Taliesin Tour

Nights on the desert tour. Started off a great night at Regions with the gang, Leslie, Laurel, Louise and Carla, including guys, like new guy Clark, had us cracking up all night Match.com find that can hang with us anytime, the now official one of the girls, invited to the party from now on guy, Russ, and the old guy (not old old, far from that, but just been around the block with this crowd more times than he would like to admit) adorable Shawn.

 We met up with Ronnie for an amazing tour.

Frank Lloyd Wright was truly a genius. A genius that fell in love with the Arizona desert. I can relate to that. I've been fascinated with him for years. I've been to Taliesin before, even to the one in Wisconsin, plus several in Chicago and most of his amazing homes I can find in Phoenix (my favorite is on Tatum, north of Lincoln), but tonight was a real treat. They have recently renovated and opened the personal living quarters for the first time ever and the place looked great. Our guide (who has been working there since the 70's) told a funny story about how FLW testified in court that he was the greatest architect of all time. After he was done, his wife told him that maybe he shouldn't have said that. He said, "But, dear, I was under oath!" We learned all about how important nature was to him and how it influenced every decision. He liked to build things into the "brow" of a hill, instead of on top, so as not to lose the hill. Facing SW, he built his summer home like a ship, sailing into the desert. We discussed "compressing" people out of less than desirable places and moving them to more open spaces. Every little detail was incredible. It was so exciting to sit where he sat, hang out where he had all those parties, go to the theater and acoustically perfect music rooms to go back in time. I've been before, but every guide is different and the one tonight was great. The place gets all of it's water from a well, after all these years, never has hooked up to the city water supply and our guide told us about all of the people from the old days, some in their 80's and 90's, that still live there and are still so productive - so drink up when you're there! It was a gorgeous, fire-breathing dragon kind of night. We had a great crowd. Next up - tour of the interns housing in January.

franklloydwright.org