Taliesin Associated Architects Collection

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his wife, Olgivanna, created the Taliesin Fellowship in 1932 as a group of apprentices and their families who lived, worked and studied with Wright at Taliesin in Wisconsin and Taliesin West in Arizona. The program incorporated a broad learning environment well beyond architecture, integrating all aspects of the apprentices’ lives with the goal of fostering creativity, responsibility and appreciation of arts and culture. The Fellowship was incorporated as the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation in 1940.

At the time of his death in 1959, Frank Lloyd Wright left about 120 projects in various stages of progress (preliminary sketches, awaiting working drawings, working drawings under way, buildings under construction, client correspondence, etc.) To facilitate completion of these projects and to continue Wright’s architectural practice and legacy, members of the Fellowship formed Taliesin Associated Architects as an Arizona corporation in 1959. The firm name was changed to Taliesin Architects, Ltd. (TA) in 1991, as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and headquartered at Taliesin West.

By 1996 TA had about fifty employees and four studios, two in Arizona (Taliesin West and Phoenix) and two in Wisconsin (Taliesin and Madison). Including support space such as offices, conference rooms, storage and a library, the firm occupied about 50,000 square feet. The firm also created affiliations with architects and former apprentices in other locations within the United States (including Ohio, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Malibu, New York City, Denver, Portland, Dallas, Honolulu, Nashville, and Miami) and internationally (Japan and Iran).

TA operated with a group of ten principal architects, one of whom was the managing principal. The firm’s strategy, business development, resource allocation, and profitability were overseen by its Board of Directors composed of the Managing Trustee, the CFO of the Foundation, the principals of the firm, and five outside board members.

From 1959 through 2003, when it disbanded, the firm received an estimated 1200 commissions, almost half of which were completed. The first managing principal was Wright's protégé and son-in-law, William Wesley Peters. Other TAA architects and designers included Charles Montooth, John Rattenbury, Vernon Swaback, Kamal Amin, John Aubrey Banks, John deKoven Hill, Cornelia Brierly, Alan Christensen and David Dodge.