Taliesin (studio)

Taliesin ( tal-ee-ESS-in; (sometimes known as Taliesin East, Taliesin Spring Green, or Taliesin North, after 1937) is a house-studio complex located 2.5 miles (4.0 km) south of the village of Spring Green, Wisconsin, United States. Developed and occupied by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, the 600-acre (240 ha) estate is an exemplar of the Prairie School of architecture. Wright began developing the estate in 1911 close to land that previously belonged to his maternal family. Wright designed the main Taliesin home and studio with his mistress, Mamah Borthwick, after leaving his first wife and home and studio in Oak Park, Illinois. 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 the first building, which was built on and into the brow of a hill; it was later extended to the entire estate. Over the course of Wright's occupancy, two major fires led to significant alterations; these three stages are referred to as Taliesin I, II, and III. In 1914, after a disturbed employee set fire to the living quarters and murdered Borthwick and six others, Wright rebuilt the Taliesin residential wing, but he used the second estate only sparingly, returning there in 1922 following the completion of the Imperial Hotel, Tokyo. An electrical fire gutted Taliesin II's living quarters in April 1925, and he rebuilt it later that year. Wright lost the house to foreclosure in 1927 but was able to reacquire it the next year, with financial help from friends. In 1932, he established a fellowship for architectural students at the estate. Taliesin...