her will she
required that Mr Wright's remains be exhumed, cremated, and mixed
with her ashes; and then taken to Arizona and kept there at
Taliesin West in an urn, away from Wisconsin, his place of birth.
The day Frank Lloyd Wright died, several apprentices left
with a roar of screeching tires and desert dust, the ink not even dry on
the death certificate. I believe that they felt there was nothing
there for them anymore.
But I stayed for awhile, and a month later we began the
leisurely meander across the country to Spring Green, Wisconsin.
I drove with two others north to the Grand Canyon, around
it into Utah and Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, then up to Salt
Lake and into the Tetons and Yellowstone, where we turned east and visited
all the Wright buildings from there to Spring Green, Wisconsin, the site
of Taliesin North. I was there about three weeks before Mrs Wright
showed up.
A week later my best friend there, Harold Long, was
called up to the main house to see Gene Masselink. I went with him.
This was the first time I had seen Gene since Mr.
Wright's death. He looked like he'd aged ten years, at least. (Gene
was to die two years later) Possibly it was because he had spent
thirty years with Mr Wright and was left with, what? nothing? Or
possibly it was his love for Mr Wright and his loss? Or maybe it was
because others had all the power and the wealth and they were forcing this
nice man to do things he hated, because he had no other place to go.
He had spent his life with Frank Lloyd Wright.
"I'm glad you came with him, Bob. Mrs Wright wanted
me to ask the two of you were you were yesterday, her first Sunday
home. She said that you should have been here for the Sunday meal,
her first Sunday back in Wisconsin."
I thought, were we to be prisoners now?
"We were in Madison. Looking at the houses of Mr
Wright," I said with anger.
Wesley Peters, who had been Mr. and Mrs Wright's son in
law and, I was to learn later, a good architect (and, it seemed to me,
angry that Gene had been required to ask the question) then said, "Well,
that should explain that to anybody's satisfaction!"
Gene then asked Harold if his wife was going to be coming
to Wisconsin. Harold told Gene that his wife, Rene, was going to
stay in Phoenix, teaching school there. They could not afford for
the two of them to pay Taliesin as they had the previous year.
"Well, in that case, Mrs Wright said that you would have
to leave the Fellowship. She didn't want to take a chance of
breaking up your marriage, she said."
"It won't be breaking up the marriage. Rene will
simply stay in Phoenix working until we move back there six months from
now."
"I'm sorry, but Mrs Wright was adamant. Either you
pay for both of you, or you'll both have to go."
"I can't afford to pay for both."
"Well, I'm sorry..."
With me getting more angry by the second. It was
obvious that Mrs Wright was kicking Harold and Rene out, two of the nicest
people I'd ever met, not to mention that Harold loved architecture and had
talent. And everybody loved Rene.
"Well, Gene," Harold said, "will you write me up an
official letter saying how long I had studied here? I'll need it
later when I go to get my architectural license."
"Be glad to Harold. And I am sorry..." And I could
tell that Gene was, for he was a nice person and did this only on
orders.
"Hey, Gene," I said, "make me out one of those letters, too, if you will. I think I'll leave with Harold." Now that there was no longer a Frank Lloyd Wright there, it did seem as though there was no reason to remain longer.
Wesley Peters
looked sad when I said I would be leaving, but he said nothing. I
think he already knew some of what was coming.
(Mrs Wright made many changes to the architecture at
Taliesin West, most of which, after she died, Wesley Peters intended to
change back to the original construction of Frank Lloyd Wright. No,
Mrs Wright was not an architect! Even though once she told me
that she had "given Mr Wright many of his best ideas.")
Of the men and women who studied with Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin, I would say that most of those with talent stayed until they got what they wanted--or until they could stand it no more--and then they went away. Most of the ones who stayed forever at Taliesin, other than Gene Masselink and Wesley Peters and one or two others, did because they had found a home, I assume.
Much has been written about how irascible Frank Lloyd Wright was, how obnoxious he could be, and how demanding he was of his clients. He was not that way to us, his students, for I never saw any of that. And his demands were mostly upon himself, pushing himself to design the finest building he could.
Of course, Frank Lloyd Wright was a salesman, too. After all, when he debarked the plane at Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh's mayor asked him what he thought of their great city, it would be bad advertising to say, "Oh, fine, great, wonderful." No! But it would be terrific advertising when what he said was printed on the front of the Pittsburgh newspapers this way, "Frank Lloyd Wright says that Pittsburgh should be abandoned." Or, about Chicago, "Frank Lloyd Wright says that Chicago needs another great fire so that all our ugly buildings are burned to the ground and we can start over with his designs."
Now that's front page stuff, that's advertising!
But, it also made many people wonder and think that Frank Lloyd Wright was hard to get along with. And sometimes Mr Wright was his own worst enemy. One story which may be true exemplifies this: It seems that a friend of Mr Wright was in the government and wanted to get Mr Wright some government work. He thought if he could obtain an appointment for Mr. Wright with the president, that the charming Frank Lloyd Wright would induce FDR into pushing a government building or two his way. And so, as the story goes, he managed to get that appointment, and Frank Lloyd Wright went in to see Franklin Delano Roosevelt and as he walked up to the President, Mr Wright said, "Hi, Frank..."
But Roosevelt didn't allow his own wife to call him Frank!
Needless to say, Frank Lloyd Wright did not get any government work out of FDR.
But, whatever personality Frank Lloyd Wright may have shown outside the Fellowship, he was the greatest architect the world has ever known, and, in time, will be put up there and mentioned in the same breath as Michelangelo, the greatest sculptor. And the little time I was at Taliesin, I learned more about architecture than all the time spent at Georgia Tech and the University of California.
I owe to Mr Wright a great deal of gratitude for taking me in and teaching me so many of the great principles which governed his design. And I ended up loving Frank Lloyd Wright more than any man I have ever known except my father.
A reporter once said to Frank Lloyd Wright, "Mr Wright, I may be asking a question impossible to answer, but I would appreciate it if you would try. Of all the many hundreds of buildings that you have designed, which is the best one?"
"Oh, young man, that's easy to answer: the next one, of course."
What a wonderful and hopeful way to approach anything!
And the way I like to feel, too: of all the buildings I have designed, I plan for the next one to be my best.
Robert Green
