Taliesin West, which is open to public tours, served as the desert home, studio, and architectural campus for Frank Lloyd Wright, one of America ‘s top architects. Wright’s works include the Guggenheim Museum in New York City , Johnson Wax Building in Racine , Wis. , and Fallingwater house in Pennsylvania , plus Gammage Auditorium at Arizona State University in Tempe .
Wright purchased several hundred acres of undeveloped desert land in the foothills of McDowell Mountains north of Scottsdale in 1937 with plans to establish Taliesin West as a place to escape the harsh winters at his original Taliesin in Wisconsin .
Taliesin West served as Wright’s architectural laboratory, a place to test design innovations, structural ideas and building details, until his death in 1959 at the age of 91. He also established an apprenticeship program on the site, and Taliesin West serves as the home of the Wright archives and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
Tours take visitors through the studio and Wright home, and there are both general and specialty tours, including tours for school-age children and nighttime tours.
Address: 12621 North Frank Lloyd Wright Blvd. Scottsdale, AZ 85259
Website: http://www.franklloydwright.org/fllwf_web_091104/Tours.html