How much was Frank Lloyd Wright worth?
| Net Worth: | $25 Million |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Professional Architect |
| Date of Birth: | June 8, 1867 |
| Country: | United States of America |
| Height: | 1.7 m |
About Frank Lloyd Wright
The estimated net worth of Frank Lloyd Wright, an American architect, designer, writer, and educator, is $25 million. He was born on June 8, 1867. The most significant American architect of the 20th century was Frank Lloyd Wright. He created residential residences, commercial structures, hotels, churches, and more. Wright was a leader in the “organic” architecture movement and created structures that blended in with their surroundings.
Fallingwater, which Wright designed to literally hover over a waterfall, is arguably the most well-known example of his daring architecture. Wright planned more than 800 buildings throughout his lifetime despite the murder, fire, and mayhem that marred his era; 380 of them were ultimately constructed, and more than one-third of them are now included on the National Register of Historic Places.
Froebel Blocks in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Childhood
Frank Lincoln Wright was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin, on June 8, 1867 (he later changed his middle name). His mother, Anna Wright (born Anna Lloyd Jones), had previously taught in classrooms.
Wright’s father, William Carey Wright, was a musician, orator, and preacher who was a widower with three daughters.
After Frank was born, Anna and William had two daughters, and they frequently struggled to make ends meet for their large family. Along with money, William and Anna clashed over how Anna treated his children because she strongly preferred her own. For various Baptist preaching positions, William relocated the family from Wisconsin to Iowa, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. But because of the Long Depression (1873–1879), which gripped the country, the bankrupt churches frequently struggled to pay their preachers. William and Anna’s numerous movements in search of reliable, well-paying employment increased their conflict.
Frank Lloyd Wright received a set of Froebel Blocks from his mother in 1876 when he was around nine years old. The polished maple blocks, which came in cubes, rectangles, cylinders, pyramids, cones, and spheres, were created by Friedrich Froebel, who founded kindergarten. Wright had fun constructing small constructions out of the building blocks.
William relocated the family back to Wisconsin in 1877, and the Lloyd Jones family assisted in getting him a position as secretary at the thriving Unitarian church in Madison.
Wright started working on his mother’s family farm (the Lloyd Jones family farm) in Spring Green, Wisconsin, when he was eleven years old. Wright observed the geography of the area for five summers in a row, noting how basic geometric shapes appeared frequently in nature. He had the makings of his eerie mathematical understanding even as a little youngster.
Wright’s parents divorced when he was eighteen, and he never saw his father again. In recognition of his mother’s background and the uncles he had been close to growing up on the farm, Wright changed his middle name from Lincoln to Lloyd. After high school, Wright enrolled in the Campus of Wisconsin, a nearby university, to study engineering.
Wright gained practical experience through a part-time building project at the university because there were no architectural classes given there, but he left school after his first year because he found it dull.
Wright’s Formative Years in Architecture
Wright, then 20 years old, relocated to thriving Chicago in 1887 and took a job as a draftsman at the J. L. Silsbee architectural firm, which specialized in Queen Anne and shingle-style residences. Wright created a large number of drawings that detailed the dimensions of rooms, the location of structural beams, and the shingles to be used on roofs.
After a year at Silsbee, Wright left because he was bored and went to work for Louis H. Sullivan, who later earned the title “father of skyscrapers.” Wright was mentored by Sullivan, and the two of them explored the Prairie style, an American architectural movement that stands in stark contrast to European classical architecture. The Victorian/Queen Anne era was all about pomp and gingerbread, whereas prairie style was all about clean lines and open floor plans. Wright rose up the ranks to become head draftsman while Sullivan focused on designing high-rise structures. Wright handled client house designs, largely in the conventional Victorian forms that the clients preferred and a few in the brand-new Prairie style that he found exciting.
Wright, who was 23 years old at the time, married Catherine “Kitty” Lee Tobin, who was 17 years old, on June 1st, 1889. In Oak Park, Illinois, Wright created a house for them right away, where they eventually raised six children. Wright extended rooms and redesigned the inside multiple times, including the construction of a sizable playroom for the kids in a triangle shape, an improved kitchen, a dining room, and a connected corridor and studio. The house first appeared to be made of Froebel Blocks. He made his own wooden house furnishings as well.
Wright created residences (nine other than his own) outside of job for extra money despite it being against company policy since he was always strapped for funds due to his eccentric overspending on automobiles and clothing. After five years at the company, Wright was let go after Sullivan discovered that he was doing two jobs.
Wright Creates His Own Path
Wright established his own architectural company, Frank Lloyd Wright, Inc., after being sacked by Sullivan in 1893. Wright explored the “organic” movement in architecture, using local raw materials like wood, brick, and stone in their natural forms to compliment the natural environment rather than forcing his way in (i.e. never painted).
Wright’s house plans included massive stone fireplaces, vaulted ceilings, skylights, low-pitched roof lines with wide overhangs in the Japanese style, walls of windows, glass doors engraved with American Indian geometric patterns, and spaces that flowed freely into one another. Many of the existing neighbors of the new residences did not always approve of this because it was quite anti-Victorian. However, the houses served as an inspiration for the Prairie School, a group of architects from the Midwest who followed Wright and used local materials to connect the houses with their natural surroundings.
The Winslow House (1893) in River Forest, Illinois; the Dana-Thomas House (1904) in Springfield, Illinois; the Martin House (1904) in Buffalo, New York; and the Robie House (1910) in Chicago, Illinois are among of Wright’s most illustrious early creations. Wright’s homes, though each was a work of art, frequently went over budget, and many of the roofs had leaks.
Wright’s plans for commercial buildings also deviated from accepted norms. The Larkin Company Administration Building in Buffalo, New York (1904), which featured air conditioning, double-glass windows, metal furniture, and suspended toilet bowls, is one unique example (invented by Wright for ease of cleaning).
Murder, fire, and affairs
Wright appeared to be surrounded by disasters and chaos even while he was creating structures with form and consistency.
According to the book Loving Frank, Wright began an affair with Mamah Cheney after creating a home for Edward and Mamah Cheney in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1903. (supposedly based on the true story). When Wright and Mamah abandoned their families, marriages, and houses to travel to Europe together in 1909, the affair became public knowledge. For a considerable amount of time after that, it is reported that many individuals refused to commission Wright to build anything.
Two years later, Wright and Mamah moved back to Spring Green, Wisconsin, where Wright’s mother gave him a share of the family property owned by the Lloyd Jones. Wright created and built a home with a covered patio, open floor plans, and unobstructed views of the surrounding landscape on this property. He gave the house the Welsh name Taliesin, which means “shining brow.” Mamah, who had recently filed for divorce, and Wright, who was still married to Kitty, resided at Taliesin, where Wright resumed his architectural career.
The catastrophe of September 15, 1914, occurred. One of the Taliesin slaves, 30-year-old Julian Carlton, was sacked by Mamah as Wright oversaw the construction of Midway Gardens in downtown Chicago. Carlton then closed all the doors as a twisted kind of retribution before torching Taliesin. Carlton stood outside with an axe as others inside attempted to flee through the dining room windows. Seven of the nine individuals inside were murdered by Carlton, including Mamah and her two visiting children (Martha, 10, and John, 13). Despite being severely injured, two persons were able to flee. Carlton was sought after by a posse, who discovered him to have consumed muriatic acid. He lived long enough to enter prison, but seven weeks later, he starved to death.
Wright started to rebuild the house, which became known as Taliesin II, after a month of sorrow. Wright first connected with Miriam Noel at this time through her letters of sympathy. Miriam soon settled into Taliesin. Wright was 47; she was 45.
A Fire, an Earthquake, and Japan
Wright was hired in 1916 to build the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, despite the fact that his personal life was still openly known. After living in Japan for five years, Wright and Miriam returned to the United States in 1922, the year the hotel was finished. The Wright Imperial Hotel in Tokyo was one of the few significant structures still surviving in the city after the devastating Great Kanto earthquake that struck Japan in 1923.
Wright returned to the United States and established a business in Los Angeles where he designed residences and buildings throughout California, including Hollyhock House (1922). Wright’s wife Kitty finally gave him a divorce in 1922 as well. On November 19, 1923, in Spring Green, Wisconsin, Wright married Miriam.
According to TheArtStory, Wright and Miriam split up just six months later in May 1924 as a result of Miriam’s opiate addiction. At the Petrograd Ballet in Chicago that year, 57-year-old Wright and 26-year-old Olga Lazovich Hinzenberg (Olgivanna) started dating. Olgivanna moved into Taliesen in 1925 and gave birth to Wright’s daughter at the end of the year while Miriam was still residing in Los Angeles.
Taliesin experienced tragedy once more in 1926. Taliesin burned down due to poor wiring; only the drafting room was preserved. The house was once more restored by Wright, and it was given the name Taliesin III.
Wright was detained the same year for breaking the Mann Act, a 1910 statute that allowed males to be tried for immoral behavior. Later, the accusations were dropped.
Wright wed Olgivanna on August 25, 1928, after divorcing Miriam in 1927 at a significant financial expense. Wright’s demand as an architect continued to suffer from negative publicity.
Fallingwater
Wright started working on the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in 1929, but solely in a consulting capacity. Wright constructed Ocatillo, a modest desert camp that would later be known as Taliesin West, while he was working in Arizona. Taliesin East would be the new name for Taliesin III in Spring Green.
Wright had to pursue alternative sources of income because the Great Depression had a negative impact on home design. Wright released two novels in 1932: The Disappearing City and An Autobiography. He also made Taliesin available to pupils who desired his instruction. It turned into an unaccredited architectural school that mostly wealthy students sought after. The Taliesin Fellowship, a group of thirty apprentices that moved in with Wright and Olgivanna, was later renowned.
Edgar J. Kaufmann, the father of one of the well-off students, commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to create a weekend getaway for him in Bear Run, Pennsylvania, in 1935. Wright, who hadn’t started on the house designs yet, spent the next two hours drawing a house design on top of the topography map when Kaufmann called to say he was stopping by to see how they were progressing. At the bottom, he wrote “Fallingwater” after finishing. Kaufmann was smitten.
Wright used daring cantilever technology to build his masterpiece, Fallingwater, above a waterfall in the Pennsylvanian forests while it was anchored to the bedrock. Modern reinforced concrete terraces hovering over the dense forest were used to build the house. Wright’s most well-known project is Fallingwater, which was featured alongside Wright on the cover of Time magazine in January 1938. Wright was once again in high demand as a result of the favorable publicity.
Wright also created Usonians at this time, which were modest houses that predated the 1950s “ranch-style” tract housing. Usonians are single-story homes with flat roofs, cantilevered overhangs, solar heating and radiant floor heating, clerestory windows, and carports that were constructed on small lots.
Frank Lloyd Wright also created one of his most iconic buildings during this time, the renowned Guggenheim Museum (an art museum in New York City). Wright chose a layout for the Guggenheim that resembles an upside-down nautilus shell rather than the typical museum arrangement. Visitors could travel the entire length of this singular, continuous spiral walkway thanks to this creative and unorthodox design (visitors were to first take an elevator to the top). Wright spent more than ten years on this building, but he was unable to attend its unveiling because it was finished soon after his passing in 1959.
Death of Wright and Taliesin West
As he got older, Wright started spending more time in Arizona’s pleasant climate. Wright relocated the Taliesin Fellowship and his family to Phoenix, Arizona, in 1937 so they could spend the winter there. High sloping roofs, translucent ceilings, and big, open doors and windows allowed the house at Taliesin West to blend seamlessly with the surroundings.
Wright was awarded the Gold Medal, the highest distinction bestowed by the American Institute of Architects, in 1949. The Natural House and The Living City are two other books he wrote. Wright received an honorary doctorate in fine arts from Yale University in 1954. In 1957, he received his final commission, which was to design the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael, California.
Wright passed away in Arizona on April 9, 1959, at the age of 91, following surgery to relieve an obstruction in his intestines. Frank Lloyd Wright had a net worth of $25 million at the time of his passing in 1959.
At Taliesin East, he was laid to rest. As per Ogilvanna’s final request, Wright’s body was unearthed, cremated, and interred alongside her ashes in a garden wall at Taliesin West after she passed away from a heart attack in 1985.
