The Architecture School Founded by Frank Lloyd Wright May Now Close Entirely After Cutting Ties With His Foundation

The Frank Lloyd Wright
Foundation has declined to renew the lease for the architecture
school that Wright founded in 1932, leaving the institution without
a home.

Word first came in late January
that the graduate School of Architecture at Taliesin—which operates
campuses in both Spring Green, Wisconsin, and Scottsdale,
Arizona—might dissolve after the
school’s board announced that it had voted to shut the school
down. The resolution,
which, according to the board, was made after the foundation
terminated its lease on the school’s campus, caused an uproar in
the architecture community.

Then, on March 5, the board
announced that it had reversed its previous decision and intended
to keep the school’s two campuses in operation, providing some hope
to those who had been lamenting the loss of Wright’s 88-year-old
academy. 

“The legacy of Frank Lloyd
Wright embodied by the school is, as the outpouring of support has
shown, one of international importance,” said Dan Schweiker, the
chair of the school’s board of governors, in a statement at the
time. “The quality of the work the students have been doing in
recent years is excellent. It would be a severe blow to the future
of architecture if these talented students would not have the
chance to continue this legacy.” The board that it had secured new funding and
called on the foundation to renew its land agreement in Taliesin to
make its plan possible. 

But yesterday, the Wright
foundation’s own board effectively quashed that plan, revealing
that it has “voted unanimously to allow its agreement with the
School of Architecture to expire at the end of July
2020.” 

The decision, foundation
president Stuart Graff said in a public
letter, was made after
the school failed to provide information about the new funding it
had acquired. The foundation has now ended its discussions with the school.

“Given the uncertainties around
the school’s viability, the foundation will return to its own
efforts to develop new programs in architect education that advance
Wright’s legacy, his pedagogical ideas, and the integrity of
Taliesin and Taliesin West as architectural campuses,” Graff wrote.
“These campuses are living spaces that preserve an ongoing
experience of Wright’s legacy, including the 88-year legacy of
training architects in the drafting studios. That vital part of the
legacy will continue.”

The Frank Lloyd Wright
Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for
comment. 

The foundation has received
pushback for its decision. It is “ignoring the enthusiastic and
unanimous support from the fellows, the tens of thousands of people
who have expressed their desire for the school to continue, the
plea from the Arizona Private and Post-Secondary Education
Committee Board for mediation, and the confidence our banks and
supporters have put in us,” said Aaron Betsky, outgoing president
of the school, in a statement.

A representative for the legal
team representing the school notes that the school’s board “plans
to convene to discuss next steps—whether that includes arbitration,
mediation, or court action.” 

The post The Architecture School Founded by Frank Lloyd
Wright May Now Close Entirely After Cutting Ties With His
Foundation appeared first on artnet News.