The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright

This article is about the UNESCO World Heritage Site. For a full list of works by Frank Lloyd Wright, see List of Frank Lloyd Wright works.

The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright is a UNESCO World Heritage Site consisting of a selection of eight buildings across the United States that were designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. These sites demonstrate his philosophy of organic architecture, designing structures that were in harmony with humanity and its environment. Wright's work had an international influence on the development of architecture in the 20th century.

The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Includes	Eight locations in the United States
Criteria	Cultural: (ii)
Reference	1496
Inscription	2019 (43rd Session)
Area	26.369 ha (65.16 acres)
Buffer zone	710.103 ha (1,754.70 acres)

Frank Lloyd Wright

Main article: Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) was raised in rural Wisconsin and studied civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin. He then apprenticed with noted architects in the Chicago school of architecture, particularly Louis Sullivan. Wright opened his own successful Chicago practice in 1893, and developed an influential home and studio in Oak Park, Illinois. In the 20th century, he became one of the most renowned architects in the world.

Nomination

Through efforts led by the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, a non profit organization, the collection was originally put on the World Heritage Tentative List in 2008 with ten of Wright's buildings. It then grew to 11 sites in 2011, but the S. C. Johnson & Son Inc. Administration Building and Research Tower in Racine, Wisconsin, was eventually removed. A 2015 bid for inscription was referred by UNESCO for revision in July 2016. The Conservancy led, Frank Lloyd Wright World Heritage Council, worked closely with the National Park Service and UNESCO to reconsider the original proposal and to make appropriate changes.

In December 2018, a revised proposal was submitted with eight buildings, excluding the Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, California, from the proposal. In the following June, the International Council on Monuments and Sites gave a positive recommendation. The site was inscribed on the World Heritage list in July 2019.

World Heritage listing

The eight representative Wright buildings selected for the World Heritage Site were designed in the first half of the 20th century. The first building included, Unity Temple (001), was completed in 1908. The last, The Guggenheim (008), was completed in 1959—the year Wright died—although its design began in the 1940s.

Picture	ID	Name	Location	Description	Coordinates	Property Area [Buffer Zone]
	1496rev-001	Unity Temple	Oak Park, Illinois	Completed in 1908, this unprecedented church building used reinforced concrete in novel ways, creating a light-filled space with the "colors of nature." Its use of this single material has caused it to be thought of as the first "modern building" in the world.	41°53′18″N 87°47′48″W	0.167 ha (0.41 acres) [10.067 ha (24.88 acres)]
	1496rev-002	Frederick C. Robie House	Chicago, Illinois	This 1910 single-family home is considered a masterpiece of the Prairie School of architecture. Its "broad, sweeping horizontal lines; low, cantilevered roofs with overhanging eaves; and an open interior floor plan, . . . epitomizes Wright’s aim to design structures in harmony with nature." A significant contributor to the concept of bringing nature indoors is the 175 leaded glass windows and doors, which feature a design of "abstraction of organic shapes".	41°47′23.4″N 87°35′45.3″W	0.130 ha (0.32 acres) [1.315 ha (3.25 acres)]
	1496rev-003	Taliesin	Spring Green, Wisconsin	Begun in 1911 and never really finished, Taliesin (Welsh for 'shining brow') became Wright's home, studio, and school of architecture. He built the large estate on the brow of a ridge, to be "'of the hill' not on it" It is perhaps his most expansive and longest exploration of the organic theory of architecture and the Prairie School.	43°08′30″N 90°04′15″W	4.931 ha (12.18 acres) [200.899 ha (496.43 acres)]
	1496rev-004	Hollyhock House	Los Angeles, California	Wright's first commission in Los Angeles, Hollyhock House (built 1918-1921) was intended to be part of an arts colony and live theater complex in East Hollywood, built near the time the Southern California movie business was taking off. The work of Wright and his young apprentices became a springboard to what became known as California Modernism. The structure "seamlessly integrates the indoors with outdoor gardens and living spaces".	34°05′59.85″N 118°17′40.61″W	4.608 ha (11.39 acres) [13.986 ha (34.56 acres)]
	1496rev-005	Fallingwater	Mill Run, Fayette County, Pennsylvania	Built as a summer home in 1935, Fallingwater epitomizes Wright's ideas of organic architecture. Placed as if "floating" over stream and waterfall, its cantilevered terraces of rock and geometric reinforced concrete spaces blend with the setting's natural rock formations. Wright wanted the couple that commissioned the work to not just look out at the stream on their summer property but "live with the waterfall . . . as an integral part of [their] lives". The American Institute of Architects has called Fallingwater "the best all-time work of American architecture".	39°54′22″N 79°28′5″W	11.212 ha (27.71 acres) [282.299 ha (697.58 acres)]
	1496rev-006	Herbert and Katherine Jacobs House	Madison, Wisconsin	Built during the Great Depression, ideas for the Jacobs House (1937) grew out of an urban planning idea of Wright's that would provide a community of well-built, single-family affordable housing. Wright initially called this aesthetic Usonian, a word coined in the early 1900s for "American." Working within a budget of less than $5000, Wright combined his open design plan, functional spaces, and the use of wood, brick, dyed concrete, and large windows, to match a small landscaped neighborhood lot.	43°3′31″N 89°26′29″W	0.139 ha (0.34 acres) [1.286 ha (3.18 acres)]
	1496rev-007	Taliesin West	Scottsdale, Arizona	In 1937 Wright began building his winter home, studio, and architectural fellowship center in the foothills of the Arizona's McDowell Mountains. The property was designed by Wright and his students, and built using timber, locally sourced stone, and a mixed sand concrete. Taliesin West was set within the landscape with overlapping indoor and outdoor rooms, a triangular garden of native plants, and triangular pool.	33°36′22.8″N 111°50′45.5″W	4.285 ha (10.59 acres) [198.087 ha (489.48 acres)]
	1496rev-008	Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum	New York, New York	Wright's work for the Guggenheim Foundation in the 1940s and 1950s re-conceived the modern museum building as a place in conversation with the art within. Wright also thought it important to have the museum placed across from natural areas in Central Park, and he incorporated the sinuous forms of nature in the spiral structure.	40°46′59″N 73°57′32″W	0.251 ha (0.62 acres) [2.164 ha (5.35 acres)]

Unity Temple

Robie House

Taliesin

Hollyhock House

Fallingwater

Jacobs House

Taliesin West

Guggenheim Museum

The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright – Locations in the United States