Taliesin

This is an AWESOME tour, especially if you get the tour guide we had, John. Learning so many details about the personality of Wright really sets this tour apart. Traveling through the entire estate was really an experience, and we even saw one of the elder architects who lives on the premises at work in the studio.

We were able to stay at a nearby golf resort (though we didn’t have a chance to golf) which was decorated largely with Wright designs – the carpeting, wall paper, etc. Very beautiful (though not overwrought) with a nice pool, etc.

To quote Monty Python on Camelot, ”’tis a silly place”. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t visit. If you’re a fan of Frank Lloyd Wright, this is a pilgrimage you need to make.

If you’re in the area be sure to see the Unitarian Meeting House (http://www.fusmadison.org/mh/facilities.shtml) and the 4+ Wright houses in the Madison area. Also worth seeing is Louis Sullivan’s Bradley House in Madison.

I give tours of a house designed by FLLW and have visited many other Wright sites, but neither Taliesin (yet).

I went through a period of revering FLW, but given the deplorable state of the American suburbs, and the obvious negative effects on society and the environment that suburbanization brings, I find Wright’s Utopian vision flawed. Nevertheless, I still love to look at and visit his buildings. I’ve been all over Oak Park and other Chicago neighborhoods, been up and down the Guggenheim numerous times, took the tour at Falling Water, and visited a planned community of “Usonian” homes in Upstate New York that never quite flourished. Taliesin would be a great addition to that checklist.