50 Fun Facts About Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright was born in 1867, but which birth year did he claim throughout his life?

Biographer Brendan Gill also claimed his middle name was originally Lincoln, though no earlier record supports it.

Wright's mother's family, the Lloyd Joneses, had emigrated to Wisconsin from which country?

The family motto, 'The Truth Against the World', came from the Welsh poet Iolo Morganwg; his uncle Jenkin was a leading Midwestern Unitarian.

How did Wright's mother decorate his nursery to nurture an architect?

She believed her first child would grow up to build beautiful buildings, and tore the pictures from periodicals.

Which educational blocks, found by his mother in 1876, did Wright credit with shaping his sense of geometry?

'All are in my fingers to this day,' he wrote of the maple cubes, spheres and triangles.

Wright studied which subject at the University of Wisconsin-Madison before leaving without a degree?

The university gave him an honorary doctorate of fine arts in 1955, when he was 88.

Wright's earliest known work is which building, designed by Silsbee's firm for his uncle in Wisconsin?

He 'looked after the interior' though not officially employed; he now lies, at least nominally, in the cemetery beside it.

Adler & Sullivan hired Wright to draw the interiors of which project?

He later called Sullivan his lieber Meister, 'dear master'.

What did Wright call the independent commissions he secretly designed while under contract to Sullivan?

There were at least nine, mostly Queen Anne or Colonial Revival; the Harlan House gave him away and ended the job.

After the split, how long did Wright and Sullivan go without meeting or speaking?

Wright told two versions of the break: that he walked out, and that Sullivan fired him on the spot.

Which pioneering woman architect took over Frank Lloyd Wright's presentation drawings from 1895?

She was the third woman licensed as an architect in Illinois and also designed glass and furniture for his houses.

Which Chicago planner offered to fund Wright at the École des Beaux-Arts and in Rome, only to be turned down?

Burnham thought it a foolish mistake; Wright found the classical education at odds with his vision of a modern American architecture.

Frank Lloyd Wright's first independent commission was a house for which client?

It so impressed Edward Waller that he set up the meeting with Burnham.

In which magazine did Wright publish two affordable house designs in 1901?

Edward Bok invited the designs as part of a project to improve modern house design; neither plan was ever built.

The Robie House's dramatic cantilevered roofs are supported by a steel channel of what length?

Its living and dining areas form virtually one uninterrupted space.

The 1911 publication that first exposed Wright's work to Europe is commonly called what?

Berlin publisher Ernst Wasmuth issued more than 100 lithographs of his designs.

In which building did Wright say he 'ceased to be an architect of structure, and became an architect of space'?

He offered his services to his own Oak Park congregation after their church burned down.

Wright's Imperial Hotel in Tokyo was completed in 1923, the year of what disaster?

It was first thought to have survived unscathed; the lobby was later rebuilt at the Meiji Mura museum after demolition in 1968.

Wright's Ennis House in Los Angeles, often used in films to represent the future, is built with what?

He first used the precast, bar-reinforced block system on the Millard House in Pasadena in 1923; his son Lloyd supervised construction.

Mamah Borthwick Cheney, with whom Wright left for Europe in 1909, was married to whom?

Wright fell for her while designing Edwin Cheney's house; Edwin granted a divorce, Wright's wife Catherine refused.

Wright named his Spring Green home Taliesin after what?

The land was bought by his mother in 1911, adjacent to the Lloyd Jones family holdings.

How many people did servant Julian Carlton murder at Taliesin on August 15, 1914?

He set fire to the living quarters and attacked with an axe; Mamah and her two children were among the dead.

How did Julian Carlton die seven weeks on from the Taliesin attack?

He was nearly lynched on the spot but taken to Dodgeville jail; the acid had destroyed his throat.

Wright's second marriage, to Miriam Noel in 1923, failed within a year because of what?

He met Olgivanna Lazovich in 1924 while still married; their daughter Iovanna was born in 1925.

The 1925 fire at Taliesin, blamed on crossed telephone wires, destroyed a collection of what?

He valued them at $250,000 to $500,000 and rebuilt the quarters as Taliesin III.

Wright and Olgivanna were arrested in Minnesota in 1926 for allegedly violating which law?

The charges were dropped; they married in 1928 after his divorce from Miriam Noel.

How many people joined the Taliesin Fellowship in Wright's lifetime?

Twenty-three came in the first year, 1932; Olgivanna had studied under G. I. Gurdjieff, who ran a similar school.

Which decentralised concept from Wright's 1932 book covered 2,560 acres for 7,000 residents?

It is seen as a forerunner of the edge city and was never built; The Disappearing City set it out.

The Usonian ideal emerged most completely in which 1937 residence in Madison?

Built on a gridded concrete slab with radiant heating, it had no basement or attic.

Fallingwater was built over a waterfall of what height?

It cost $155,000 including an $8,000 fee, and was meant as a family getaway for the Kaufmanns rather than a home.

What did Fallingwater's contractor do without Wright's knowledge?

Kaufmann's engineers had doubted the design; post-tensioning of the lowest terrace was completed in 2002.

Wright's winter home and studio from 1937 until his death in 1959 is where?

Taliesin West in Scottsdale was his laboratory until his death in 1959 and later became the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation's headquarters.

How do visitors experience the collection at Wright's Guggenheim Museum in New York?

The project occupied him from 1943 until 1959; it is probably his most recognised masterpiece.

Wright's only realised skyscraper, the 19-storey Price Tower, stands in which state?

It was built in Bartlesville for an oil pipeline company and became a National Historic Landmark in 2007.

Which Lakeland institution holds the world's largest single-site collection of Wright buildings?

Twelve of a planned 18 buildings went up between 1941 and 1958 as the Child of the Sun project.

Wright's Monona Terrace in Madison, designed in 1937, was finally completed in which year?

Apprentice Tony Puttnam carried out the as-built design as a convention centre.

What material did Wright famously use for tubing in the Johnson Wax Headquarters?

He also patented Prism Glass Tiles in 1897 and used zinc rather than lead in his leaded windows.

Wright called the American Institute of Architects 'a harbor of refuge for the incompetent' and what?

He never joined; when called 'an old amateur' he replied 'I am the oldest'. The AIA still gave him its Gold Medal in 1949.

Who was Wright's favourite composer?

Music was one of the five influences scholars agree on, with Sullivan, nature, Japanese art and the kindergarten blocks.

Which Japanese printmaker did Wright call 'the greatest artist in the world'?

In 1906 he helped organise the world's first Hiroshige retrospective at the Art Institute of Chicago.

For a time Wright earned more from what than from architecture?

He spent over $500,000 on prints between 1905 and 1923 and said Taliesin I and II were 'practically built' by them.

In 1928 the Bank of Wisconsin claimed Taliesin and sold thousands of Wright's prints for how much each?

Collector Edward Burr Van Vleck bought them; a 1920 retouching scandal had already ended the high point of Wright's dealing.

Wright's Oak Park church layout has been traced to a 1905 visit to which Japanese temple?

His open-plan houses may owe something to the Ho-O-Den pavilion at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

Wright made his first political endorsement in 1948, backing which candidate for president?

His wartime pacifism had drawn an FBI investigation over claims he urged apprentices to seek conscientious-objector status.

How old was Wright when he died in April 1959?

The New York Times shaved two years off, taking his own word for his birth year.

What happened to Wright's remains in 1985?

Members of the Fellowship acted on Olgivanna's dying wish; the Wisconsin grave is empty but still marked with his name.

Roughly how many of Wright's 400-plus built structures survived as of 2023?

Hurricanes Camille and Katrina, the Kanto earthquake and fires each claimed at least one.

Wright's unbuilt 1956 proposal for Chicago, The Illinois, was a tower of what height?

Crystal Heights in Washington was another unrealised mega-project.

In 1991 the AIA named Wright what?

In 2019 eight of his works were listed as a World Heritage Site.

Wright designed more than how many structures over his 70-year career?

He also mentored hundreds of apprentices in the Taliesin Fellowship.

Which architect, who worked for Wright on the Imperial Hotel, is credited with influencing his Usonian homes?

Neutra also worked briefly for Wright; the Czech-born Raymond led construction of the hotel and stayed on in Japan.