A So Cal Girl in the Desert

My best friend is visiting from California! Yesterday we were out and about all day and had such a great time.

Our biggest event was also the most touristy. We visited Taliesin West in Scottsdale. Taliesin West and Taliesin, located in Spring Green, Wisconsin, are considered to be two of Frank Lloyd Wright's greatest works. I always thought Taliesin West was simply a home, but it is actually a complex that had studios and a campus for his architectural school, in addition to personal quarters. By touring the facility, we got to see first hand what Wright's organic architecture is all about. This was the first time I had ever seen one of his buildings, which is really sad considering I have a degree in art history and a bunch of his buildings are in Southern California. Let me tell you, the pictures you see in the books don't do it justice. Particularly interesting is the fact that we could only go inside a few of the buildings because most of the buildings are still used as the Winter Campus of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture (currently has 13 apprentices) and living quarters for the students, the international headquarters for the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, and the site of the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives.

Our tour guide, Don, told us that Frank Lloyd Wright was one of the first snowbirds to come to Arizona, meaning he was here only in the winter, while he stayed at his Wisconsin site during the summer. For this reason, he considered Taliesin West (designed between 1937 and 1959) to be a temporary "camp" and built it so that it could be partially broken down before he, his family, and students vacated the premises when the weather got too hot to handle. The walls are mostly constructed of indigenous stone and wood, and most of the roofs were constructed of canvas that could be removed. It took him thirty years to acknowledge the permanence of the campus and he said to his architects, both men and women "Boys, make this place more permanent." He originally wanted to use only materials that came from the region, but his wife insisted on glass in the open areas so that "critters" could not get inside. The property sits on over 600 acres of land now owned by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. The land was purchased by Wright in 1937 for $12.50 an acre.

Our tour guide pointed out the flaws in the buildings' design as well as Wright's triumphs. For example, most of the wood he used was redwood, as it was abundant and inexpensive at the time. He didn't realize that redwood is not a desert wood and would soon rot and deteriorate. The school's apprentices that maintain the building now replace the wood with fir. His "Garden Room," which served as a living room, had a leaky roof, so he built interior rain gutters down all of the beams that would allow the water to drain. This is the only one of his buildings you will find that "experiment" as Taliesin West and Taliesin are the only projects he took on where he was his own client. Another client would have found the leaky roof unacceptable and would have had him fix the problem rather than get around it somehow. The campus is actually filled with these types of experiments. We also toured his private office, his living quarters, and his two theatres. Wright felt that people should live in nature, not just watch it out of windows, so none of his rooms were connected by indoor hallways. His rooms were connected by outdoor pathways and courtyards so he and his visitors would be forced to go outside when moving from room to room.

In addition to the buildings, Wright designed almost all of the furniture. He felt that the furniture in a building was part of the architecture, not an afterthought, so when he designed a building he would also design the furniture and lighting. He would then add a few select "found" pieces, mostly to add curves and soften a room. The tour was great because we got to sit in the furniture and touch everything. It was not like a museum at all...nothing was roped off.

We had such a great time. Even Little B enjoyed himself, and asked the tour guide some really thoughtful questions. I was impressed because I thought he would be very bored and mischievous. He paid attention for the most part. I was also proud of him for being brave enough to ask questions. I asked him how he felt when he was speaking in front of all the people (all adults except for one two-year-old). He said "I felt a little nervous, but I just pretended it was just me and the tour guide and the rest was just all black and there were no other people."

Keeping with the Frank Lloyd Wright theme, we then went to the Arizona Biltmore for refreshments. It's in Phoenix, about 30 miles away from Taliesin West. We enjoyed the view and had a cocktail. Even Little B sucked down a virgin strawberry daiquiri. Yum. With our new knowledge, we all played the "point out the Frank Lloyd Wright" design elements throughout the hotel and grounds. Total dorks.

From there we went to Richardson's, one of the best places to get authentic southwest food. We shared the roasted garlic appetizer, the aroma from which we're still enjoying this morning as it escapes our pores. The descriptions of the dishes on the menu aren't very comprehensive, which is one of the fun aspects of the place. You have a general idea of what you're getting, but there is a large element of surprise. The roasted garlic surprise was that it came on a huge platter and was enough garlic to feed a family of ten. It wasn't just garlic. It was elephant garlic. With that came a variety of roasted chilis, asiago cheese, jalapeño hollandaise sauce, and croustini as the foundation for serious spreading. We're all getting ready to go to the gym right now, and I feel very sorry for any others trying to work out. We STINK!

Then we took the BF to Water Works, where we took some nice photos and got wet because it started to rain. Since I've written all about this place before, I won't bore you with the details again.

We then took Kermit to the Bark Park. He had a blast, and Little B got every name of every dog, kissed every one, and got dogpiled. It was a nice cool (95º) evening for bark parking. Kermie was so excited he barfed (the usual), but this time it was at the park rather than in the car. We got in the car after the park and my husband said "Geez! Did we leave leftover food in here?!?!?" We all started cracking up. Nope. It's the garlic. Ha! It's a good thing we all ate it, or we'd be in some serious trouble. I really hope there's no one at the gym this morning.

Yesterday was so great and exhausting that today our plan is to swim and lay by the pool and do nothing else. Happy Sunday!