ceiling each structure captivates the imagination em bodying Wright's skillful union of modern materials and a nature inspired design Considered America's finest architect and one of the greatest 20th century design ers in the world Frank Lloyd Wright looked beyond the building styles of the past designed the future and Frank Lloyd Wright was born on June 8 1867 in Richland Center Wisconsin amidst rolling hills and fertile farmlands in the southern part of the state His mother Anna Lloyd Jones was a teacher whose family had emigrated from Wales to Wisconsin in the 1840s The Lloyd Joneses were a large tight knit and prosper ous family that valued education and held fast to their Welsh roots and Unitarian religious background Frank s father William Wright was a minister from the East Coast who had been educated in both medicine 10
and law A gifted musician and charming speaker William easily drew attention to himself His amiable personality opened doors for him and he was constantly offered new jobs as a pastor lecturer musician and lawyer In his restlessness he moved his family with each opportunity that came along Frank the of three was oldest Anna and William's children and Anna claimed to have foreseen her son's career in architecture before he was born Destiny was a recurring theme in the Welsh legends that Anna's family cherished and it played an important part in how she saw the world To help Frank toward his calling Anna hung drawings of English chapels around his crib Once he of to reached the age seven she introduced him the Froebel method a visual education technique involv ing wooden building blocks and colorful paper shapes FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT 11
From this Frank learned to see geometry and forms in nature from the complex root system in trees to the pattern of petals on a flower hroughout Frank s childhood his family moved around the East and Midwest By I the time they settled down in Wisconsin's capital city of Madison 11 year old Frank had lived in 6 different towns across 4 states A shy boy Frank enjoyed reading novels playing the piano and viola and paint ing Preferring his own private world to interaction with his family or fellow classmates Frank found sanctuary 12
in his bedroom as a teenager The warnings Sanctum Sanctorum Latin for Sacred Sanctuary and Keep Out graced a sign outside his bedroom door Inside the bedroom nature scenes that he had painted decorated the walls While Frank's mother nurtured her son's artistic inclinations and held fast to her early visions of his architect future she worried about his behavior as he grew older When he did leave the security of his bedroom he seemed intent to dress and act the part of a fashionable dandy wearing such showy items as a stovepipe hat instead of presenting himself as a young man of substance He had difficulty fitting in among his peers as he rarely dropped the romantic guises he had dreamed uD for himself FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
