Taliesin West- Scottsdale, AZ

The triangular pool mimicking the shape of the mountains.
FLW saved several of these Chinese characters from destruction and had them restored.

The living room with its origami chairs.

One of the original sprites.

Here FLW created the modern patio and managed to find a wonderful breeze in the desert.

A fire-breathing dragon.

Inspiration for the design of apartments and hotels.

Heading towards the sculpture garden.

Quote on the wall inside the auditorium.

A beautiful Buddha sculpture.

Here's the post on Taliesin West that we promised when we blogged about our Arizona trip. Frank Lloyd Wright fans are undoubtedly very familiar with Taliesin West but it is a worthwhile tour even for a casual fan. We took the 90 minute "Insights" tour for $32/ticket. As a testament to Frank Lloyd Wright's popularity, they offer this tour every 30 minutes November- April (and every hour May- October). We paid for our tickets in the lovely book/ gift shop and browsed while we waited for our tour to begin. There turned out to be 4 other people besides us that thought it would be a cool thing to do at 9:30AM on a Monday. We had a great tour guide (we think her name tag said Weise) who led us through several areas of the property. Tours aren't taken into every space because it is still a working school. We still felt like we got to see a lot from the living room and private living quarters to the cabaret building. As our guide reminded us, it wasn't built as a home per se but as a campsite. It was remarkable to walk through and think about not only the genius of design but of all of the hard work put into it throughout the years. We felt honored that we could walk the grounds. There were a couple of things that our guide told us that really stuck with us. One was that when someone asked Frank Lloyd Wright which building was his favorite, his answer was "the next one". Even in his 70s and 80s he was looking ahead which is something we aspire to do as well. Also, as our guide took us through the sculpture garden, she showed us a piece that represented the different stages of man (from a child learning motor skills on up). She said "you know how people say at high school reunions, 'you haven't changed'? Don't you think that maybe the point is that we're supposed to change?" That is so true and Frank Lloyd Wright was definitely a man who kept changing and evolving and we'll be playing catch up with him for a long time.