Summer-night tours shine a light on Taliesin West
Frank Lloyd Wright’s elegant, expansive Taliesin West is an architectural wonder of sharp angles, low-slung rooftops and repeated long, rectangular windows set against the McDowell Mountains.
Its beauty is utterly different when the sun sets.
“At night, it has a different feel,” said Donna Yeaw, director of public access at Taliesin West. “The lights are on. (In the day) you don’t see the buildings ... with the shadows created by the artificial lights. Of course, the Valley is sparkling down below. And the dragon (sculpture) is spitting fire. It’s a great date night.”
Through August, Taliesin West’s two-hour night tours take place twice every Friday.
“The main thing about the night tours that makes them so magical is how different the buildings look when they’re lit up at night,” said Shawn Rorke-Davis, education-outreach program director at the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. “The people are really affected by that, whether they’re on a tour or whether they’re students. They can’t say exactly what that feeling is. But there’s something very powerful about the buildings that Frank Lloyd Wright created.”
The tours take place indoors and outdoors and include stops at Wright’s private office, Taliesin’s outdoor terraces, theater, music pavilion, living room, gardens and walkways.
“The night tour is the same as our 90-minute tour,” Rorke- Davis said. “The people on tour see all the available