Alert
Close

Find out how much your Social Security or veterans' benefits will get cut if COLA formula is changed. Use our tool

AARP Membership: Just $16 a Year

Highlights

Open

AARP® Prescription Discounts Provided by Catamaran

Members can print a free Rx discount card

AARP Salutes Our Heroes

Thanks to the veterans who served our country

Savings Icon

Tanger Outlets

Access to a free coupon book

Technical Icon

Black Community

How to live your best life

Tell Us Your Story

Let us know how the new health care law helps you

5 Amazing Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings

Discover his unique architecture from California to New York

Oklahoma Tornado Relief Fund

You can help those impacted by the recent tornado.
Donate and AARP will match your gift.

  • Zoom
  • Print
  • Comments
  • Bookmark
  • Recommend

Although it's been more than 50 years since the death of Frank Lloyd Wright, the work of America's preeminent architect has never really gone out of style. Wright's environmentally harmonious "organic architecture" ranges from the all-American Prairie style to the sculptural heft of the Guggenheim Museum. Some 300 of his buildings survive today, and a good number are open to the public. Here are five of the architect's most iconic works, all worth a visit.

Test your travel smarts and you could win an Alaskan Cruise for 2. See official rules!

Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum is a geometric masterpiece. — Mitchell Funk/Getty Images

1: Fallingwater, Mill Run, Pa.
Built in the mountains of Pennsylvania in the 1930s as the retreat for a family of Pittsburgh department store owners, Fallingwater is a voluptuous expression of Wright's organic architecture. It melds the man-made with the natural in an expansive indoor/outdoor flow, with cantilevered terraces built out over a gushing waterfall. Tours are offered from March through December.

2: The Guggenheim Museum, New York
There's nothing on New York City's Fifth Avenue like the Guggenheim — a spiral of swirling, creamy concrete. Wright worked on the museum for 16 years but died just before it was completed. A geometric masterpiece, it's designed so that you can zip up in an elevator and view the collection from the top down, leisurely descending a ramp that resembles a chambered nautilus. The museum's permanent collection of modern art and its changing exhibitions are world-renowned.

3: Taliesin West, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Set in the Sonoran Desert near Scottsdale, this was Wright's winter home. Today the site houses the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. Its form is an extension of the desert landscape — what Wright referred to as "the long, low lines of colorful, windswept terrain." He was inspired by the patterns of rattlesnakes, chameleons and cacti in much of the design and used desert rocks to shape the walls. Tours are offered daily between 9 and 4.

4: Robie House, Chicago
Built in 1910 for a young Chicago businessman, Frederick C. Robie, Robie House is a prime example of Wright's Prairie style, a poem to the low-slung horizontality of the American prairie. Located on the University of Chicago campus, the residence features Wright's distinctive art-glass windows. Wright also designed the house's furniture, light fixtures, tapestries and rugs. Tours are available Thursday through Monday.

5: Hollyhock House, Los Angeles
The prairie comes to California in this landmark house, built for an oil heiress and completed in 1923 in a style that Wright called "California Romanza." Constructed of reinforced concrete, it has a Mayan-style facade with geometrical motifs of hollyhocks throughout. It celebrates the California indoor/outdoor lifestyle with rooms that are visually — and sometimes literally — connected to outside spaces at every turn. It's also set on a hill with sensational views of Los Angeles. Although the house is currently closed for restoration, it's expected to reopen for public tours near the end of 2013.

Topic Alerts

You can get weekly email alerts on the topics below. Just click “Follow.”

Manage Alerts

Processing

Please wait...

progress bar, please wait
  • Zoom
  • Print
  • Comments
  • Bookmark
  • Recommend

Video Extra

Popular and Quirky Museums:  Discover America's most esteemed — and most bizarre — cultural heritage museums.

Tell Us WhatYou Think

Please leave your comment below.

You must be signed in to comment.

Sign In | Register

More comments »