Taliesin (studio)

Taliesin (ˌtæliˈɛsᵻn), sometimes known as Taliesin East, Taliesin Spring Green, or Taliesin North after 1937, is a property located south of the village of Spring Green, Wisconsin, United States. It was the estate of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright and an extended exemplar of the Prairie School of architecture. The property was developed on land that originally belonged to Wright's maternal family. With a selection of Wright's other work, Taliesin became a listed World Heritage Site in 2019, under the title, "The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright". Wright designed the main Taliesin home and studio after leaving his first wife and home in Oak Park, Illinois, with his mistress, Mamah Borthwick. The design of the original building was consistent with the design principles of the Prairie School, emulating the flatness of the plains and the natural limestone outcroppings of Wisconsin's Driftless Area. The structure (which included agricultural and studio wings) was completed in 1911. The name, Taliesin, meaning 'shining-brow' in Welsh, was initially used for this building (built on and into the brow of a hill or ridge) and later for the entire estate. Over the course of Wright's residency two major fires led to significant alterations, and these stages of the residence are now referred to as Taliesin I, II, and III. Wright rebuilt the Taliesin residential wing in 1914 after a disgruntled employee set fire to the living quarters and murdered Borthwick and six others. This second version was used only sparingly by Wright as he worked on projects abroad. He returned to the house in 1922 following completion of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. A fire caused by electrical problems destroyed the living quarters in April 1925. The third version of the living quarters was constructed by Wright by late 1925. In 1927, financial problems caused a foreclosure on the building by the Bank of Wisconsin. Wright was able to reacquire the building with the financial help of friends and reoccupy it by November 1928.