Frank Lloyd Wright

The best architectural masterpieces by Frank Lloyd Wright

2019 is an important year for those who admire the late architect Frank Lloyd Wright: this year marks 60 years since his death, and 60 years since his greatest masterpiece, the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, opened in New York City, the United States. The Guggenheim Museum was one of eight of his buildings to be awarded Unesco World Heritage status.

Here are the most striking creations of Frank Lloyd Wright.

The Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York City, the United States

Though the curving Guggenheim is a world away from the blocky, Cubism-inspired designs of properties like the Fallingwater house in Pennsylvania, it still has a variety of Frank Lloyd Wright trademarks. The inclusion of a large glass dome and the use of exposed concrete, for example. The museum was built inorder to house the art collection owned by Solomon R Guggenheim, and it opened 6 months after Wright’s death. He originally wanted the exterior of the building to be bright red, which he believed was the “color of creation”.

Jiyu Gakuen Girls’ School, Tokyo, Japan

Jiyu Gakuen Girls’ School, open to the public, was commissioned by Yoshikazu Hani, who wanted to build a school that felt like a home. Wright achieved this by adding ornate patterned window frames, a beautiful courtyard, and various other decorative touches, including the beautiful pendant lamps in the dining room. Look closely and you will also find out that the former school’s unusual dimensions as Wright designed this as a “child-sized” building.

Unity Temple, Chicago, USA

Designed as a replacement for Chicago’s Oak Park Unity Church, the Unity Temple is another of the buildings given Unesco World Heritage status this summer. The temple was a major game-changer in the field of ecclesiastic architecture – a cube that was made from bare concrete, topped with an enormous slab – and also one of the first of Wright’s buildings made with exposed concrete, which became his signature style. He compensated for the lack of windows and fortress-like appearance by installing skylights made with green, yellow, and brown glass, designed to remind worshippers of the natural world.

Frank Lloyd Wright and his 10 most striking creations

Frank Lloyd Wright is arguably the most well-known and revered architect of America in the 20th century. He believed there was a right way to design in the world, a natural architecture which served both functionality and beauty without sacrificing anything. He saw in offices, houses, and temples, the potential not only for art, but also for artistry – the ability to build dignified structures with a respect for the environments.

Frank Lloyd Wright and his most most striking creations

Wright conceived of over 1,000 designs and also executed around half of them over his 70-year career. He had a sweeping vision, spanning places of worship; museums, schools, and office spaces; private homes and hotels. In 1936, he started designing “Usonian” as an affordable-housing solution in the United States, a number of which still stand up to now. In the same year, eight of his buildings earned UNESCO status for pivotal role in the development of modern architecture.

Underpinning the designs of Wright was his belief that Nature, with a capital “N”, was sacred. His philosophy of “organic architecture” proposed that built environment had better accommodate the natural world in a greater whole. He drew inspiration from Japanese art and architecture, especially its emphasis on spirituality, harmony, and geometric simplicity, which praised the Japanese understanding of structure as “miraculous.” That is evident in differating degrees across his oeuvre. In 1957, Wright described the goal of an architect in missionary terms: “to help people understand how to make the world a better one for living in, life more beautiful, and to give rhyme, reason, and meaning to life”, or in other words, a perfect unity of materiality, philosophy, and the natural world.

There are the most striking creations of Frank Lloyd Wright to understand the celebrated architect.

  • The Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York City, the US
  • Jiyu Gakuen Girls’ School, Tokyo, Japan
  • Unity Temple, Chicago, the US
  • King Kamehameha Golf Course Clubhouse, Hawaii, the US
  • The Dwight D Martin House, Buffalo, the US
  • Taliesin, Wisconsin, the US
  • Fallingwater, Pennsylvania, the US
  • Johnson Wax Headquarters, Wisconsin, the US
  • Ennis House, Los Angeles, the US
  • Yodokō Guest House, Ashiya, Japan