0:00:13 > 0:00:16Frank Lloyd Wright is the greatest ever American architect.
0:00:18 > 0:00:20Buildings like the Guggenheim Museum,
0:00:20 > 0:00:23the Johnson Wax building,
0:00:23 > 0:00:27and Fallingwater are masterpieces that redefined what was possible
0:00:27 > 0:00:30and became famous the world over.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36But I think the true nature of Frank Lloyd Wright's genius
0:00:36 > 0:00:40has become lost, buried under tales of his tempestuous life,
0:00:40 > 0:00:43or made into the stuff of coffee table books.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46I'm Jonathan Adams, an architect from Wales,
0:00:46 > 0:00:51and my 30-year career has taken me all over the world.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53Throughout it all,
0:00:53 > 0:00:56Frank Lloyd Wright has been a constant touchstone.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02Now, I'm going to travel across America
0:01:02 > 0:01:05to get to know Frank Lloyd Wright's greatest buildings for myself.
0:01:07 > 0:01:11I want to understand how they were conceived, how they work,
0:01:11 > 0:01:13and how they make us feel.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20Most of all, I want to explore the underlying philosophy
0:01:20 > 0:01:22that all these buildings share.
0:01:24 > 0:01:28Frank Lloyd Wright called it organic architecture.
0:01:28 > 0:01:32And today, 150 years after his birth,
0:01:32 > 0:01:34I think it puts him back at the heart
0:01:34 > 0:01:37of modern architectural thinking.
0:02:01 > 0:02:04In a career that spanned seven decades,
0:02:04 > 0:02:07Frank Lloyd Wright built over 500 buildings.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12And the one he's best known for is his final one -
0:02:12 > 0:02:15the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30The Guggenheim isn't just something that's beautiful to look at.
0:02:32 > 0:02:36All his life, Frank Lloyd Wright strove to create buildings
0:02:36 > 0:02:40that expressed an idea of how we should live
0:02:40 > 0:02:42and understand the world.
0:02:56 > 0:02:59I'd like to have a free architecture.
0:02:59 > 0:03:03I'd like to have architecture that belonged where you see it standing,
0:03:03 > 0:03:07and was a grace to the landscape instead of a disgrace.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10And the letters we received from our clients
0:03:10 > 0:03:13tell us how those buildings we built for them
0:03:13 > 0:03:16have changed the character of their whole land,
0:03:16 > 0:03:18and their whole existence
0:03:18 > 0:03:20is different now than it was before.
0:03:24 > 0:03:29Wright's own life was turbulent, involving financial ruin,
0:03:29 > 0:03:32adultery, and tragedy.
0:03:32 > 0:03:37Through it all, he stuck to a personal creed based on hard work,
0:03:37 > 0:03:41a love of nature, and a fierce independence of thought.
0:03:44 > 0:03:48They sound like thoroughly American ideals.
0:03:50 > 0:03:54But I think to understand what really shaped Wright's ideas
0:03:54 > 0:03:55and the man himself,
0:03:55 > 0:03:58you have to begin the story far away from America,
0:03:58 > 0:04:00and closer to where I come from.
0:04:17 > 0:04:21Frank Lloyd Wright's Welsh roots are no secret.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24He was proud of them and spoke of them all his life.
0:04:27 > 0:04:32His mother, Anna Lloyd Jones, was born in 1838
0:04:32 > 0:04:34near Llandissilio in West Wales.
0:04:36 > 0:04:39Their family was large and devout,
0:04:39 > 0:04:43and at their chapel, they practised a radical brand of Christianity
0:04:43 > 0:04:45known as Unitarianism.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51All his life, Frank Lloyd Wright would draw inspiration
0:04:51 > 0:04:54from this freethinking spiritual inheritance.
0:04:57 > 0:05:03Unitarianists see God in anything and in all things.
0:05:03 > 0:05:09We often talk of the wonder, the awesomeness, the magnificence of...
0:05:09 > 0:05:12of nature, and of the world that we're all a part of.
0:05:14 > 0:05:18We've always placed a huge emphasis on the individual's freedom
0:05:18 > 0:05:22to choose and to pick and to decide for themselves
0:05:22 > 0:05:27where their understanding of God and of human nature lie.
0:05:27 > 0:05:31Unitarianism fit in with the people here,
0:05:31 > 0:05:36the people who were everyday, hard-working, low-paid people
0:05:36 > 0:05:40looking for that freedom and for that spirit of liberalism.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46It might have been the search for religious freedom
0:05:46 > 0:05:48that took Anna's family away from Wales.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54In 1844, the Lloyd Jones clan -
0:05:54 > 0:05:57parents, children, aunts, and uncles -
0:05:57 > 0:06:01left home, bound for a new, freer life...
0:06:01 > 0:06:03in the new world.
0:06:14 > 0:06:16The family sailed to New York
0:06:16 > 0:06:22and then, with pioneer spirit, set off westward to find a new home.
0:06:27 > 0:06:29What they were looking for was something familiar,
0:06:29 > 0:06:33something like the land they knew and understood.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43Finally, they came upon their new Wales.
0:06:43 > 0:06:48Wooded, gently sloping land near Spring Green, Wisconsin.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50To Frank Lloyd Wright,
0:06:50 > 0:06:54this place would become a lifelong spiritual touchstone,
0:06:54 > 0:06:56known simply as The Valley.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04The valley that they chose to live in
0:07:04 > 0:07:08became so identified with them and their purpose
0:07:08 > 0:07:10and their way of living
0:07:10 > 0:07:14that some people called it the Valley of the God Almighty Joneses.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19They didn't really want to become Americans, you know?
0:07:19 > 0:07:21They wanted to be Welsh...
0:07:22 > 0:07:24..on American soil.
0:07:28 > 0:07:33It was into this world that in 1867 Frank Lloyd Wright was born.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38It was here, too, that his values were shaped.
0:07:44 > 0:07:45Throughout his childhood,
0:07:45 > 0:07:48Frank would spend his summers here in the valley,
0:07:48 > 0:07:50labouring on the farm, living a rural life,
0:07:50 > 0:07:54and hearing the Welsh language of his aunts and uncles.
0:07:54 > 0:07:55For the rest of his days,
0:07:55 > 0:07:58he would look back on those summers as a kind of paradise.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04Frank's mother encouraged his early ambitions to build.
0:08:04 > 0:08:08After studying engineering at a local college,
0:08:08 > 0:08:11he left home to seek an architectural apprenticeship.
0:08:22 > 0:08:24As luck would have it,
0:08:24 > 0:08:27the nearest city was one of the most exciting places
0:08:27 > 0:08:30in the entire world for an aspiring young architect.
0:08:30 > 0:08:32Chicago.
0:08:35 > 0:08:39New styles of building were being created here...
0:08:39 > 0:08:41including the skyscraper.
0:08:45 > 0:08:50Before long, Wright's youthful energy and talent landed him a job
0:08:50 > 0:08:52with the city's leading architect.
0:08:53 > 0:08:57And it was in Chicago, too, that he found his first love.
0:08:59 > 0:09:03Catherine Tobin, known as Kitty, was just 16 when they met.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06Within two years, they were married,
0:09:06 > 0:09:08and had a child of their own on the way.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14Frank Lloyd Wright was a young man in a hurry.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16Borrowing money from his boss,
0:09:16 > 0:09:20he bought a plot of land here in the respectable suburb of Oak Park.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23The place where, it was said, the saloons ended
0:09:23 > 0:09:25and the steeples began.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28And it was here that he first built a home for himself.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44It might be difficult for anyone looking at this today
0:09:44 > 0:09:46to see it as anything other than a slightly quirky
0:09:46 > 0:09:48gable-fronted suburban house.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53It's only when you put it alongside all of the other houses
0:09:53 > 0:09:57of the same period, here or anywhere else in the Western world,
0:09:57 > 0:10:00that you realise just how strange it is.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05Take this massive symmetry.
0:10:05 > 0:10:07It's highly classical, but stylised.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10You can see the faint outlines of the triangle pediment
0:10:10 > 0:10:13of a Greek temple, with the two bays at the bottom
0:10:13 > 0:10:15instead of columns supporting the weight.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18It's classical discipline applied to a small cottage.
0:10:22 > 0:10:27The upper part of the house conveys a huge sense of weight and sanctity.
0:10:28 > 0:10:32So you might expect the inside to be pokey and dark.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40But what you actually find is the opposite.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43The rooms all flow, one into another.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46It must have been a huge surprise to people back in the 1880s.
0:10:46 > 0:10:51This is open-plan before the idea of open-plan really existed.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54Perhaps this is where it began.
0:11:05 > 0:11:10The free flow of Wright's design reflects an idea of family life,
0:11:10 > 0:11:14learned in the Unitarian value of his childhood -
0:11:14 > 0:11:17honest, equal, and communal.
0:11:19 > 0:11:23He even inscribed these values above the hearth, clear for all to see.
0:11:31 > 0:11:36In its open spaces and its open spirit,
0:11:36 > 0:11:40Frank Lloyd Wright's Oak Park home was his first step
0:11:40 > 0:11:42towards a new kind of architecture.
0:11:48 > 0:11:52Over the next few years, Wright's career took off.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55His house attracted the attention of curious neighbours,
0:11:55 > 0:11:58and commissions flowed in.
0:12:00 > 0:12:05He would eventually design over 50 houses for local clients.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09Many, like his own, subtle experiments with traditional forms.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18By now, Frank and Kitty had six children.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22Wright was in his late 30s, and more than ready for his big break.
0:12:23 > 0:12:27But when that came, it was a bolt from the blue.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32Every Sunday, Frank Lloyd Wright and his young family
0:12:32 > 0:12:35would walk a half-mile to worship at the local Unitarian church.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38It wasn't the kind of building that he really approved of.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41It was vaguely Gothic with a pretentious spire.
0:12:41 > 0:12:43And then, one night in 1905,
0:12:43 > 0:12:46it was struck by lightning and it burned to the ground.
0:12:52 > 0:12:53Never slow to see his chance,
0:12:53 > 0:12:56Wright proposed a new building for the site.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59It was unlike anything seen before in America.
0:13:02 > 0:13:07Wright's plans for the new building cast aside all traditional styles,
0:13:07 > 0:13:10as he seized the chance to express his own spiritual
0:13:10 > 0:13:13and architectural beliefs.
0:13:15 > 0:13:20Gone would be ornament, arches and the showy spire.
0:13:23 > 0:13:27What emerged instead was Unity Temple,
0:13:27 > 0:13:30the world's first truly modern building.
0:13:46 > 0:13:51Few people even today would guess that this is a church.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54The building doesn't even have an obvious way in.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59The very material the Unity Temple is constructed from
0:13:59 > 0:14:01seems unsuitable for a place of worship.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07These walls and every detail of the exterior
0:14:07 > 0:14:10are made from solid, unadorned, reinforced concrete.
0:14:10 > 0:14:13Wright's justification was that it was cheap -
0:14:13 > 0:14:18a utilitarian material used for low-grade engineering structures.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21The impoverished church committee was persuaded to go along.
0:14:23 > 0:14:26But Wright's real reason for using concrete
0:14:26 > 0:14:31was that it was a new and exciting technology with unlimited potential.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35It put Frank Lloyd Wright just where he wanted to be -
0:14:35 > 0:14:38on his own at the frontier of architecture.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45If the exterior of Unity Temple expressed an idea of the divine,
0:14:45 > 0:14:48it was in austere geometric forms.
0:14:49 > 0:14:53But the space that those forms created on the inside
0:14:53 > 0:14:56was among Frank Lloyd Wright's most beautiful
0:14:56 > 0:14:59and spiritually uplifting rooms.
0:15:07 > 0:15:11The sanctuary of Unity Temple is a perfect square.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15Golden light streams in through coloured glass
0:15:15 > 0:15:17in the coffered ceiling...
0:15:17 > 0:15:21while ornament and structure combine to unite the whole.
0:15:29 > 0:15:31This building is unique.
0:15:32 > 0:15:38It is hard to figure out how to even get into the sanctuary.
0:15:38 > 0:15:42And when you find it, it just opens up and it's a gem of a space.
0:15:44 > 0:15:46I love the intimacy,
0:15:46 > 0:15:51this capacity to worship while in community with one another,
0:15:51 > 0:15:53being able to see one another.
0:15:53 > 0:15:58It's the most important part of the building for the most of us.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09Wright based the distinctive interior layout of Unity Temple
0:16:09 > 0:16:13closely on the Lloyd Jones family chapel back in Wales.
0:16:15 > 0:16:18But his new building's overall radicalism
0:16:18 > 0:16:22was still too much for some in its congregation.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26It's said that they prayed for ivy, and were happy when ivy came.
0:16:37 > 0:16:40All the while that Unity Temple was taking shape,
0:16:40 > 0:16:44Frank Lloyd Wright was busy designing houses.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48By now, he had his own architectural practice,
0:16:48 > 0:16:50and his designs had become far more daring.
0:16:53 > 0:16:57Pointed roofs had started to flatten out, as windows widened.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02Cellars and attics vanished,
0:17:02 > 0:17:05and houses spread out, low to the ground.
0:17:07 > 0:17:10Wright was inspired by the vast open spaces
0:17:10 > 0:17:13that stretched away beyond Chicago.
0:17:14 > 0:17:18The buildings even became known as prairie houses.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24He brought this early vision to perfection with the Robie House,
0:17:24 > 0:17:27a gorgeous steamship of a building with windows like prows.
0:17:27 > 0:17:30It sailed through an open green landscape,
0:17:30 > 0:17:32a vessel of the Midwest prairie.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41The Robie House looked as modern and powerful
0:17:41 > 0:17:44as the Great Lakes steamers that docked in Chicago.
0:17:47 > 0:17:50It was an impressive feat of engineering.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54The huge projecting roof was Wright's most daring to date.
0:17:58 > 0:18:02Inside, too, Wright used this building to experiment,
0:18:02 > 0:18:07creating a sense of drama around the simple act of entering.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12You come into the Robie House through the front door,
0:18:12 > 0:18:13which is actually at the back,
0:18:13 > 0:18:17and you find yourself in this low, dark lobby,
0:18:17 > 0:18:21which pushes you towards this flight of stairs.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25And as you climb the stairs, you get glimpses of light at the top,
0:18:25 > 0:18:28which lead you upwards and build a sense of anticipation.
0:18:28 > 0:18:30But then, you're forced to turn.
0:18:31 > 0:18:35And you turn again, and then there's another few steps
0:18:35 > 0:18:40which lead you up, and one final turn...
0:18:40 > 0:18:45and then you're released into this fantastic wide room,
0:18:45 > 0:18:48surrounded by windows and bathed with natural light.
0:18:54 > 0:18:58Wright liked to call conventional houses boxes,
0:18:58 > 0:19:02and their rooms boxes within boxes.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07In the unlimited free flow of the Robie House,
0:19:07 > 0:19:10to use his own phrase, he destroys the box.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19One final thing about the Robie House that's true
0:19:19 > 0:19:21of almost all of Wright's houses -
0:19:21 > 0:19:24if you commissioned one, you didn't just get the building,
0:19:24 > 0:19:26you got the furniture too,
0:19:26 > 0:19:29which Wright designed, along with a list of dos and don'ts.
0:19:30 > 0:19:32Curtains and blinds were out,
0:19:32 > 0:19:35as were paintings on the wall and ornaments.
0:19:37 > 0:19:38Wright had astonishing self-belief,
0:19:38 > 0:19:41almost to the point of being overbearing.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45He called interior decorators inferior desecrators.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48It wasn't unusual for former clients to arrive home
0:19:48 > 0:19:50to find that Wright had made an unannounced visit
0:19:50 > 0:19:52and rearranged all their furniture.
0:19:52 > 0:19:54In the case of the Robie House,
0:19:54 > 0:19:56he even designed a dress for Mrs Robie to wear here.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05Frank Lloyd Wright, now in his early 40s,
0:20:05 > 0:20:09was riding high and creating a real stir.
0:20:10 > 0:20:14But increasingly he was chafing against conventional family life
0:20:14 > 0:20:16in a polite suburb.
0:20:18 > 0:20:21He himself started to see
0:20:21 > 0:20:25that the world was a lot bigger than Oak Park,
0:20:25 > 0:20:28and at a certain point he realised he was interested
0:20:28 > 0:20:30in looking much further forward.
0:20:32 > 0:20:36How did he become someone to be reckoned with?
0:20:36 > 0:20:40Well, one way to do that is to dress differently
0:20:40 > 0:20:43and to go out more and...
0:20:43 > 0:20:46to have girlfriends, I suppose.
0:20:46 > 0:20:52I think that was the start of what one might call
0:20:52 > 0:20:54almost anti-social behaviour.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04Wright's unconventional conduct crossed a line
0:21:04 > 0:21:07when he began an affair with the wife of a client.
0:21:09 > 0:21:14Mamah Cheney was a feminist, a freethinker.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17The ideal partner for a radical man,
0:21:17 > 0:21:19albeit a mother of two.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23When their relationship was discovered,
0:21:23 > 0:21:25Wright took decisive action.
0:21:25 > 0:21:27Closing down his studio,
0:21:27 > 0:21:32he abandoned his family, and together with Mamah fled to Europe.
0:21:44 > 0:21:47When the couple returned a year later,
0:21:47 > 0:21:49it was to set up home together.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55Wright knew they wouldn't be welcome in Oak Park,
0:21:55 > 0:21:59so he began building a new house on land owned by his mother.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06It was in the one place that for him represented safety,
0:22:06 > 0:22:08community and integrity.
0:22:08 > 0:22:10The valley of his childhood.
0:22:12 > 0:22:17He even gave his new house a centuries-old Welsh name...
0:22:17 > 0:22:19Taliesin.
0:22:30 > 0:22:32Taliesin sits on the brow of a hill.
0:22:32 > 0:22:34As Wright liked to point out,
0:22:34 > 0:22:37its Welsh name actually means "shining brow."
0:22:39 > 0:22:41It's been compared to an Italian villa
0:22:41 > 0:22:44or even to a mediaeval Welsh farmstead.
0:22:44 > 0:22:48A fortified state built at a time when he needed to feel secure.
0:22:55 > 0:22:59But Taliesin is very much more besides.
0:22:59 > 0:23:03More than any other building, it embodies Wright's ideal
0:23:03 > 0:23:08of how architecture and nature should coexist.
0:23:11 > 0:23:13I said that Taliesin sits on a hill.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16Frank Lloyd Wright would have taken pleasure in correcting me.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20He preferred to say that it was of the hill, that it graces the hill,
0:23:20 > 0:23:23that the hill and the house are improved by each other
0:23:23 > 0:23:26so that they become a unity.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32Taliesin I learned a lot from.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35The way that he marries his buildings with the landscape
0:23:35 > 0:23:38and the way...their juxtaposition with each other
0:23:38 > 0:23:40and the way that spaces flow through them.
0:23:42 > 0:23:44It sort of comes out of the landscape.
0:23:44 > 0:23:49It's constant and it's green hills and trees and grass and such.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52I remember being unbelievably impressed.
0:23:55 > 0:23:59Wright summed up the philosophy that lay behind Taliesin
0:23:59 > 0:24:01in a simple phrase -
0:24:01 > 0:24:03organic architecture.
0:24:04 > 0:24:06It's a memorable expression,
0:24:06 > 0:24:10but just what is it that makes a building organic?
0:24:12 > 0:24:14Well, here he used local materials.
0:24:14 > 0:24:18Stone, sand and timber sourced from nearby.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21What's more, the same materials are used inside and outside,
0:24:21 > 0:24:24so that interior and exterior flow together.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29Windows are low and linear,
0:24:29 > 0:24:32so that when you are seated inside,
0:24:32 > 0:24:35you have a continuous view through tree tops,
0:24:35 > 0:24:38as if you're elevated, floating among them.
0:24:42 > 0:24:47But it's important to say that for Wright, organic architecture
0:24:47 > 0:24:50didn't just mean using local materials
0:24:50 > 0:24:53and blending a building into a landscape.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58What he meant was that the philosophy of the building,
0:24:58 > 0:25:00what it says about how we should live, would,
0:25:00 > 0:25:03when blended with the character of the site,
0:25:03 > 0:25:07give rise naturally and organically to its unique form.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15In this case, a building that belongs to its hill
0:25:15 > 0:25:17and could never be built anywhere else.
0:25:24 > 0:25:29Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Cheney lived happily at Taliesin,
0:25:29 > 0:25:33for all that local newspapers dubbed their house a love bungalow.
0:25:35 > 0:25:37Wright was defiant.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41Around a building he carved the Welsh symbol
0:25:41 > 0:25:44that represented his Unitarian family motto,
0:25:44 > 0:25:47truth against the world.
0:25:50 > 0:25:54But the dream of this new world wasn't to last.
0:26:02 > 0:26:06Taliesin, like almost all large houses of its time,
0:26:06 > 0:26:08was built to be run by servants.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12But Wright's liberal principles meant that here they lived
0:26:12 > 0:26:19on the main floor with everybody else, not in some pokey garret.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22Treat your servants as your friends, Wright had written.
0:26:24 > 0:26:29In 1914, a new servant was taken on at Taliesin...
0:26:29 > 0:26:33Julian Carlton, a butler and all-round help.
0:26:35 > 0:26:39One day in September, when Frank Lloyd Wright was away,
0:26:39 > 0:26:42the unimaginable happened at Taliesin.
0:26:44 > 0:26:46While Mamah and her children were sitting down to lunch,
0:26:46 > 0:26:48Julian Carlton ran amok.
0:26:50 > 0:26:52Using petrol, he set fire to the house.
0:26:54 > 0:26:58As its terrified residents fled, he attacked them with a hatchet.
0:27:13 > 0:27:15Seven people died here,
0:27:15 > 0:27:19including Mamah Cheney and her two young children.
0:27:19 > 0:27:21Taliesin was all but destroyed.
0:27:26 > 0:27:30The seemingly senseless slaughter made national headlines.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35Julian Carlton refused to speak about what he'd done.
0:27:35 > 0:27:39He starved himself to death in jail two months later.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47Mamah Cheney was buried in the valley,
0:27:47 > 0:27:51in sight of the ruins of Taliesin.
0:28:06 > 0:28:09The years after the calamity were turbulent ones
0:28:09 > 0:28:11for Frank Lloyd Wright.
0:28:11 > 0:28:14He had gone from the happiest time in his life
0:28:14 > 0:28:16to the time of deepest despair.
0:28:18 > 0:28:22He threw himself into the rebuilding of Taliesin,
0:28:22 > 0:28:25but much of the decade he spent working abroad.
0:28:32 > 0:28:36When he returned to America, it would not be to the Midwest,
0:28:36 > 0:28:41scene of his previous triumphs and his greatest tragedy.
0:28:41 > 0:28:44Instead, he turned to a new horizon
0:28:44 > 0:28:48and an extraordinary new phase in his work.
0:29:00 > 0:29:05Wright received five commissions to build houses in Los Angeles.
0:29:05 > 0:29:10The biggest and boldest of them was designed for a wealthy LA couple,
0:29:10 > 0:29:11the Ennises.
0:29:23 > 0:29:28If Taliesin is of the hill, the Ennis house really is on the hill.
0:29:28 > 0:29:30This is a fortress.
0:29:30 > 0:29:35It's a mysterious interior place that sits proud in its landscape.
0:29:38 > 0:29:41Is it organic?
0:29:41 > 0:29:44It's a building that perfectly suits its city -
0:29:44 > 0:29:47the ambition and boldness of LA,
0:29:47 > 0:29:50and the bright sun that shines here all year round.
0:29:59 > 0:30:03For Frank Lloyd Wright, now 57 years old,
0:30:03 > 0:30:05the Ennis House was a creative rebirth.
0:30:07 > 0:30:11The design was inspired by the ancient forms of Mayan temples.
0:30:12 > 0:30:17But to build it, Wright devised a brand-new construction method.
0:30:20 > 0:30:25The entire house was made out of patterned concrete blocks.
0:30:25 > 0:30:2927,000 of them, all manufactured on-site.
0:30:30 > 0:30:31As the building rose,
0:30:31 > 0:30:35steel rods were threaded between them for support.
0:30:38 > 0:30:42Wright liked to say that he was weaving here rather than building.
0:30:42 > 0:30:44I think you can see what he meant.
0:30:44 > 0:30:47You have the steel rods running along these joints,
0:30:47 > 0:30:49interleaving the warp and weft,
0:30:49 > 0:30:53and then the concrete blocks that form the finish.
0:30:53 > 0:30:57He also said he wanted to elevate an unloved building material,
0:30:57 > 0:31:01the humble concrete block, into something much more beautiful,
0:31:01 > 0:31:03and he certainly succeeded.
0:31:15 > 0:31:20Entering the Ennis house feels like stepping into an adventure.
0:31:20 > 0:31:24The forbidding exterior really gives you no idea what to expect.
0:31:31 > 0:31:35Inside, the house is made from exactly the same concrete blocks
0:31:35 > 0:31:36as outside.
0:31:38 > 0:31:42But whereas the exterior is solid and massive,
0:31:42 > 0:31:47these columns create a series of intriguing interlinked spaces.
0:31:53 > 0:31:57This really is... It's an incredible space.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04Being inside this rock-like structure
0:32:04 > 0:32:08makes you feel as if you're in a complex of caves.
0:32:08 > 0:32:11It's a really powerful sense of mystery.
0:32:11 > 0:32:14No idea how far it extends or where you're being taken.
0:32:14 > 0:32:16I think that's what must have made it
0:32:16 > 0:32:18such an exhilarating place to live.
0:32:24 > 0:32:28There's a timelessness and drama to the Ennis house,
0:32:28 > 0:32:30and it's no surprise that it's proved a favourite
0:32:30 > 0:32:32with Hollywood film-makers.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35It's been featured in horror films and thrillers,
0:32:35 > 0:32:37and most famously...
0:32:39 > 0:32:43..in the seminal 1980s science-fiction film Blade Runner.
0:32:43 > 0:32:45I wanted to see you.
0:32:51 > 0:32:54The sheer originality of Wright's creation
0:32:54 > 0:32:58means it can fit easily into any world of the imagination.
0:32:59 > 0:33:04It's remarkable, given how instantly recognisable this building is.
0:33:12 > 0:33:16The Ennis house was a triumph for Frank Lloyd Wright.
0:33:17 > 0:33:20But as the 1920s drew to a close,
0:33:20 > 0:33:24storm clouds were once again gathering.
0:33:29 > 0:33:31Wright had found a new love.
0:33:31 > 0:33:35Olgivanna Milanoff was Montenegrin,
0:33:35 > 0:33:39a professional dancer and some 30 years his junior.
0:33:41 > 0:33:45Their relationship became mired in scandal.
0:33:45 > 0:33:48Business suffered and worse was to follow.
0:33:52 > 0:33:57The Wall Street crash of 1929 decimated American architecture,
0:33:57 > 0:33:59and for three years Frank Lloyd Wright
0:33:59 > 0:34:01had not a single commission.
0:34:04 > 0:34:08Always a spendthrift, he was finally flat broke.
0:34:10 > 0:34:12Now in his mid-60s,
0:34:12 > 0:34:15Wright was coming to be seen as yesterday's man,
0:34:15 > 0:34:17a talent who had faded away.
0:34:19 > 0:34:22Some simply assumed that he was dead.
0:34:35 > 0:34:40Then, at Taliesin, something remarkable happened.
0:34:40 > 0:34:45A plan was hatched that would define Wright's later life.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48It was ingenious but simple.
0:34:48 > 0:34:53The legendary Frank Lloyd Wright would offer apprenticeships.
0:34:53 > 0:34:55The Taliesin Fellowship was born.
0:35:00 > 0:35:03The fellowship did a lot of things for Wright.
0:35:05 > 0:35:08It provided him with young men and women
0:35:08 > 0:35:15who wanted to learn and who were very happy to work in the garden,
0:35:15 > 0:35:16in the farm.
0:35:16 > 0:35:21They were building, they were cooking, cleaning,
0:35:21 > 0:35:27and most of them had the money to support Wright
0:35:27 > 0:35:30in a way that he couldn't possibly otherwise have managed.
0:35:34 > 0:35:38Mr Wright said, "This is not a school and I am not a teacher.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42"You are here to help me with my work,
0:35:42 > 0:35:44"and if you get something out of that, that's good."
0:35:44 > 0:35:46You were really here to help him,
0:35:46 > 0:35:49but, you know, when you're helping a master,
0:35:49 > 0:35:54unless you're just totally immune to it, your life gets changed.
0:35:54 > 0:35:58It's as though there was like a real magician, not a fake,
0:35:58 > 0:36:03and that magician made things happen just by being there.
0:36:12 > 0:36:15But in the huge drafting room at Taliesin,
0:36:15 > 0:36:19real architectural work was in short supply.
0:36:19 > 0:36:23All Wright and his apprentices could do was to draw and dream.
0:36:25 > 0:36:29Then at last a commission came in.
0:36:29 > 0:36:33The result would relaunch Frank Lloyd Wright's career
0:36:33 > 0:36:35and take it to new heights.
0:36:39 > 0:36:44In 1933, a wealthy Pittsburgh businessman,
0:36:44 > 0:36:48Edgar Kaufmann, decided to rebuild his holiday cottage
0:36:48 > 0:36:50deep in the Pennsylvania woodland.
0:36:56 > 0:37:00As chance would have it, his son was an apprentice at Taliesin.
0:37:01 > 0:37:04Wright and Kaufmann met and the deal was done.
0:37:09 > 0:37:12The story of the origins of Kaufmann's new house
0:37:12 > 0:37:14has the quality of a legend.
0:37:14 > 0:37:18Frank Lloyd Wright visited and surveyed this very challenging site
0:37:18 > 0:37:20and he'd had detailed maps of it drawn up.
0:37:20 > 0:37:24But afterwards, months passed with no sign of progress.
0:37:26 > 0:37:30Then, at Taliesin one day, the phone rang.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33Mr Kaufmann was in the area.
0:37:34 > 0:37:38Could he call by and look at Frank's plans for the new building?
0:37:38 > 0:37:43Wright sat down in his drafting room, and in just two hours,
0:37:43 > 0:37:47set down an astonishing vision.
0:37:54 > 0:37:56What he had designed has been called
0:37:56 > 0:37:59the greatest house of the 20th century.
0:37:59 > 0:38:01Fallingwater.
0:38:05 > 0:38:1180 years on from its construction, it still takes your breath away,
0:38:11 > 0:38:14looking fantastically modern and yet timeless.
0:38:28 > 0:38:30This really is a phenomenal sight.
0:38:30 > 0:38:32I've been looking at buildings for a very long time now
0:38:32 > 0:38:36and I've not seen anything quite as thrilling as this.
0:38:40 > 0:38:43Fallingwater. That's the one quintessential building, to me.
0:38:45 > 0:38:48It's the way it's situated in its landscape,
0:38:48 > 0:38:53the way it occupies a space which is much bigger than its physical size.
0:38:54 > 0:38:58In our minds it's a vast city of horizontals and verticals.
0:39:00 > 0:39:02In that one building, he created modern architecture.
0:39:11 > 0:39:15Now the fundamental call that Wright made was also the most daring.
0:39:15 > 0:39:18Edgar Kaufmann had expected that his new house would be sited
0:39:18 > 0:39:21somewhere around here looking back at the waterfall.
0:39:21 > 0:39:24Nobody anticipated that Wright would site the building
0:39:24 > 0:39:27directly on top of the fall itself.
0:39:27 > 0:39:29And yet that one inspired decision
0:39:29 > 0:39:33led directly to this extraordinary, floating,
0:39:33 > 0:39:36almost dreamlike building that we see today.
0:39:40 > 0:39:44The huge slab of rock from which the water drops was echoed by Wright
0:39:44 > 0:39:48in Fallingwater's extraordinary projecting terraces.
0:39:51 > 0:39:55The effect is to harmonise the building with its setting.
0:39:55 > 0:39:58Something conspicuously man-made,
0:39:58 > 0:40:00yet in sympathy with nature.
0:40:06 > 0:40:10Inside too, every detail of Fallingwater
0:40:10 > 0:40:13responds to the natural world in which it is set.
0:40:15 > 0:40:16The floor is polished stone
0:40:16 > 0:40:20and evokes the rippled surface of the river below
0:40:20 > 0:40:22just before it goes over the falls.
0:40:26 > 0:40:30The long lines of windows lift you into the tree tops,
0:40:30 > 0:40:35while the vibrant chairs and rugs are like birds or flowers,
0:40:35 > 0:40:38bright splashes of colour in the deep canopy.
0:40:44 > 0:40:47There's a wonderful feeling of security here,
0:40:47 > 0:40:50of being in a shelter in the wild.
0:40:55 > 0:41:00There's even room at Fallingwater for a staircase that leads nowhere.
0:41:02 > 0:41:06Just down to the water where you can stand and contemplate.
0:41:22 > 0:41:26After barren years, Fallingwater was Frank Lloyd Wright's
0:41:26 > 0:41:29most spectacular success,
0:41:29 > 0:41:33and a vindication of his lifelong architectural philosophy.
0:41:36 > 0:41:38No other building of Wright's more clearly expresses
0:41:38 > 0:41:42his personal idea of organic design.
0:41:42 > 0:41:45The waterfall on its own was undoubtedly beautiful,
0:41:45 > 0:41:47but it's enhanced by this vision of a building
0:41:47 > 0:41:49that seems to have grown out of the rocks and trees
0:41:49 > 0:41:52while still pushing technology to its limits.
0:41:54 > 0:41:57Very few buildings anywhere from any time in history
0:41:57 > 0:42:00express an uplifting idea of humanity's place in the world
0:42:00 > 0:42:02like this one does.
0:42:23 > 0:42:25While Fallingwater was being built,
0:42:25 > 0:42:29work was progressing rapidly on a second breakthrough project.
0:42:33 > 0:42:36The site could hardly have been more different.
0:42:36 > 0:42:42A flat industrial lot on the outskirts of a dull Wisconsin town.
0:42:42 > 0:42:45The commission didn't sound inspiring, either.
0:42:45 > 0:42:49An office building for a cleaning products company.
0:42:49 > 0:42:53But, once again, Wright worked his magic.
0:43:03 > 0:43:05When you look at it today,
0:43:05 > 0:43:08the Johnson Wax building is straight out of vintage science fiction.
0:43:08 > 0:43:10Even on a grey day like this,
0:43:10 > 0:43:13it still fills me with a sense of joyous possibilities.
0:43:21 > 0:43:24It's when you step inside, though,
0:43:24 > 0:43:27that the genius of the building fully reveals itself.
0:43:33 > 0:43:35Wow, what an awe-inspiring room.
0:43:41 > 0:43:44The great workroom of the SC Johnson building
0:43:44 > 0:43:49has been called the greatest room in all American architecture.
0:43:50 > 0:43:52And you can see why.
0:43:55 > 0:43:59Wright's answer to the dreary surroundings was simple enough.
0:43:59 > 0:44:01No windows.
0:44:01 > 0:44:06Instead, he created an artificial interior world
0:44:06 > 0:44:11that is itself as inspiring and uplifting as a wild landscape.
0:44:14 > 0:44:19Delicate light enters through patterns of Pyrex tubes,
0:44:19 > 0:44:24while huge otherworldly columns leap up to the skies.
0:44:34 > 0:44:38The beauty of Wright's design was clear for all to see.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41But back in the 1930s,
0:44:41 > 0:44:44the technical challenge of turning vision into reality
0:44:44 > 0:44:47was making some people distinctly nervous.
0:44:48 > 0:44:50These extraordinary columns were like nothing
0:44:50 > 0:44:53the local building control officers had ever seen,
0:44:53 > 0:44:55and so, before construction could begin,
0:44:55 > 0:44:58they insisted on testing one under a full load.
0:44:58 > 0:45:01Wright, as confident a showman as he was an engineer,
0:45:01 > 0:45:05was happy to oblige, and to invite the press along.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12Six tonnes of sandbags were loaded onto the column.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15The officials were satisfied.
0:45:16 > 0:45:20But Frank Lloyd Wright had a point to prove.
0:45:20 > 0:45:23Ten tonnes went on, then 20.
0:45:23 > 0:45:25And finally, 60 tonnes.
0:45:27 > 0:45:32Wright strode up to the column, kicked it, hit it with his cane.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37It was only when the wooden props holding the column upright
0:45:37 > 0:45:40were removed that it finally crashed down.
0:45:44 > 0:45:46There was so much weight on it
0:45:46 > 0:45:50that a sewer 20 feet underground fractured.
0:45:54 > 0:45:57The strength and ingenuity of Wright's columns
0:45:57 > 0:46:01allowed him to create a vast cathedral-like room.
0:46:02 > 0:46:07It embodied his lifelong Unitarian belief in the sanctity of nature
0:46:07 > 0:46:09and the sanctity of work.
0:46:15 > 0:46:18It's called the great workroom for a good reason,
0:46:18 > 0:46:20it's a great place to work.
0:46:20 > 0:46:24When you're working here, it's like working in a glade of trees.
0:46:31 > 0:46:34With the sun streaming down through the glass tubing in the ceiling,
0:46:34 > 0:46:39and creating these wonderful vistas of a sense of outdoorness.
0:46:39 > 0:46:41It's an incredible place to work.
0:46:49 > 0:46:53The twin triumphs of the Johnson Wax building and Fallingwater
0:46:53 > 0:46:57ushered in a new period of creativity and success for Wright.
0:47:00 > 0:47:04It's been said that American lives have no second act.
0:47:04 > 0:47:06Well, here was one,
0:47:06 > 0:47:10perhaps bigger and bolder than the first.
0:47:21 > 0:47:27By now, Frank Lloyd Wright was 70 years old and life was good.
0:47:27 > 0:47:30His home was still Taliesin,
0:47:30 > 0:47:34now standing proud once more in the Wisconsin Valley of his childhood.
0:47:35 > 0:47:38He was happily married to Olgivanna,
0:47:38 > 0:47:41but there was one thing about life at Taliesin
0:47:41 > 0:47:43that she could no longer bear.
0:47:45 > 0:47:50The long frozen winters when temperatures plummeted to minus 20
0:47:50 > 0:47:53and snow settled for months on end.
0:47:57 > 0:48:02And so, in 1937, a convoy set off from Taliesin
0:48:02 > 0:48:04in the depths of December.
0:48:06 > 0:48:10The cars were packed with provisions, the tools of the trade,
0:48:10 > 0:48:14and the entire Taliesin Fellowship.
0:48:14 > 0:48:20From now on, winter would be spent at a new home in the sun.
0:48:30 > 0:48:33The parched Arizona desert was the most extreme environment
0:48:33 > 0:48:36that Frank Lloyd Wright had ever built in.
0:48:36 > 0:48:41It would test his philosophy of organic architecture to the limit
0:48:41 > 0:48:44and result in a kind of building never seen before.
0:49:00 > 0:49:04Taliesin West is such a unique and beautiful place.
0:49:04 > 0:49:08It was designed and constructed over seven years,
0:49:08 > 0:49:10and it was loosely based on a diagram
0:49:10 > 0:49:12that connects the various angles of the building
0:49:12 > 0:49:16to geological features and to prominent hilltops on the horizon.
0:49:16 > 0:49:20It's like a piece of free-form architectural jazz.
0:49:28 > 0:49:30Taliesin West was constructed entirely
0:49:30 > 0:49:32by members of the Fellowship.
0:49:34 > 0:49:37Building supplies were hard to come by in the desert,
0:49:37 > 0:49:41so Wright improvised, turning to the boulders that littered the site.
0:49:45 > 0:49:47I love this material.
0:49:47 > 0:49:49Wright called it desert masonry.
0:49:49 > 0:49:52And I bet that anyone who studied here during those years
0:49:52 > 0:49:55could take me straight to their section of the wall,
0:49:55 > 0:49:57and that they would recognise their own boulders,
0:49:57 > 0:49:59almost as if they were personal friends.
0:50:03 > 0:50:06The massive walls of Taliesin West
0:50:06 > 0:50:10seemed to grow out of the desert floor itself.
0:50:10 > 0:50:14But on top of them, Wright placed canvas.
0:50:14 > 0:50:18It was so delicate, it had to be replaced each year,
0:50:18 > 0:50:21as if pioneers were making camp.
0:50:25 > 0:50:29Inside and outside were never more happily merged.
0:50:29 > 0:50:31It was a kind of natural air conditioning,
0:50:31 > 0:50:35a building that worked with its environment and not against it.
0:50:35 > 0:50:39It was actually green architecture before that phrase even existed.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48The open, airy world of Taliesin West
0:50:48 > 0:50:52created a relaxed, communal way of living and working.
0:50:57 > 0:50:59Today, it's home
0:50:59 > 0:51:03to the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture,
0:51:03 > 0:51:08a place where students still work and live together.
0:51:08 > 0:51:11The allure of Frank Lloyd Wright lives on.
0:51:14 > 0:51:18When you see the level of freedom and experimentation they had,
0:51:18 > 0:51:22that it was not concerned with a particular style
0:51:22 > 0:51:25or keeping things as they are,
0:51:25 > 0:51:28but actually into challenging and questioning what architecture means.
0:51:28 > 0:51:32And I think that's what we really can take away
0:51:32 > 0:51:36from the experience of being in his legacy.
0:51:59 > 0:52:01The years passed
0:52:01 > 0:52:04and Frank Lloyd Wright approached the age of 90.
0:52:06 > 0:52:10He was now the grand old man of American architecture,
0:52:10 > 0:52:13lauded by his peers at home and abroad,
0:52:13 > 0:52:17interviewed on television, a household name.
0:52:17 > 0:52:21I understand that last week, in all seriousness, you said,
0:52:21 > 0:52:25"If I had another 15 years to work, I can rebuild this entire country,
0:52:25 > 0:52:27"I could change the nation."
0:52:27 > 0:52:29I did say that...
0:52:29 > 0:52:30and it's true.
0:52:32 > 0:52:36He continued to work tirelessly, designing a Unitarian church...
0:52:38 > 0:52:39..a skyscraper...
0:52:41 > 0:52:42..a synagogue...
0:52:43 > 0:52:46..and, as ever, houses.
0:52:58 > 0:53:02But in the self-proclaimed capital of American architecture,
0:53:02 > 0:53:04he had failed to make any mark.
0:53:07 > 0:53:09With his final masterpiece,
0:53:09 > 0:53:12Frank Lloyd Wright would change all that.
0:53:24 > 0:53:28There is a wonderful picture of him six months before he died
0:53:28 > 0:53:30on top of the Guggenheim Museum,
0:53:30 > 0:53:33and he's looking on top of the world.
0:53:33 > 0:53:38I think that's a very apt metaphor for him.
0:53:38 > 0:53:41I think Frank was having a lot of fun saying,
0:53:41 > 0:53:45"Here it is, take it or leave it," you know?
0:53:45 > 0:53:48"I'm the boss here, this is what I'm giving you."
0:53:52 > 0:53:55The evolution of the Guggenheim is fascinating,
0:53:55 > 0:53:59and it's a great illustration of how Wright worked.
0:53:59 > 0:54:03So much in his late career was there in embryo in his early days,
0:54:03 > 0:54:07but his philosophy and his imagination never changed course.
0:54:09 > 0:54:12Here he turned to an old, unbuilt design
0:54:12 > 0:54:15that featured a ramp for cars to drive up.
0:54:15 > 0:54:18First, he turned it upside down,
0:54:18 > 0:54:22so that the building was wider at the top.
0:54:22 > 0:54:27Then, he turned it inside out, putting the ramp on the interior.
0:54:29 > 0:54:33The result became one of the most famous buildings in the world.
0:54:45 > 0:54:48The Guggenheim Art Museum was Frank Lloyd Wright's
0:54:48 > 0:54:50poke in the eye for New York City,
0:54:50 > 0:54:55and the people he called the "Glass Box Boys",
0:54:55 > 0:54:59the modernist architects and critics who had no time for his work.
0:55:00 > 0:55:04Into their landscape of soaring vertical lines,
0:55:04 > 0:55:08glass, and right angles, he smuggled a low, curvaceous newcomer...
0:55:10 > 0:55:12..and it stole the show.
0:55:21 > 0:55:25Inside, the Guggenheim was the logical culmination
0:55:25 > 0:55:28of Wright's lifelong desire to open up interiors
0:55:28 > 0:55:31and create a free flow of space.
0:55:32 > 0:55:38It's a building with just one room and one path to follow.
0:55:39 > 0:55:41Some people prefer to start at the top.
0:55:41 > 0:55:44Others, like me, would rather begin at the bottom.
0:55:44 > 0:55:45But once you're on your way,
0:55:45 > 0:55:48Frank Lloyd Wright is leading you every step you take.
0:55:52 > 0:55:54In traditional museums,
0:55:54 > 0:55:57you're sometimes not sure where you're going,
0:55:57 > 0:55:59whether you missed a room,
0:55:59 > 0:56:03or if there might be better art hiding just around the corner.
0:56:03 > 0:56:05Here, everything is open.
0:56:05 > 0:56:08You can see where you're going, how far you have to go,
0:56:08 > 0:56:10and the artworks that await you.
0:56:10 > 0:56:13You're drawn naturally up the path.
0:56:13 > 0:56:16And after looking closely at the painting in front of you,
0:56:16 > 0:56:20you can turn away and relax to an open vista, the movement of people,
0:56:20 > 0:56:24and glimpses of artworks on the walls.
0:56:24 > 0:56:26You're not just looking at art,
0:56:26 > 0:56:29you're getting a lesson in the act of looking at art.
0:56:37 > 0:56:40Back in the 1950s, however,
0:56:40 > 0:56:43many people thought that Wright's design for a circular art museum
0:56:43 > 0:56:46was little short of madness.
0:56:47 > 0:56:49The sloping walls, they said,
0:56:49 > 0:56:52would mean that paintings leaned backwards.
0:56:54 > 0:56:58The windows would allow in too much or too little light.
0:57:00 > 0:57:02And as for Wright's choice of colour,
0:57:02 > 0:57:04that was better not mentioned.
0:57:08 > 0:57:12In the end, that un-Wright-ian thing, a compromise, was reached.
0:57:12 > 0:57:13The colour was off-white,
0:57:13 > 0:57:16the paintings were fixed on brackets off the wall,
0:57:16 > 0:57:20and daylight was mixed with fluorescent light.
0:57:30 > 0:57:32I'd say I like the building more
0:57:32 > 0:57:37because I don't really try and fight it any longer.
0:57:37 > 0:57:40What we like to say to one another is,
0:57:40 > 0:57:43"We're a circle in a world of squares."
0:57:45 > 0:57:48It was a bloody expensive building,
0:57:48 > 0:57:52but you see the unbelievable joy and astonishment,
0:57:52 > 0:57:54particularly first-time visitors,
0:57:54 > 0:57:58and that doesn't come through so often in today's world.
0:58:09 > 0:58:13Frank Lloyd Wright died in April 1959,
0:58:13 > 0:58:17six months before the Guggenheim Museum opened.
0:58:19 > 0:58:22His life had encompassed a huge swathe of history.
0:58:23 > 0:58:26Born in the wake of the American Civil War,
0:58:26 > 0:58:28the son of a pioneer,
0:58:28 > 0:58:32he died a television personality in the Space Age.
0:58:35 > 0:58:38He had changed architecture, not just in America,
0:58:38 > 0:58:41but around the world.
0:58:41 > 0:58:44Frank Lloyd Wright was laid to rest
0:58:44 > 0:58:48in the one place that meant most to him -
0:58:48 > 0:58:52the valley of his childhood, among his ancestors.