Wright, Frank Lloyd( 1867 – 1959 )
Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, 1956 , The Frank Lloyd Wright
Foundation, FLLW 5611. 001 , 37 30 in., Graphite pencil and color pencil on white tracing paperA true icon of the twentieth century, Frank Lloyd Wright’s work has been honored around the world.
In reference to his design process, he claimed to bypass conceptual sketches entirely, progressing
directly to a finished drawing stage (Hewitt, 1985 ). Although no one can doubt the tremendous imagina-
tion of Wright, there remains evidence of his use of sketches. Many of these images were a combin-
ation of ruled and freehand drawings indicating the semblance of a sketch.
Born in the upper Midwestern United States, Wright’s family settled in Spring Green, Wisconsin,
an area of the country which proved to be important to his work. Its gently rolling hills provided the
impetus for his Prairie-style houses. He initially studied civil engineering. Eager to learn about archi-
tecture, Wright moved to Chicago and found work with the office of Adler and Sullivan in 1888. He
learned from (and greatly respected) Louis Sullivan, and after several years was responsible for the firm’s
domestic commissions (Kaufmann and Raeburn, 1960 ). Wright established his own office in 1893 , pri-
marily designing houses. Speculating on new spatial qualities for domestic life, the Usonian Houses
relied on simple massing, with flat roofs accenting their horizontality (Roth, 1979 ). The Prairie Houses
integrated architecture with the landscape and featured cantilever roofs and open plans containing
large central hearths (Kaufmann and Raeburn, 1960 ; Roth, 1979 ). Always concerned with his interpret-
ation of the Organic(the relationship of parts to each other and an analogy to the growth of organic
plant life). Several of his more celebrated projects were the Robie House ( 1906 – 1909 ); Imperial Hotel
in Japan ( 1915 – 1922 ); Johnson Wax Administration Building ( 1936 – 1939 ); the Guggenheim Museum
( 1956 – 1959 ); and especially Taliesin in Spring Green, his home and studio, and Taliesin West in
Arizona (Roth, 1979).
This page (Figure 7.4) describes Wright’s typical sketching technique. In this design for the
Annunciation Greek Church in Milwaukee, the patina of his process shows as he layers guidelines,
ruled lines, erasures, shading, and notes. The sketch displays a front elevation and a circular plan;
they correspond to each other so that Wright could easily transfer measurements. With this tech-
nique, he could also study how the decisions made in plan affected the elevation and vice versa. To
relate these drawings to each other, he used ruled guidelines for accuracy. Onto this drawing he
sketched freehand details and changes reflecting his design exploration. The page indicates notes
identifying the bronze doors and numbers in the margins of the plan. The seats for the sanctuary
show as wavy lines. Stairs and planters have been sketched over structure, and ornament on the
dome above has been indicated on the edges of the outer circle in plan. The drawing has been
worked over with erasures, shading, layers of guidelines, and moved walls.
The patina indicates the method he used for development of the project. Patina is the oxidation
on the surface of bronze. This concept of the transformation of a surface can be extended to other
materials, and might involve wear or discoloration. In this sketch, the marks left by Wright’s hands
express his absorption while contemplating the interior spaces. This can be evidenced by erasures
that smear and change the surface of the paper.
Although Wright may have drawn schemes directly from his imagination, he still relied on sketches
to visually develop the details and spatial relationships. This page also suggests that his early images
were not considered sacred. He felt comfortable writing notes and calculations, and sketching alter-
ations onto an initial idea.H5719-Ch07.qxd 7/15/05 3:45 PM Page 175