Preserving Frank Lloyd Wright's organic architecture

Angela Fitzgerald: We’re exploring Taliesin, home and studio of Frank Lloyd Wright, touring the estate and learning about their extensive restoration work.

Angela Fitzgerald: My first stop was to the Hillside Theater to meet up with Executive Director Carrie Rodamaker, and to learn more about the history and preservation of this 800-acre estate.

Carrie Rodamaker: Taliesin is Frank Lloyd Wright’s home. This is a place where his ancestors immigrated from Wales. He grew to love this area, and eventually built his own home in 1911. One of the things that Wright was doing was playing with the surrounding beauty of the land and incorporating his buildings into it.

Angela Fitzgerald: Beautiful, and so what does that look like in terms of how they’re constructed?

Carrie Rodamaker: So, part of it is organic architecture. So using natural material. A lot of the limestone was harvested from here. You’ll see a lot of oak. But you’ll also see a lot of new materials, like plywood. Because of all of those kind of natural materials, and this being that laboratory, that experimental place for Wright, it poses huge challenges. It’s almost like an archaeological dig, so we can understand what they were doing before we can start to figure out how do we kind of reconstruct and preserve the historic fabric, but also making it sustainable for the future.

Angela Fitzgerald: An example of that historic fabric is this curtain Wright designed that hangs in Taliesin’s theater, where we chatted with Caroline Hamblen, Director of Programs.

Caroline Hamblen: So the Hillside Theater just reopened last year. It was designed by Wright to bring lectures, dance, theater, movies into the space. And that legacy is something that we’re continuing to today.

Angela Fitzgerald: Are there other types of programs or other opportunities that are available here?

Caroline Hamblen: Absolutely. So, we have our regular tour program. There is four different variety of tours that you can come and engage with us May through October. We work a lot with schools. We love working with educators from the region, bringing their students here. Then there is workshop opportunities, and then we have the programming of the Hillside Theater available as well.

Angela Fitzgerald: So lots of opportunities throughout the estate for all ages throughout the year.

Caroline Hamblen: Yes, absolutely. And that is really the goal, that is what Taliesin always has been, and that’s what we want to continue into the future. All kinds of different ages, different interests, bringing everybody here into this UNESCO World Heritage site now.

Angela Fitzgerald: A site that will be preserved for future generations.

Angela Fitzgerald: From the stage…

Caroline Hamblen: Now you can see how the size of the stage almost doubled. You notice that part of the stage is built into the ground. And that caused a lot of water infiltration issues.

Angela Fitzgerald: …to the green rooms. So this is part of the new space?

Caroline Hamblen: We’ve never had green rooms for the artists. The room behind the stage used to be dirt floor.

Angela Fitzgerald: All to honor the world-famous architect who Carrie Rodamaker says loved Wisconsin and called it home.

Carrie Rodamaker: I think we just want to celebrate Wisconsin, we wanna celebrate this place. Celebrate Wright for growing up as a Wisconsin farm kid. This is where he was really creating an architecture for America, and we encourage people to come and see it.

[bright music]