This summer Scott and I had a chance to visit and stay at the David and Gladys Wright House, one of Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpieces in Phoenix, Arizona. The spiraled house was built by the one and only Frank Lloyd Wright, an American architect known for designing structures in harmony with humanity and its environment (or as he called it, "organic architecture"). This house was built for Frank's son, David, and his wife, Gladys. They lived in this wondrous residence until the age of 102 and 104, respectively. The residence was eventually passed down to a real estate developer who was to demolish it. However, by sheer luck, the demolisher, ready in his tractor, had a feeling the house was special and called the city to inquire. Turns out, the home was a heritage designated site and the demolition was canceled. On June 8th, it was announced that the beautiful structure (owned by a very sweet Zach Rawling) would be donated to the School of Architecture at Taliesin (formerly known as the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture), where it will be used as a living laboratory for architecture students.
June 8th was also Frank Lloyd Wright's 150th anniversary, and to celebrate, Zach brought on my beautiful and wonderful friend Jihan Zencirli (of Geronimo Balloons) to create a giant art installation on top of the historic house. We packed our bags, flew in, helped build the installation and slept that night INSIDE the house (which hadn't been done since the granddaughters lived there).
Scott and I had a great time sneaking some photos in. We couldn't resist!
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Fun fact: Bringing on Jihan and her company was originally inspired by a central art piece that lies within the home. A colorful rug, designed by Wright and adorned with circular balloon-like designs, runs along the floors of the house. In times of celebration, the Wright children would traditionally open presents on the rug and celebrate with balloons.