Thoughtful Preservation of our World Heritage Sites
As stewards, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation preserves the cultural, built, and natural environments that comprise both the Taliesin and Taliesin West properties. By offering public educational and cultural programming that provide a greater understanding of Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture, ideas, and influence. We work to inspire others to live with purpose and beauty.
To this end, the careful and methodical historic preservation of Taliesin and Taliesin West is an ongoing endeavor by a team of specialized staff who take into account myriad considerations as they approach this important, and often urgent, work. From adaptive reuse to rehabilitation of at-risk structures, the preservation and restoration is not only focused on recreating these UNESCO World Heritage Sites as they appeared when Frank Lloyd Wright died over sixty years ago.
To restore, preserve, and rehabilitate Taliesin and Taliesin West honors Wright’s legacy, as he was continuously experimenting and improving these unique places. Careful to contextualize neither Taliesin nor Taliesin West as “house museums” in the strictest sense, the renovation and rehabilitation of our historic buildings and structures present questions about how to reimagine spaces for other uses such as offices or apartments, stabilize structures with respect for methods of Wright’s era, or even maintain authenticity with furniture, fabrics, or décor.
Preservation Master Plan
In October of 2016, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation gathered some of the nation’s leading experts in historic preservation at Taliesin West for a summit focused on values-based strategies for the restoration and conservation of the site, a National Historic Landmark.
A living document guides our long-term preservation initiatives at Taliesin West in Scottsdale, AZ: Our Preservation Masterplan. You can view an abridged PDF of this plan, or explore the full document here. At Taliesin in Spring Green, WI, a similar plan has been in development and is being finalized in summer 2022. Together, these richly detailed masterplans thoughtfully outline and prioritize the next several years’ preservation objectives at both our culturally-significant and historic sites.
