Frank Lloyd Wright by Charles River Editors Read Free Book Online

hired him to design the new Arizona Biltmore Hotel, but it was too little, too late. In an effort to get a return on the foreclosure, the bank tried to auction Taliesin and all of its contents. There were but a few bids, all of them too low. Instead, the bank tried to sell Taliesin outright, but there was not a single buyer interested. Wright learned later that those who knew of the sale refused to buy it out of respect for him. Others who might have been willing and eager to buy probably never knew the property and its contents were even for sale.
    Again, the Wrights were on the move. This time they went to La Jolla, California, where Miriam hunted Frank and Oglivanna down and physically destroyed the cottage in which they were living. Miriam also swore out a warrant on the grounds of “immorality,” even though her divorce from Frank was final, charging Frank had left her for another woman. At the time, the law dictated that a divorced person could not remarry for one year after their divorce had been finalized, and sufficient time had passed. Miriam had wanted to hurt Frank and his new family, but in the process, she was also destroying him professionally.
    Eventually, Miriam fell ill and had some sort of surgery, after which she remained in a coma. She was sent from a public asylum to a private sanitarium, where she died without ever gaining consciousness. She had successfully succeeded in alienating everyone in her lifetime to the point that een her own children failed to appear at her funeral.
    Eventually Frank and Oglivanna did marry, in Santa Fe. It took four years, but Taliesin was finally returned to Frank, and he began to design again. He also continued to write and lecture, and he remained married until Oglivanna’s death.

    A picture of Wright and students in 1948

Chapter 7: Other Projects
    “Why, I just shake the buildings out of my sleeves.” – Frank Lloyd Wright
    “The present is the ever moving shadow that divides yesterday from tomorrow. In that lies hope.” – Frank Lloyd Wright
    There seems to be an endless list of Frank Lloyd Wright’s creations. He would begin one project, and once construction began, he was free to take on the next. For example, in the midst of a chaotic private life, and while the Imperial Hotel was being built in Tokyo, Wright went to Los Angeles and began building the now-famous Hollyhock House for Aline Barnsdall. He was also under contract to build Los Angeles’s New Theater for her.

    The Hollyhock House
    Aline was a formidable individual with many friends, all of whom wanted to second-guess the design she'd wanted and that Frank was working to create. But in spite of their best intentions, Aline had a very clear idea of what Hollyhock House should be. Like Frank’s mother, who decided he should be an architect before he was even born, Aline Barnsdall decided to call her new and as yet undersigned house Hollyhock House before she'd even hired Frank.
    Hollyhock House was known as California Romanza, a reference to a romantic meaning (in music) of free form or freedom to make one’s own form, which described Aline perfectly. Frank built Hollyhock House as he would any house, building it out of the environment rather than for it. In it, he captured a natural ravine for catching rainwater, even though it did unexpectedly flood Hollyhock House, which was surrounded by nothing but arid desert.
    Barnsdall loved Hollyhock House. As Frank said, “Individuality is the most precious thing of all.” Aline was a free spirit who traveled constantly, but she spent more time at Hollyhock House than other place else she lived. Then came the unfortunate day when she was accused of being a “parlor Bolshevik” during the Red Scare. In response, Aline Barnsdall gave Hollyhock House away, including George, the Japanese cook. The recipient was the California Art Club, and the donation stipulated that Frank Lloyd Wright’s creation was not to be altered for 15 years.
    Also during