Chair by Frank-Lloyd Wright, 1908

A brilliant psychologist, Frank Lloyd Wright, became the spokesman for American architecture
around the world. He understood human needs and administered to them through his work.
Above all he sought repose, a restful environment free of tension which catered to the mental
health and happiness of the indwellers. Born in Richland Centre, Wisconsin, in 1890, Wright
not only influenced this area with his Prairie Style architecture, but expanded to Los Angeles,
Phoenix, New York, and eventually beyond the boundaries of the United States. Wright
conceived of the interior space in terms of rooms overlapping and interpenetrating--often at the
corners. Use areas were defined by screening devices and subtle changes in ceiling heights.
For Wright, spaces were defined rather than enclosed, and use was relative to the individual
rather than absolute. Until the outbreak of war in 1914, Wright continually evolved the prairie
house toward greater abstraction in Oak Park, near Chicago. Roofs and balconies gradually
became flat, hovering slabs, and a geometric interplay between verticals and horizontals
replaced an emphasis upon wall. Even his non-residential work reflected this development:
the Larkin Administration Building and Unity Temple reiterated geometric shapes and the
uselessness of a visible roof. In the 1920s in Los Angeles, Wright continued to develop his
architectural vocabulary with cast blocks of concrete. Especially of note are the residences
known as the Hollyhock House for Adine Barnsdall, the Freeman House, and the Ennis-Brown
House in Griffith Park. Each house has its own distinctive signature block design, a natural form
reduced to pure geometry. In 1936 he designed and built both Fallingwater in Connecticut and
the Johnson Administration building. Near Phoenix, Arizona, he built Taliesin West as a winter
retreat. His last project during his long and illustrious life was the Guggenheim Museum in
Manhattan. A circular spiral of a building, the Guggenheim became an icon of New York
architecture.