Table by Frank Lloyd Wright, 1917

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.