Wright’s Taliesin architecture school to close
The School of Architecture at Taliesin, which architect Frank Lloyd Wright opened in 1932, will close in June, the school announced last week.
Approximately 30 students are currently enrolled at at the school, splitting their time between Taliesin in Spring Green and Taliesin West, Wright’s winter home in north Scottsdale, Arizona.
The school’s governing board made the decision to close after the school was unable to reach an agreement with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation to keep the school open, according to the announcement.
The foundation issued a statement saying the school’s governing board
“had communicated unequivocally to the Foundation that the School did not have a sustainable business model that would allow it to maintain its operation as an accredited program.”
Leaders of the two organizations had worked out an agreement where the school would continue operations on the foundation’s two campuses through the end of July 2021.
The organizations in that time would have worked to develop alternative programs that didn’t require accreditation. That agreement was ultimately not approved by the school’s board, the foundation said.
“We are disappointed that it was not approved by the full (School of Architecture Taliesin) Board,” said Stuart Graff, the foundation’s president and CEO.
The move caps off years of debate between the two organizations about the future of the school.
In 2014, the Higher Learning Commission, a Chicago-based nonprofit that accredits universities and colleges, told the school it no longer met accreditation requirements. The commission also sent a letter in 2018 placing the school on interim monitoring for its enrollment and finances.
Tuesday’s announcement said the school was in good standing with accrediting agencies as well as the states of Wisconsin and Arizona.
Mark Stapp, executive director of the Master of Real Estate Development program at Arizona State University and former chairman of the board of Taliesin Architects, called Taliesin one of the original “learning by doing” educational experiences.
It taught “a valuable and relevant perspective and belief about how we create not just buildings but places for humanity,” he said.
A small, immersive school
The School of Architecture at Taliesin was unique for its small number of students and the immersive nature of the program.
Students designed and lived in their own residences at the Taliesin campuses.
More than 1,200 architects have lived, worked and studied at the school since its founding. Alumni went on to work with Wright on projects such as the Guggenheim Museum in New York City and Fallingwater, a home designed by Wright in Pennsylvania that sits partially over a waterfall.
The school was called the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture but was renamed in 2017 after the school separated from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
Leaders of the school have clashed with the foundation in the past over how to keep the school open.
In 2014, the chairwoman and vice chairman of the school’s board of governors criticized the foundation for attempts to maintain the school’s accreditation through an academic partnership.
The Higher Learning Commission threatened to strip the school’s accreditation in 2014 because of a policy that requires institutions to be separately incorporated from sponsoring organizations, such as the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
An educational partnership would have allowed the school to keep its accreditation.
But students and alumni of the Wright school rejected the idea of a partnership, saying it would destroy the integrity of the school and change the fabric of what Wright started 88 years ago.
‘The purpose and soul of the place is gone’
Tuesday’s announcement indicated schools officials are working out an agreement with The Design School at Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts so its students can transfer credits and complete their degree programs there.
The foundation said Tuesday it would work with new and existing partners to “maintain and expand its impact on the field of architecture and design by advancing Wright’s legacy through its educational programs, K-12 through adult ongoing education.”
Taliesin and Taliesin West are both National Historic Landmarks and were included as UNESCO World Heritage sites last year.
“This is a sad and somber day for our school, our students and staff and the architecture community. We are saddened we could not reach an agreement with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation to continue operating the architecture school,” said Dan Schweiker, chairperson of the Board of Governors for the School of Architecture at Taliesin, in the announcement.
“Wright’s legacy was not just building. It was a school to promulgate the lessons for all future generations,” he said.
Stapp said the closure is sad for many reasons. “Taliesin is reduced to simply a museum and tourist attraction while the purpose and soul of the place is gone,” he said.