Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. June 8, β April 9, was an American architect , designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1, structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements of the twentieth century, influencing architects worldwide through his works and mentoring hundreds of apprentices in his Taliesin Fellowship.
This philosophy was exemplified in Fallingwater , which has been called "the best all-time work of American architecture". Wright was a pioneer of what came to be called the Prairie School movement of architecture and also developed the concept of the Usonian home in Broadacre City , his vision for urban planning in the United States. He also designed original and innovative offices, churches, schools, skyscrapers, hotels, museums, and other commercial projects.
Wright-designed interior elements including leaded glass windows, floors, furniture and even tableware were integrated into these structures. He wrote several books and numerous articles and was a popular lecturer in the United States and in Europe. Wright was recognized in by the American Institute of Architects as "the greatest American architect of all time".
Wright opened his own successful Chicago practice in and established a studio in his Oak Park, Illinois home in His fame increased and his personal life sometimes made headlines: leaving his first wife Catherine "Kitty" Tobin for Mamah Cheney in ; the murder of Mamah and her children and others at his Taliesin estate by a staff member in ; his tempestuous marriage with second wife Miriam Noel m.
Wright was born on June 8, , in the town of Richland Center, Wisconsin , but maintained throughout his life that he was born in Wright's father, William Cary Wright β , was a "gifted musician, orator, and sometime preacher who had been admitted to the bar in According to Wright's autobiography, his mother declared when she was expecting that her first child would grow up to build beautiful buildings. She decorated his nursery with engravings of English cathedrals torn from a periodical to encourage the infant's ambition.
