Homecoming: Architects Open Studio at Taliesin West, Where Their Careers Began

The Drafting Studios at Taliesin and Taliesin West were the places where Frank Lloyd Wright’s ideas were translated into the acclaimed buildings and designs that pioneered Modernism in the 20^th Century.  After Wright’s death, Taliesin Associated Architects (TAA)—the firm that grew out of Wright’s practice—used the studio for its work, as well as for the apprenticeship programs based on Wright’s Fellowship model.

Although TAA closed in 2003, there is now a professional architecture practice, grounded in Wright’s principles of organic architecture, operating out of the Taliesin West Drafting Studio once again. H&S International, a firm founded by Bing Hu and WenChin Shi, has studios for its practice all over the world, and has now reached an agreement with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation to open its newest branch, the Taliesin West Studio.

This is a homecoming of sorts for Hu and Shi, who both attended the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, worked with TAA, and have been teachers and mentors for students at Taliesin and Taliesin West throughout the years. Working with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation to preserve Frank Lloyd Wright’s legacy of “Learning by Doing,” H&S will have a team of interns from top architecture schools working on active projects of the firm, while at the same time learning from the Taliesin West campus.  “I am so happy to come back to Taliesin West where my architecture career started,” said Hu. “It is exciting to be opening the new H&S International Taliesin West Studio a quarter century after launching my career here.”

The Foundation is also working with other partners to bring students of architecture, historic preservation, and other disciplines to its campuses so that they remain living historic sites that evolve and grow Wright’s principles of organic architecture.  “Many of our education partners have delayed their programs due to the pandemic,” said Stuart Graff, President and CEO of the Foundation.  “We are pleased, however, that the University of Pennsylvania will be working with us this Summer at Taliesin in Wisconsin to begin planning for the restoration of the Midway Barns on that campus, which will be used for future educational programs.”  Other programs will be announced as they are confirmed.