WORLD RENOWNED

There was a time, not so long ago, when architecture was about box-ing us in — and keeping the outside world out. Frank Lloyd Wright changed all that, “breaking the box” by designing buildings in harmony with their surroundings. At Taliesin West (pictured), his winter headquarters in Scottsdale, a breezeway frames a view of the Papago Buttes to the south, while the beams of the drafting studio lead a viewer’s eye to the McDowell Mountains to the north. “The inside and outside are one,” says Stuart Graff, president and CEO of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.

Wright brought about an age of living in, rather than on, the landscape. And that seismic shift is the reason Taliesin West and seven other Wright designs were collectively inscribed last year on the UNESCO World Heritage List, which celebrates cultural and natural sites that have “universal value to humanity.” Of the more than 1,100 landmarks on the list, only 24 are in the U.S., and just 11 of those are purely man-made. That means the Wright properties are part of a select group that includes Independence Hall and the Statue of Liberty.

“It speaks to this man’s insistence on creating something that was essential to American values,” Graff says. “Think about the great American philosophers: Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman. These folks celebrated the natural landscape that was provided to us, and how it informs our set of beliefs and makes our lives so much better. Wright was putting that into another form — a larger architecture of ideas. In the same way Independence Hall is more than just a building and the Statue of Liberty is more than just a sculpture, these sites represent a set of ideas and values.” Achieving the UNESCO designation completed a process that began several decades ago, when the two Taliesin sites were first proposed for addition to the list. That proposal never moved forward, but the Frank

THE LIST

The following eight properties have been collectively inscribed as “The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright” on the UNESCO World Heritage List:

FALLINGWATER Mill Run, Pennsylvania

FREDERICK C. ROBIE HOUSE Chicago HERBERT AND KATHERINE JACOBS HOUSE Madison, Wisconsin

HOLLYHOCK HOUSE Los Angeles

SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM New York City

TALIESIN Spring Green, Wisconsin

TALIESIN WEST Scottsdale, Arizona

UNITY TEMPLE Oak Park, Illinois

Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, which connects various public and private Wright sites, took up the cause in the early 1990s. Eventually, a list of 10 sites was submitted to the National Park Service, which administers the UNESCO program in the U.S. “It was a very thoughtful process,” Graff says. “We’re not just inscribing the buildings because they’re beautiful; we’re looking at how they influenced cultural development throughout the world.” Leading experts visited each of those sites to verify their authenticity, integrity and adherence to a stringent set of criteria. But the bid was rejected at the World Heritage Committee’s 2016 meeting in Istanbul after two of the sites, while spectacular in their own right, were not considered sufficiently influential to be included. Finally, in 2019, the final list of eight properties, deemed the best group to collectively represent Wright’s influence, made the cut.

Taliesin West is currently closed because of COVID-19, but the foundation hopes the UNESCO designation will increase visitation there and at other Wright sites once the crisis has passed and it’s safe for visitors and staff. It’s using the closure to find better ways, both in person and virtually, to convey the legacy represented by the listing. In the meantime, the foundation’s website is offering commemorative prints that feature Michael Pipher’s drawings of all eight of the listed properties. But Graff notes that you don’t need to visit a Wright-designed building to see his influence. Bringing natural light into spaces, using concrete in residential settings, and an emphasis on open floor plans all have their roots in Wright’s work and are commonplace today — another tes-tament to the architect’s legacy. “We sometimes forget in America these days that in the time Wright was working, we were the recipient of cultural influence, particularly from Europe,” Graff says. “Wright’s work really went out and changed the world in a way that America’s cultural output had rarely, if ever, done before. He’s one of our first great cultural exports.” And Graff believes “breaking the box” is more relevant now, during the pandemic, than it’s ever been. “We feel so disconnected and cut off from each other,” he says, “and Wright’s buildings are all about connecting people within homes and families, and connecting them to the outside world. It’s about a sense of connection with the landscape — an architecture of living, not just architecture of a house.” To learn more about Taliesin West and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, visit franklloydwright.org. AH