It was my second week in Phoenix when my editor dispatched me to Taliesen West.
Formerly the desert redoubt of Frank Lloyd Wright and his third wife Olgivanna, the site is now a museum-cum-monument to Wright’s “organic architecture” design philosophy. According to a breathless press release from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Taliesen West was pleased to offer the general public a tour of the “Shelters in the Desert” - a series of spartan structures erected by Wright’s apprentices. This limited-time offer was previously available exclusively for Taliesen West members, and KJZZ had been granted a free ticket in exchange for coverage.
Prior to my visit, I’d heard of Frank Lloyd Wright. But I didn’t have any strong feelings about the man. Basically, I knew he was an architect who designed eccentric houses and buildings. If, during the period of my life when I spent an alarming number of evenings performing improv comedy, a scene partner had walked on stage and declared themselves to be Frank Lloyd Wright, I likely would’ve sputtered a reply involving the word “Fallingwater.” But I wouldn’t have had the faintest idea what I was talking about.
Upon arrival at Taliesen West, I couldn’t help but notice the quiet majesty of the place. Gift shops and offices nestled into the base of vast mountains - broad beams and tall glass windows intermingling with craggy rocks and red-hued earth. The low-slung buildings seemed to radiate vibrant desert light, and there was a gentle hum of mystery in the air.
I met up with Laura, my tour guide. As the Shelters tour got underway, she asked the group to turn away from the elaborate buildings of Taliesen West and face the rough, sun-baked expanse of cacti and creosote bushes. Would we, she asked, be able to survive out here?
This, Laura told us, was the question faced by Mr. Wright’s apprentices when they arrived at Taliesen West for something called “The Fellowship” - an architectural studies program that I would later learn cost as much as Harvard, despite being unaccredited. The Fellowship was an immersive experiential study program. Every morning at 7:15am, apprentices were summoned to the main house for choir practice (an idea inspired by Olgivanna’s long affiliation with the self-proclaimed mystic George Gurdjieff). Then, after a long day of helping the Wrights design and build Taliesen West (the couple’s second home), the apprentices were sent back to the desert to brave the elements. While Wright and his family lived comfortably within the beams and glass, apprentices were given a small budget to design and build “shelters.” This, Wright believed, would foster an appreciation for the natural world which ought to inform their designs.
The “shelters” are gallingly austere. Most of them don’t have walls, leaving their occupants vulnerable to the wide array of poisonous snakes, rodents, and insects that roam the Sonoran desert. This, Laura explained, was generally considered a vital part of the experience. She kept framing it as a remarkable opportunity. In an interview after the tour, Taliesen West’s Chief Learning and Engagement Officer described Wright’s ideal work ethic as “adding tired on tired.”
Personally, I found the whole scene to be pretty intense. And when it came time to tell the story of the Shelters on KJZZ’s The Show, it seemed irresponsible to ignore the fact that Olgivanna conceived of The Fellowship based on concepts she learned during her years of study with Gurdjieff.
So I put all of that into my piece.
Not long after the story aired, I received an email from Taliesen West’s PR person, with the subject line “Feedback Re: Recent Taliesin West Segment.” In short: the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation was not pleased. Their expectation, they wrote, was that the piece would focus on “the unique experience that the Shelters tour offered at Taliesen West for a limited time” (which, I would argue, it did). But their main objection was the inclusion of Gurdjieff’s influence on The Fellowship (of which I’d found plenty of documentation, and which the aforementioned Engagement Officer directly acknowledged in our interview).
Nevertheless, the PR rep asked me to remove the story from KJZZ’s website. I’m grateful to report that KJZZ stood by the piece, which is why you can still listen to it.
What’s interesting to me - and I’d be curious to know if you think I achieved this - is that my goal was actually to illustrate a critical difference between Wright and Gurdjieff. While it seems undeniable to me that The Fellowship was informed by Gurdjieff’s philosophies, Wright ultimately defied one of the mystic’s core beliefs. Gurdjieff once said, “the totality of yourself, what you have treasured, what your friends have admired, is totally useless.” Or, as Laura memorably put it on our tour, “Wood weakens. Rust corrodes. And the wind howls.”
But out there in the brutal, unforgiving terrain of the desert, the Shelters still stand - evidence that, if nothing else, Wright found a way to transcend the totality of himself. Wood weakens, rust corrodes - but Wright remains.
Brilliant as usual, my friend