Artist of the week

 Architect Frank Lloyd Wright 

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT (1867-1959)

Born: Frank Lincoln Wright on June 8, 1867 in Richland Center, Wisconsin
Most Notable Works: Robie House, Price Tower, Fallingwater and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Died: April 9, 1959 [age 91] in Phoenix, Arizona

Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 projects, which resulted in more than 500 completed works.

Originally named Frank Lincoln Wright, he changed his name after his parents’ divorce to honor his mother’s Welsh family, the Lloyd Joneses. His father, William Carey Wright was a locally admired orator, music teacher, occasional lawyer and itinerant minister. William Wright met and married Anna Lloyd Jones, Frank’s mother, a county school teacher, the previous year when he was employed as the superintendent of schools for Richland County. Wright attended a Madison high school but there is no evidence he ever graduated. He was admitted to the University of Wisconsin–Madison as a special student in 1886. There he joined Phi Delta Theta fraternity, took classes part-time for two semesters, and worked with a professor of civil engineering, Allan D. Conover. In 1887, Wright left the school without taking a degree (although he was granted an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the University in 1955).

The beautiful falling water house

Wisconsin. He became the most influential architect of modern history. In the late 19th century, Wright left the supervision of Louis Sullivan to design homes for Midwestern clients. His trademark became the “Prairie Style” home, duplicated in many locations around the U.S. with decidedly non-prairie landscapes. Many homes are preserved in the Oak Park district of Chicago, also notable as the birthplace of Ernest Hemingway. Wright was very passionate about creating inviting interior rooms because he felt that the inner rooms are just as important as the exterior design of the building he created. Frank once stated, “The building is no longer a block of building material dealt with, artistically, from the outside. The room within is the great fact about building-the room to be expressed in the exterior as space enclosed.” His world-famous home design, Fallingwater, challenges the idea of indoor and outdoor space. Fallingwater was built into the face of a cliff near Pittsburgh.

Wright promoted organic architecture (exemplified by Fallingwater), was a leader of the Prairie School movement of architecture (exemplified by the Robie House, the Westcott House, and the Darwin D. Martin House), and developed the concept of the Usonian home (exemplified by the Rosenbaum House). His work includes numerous original and innovative examples of many different building types, including offices, churches, schools, skyscrapers, hotels, and museums. Wright also often designed many of the interior elements that were included in his buildings, such as the furniture and stained glass.




Michelle Kaufmann

Michelle Kaufmann

Michelle Kaufmann is an architect, advocate and designer.

Michelle has been called "the green guru" and is a notable leader in the green design community. Her commitment to sustainable living and design remains constant throughout all of her work, including her thoughtful, sustainable home designs the Glidehouse, Sunset Breezehouse, mkSolaire, and mkLotus, as well as through designing custom homes and holistic, green communities.

Kaufmann's work is widely published, and her homes have been showcased in a number of museums including the National Building Museum, the Vancouver Art Center, and MOCA in Los Angeles. Most recently, Michelle debuted the first mkSolaire™ as part of the "Smart Home: Green and Wired" exhibit at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. MKD was listed as one of "The Green 50" by INC magazine, and Michelle Kaufmann was listed as one of the top 100 people Who Matter Now by Business 2.0 magazine. Michelle's design company was given the TOP FIRM AWARD 2008 by Residential Architect Magazine.

Michelle Kaufmann is an amazing architechst, she puts a lot of thought in her work. She does amazing jobs.