Architectural school to close at Taliesin West
The School of Architecture at Taliesin West, which architect Frank Lloyd Wright opened in 1932, will close in June, the school announced Tuesday.
Approximately 30 students are currently enrolled at the school, splitting their time between Taliesin West, Wright’s winter home in north Scottsdale, and Taliesin in Wisconsin.
The school’s governing board made the decision to close on Saturday, 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 Arizona and Wisconsin.
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 respective Taliesin campuses in Scottsdale and Spring Green, Wisconsin. In Scottsdale, the aim of those designs was to functionally survive in the Sonoran Desert.
More than 1,200 architects 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 ASU’s Herberger Institute for Design and the
Arts so its students can transfer credits and complete their degree programs there.
The foundation also 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.